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| ELTON JOHN NEWS |
| Portrait show takes touching look at gay culture Thursday, July 2 2009 |
Purple walls highlight the poignant atmosphere of a new exhibit at Britain's National Portrait Gallery timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York.
"Gay Icons", on show until October 18, 2009, features 60 portrait photographs selected by 10 gay people who were asked to choose icons they felt had been inspirational regardless of their sexual orientation.
"The show reminds us of the struggle that gay people have," said Bernard Horrocks, copyright officer at the gallery whose idea inspired the exhibition. "There's prejudice still out there, so if it makes people re-address their prejudices that's a good thing."
Among musician Elton John's selection is a black and white picture of onetime Beatle John Lennon, who was shot dead in 1980 in New York. The two musicians shared a U.S. hit single with the 1974 duet "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night." "I had a bet with John that the track would be a number one hit," Elton's descriptive on the wall beside the picture states. "Losing the bet, he agreed to perform on stage with me at Madison Square Garden, New York ... that happened to be the last live concert Lennon would ever play and it became a defining moment for me."
Elton also named Graham Taylor, his former manager at Watford, as an inspirational figure. The football manager's catchphrase "Do I not like that?" was made famous by a 1994 Channel 4 documentary when England failed to qualify for the World Cup. But Elton describes Taylor as "a truly great manager" who achieved success for Watford, the club of which Elton was chairman from 1976 to 2002.
Other selections in the show include the Village People group chosen by Labour peer Waheed Alli, while Sir Ian McKellen has named gay rights campaigner Harvey Milk.
| Celine Dion song replaces Elton John track In "Brüno" Wednesday, July 1 2009 |
While some critics didn't love "Brüno," a mildly funny film with a lot of fleeting and forgettable laughs, one scene in particular they did rather like -- filled with the incisive social commentary they were hoping for -- was the "Straight Dave" Ultimate Fighting Championship face-off scene.
The scene originally included Elton John’s "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," originally from "The Lion King," but either Disney and seemingly Elton himself pulled the song from the scene perhaps fearing the sequence was too outrageous.
And it kind of is. The moment is a part in the film when Sacha Baron Cohen's flamboyant Austrian character attempts to go straight and starts to host a homophobic show called “Dave’s MAX Out,” a "gay-loathing party to end all gay-loathing parties." It gives a first peek at Straight Dave; the newly invented Brüno persona that is mustachioed, hirsute and decked out in camouflage gear and an outback hat -- uber straight as it were. But eventually, he gets called out as a "faggot" by his ex-assistant who is in love with him and the two duke it out in the ring. Of course, all the hot and aggressive groping eventually goes gay much to the freaked-out outrage of the audience, and one particular glorious slow-motion shot captures an overzealous red-faced fan crying. It's rather beautifully funny.
The scene of course was remarkably soundtracked to the aforementioned "Lion King" song. But they made an awesome alternate choice in Celine Dion's uber-schmaltz theme from "Titanic," "My Heart Will Go On."
| Winner of the custom made Elton John pillow Wednesday, July 1 2009 |
We were giving away an unique Elton John pillow made from on old vintage concert T-shirt by Rocksteady Pillows. And the winner is ...
... Brad Joblin from Connecticut, USA. Congratulations!
Earlier we already reported about Anglea Barkan's business idea (see "You touched it and you wore it ...").
In order to win one of her products (pictured above) you had to correctly answer the following question:
Which Elton John/Bernie Taupin song apart from "High Flying Bird" features the term 'pillow' in the lyrics?
The answer was: Pinky.
If you are interested in sending Anglea your old Elton concert T-shirts to turn into pillows that is a service she offers. E-mail her at abarkandog@gmail.com for more details.
| Elton John and band performed in Lisbon on June 28, 2009 Tuesday, June 30 2009 |
Fan report by Julio from Spain.
After a concert cancelation back in 2001 and the change of day and venue in 2009, Elton finally came to Portugal.
The Pavillion Atlantico surprised me, is very beautiful inside and out. The audience was sensational with Elton.
After playing "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," Elton had to stand up two times to receive the applause of thousands who did not let him follow the set list! Without doubt, one of the surprises of the evening was that he dedicated to "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" to Cristiano Ronaldo, who according to some newspaper also attended the concert!
Elton was great, with the highlights being "Candle In The Wind", "All The Young Girls Love Alice" and "Skyline Pigeon". I got a lot of autographs. During "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" it seemed like everyone in the audience was singing along.
The merchandising was good, too, a lot of T-shirts, bubbleheads, keyrings, tour books and more.
Elton, come back soon to Portugal and don´t forget Spain!
Following is the complete set list of the Lisbon show on June 28, 2009:
| City releases information about Elton John concert tickets Saturday, June 27 2009 |
Nearly 20 per cent of tickets to the now-infamous Elton John concert in Sudbury last year were not available for sale to the public.
The information, which the City of Greater Sudbury unsuccessfully tried to suppress, was released on June 25, 2009 — more than 15 months after the concert was held.
