Still standing ... backstage at Elton’s last hurrah
Renowned for his tantrums, he was reportedly seen throwing his Gucci bag out of his private jet in Sydney. So what is life really like on Elton John’s final world tour?
With a final Australian concert at Bankwest Stadium in Sydney on Saturday night, Sir Elton John will close the songbook on a near five-decade touring relationship with this country … probably. Asked if the Farewell Yellow Brick Road world tour will be the last for John, who has told audiences he is leaving life on the road to be with his family, his drum and percussion technician of 20 years, Chris Sobchack, issues a measured response.
“You have to realise that in the time I’ve been touring with him we’ve averaged more than 100 shows a year and he’s been doing it for 50 years. And before that he was playing in bands, so if anyone deserves a rest, it’s Elton.
“For me, I know music is in his heart and in his soul, but at the same time his family is amazing, they’re just lovely, and so I don’t blame him.”
Sobchack is talking backstage at the ICC Sydney, three weeks into the Australian leg of the tour. John’s family is in attendance; sons Zachary, 9, and Elijah, 7, captured smiling on the big screen alongside husband David Furnish, John proudly announcing to the crowd they are celebrating the 14th anniversary of their civil partnership (they have been married for five).
This is a few weeks after John, renowned for his tantrums, was reportedly seen throwing his Gucci bag out of his private jet when he touched down in Sydney, and after he dropped the c-bomb on security guards in Perth because he didn’t like the way they were removing a woman from the crowd. Before he was helped off stage in Auckland and forced to reschedule two New Zealand shows after being diagnosed with walking pneumonia.
Each show sees John remain on stage — but for one costume change — for two hours and 45 minutes, playing 25 songs from his illustrious catalogue in a scripted performance.
Forget the fact he’s 72; this is a remarkable physical effort for any performer, one that’s underpinned by a slick behind-the-scenes operation.
The band travels with everything required to put on the show, from the staging to the AV equipment and the crew.
Less than three hours after John plays the last note, the whole operation is packed down and on its way to the next venue.
“This is a single-day load-in load-out show with 23 semitrucks,” says Sobchack, also the post-production specialist on the tour.
“We take everyone, including our caterers, because we want to make sure we have the best food. So everybody travels and everybody goes everywhere in the world.”
Before the show, John goes to his dressing room and takes a nap (his couch travels, too). John is never late, says Sobchack, and will “get his energies together before a concert”.
“He trusts the crew. We do all the soundchecks, all the instruments, all the video stuff, everything is prepped. The first time any of the musicians will see that stage and their instruments is when they walk out in front of the audience. It’s a huge level of trust they put in us because it cannot be wrong. It has to work.”
Ten cameras dotted around the stage — including a “jack-of-all-trades camera” micro 4K by an Australian company called Blackmagic Design — are used to film the concert for the big screen, a 20m-long, 9m-high structure comprised of 460 separate tiles, and two side screens.
For the stadium shows the side screens increase in size, so they are big enough to allow audience members in awkward viewing positions to see the facial expressions of the band.
Sobchack takes me to an area the crew call “video city” off to the side of the stage. This is where video director John Steer, who has been touring with John since 2000, selects in real time the combination of camera shots to be displayed on the screens.
“They give you a certain amount of leeway but there are certain shots they don’t particularly want,” says Steer, referring to the creative team back in London. I ask what particular shots John doesn’t like. “I don’t like to get into that. But you know, our guys muck about a lot.”
Behind the stage we also bump in to percussionist Ray Cooper taking a quiet moment to “commune” with his instruments.
Cooper has known John for 52 years — before the musician was Elton John and they were session players in London.
“What I didn’t know [when we were session players] is he was writing his wonderful material,” Cooper says. “I didn’t know that. It was a wonderful surprise when I turned up for a session one day and it was for Elton John.
“And there he was and it was wonderful. Then I realised how extraordinarily talented a songwriter he was … Music is the liquid architecture of our emotions and he’s a wonderful architect.”
Following Sydney, the tour will travel to the US for a rescheduled show in Indianapolis before heading to Canada.
For Steer, there have been many memorable moments on the tour, but the final concert in Australia “will be bittersweet and special”. “We’re used to coming to Australia and to know that’s the last one is like, wow.”
Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour finishes tonight at Bankwest Stadium, Sydney.
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