Picture it: an Elton John concert. As the lights dim in preparation for the big show, music booms across the auditorium.
Almost in tandem, the audience raise their smartphones to record the experience. It’s an image that has become almost ubiquitous no matter what event you attend.
It’s just as well, then, that John has always been one to seize an opportunity – and that this time, when his audience raises their phones, they might be getting something entirely new.
“I’ve always wanted to look forward in everything I do,” he tells us.
“Music, fashion, collaboration. The future and what’s around the corner has always excited me a lot more than the past. And technology has always been a big part of that.”
This particular future he’s speaking about is that of AR, or augmented reality.
For the latest stop on his farewell tour, the pop star is playing a gig at BTS Hyde Park on June 24 – with the bonus of added visuals for those who download the app.
Hosted by Vodafone, the app will invite viewers to point their smartphone at the stage when John begins his performance of I’m Still Standing, reimagining elements of the original music video on stage.
It’s an idea John says he “loved”.
“Mobile phones are already a part of everyday life and that includes the concert experience, people are filming their gigs, holding them up like lighters, taking pictures,” he explains.
In this new universe, Vodafone is using those phones to “enhance the experience and give fans a different way of experiencing live music.”
The words “live music” clearly conjure up a thrill for this seasoned performer, as it does for his multitudes of fans, many of whom have been waiting to see their hero ever since his farewell tour was postponed: first due to the Covid-19 pandemic, then a hip injury.
Though he’s aware that he’s been “bloody lucky” not to have struggled more during the pandemic – “when I saw what some people were going through, losing loved ones, losing their jobs, suffering terrible mental and physical health issues… I had nothing to complain about”. He dismisses as "nonsense" rumours that he was in ill-health - and he’s clearly raring to go.
“I cannot wait,” he says. “Playing live is just the biggest thrill. The pandemic was the longest I’d gone without playing a show, and I was playing the best shows of my life before COVID shut everything down.
“After such a long break, it was nerve wracking to get back out there, but I’m delighted how quickly I’ve hit my stride, I think this run of shows is amongst the best I’ve ever played.”
It seems a shame, then, that John will be retiring from touring at the end of them. His Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which spans a monumental five years, is aiming to hit an even more monumental 321 individual shows.
It’s something that John clearly relishes – so why is he stopping?
“I don’t want to stop performing,” he protests.
“I’ll still play live, but just one-off things where I get to do something interesting and unique.
“But I’ve just had enough of touring. I want to see my children grow up and be around more. I’ve been on the road for over half a century for God’s sake!
“I’ve been lucky that I’ve played pretty much everywhere there is to play, and I want to go out swinging while I am still delivering at the very top of my game.”
What will this titan of music be doing instead of performing?
In addition to his radio show, which he loves presenting on Apple’s radio station Beats 1, he’s a keen champion of new artists.
One bonus of lockdown was John’s sudden return to the headlines with his number 1 chart topping album ‘The Lockdown Sessions’via a selectionries of musical collaborations he worked on with everybody from Dua Lipa to Lil Nas X.
“I’ve really got a taste for collaboration again since lockdown,” he explains.
“When I started as a musician in and around London in the late ‘60s it was working as a session musician that paid my bills.
“Having time to do that again, with a big range of artists like I did on The Lockdown Sessions, has completely reignited my love for it.
“Going into a studio session with an artist that you’ve maybe never even met, who makes music that’s wildly different to what you’ve done before and finding those little ideas and threads that pull it all together is an absolute thrill.”
All those number one hits can’t have hurt, either – but it’s the excitement of working with other artists, especially younger ones, that keeps him interested.
With that in mind, BTS Hyde Park is not just part of John’s farewell tour – it’s a chance for him to curate the line-up.
Featuring some of John’s favourite up-and-coming artists such as Rina Sawayama, Berwyn, Tom A. Smith and Gabriels, this is his chance to give them the spotlight he thinks they deserve – something he describes as “really important.”
“Rina Sawayama played on my Lockdown Sessions album and has become a dear friend,” he says.
“Me and David went to see her at The Roundhouse last year and she’s an unbelievable performer. Berwyn is such a special artist, his music is innovative and completely unique. He finally started to get the recognition he deserves when he got the Mercury nomination last year.
“Gabriels have made one of my favourite albums of recent years. Tom A Smith is really new – he’s only 17, but has such a huge future ahead of him. I’m really excited to give them the exposure to a big live audience they deserve.”
It’s not a one-off, either: giving back is part of the Elton John ethos. In addition to giving free tickets to NHS workers for his upcoming gig ("I don’t think we can do enough to thank them for what they did for the country during the pandemic. In some of the worst, most challenging circumstances they gave everything to pull the country through," he says), he’s been a big-hitting philanthropist for decades. His AIDS foundation was founded in 1992 and is a major player in the charitable arena.
“My charity Foundation saved me," he says. "It was the thing after I came out of rehab that gave me a purpose, something positive to channel my time and energy into.
“I’ve had an extraordinary life, I’ve been so lucky and I do feel the burning desire to pay back in. Not just in charity, into the music industry as well, which has made everything possible… it’s my duty and it gives me a sense of purpose that’s not all about me.”
This attitude extends to his children, too: John is adamant that they learn the value of hard work.
“They get their pocket money. And from that they have to give a third for charity, a third is for saving and a third is for spending, they put it in separate jars. And we make sure they work for it, around the house, or helping in the garden.
“It’s such an important lesson to learn in life. We want them to know the value of things and to also think about others.”
With just over fifty years in the industry under his belt, it must feel like John’s been working overtime for most of his life - but his sense of perspective is unchanged.
“It’s a thrill to see 60,000 having the time of their lives to a song me and Bernie wrote in a house in Pinner 50 years ago, but it’s also an honour to see how the work of my foundation is helping people who need the help and aren’t getting it elsewhere,” he says.
“Anyway, I don’t think these things are mutually exclusive, so hopefully people will see all these parts of me. And anyway, I’m far from done yet, there’s still so much to accomplish and many, many shows on my Farewell tour to come.”
He – and we – are not at the end of the Yellow Brick Road just yet.