The city spent tens of thousands of dollars in its efforts to withhold the ticket information, which had been requested by The Sudbury Star. After a lengthy process launched by The Star, Ontario's freedom of information commissioner ordered the city to publicly release the information in June 2009.
Despite the ruling that it had wrongly withheld public information — and the huge expense of taxpayers' money in its failed attempt — the city issued a news release on June 26, 2009 claiming to have achieved victory. According to the law, a municipality has to pass a three-pronged legal test in order to keep such information private. If the municipality does not pass all three parts of the legal test, it must release the information.
In this case, the province's freedom of information commissioner ruled the city's refusal to release the ticket information did not pass the legal test. The city's position met two of the required criteria, but failed categorically to meet the third condition. As a result, the city was wrong to withhold the information from the public.
The city's version of the ruling comes across differently. "The city won two of three arguments," the municipality stated in its news release, without specifying it ultimately "lost" the legal test. The information the city was forced to release shows 1,227 tickets out of a total of 6,386 — just under 20 per cent — were withheld from public sale prior to the Elton John concert of March 2008. A total of 5,241 tickets were sold to the public, according to the city's data.
Among the tickets withheld from the public were 120 tickets claimed by city council — an average of more than nine for each politician. Council had not publicized the fact it had given itself advance access to the valuable tickets. However, after The Star broke the story, a massive public backlash prompted the return of 71 of the 120 tickets. Some councillors refused, or could not, return some or all of their tickets. Related News
Sunday, February 17 2008 at 09:33:43
Thursday, February 14 2008 at 12:43:11
Monday, February 11 2008 at 11:05:08
| Elton sings for Michael Jackson Friday, June 26 2009 |
Elton John was in the middle of his annual "White Tie and Tiara Ball" when he was rocked by the news of Michael Jackson's death.
TMZ reported that Elton dedicated his song "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" to Michael. Liz Hurley, Hugh Grant, Lily Allen, and Kelly Osbourne were at the party -- however several of the guests left once they heard about the news.
Held at Sir Elton and David Furnish's £20million Windsor home, the White Tie and Tiara Ball has become the society event of the summer. The invite-only event attracts a host of celebrities and singers each year.
Pop star Justin Timberlake was due to perform for guests on June 25, 2009. The ball was given an art theme in honour of the newest addition to Sir Elton's estate - a plush gallery. Constructed by London architect Jack Schneider, it will house pieces by Damien Hurst, Gilbert & George and Antony Gormley.
Celebrities pulled up in their droves to attended what has become the society event of the summer attracting A listers from far and wide.
Sir Elton and David Furnish held their first White Tie and Tiara ball in 1999. Set among 37 acres of English countryside next to Windsor Castle, it attracts scores of celebrities every year and has raised more than £26.9million for the Elton John Aids Foundation since it began.
| ZDF sucht Hessens größten Elton-Fan Thursday, June 25 2009 |
This news item appears in German as it is a call from a German broadcaster trying to find the biggest Elton fan in the Wiesbaden area.
Das ZDF sucht den größen Elton Fans Hessen, der idealerweise aus der Nähe von Wiesbaden kommen sollte. Wer zuhause eine große Elton-Sammlung hat und bereit wäre, diese und sich selbst vor der Kamera zu präsentieren, der kann sich direkt an Martina Roßkopf (Rosskopf.Ma@zdf.de) von der Redaktion "hallo deutschland" wenden.
Das ZDF würde dann im Vorfeld der Show in Wiesbaden am 30. Juni 2009 bei Euch drehen und Euch mit der Kamera auch zum Konzert begleiten. Also, traut Euch!
| Elton John and band performed in Boras on June 21, 2009 Tuesday, June 23 2009 |
Fan report and photos by Ronniefriend.
Elton John and the band performed at Borås Arena in Sweden on a beautiful and sunny mid-summer evening after a whole weekend of rain! Elton himself said that he was happy to be in Sweden, at the first of the summer concerts where it wasn’t raining! We were very fortunate with a great evening for a great show! The set list was the same as before and it was performed wonderfully!
Elton wore the beautiful jacket that you see in the summer’s tour program – with decorations of pianos, guitars, juke box and music notes all over it and the words “Music Magic” on the back. Elton seemed to be in a good mood, talking and joking much more than he often does in Sweden! Among other jokes he introduced Davey Johnstone as a former member of the group Fat Ass, which might have been a joke on Elton’s attempt to say the name of the town – Borås! All the band couldn’t stop laughing as Davey paraded across the stage.
Elton’s piano playing and the powerful and prominent sound of the piano was absolutely brilliant! "Burn Down The Mission" was especially spectacular. The band totally rocked with "All The Girls Love Alice". "I Want Love" was well done and good to hear again – though it seemed a bit strange to occasionally see glimpses of Robert Downey, Jr. on the video screens.
A very special highlight was "Skyline Pigeon" as a full band version. Beautifully and powerfully done. With images of birds flying on the video screens behind Elton, combined with the real birds that happened to be flying in the gorgeous blue sky overhead, it was stunning! It was even well received for being a song that probably many in the audience didn’t know.
