20220521_i19k Elton John at Telenor Arena in Oslo, Norway

MY FIRST ELTON GIG! :O I could have gone to a bazillion more if I'd checked him out properly when I was... 12...

Listen to my epic Elton playlist on Spotify!

Best Elton song: "Live like horses" :D
Best Elton album: "The one" :D

And here is the overly long story (in list form) of my overly long road to Elton fandom:

- Ca 1995: I'm obsessed with "The lion king", which I see for the first time on November 27, 1994. :s The Swedish version, but it might be the first time I hear Elton's music. :) (In the unlikely event that I'd never heard him on the radio...)

- I don't get the soundtrack CD until September 14, 1995 (my 12th b-day), for some reason. Might be the first time I hear Elton's voice! :D (Unless, yeah...) Though at the time, I'm disappointed that I didn't receive a Swedish version of the soundtrack. May not exist. :p (Unfun fact: I still haven't seen the movie in English.)

- The 90's: My parents sometimes play his "Love songs" collection, which they may have received as a ChriFSMas present in 1995. Or not. I can hear some good shit on it. For example, "Sacrifice", "Don't let the sun go down on me", and "Nikita" are striking. But I don't sit around listening to it on my own.

- Liking "Candle in the wind 1997"

- Me in 1998: "WHAT?! Liam from The Prodigy likes Elton John? That is hilarious and adorkable. Squee."

- Me in 1998: "Today we had to play the guitar in music class, unngh, it's so painful. I wish I could play the piano like Elton John or someone." (One of the obstacles to this alternative life plan is that I AM MUSICALLY RETARDED. I fucking hated music class.)

- 2000: I become obsessed with Arabian horses and surf the websites of pretty stallions and watch their promo videos. One of the videos has a nice song to go with the nice horse (Ali Saroukh). I'm too stupid to find out the song title by Alta Vista-ing the fucking lyrics, but on August 11, I show the video to my mum and ask her if she recognizes the song. No, but we discuss the possibility that it's Elton. Another video from the same farm has "Circle of life" as a soundtrack, so... I dig out ye olde "Love songs" CD. Turns out the mysterious song is "The one". It's fucking great. It becomes my fave Elton song from 2000 to 2021. o_O

- 2000: I'm obsessed with Nicholas Lea and I finally get my hands on one of his many hard-to-find movies - "The raffle". The soundtrack is nice. Another fan sends me a ripped CD of it. "Heartache all over the world" is one of the nice songs. :)

- Elton: *plays 39458735 gigs in sweden over the decades without my noticing* D:

- The best movie I see in 2003 is "Sliding doors". :D One of the lines in it happens to be "I didn't know you liked Elton John". Not liking Elton is kind of a strange, novel notion to me. *frowns through monocle* Not a fan of "Honky cat" specifically, but what I've heard of Elton just kind of sounds universally likable in general, you know? :p Anyway, these are just thoughts in the back of my mind and not the subject of any fat dissertation.

- At some point, "Are you ready for love" is a hit on radio stations that I listen to (unlike approximately ALL OTHER ELTON SONGS EVER :C ), and I like it and collect it.

- Relatively recently, but probably a handful of years ago, I consider going to some Elton show or other. I do sometimes see artists I have barely listened to, just because they're huge / interesting and I may become a fan later and... But, no. Maybe I'm a poor student or something.

- 2019, presumably: I scroll by a sponsored trailer for "Rocketman" on Insta, but IIRC, I don't stop to watch it all the way through.

- 2021 (or possibly December 31, 2020): "Rocketman" is on Netflix (which I started using late in life) and I add it to my long-ass watchlist.

- June 14, 2021: Well, what to watch on Netflix today? It's Monday, so nothing super-special. The stuff I really look forward to gets saved for Saturdays. But, eh, let's get "Rocketman" out of the way then. Probably just gonna be another normal biopic about someone I'm very mildly interested in. But I tend to find bios interesting whether I'm obsessed with the person or not. :) And a music movie is fitting, as it is my first fave artist Gianna Nannini's 65th b-day! :D (Alas, it's also Trump's 75th. D: ) HAVE I MENTIONED THAT I'M OBSESSED WITH DATES. Eh.

- Me: "Oh shit... It's... a... musical?! *cringe*" It's OK though. I cringe at all musicals, then end up loving a shitload of them. o_O

- The movie is OK. *shrug* The funniest line is "All right, don't break your neck sucking your own cock." HEEEEEEHAAAAAAW. I need to start using that line. :B Now, speaking of USING and LINES...

