Captain Fantastic and the Rocket Man Band

Having seen the Entitled Sons the night before at Komedia, tonight was something quite different, an Elton John tribute act. My friend Lorna was willing to join me for this, but on condition we got seats, which I duly booked. The downside of this was that we were up on the balcony behind the bar (so photos a bit of a downgrade in quality as really quite a long way away. But the upside of course was comfy seats!

No support for this show - just the Elton impersonator and his large and accomplished band. Unsurprisingly a completely different demographic to the night before - largely pensioners up in the balcony and the youngsters on the dancefloor below still were more thirtysomethings than teenagers.
Eventually on comes our Elton impersonator, a little tubbier than the real thing in his prime, but as soon became clear, with a better voice than the original ever had. And also a very decent keyboard player. Undoubtedly better than the seeing the real thing now, but also maybe ever.

It was an interesting show. Elton John, of course, has a big back catalogue, not just lots of hit singles but also many albums. So there is a lot of material to choose from. The guy's choice was very reasonably to stack the most popular stuff towards the end of the show. He started working through the albums, beginning with Yellow Brick Road BUT not the best known tracks from that album, which he reserved for later on. So the start felt like the show was going to be a chronological passage through Elton's oeuvre.

One might say the performance included several intervals but really they were just costume changes. Unfortunately my friend Lorna didn't make it past the first one - I could see her wincing at how loud it was, especially the drum parts - so she decided to bail on me. Sad as the show only improved.

The middle section included a particularly brilliant trilogy of The Bitch is Back, Crocodile Rock and Saturday Night is Alright for Fighting. Those tunes just worked very well together and showcased the more rock side of Elton's works which can get a bit forgotten after a lot of his 80s songs and ballads.

For the final section he came on in the most flamboyant of garbs, and clearly this was the most fun, playful part of the whole gig.

After the gig I got talking to my neighbours on the balcony who actually knew the Elton figure. Apparently he is a local farmer just seeing how far he can take the show (he has a number of other dates in the West Country). I know farmers are having a hard time, but impressed at their willingness to diversify. I mean tea rooms, bed & breakfast, petting zoos are fine, but Elton impersonator is really going for it! And fair play to the guy - a terrific show. If you like Elton John, or just a fun night, you won't go wrong.