As Elton and the band began "Are You Ready For Love" Elton said, “OK, dance time!” and many of us went forward to the stage area, singing and dancing with Elton towering over us. It was so fun! When he came out for encores he shook a few hands and signed a few autographs – starting with mine! I got him to sign my CD cover from "The Captain & The Kid." He wasn’t even in such a hurry as he is sometimes – he very nicely signed both names – “Elton John”! I even got the chance to shout to him what a great album it was and he smiled at me and said, “Thank you”!
Of course we all sang along with all the words to "Your Song" at the close and Elton (also unusual) came back to us at the front of the stage and shook a few more hands and said to us below (not in the microphone) “Thank you for a great night! Take care!”
It was a fantastic night and a fantastic show with Captain Fantastic himself!
Following is the complete set list of the Boras show on June 21, 2009:
Tiny Dancer
| Elton John to get a street named after him? Monday, June 22 2009 |
Elton John could be on verge of getting a street named after him. The rocket man is from Pinner and the local council are considering honouring him with his own road.
According to Harrow Council's publication Harrow People, they are "considering plans to name a road after its most famous musical son". The local publication also reveals that Elton allowed a rapper from his local area to sample him, an honour previously reserved for hip-hop's heavyweights.
Ironik, who play's the borough's Under One Sky event at Kodak Recreation Ground, Harrow View on June 28, 2009, scored a hit sampling 'Tiny Dancer'.
"We approached Elton and management after we worked on it and they loved the idea and cleared the sample, which is one of only three samples in the hip-hop scene to be cleared," he told Harrow People. "The other two were for Tupac (Shakur) and Kanye West."
| Elton pushed Diana Krall to start a family Monday, June 22 2009 |
What would you do if Sir Elton John sat you down and told you to start thinking about having kids? For singer Diana Krall, she listened!
Diana hadn’t thought much about parenthood, busying herself in the recording studio and caring for her mother, Adella, who passed away from bone cancer in 2002. However, when she found herself in love with musician Elvis Costello a year later, the couple’s friend Elton sat her down for a little chat.
“He says, ‘Diana, you’re 39 – you’re going to be 40. You better start thinking about having kids,’ and I went, ‘Right … .’ But usually, you’d have a parent, your mom would tell you that.”
Taking the singer’s advice to heart, Diane and Elvis began trying for children, welcoming fraternal twin sons Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan James, now 2, in December 2006. Becoming a parent herself allowed Diana to “feel my mother back in me,” she explains. Taking the twins on the road with her for much of her current tour, the songstress notes that Elvis pulls his weight as well!
“We’re equal parents. He’s home with them now with Vancouver, and he looks after then when I have to go to Washington to play for the president.”
| New Line Records releases soundtrack for “My Sister’s Keeper” Saturday, June 20 2009 |
New Line Records will release the official soundtrack album from the New Line Cinema film “My Sister’s Keeper” via digital download and on CD June 23, 2009.
The lineup features 12 emotionally moving songs from the motion picture, which will be released nationwide on June 26, 2009.
The soundtrack includes memorable tracks from a variety of artists, and features the previously unreleased Jeff Buckley song “We All Fall In Love Sometimes,” written by the incomparable Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Additional highlights on the album include tracks from artists Pete Yorn, Regina Spektor, James Blunt and Greg Laswell.
A perfect companion to the poignant story, the motion picture soundtrack will be available at all digital retailers and on CD June 23, 2009.
The full track listing is as follows:
1. “Feels Like Home” – Edwina Hayes
2. “Don’t Wanna Cry” – Pete Yorn
3. “Better” – Regina Spektor
4. “Life Is Beautiful” – Vega 4
5. “Carry You Home” – James Blunt
6. “We All Fall In Love Sometimes” – Jeff Buckley
7. “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” – Greg Laswell
8. “Find My Way Back Home” – Priscilla Ahn
9. “With You” – Jonah Johnson
10. “Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries” – E.G. Daily
11. “Heaven” – Jimmy Scott
12. "Hymn: Amazing Grace" – Pipe Major Jim Drury and Julia McGurk
| S. Ecclestone buys VIP section for Elton’s concert Saturday, June 20 2009 |
Slavica Ecclestone announced she will buy all 50 VIP entrance tickets to Elton John’s concert, so she can relax with family and friends.
Slavica Ecclestone is known for having a good time, so she came to Zagreb for a concert by Miso Kovac, and she took her daughter Petra with her. She announced her arrival to a concert by Elton John in Pula’s area, but what surprised the organizers of the festival is that she bought all 50 entrance tickets to the VIP area for that concert. This news will certainly not make other celebrities happy, who intended to enjoy themselves in the VIP area.
Slavica will have no problem setting aside 110,000 kuna for the concert by Elton in the company of her friends from all around the world. The reason being that after he record quick divorce, which lasted 58 seconds, she gained around one billion pounds.
Besides the entrance tickets, Slavica will spend a few more thousand to ensure her guests have somewhere to stay, and it is not out of the question that Bernie might visit too.
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