Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour
Orangetheory Stadium, Christchurch
From the Promo:
Elton delivers on his promise, returning to New Zealand + adding a new ‘encore’ show in Christchurch as part of his multi-year Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.
With an unparalleled career that redefined the cultural landscape and saw over 300 million albums sold, Elton John is (after two years of COVID interruptions) back on stage. Elton embarked on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour in September 2018 – its milestone, multi-year itinerary comprising over 300 shows across five continents.
Hailed by fans and critics worldwide, the Farewell performances have left audiences spellbound, a truly daring and intimate celebration of an incredible 50-year career.
To witness a musical icon, live on stage, is a rare privilege. Elton’s legendary catalogue – including beloved songs ‘Bennie and the Jets’, ‘Rocket Man’, ‘Tiny Dancer’, ‘Crocodile Rock’, ‘Philadelphia Freedom’ and many, many more – are showcased in a live musical masterpiece concert, one which also celebrates his collaboration with lyricist Bernie Taupin, their pairing one of the great song-writing partnerships of all time.
Wrapping up this leg of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road run, this will be AU/NZ fans’ very last chance to catch this legendary performer live on stage.
Setlist:
Good Morning to the Night
Bennie and the Jets
Philadelphia Freedom
I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues
Border Song
Tiny Dancer
Have Mercy on the Criminal
Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to be a Long, Long Time)
Take Me to the Pilot
Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Levon
Candle in the Wind
Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding
Burn Down the Mission
Sad Songs (Say So Much)
Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
The Bitch is Back
I'm Still Standing
Crocodile Rock
Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting
Encore:
Cold Heart
Your Song
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Franciska's Review:
Elton John's final ever concert in Christchurch.
My first ever pop/rock/stadium concert.
Memories made for a lifetime.
Words cannot express how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to see Elton John in concert. Live theatre has become a luxury falling outside of my budget in recent times so I was beyond thrilled when a friend offered to take me.
I have always loved Elton John's music. From my teens sitting in my brother's bedroom listening to a friend of his playing guitar and singing "Rocket Man" and "Someone Saved My Life Tonight"; to sitting on the deck of the marae at high school during study periods listening to "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues", "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"; and later making my own attempts at playing "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" and "Your Song" on the piano.
Every single one of those songs featured in this concert.
And all the memories came flooding back.
I was in absolute awe of the energy exuding from all the musicians on stage - the majority of whom are in their 70s. And I couldn't help but smile as Elton told stories paying tribute to Aretha Franklin and David Crosby.
He also spoke directly to the crowd:
Throughout the last few years you've gone through hell here.
This is a very resilient city, it's a beautiful city.
During the concert I wondered whether Elton travels with his own piano. I mean, a moving a grand piano any distance is no small feat, let alone across oceans. But surely an artist who relies heavily on an instrument would want the familiarity of their own when performing. Well Yamaha confirmed my assumption:
It has circled the globe countless times. It has been played everywhere from the Kremlin and the White House to Gianni Versace's living room. They even wanted to put it into the Smithsonian, but Elton John said, "No! I still need it to play."
It's "Piano A," the first and favorite of Elton's four 9-foot Yamaha Disklavier® DCFIII concert grands. "It's probably the most played, most traveled piano on the planet," says Keith Bradley, Elton's tour director. "Actually, Elton has four touring piano systems, which are represented by the letters A through D. Each system involves a Yamaha Disklavier piano and a rack of gear. There's also piano E, a 7'6" Yamaha grand in London that's used for most of the studio work. But Elton's deepest emotional attachment is to Piano A."
Although we were off to the side of the stage (and couldn't see the central screen), I thought we had fabulous seats. My photographs make it look like we were quite far from the stage, but in reality, we were much closer. Not close enough to catch any of the drum sticks being tossed out into the audience mind you, but that's okay, I have memories to last a lifetime.
Elton's final words as he left the stage:
Christchurch, I will miss you.
We had the wisdom to pre-book an Uber to take us to the stadium (at an exuberant cost I might add) but decided to take our chances in booking an Ola or Uber on the way home. (Okay, so we forgot to ask the driver dropping us off if he'd like to pick us up afterwards, but also weren't keen to pay a pre-booking fee.) It was absolute mayhem as some 30,000 people attempted to leave the stadium so we though it wise to walk past the worst of the traffic before ordering a driver. But despite our best efforts, none were accepting our calls. So we kept walking before trying again. Still no luck. So on we walked. Then out of nowhere a driver stops and asks if we want a ride. Yes please!! But when we told him our destination, being just 3.5km away, the driver rejected us and drove off. Apparently we weren't worth the effort. Sigh.
Turns out, it wasn't really all that far to travel by foot. A pleasant hour-long walk for someone relatively fit and healthy. Wearing appropriate shoes. It took us considerably longer than that (not helped by us taking a slight round-about route and me needing a pit-stop half way). But I'm not complaining. I had fabulous company and the once in a lifetime concert experience was worth every single step home in the dead of the night.
On that note. . .
I took several short videos on my phone of my favourite songs, but rather than sharing my poor quality recordings, here is the full concert from Dodger Stadium:
Enjoy!!