- ... I didn't know he had done so much coke and booze. I suppose my early impression of Elton was one of cozy wholesomeness, as I was mostly exposed to him through a certain children's movie (WHICH WAS NOT ACTUALLY WHOLESOME, UH, DON'T GET ME STARTED) and the slow-dancin' "Love songs", with it's simple, rustic cover photo. :) Now he's been clean for 32 years. YAY!

- I hadn't known that Bernie existed. Bernie is kind of relevant. BERNIE!

- With several of the songs I go "Hey, this sounds pretty good. I should check out more of his music." Many of those songs I had never heard before, and some were half forgotten.

- I instantly love the "Saturday night's alright" scene! xD AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! "But the movie will only be on Netflix until July 13. I gotta watch that scene 10000 times before then!" Which I proceed to do. Eh, I guess the sound is worse on Youtube.

- I'm horrible at checking out new artists. Choosing an album to start with is often hard. But on June 23, 2021, I listen to part of Elton's "The one" album.
a) The title track is my then-fave Elton song.
b) It's from the 90's, so it should be more or less accessible to my 90's-nostalgic ass.
And... now it's my fave Elton album. :O *diez* *is ded*

- On the same day, I ponder the idea of going to his gig in Horsens, Denmark in 2022. "And he's gonna play in Oslo soon, but that seems to be sold out..."

- I watch "Rocketman" a few more times and it grows on me and it ends up being... THE BEST NON-DOCU MOVIE I SAW IN 2021! :O

- July 2, 2021: I book a ticket for Elton's September 18 gig in Stockholm!

- July 8, 2021: I force my parents to watch "Rocketman".
My mum: "Ha! I know all of his songs." This wasn't true. Maybe she thought "Love songs" was his entire catalogue. :|
My mum: "He's gay?"
Me: "I... What? I was BORN knowing Elton is gay."

- I send my great Elton playlist to my parents and they listen to it a lot.

- The September 18 gig is postponed to October 2 because of corona.

- The October 2 gig is postponed until July 2023 (NOOOOOOOOOO!) because Elton got injured (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!)! D:

- Autumn 2021: I drown my sorrows in tickets for Oslo 2022 and Copenhagen 2023.

- Late 2021: I listen through most of Elton's albums systematically. One album every Saturday, just looking out the window while sipping a nice Monster drink. Apart from Flickr uploading sessions, it's the high point of the week. :) Then I listen to each album over the following days (while walking and whatnot) until I know which songs I want to save. When I run out of Elton albums (WAAAAAAAH!) I continue the habit with other artists I've been meaning to check out. :) Most of them have made fewer albums than Elton, so...

- Late 2021: I read Elton's autobiography "Me", which is funny. xD

- My mum decides to join me in Oslo. (Because of our late and separate bookings we don't get adjacent seats, of course, but at the actual gig I end up next to an empty seat (HOW?! WHY?!), and she grabs it.)

- Once upon a time, one of my fave podcasts made a live show which they were very proud of. One of the podcasters said (paraphrased) "I feel that if I get cancer now I will be less sad about it than I would have been before we did the show." That's kind of how I felt about getting to see an Elton gig. :D Getting cancer (or getting NUKED, which I had been anxious about in February and March) would be less bad post-gig than pre-gig. :)

- I book a second Stockholm 2023 gig at some point, TRYING AND FAILING TO MAKE UP FOR LOST ELTONTIEMZ.

- My mum becomes batshit about Elton, watches Youtube videos from the Oslo gig repeatedly, rewatches "Rocketman" twice (she almost never rewatches movies), books one of the Stockholm gigs, and proclaims that Elton is in fact her fave artist and that she's not sad about failing to get Bruce tickets because she's no longer into Bruce as he is "too noisy". xD (Elton is only my 3rd fave, after Nine Inch Nails and Robbie Williams. :B But Elton has the best voice out of those 3...)

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You can reach me at yoze83 [AT] yahoo.com

PS. On 21-Nov-2022 (i.e. exactly 6 months after it was taken :D ), this photo was chosen as the cover photo of the group "Color My World Daily (RED DAY on Monday)"! :)

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Taken in: Norway / Akershus / Fornebu (show map)

Taken on: May 21, 2022

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Camera: Apple iPhone 7, f/1.8, 1/4 sec, 4mm, ISO 160 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Apple iPhone 7
Lens:	iPhone 7 back camera 3.99mm f/1.8
Aperture:	f/1.8
Exposure Time:	0.25 sec (1/4)
Focal Length:	4mm
ISO:	160
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Elements 13.0 (Windows)
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