Elton John Solo Tour

Berlin Germany 15.07.2001

... "Me and Suzie had so much fun" ...

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Review of that night:

The "Waldbuehne Berlin", a place wher I always wanted to go to see an Elton John Performence.

And finally it worked.

The Waldbuehne is a artificial amphitheater with extreamly steep steps. All tickets were free choice of sitting, so it was first come first sit. Okay which fan want's to sit if he or she can stand direct in front of the stage, but, the stage at the Waldbuehne is very high, about two meters. So nothing for small people in the first row.

When I arrived at the Waldbuehne entrance at three o clock there were already 30 people waiting. And it got more and more. At fife they opened the doors, but before they told use that food and drinking would be allowed, if in normal quantity ("Bottles (no glass) with no more than 1 liter capacity!" a girl besides me commented: "Am I forced to pure out 0,5 liter of my 1,5 liter bottle?" got a lot of laughs and similar jokes). After passing security, the run for the stage started. First you have to hurry through a small forest and than there is the abyss. Because it is so steep, at every stairs there were security personal telling the people not to hurry and came down. No chance to run, step by step downwards, there was time to have a look at the situation in front of the stage. A barrier 5 to 10 meters away from the stage separated, the rest of the meadow in front of the stage, and behind the barrier there were already people standing, so it has to be possible to get there. At two parts of the Barrier there was a gate to pass. You got a stamp on your hand, because only a specified quantity of people would be allowed there. The stamp said "very urgent", funny!

Here we were and still had to wait two hours till the concert would start. Some sat down others chatted. The whether had been sunny all day long and now it got cloudier and started to rain a little bit one hour before the concert. But it stopped after a short while and we all crossed our fingers that it would stay that way. A television team took some shots of the empty piano.

Elton was 20 minutes late. Before he came on stage a spot was shown on the video screen, promoting the promoter of the tour the tv channel ZDF. I have to explain it to the people who don't know German TV. We have two official TV programs called the firs and the second channel. The second channel the ZDF co sponsored the Elton John tour in Germany. They promote their program using stars that take too finger in front of the right eye and saying "With the second you see better!", revealing the right eye. Elton had to do the same in the spot, it was funny to hear him say:" Mit dem Zweiten sieht man besser." The crowd cheered loud after seeing the spot.

Elton wore a suit, camouflage pattern and color, the jacket was totally embroidered with sequin, the trouser only had parts of it embroidered, underneath a olive green T-shirt. No earring and gold framed dark greenbrown tinted glasses. What an outfit!

Elton was in a really good mood. Played beautiful long versions of Rocket Man and Honkey Cat. Unbelievable what he can do on the piano keys with his short fingers. A lot of funny faces and eye contact with the audience.

When announcing Nikita he said: "Love playing Berlin especially the Waldbuehne, this song means much to me but maybe it means more to this city" (as Berlin was separated into an east and west Part with a big wall, the east Part belonging to the DDR and the west part belonging to the BRD, the western part of the city lay directly in the middle of the DDR).

When announcing This Train Don't There Any More he said something like that:" I now will play a song from my new album Songs From The West COAT" Hey isn't the album called Songs From The West Cost? But he went on: "No it's Songs From The West Coast, it's a shame that on my very own web site they have listed it wrong, have to get my web site right!". A big laugh went through the rows.

After one song Elton took his Hands of the piano and got entangled in a loose string of sequins. He tore that string of to get his arms free.

Elton dedicated Carla/Etude to Tim Rice and his cricket team who flew over for the concert. Before the concert started, at the side of the stage a number of men all in the same violet pink striped jackets came out and went to a blocked of aria at the middle of the amphitheater and sat down. So that were the man of the cricket team and somewhere Tim Rice among them.

No Autographs were given, but he collected lots of flowers, one beautiful rose bunch of flowers among them. He had to knee down to reach for the flowers if smaller persons handed them up.

For the last encore he changed into a black and white track-suit with black framed glasses. He started Candle in the Wind, and after half of the song it started to rain heavily. He thanked the audience and was gone.

The audience gave always huge applause, and it was a very beautiful atmosphere, because everyone could do what he wanted. Some got up during the rockers and danced, during the slower ballads lighters were seen all over the place.

A beautiful night.

 

Set list of that night:

Your Song

Greatest Discovery

Someone Saved My Life Tonight

Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters

Daniel

Honky Cat

Rocket Man

Tiny Dancer

Philadelphia Freedom

Nikita

Sacrifice

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues

This Train Don't Stop There Anymore

Carla/Etude and directly into Tonight

Burn Down The Mission

The One

Blue Eyes

I'm Still Standing

Crocodile Rock

Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me

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Circle of Life

Bennie and the Jets

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Candle in the Wind

 

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