Interview Elton John Sundance
VIDEO : THE ELTON JOHN CHANNEL:
Elton John Remains A Mentor For Eminem
http://www.rttnews.com/Content/EntertainmentNews.aspx?Section=2&Id=1377711&SM=1
RTTNews) -
Eminem has once again opened up about his relationship with rock legend
Elton John. The
Recovery MC previously stated that John helped him beat his drug addiction, and it seems that the "Rocket Man" is now also helping him cope with his return to the limelight.
"Elton John calls me once a week," Eminem explained in a recent interview with
Spin. "He used to tell me stuff like, 'You're going to start seeing certain things you've been overlooking.' And it came true. I'd walk around like, 'Damn, that tree does look crazy, look at all those leaves!' Things I didn't notice when I was f**ked up."
The duo connected under unusual terms, after Eminem came under fire from the gay community for the alleged use of homophobic lyrics in his music. The two buried the hatchet with a performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards and later became close friends.
"He's somebody who's in the
business
and can identify and relate to the lifestyle and how hectic things can be for artists," Eminem said. "He understands the pressure."
John has also been a drug and alcohol mentor to alternative country phenom
Ryan Adams.
by RTT Staff Writer
Annie Leibovitz Cover for Elton John/Leon Russell's Album "The Union"
Annie Leibovitz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Leibovitz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the American photographer. For the American writer, see
Fran Lebowitz.
(pronounced
/ˈliËbÉ™vɪts/; born October 2, 1949) is an
American portrait photographer.
Early life and education
Born
Jewish in
Waterbury, Connecticut, Leibovitz is the third of six children. She is a third-generation
American whose great-grandparents were
Russian Jews. Her father's parents had emigrated from
Romania.
[1] Her mother, Marilyn Leibovitz, was a
modern dance instructor; her father, Sam Leibovitz, was a
lieutenant colonel in the
U.S. Air Force. The family moved frequently with her father's duty assignments, and she took her first pictures when he was stationed in the
Philippines during the Vietnam War.
[2]
In high school, she became interested in various artistic endeavours, and began to write and play music. She attended the
San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied painting. For several years, she continued to develop her photography skills while working various jobs, including a stint on a
kibbutz in
Amir,
Israel, for several months in 1969. Throughout her life on the Kibbutz, she learned to take Jewish concepts and apply them to her photographs.
[3]
more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Leibovitz
POP MUSIC REVIEW
Elton John delivers gutsy performance at Cricket
http://www.sandiegounion-tribune.com/news/2010/jul/25/elton-john-delivers-gutsy-performance-cricket/
Sunday, July 25, 2010 at 9:33 a.m.
John Gastaldo / Union-Tribune
Elton John belts out "Funeral for a Friend/Loves Lies Bleeding" during the opening salvo of his well-received concert at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre Saturday night.
The best performers in most contemporary music idioms thrive on spontaneous moments that help make each of their concerts different, if not unique. Unless, that is, the moment in question is an unsettling one, as was clearly the case for Elton John Saturday night at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista.
The British pop superstar had just completed his fifth selection, a wonderfully inspired version of “Tiny Dancer,†when a force greater than music intervened and forced him to leave the stage 41 minutes into his set. “I’m so sorry to inconvenience you guys,†John told the 17,000-strong, multigenerational audience. “But I had a stomach virus earlier this week and had to postpone a show in
Tucson. I’ll be back in a few minutes. I’m so sorry.â€
The 63-year-old singer-songwriter and his five-man band returned three minutes later. He resumed his hits-packed show with his propulsive, disco-era hit, “
Philadelphia Freedom,†which was delivered with sufficient verve and vigor to suggest his stomach ailment had been put in check.
To reinforce his victory of mind over matter, he skillfully performed 18 more songs that, together, lasted nearly two hours. His ability to persevere in the face of discomfort suggested his decision to legally change his name in 1972, from Reginald Kenneth Dwight to Elton Hercules John, was – still paying dividends.
With the exception of one new song, the ballad “You’re Never Too Old to
Love Somebody,†from his upcoming joint album with
Leon Russell, John focused on his hits and such classics as “Madman Across the Water†and “Take Me to the Pilot.†The majority of the two-dozen selections he performed came from the 1970s, beginning with the concert-opening “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding†through to the show-concluding encore of “Your Song.â€
While he sang some of his best-known numbers, including “Bennie and the Jets†and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,†in a lower register than in previous decades, John never coasted. Moreover, his rollicking piano playing -- which deftly referenced the work of such
New Orleans keyboard greats as Professor Longhair,
James Booker and
Allen Toussaint -- mixed blues, gospel and boogie-woogie so skillfully that one could only wonder if he was a product of the Big Easy, not London’s Royal Academy of Music.
Whatever his artistic origins and inspirations, John gave a winning performance that was all the more impressive in the wake of his intestinal ailment. He lagged only with a mid-set string of ballads that seemed designed more to let him catch his breath than for maximum musical impact. But he recovered even before “The Bitch is Back†and “Crocodile Rock†helped transform the sprawling Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre into celebration central for John and his devoted fans.
'Elton' Wows Wildwood Crest Crowd
http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/article/arts+and+entertainment/wildwood+crest/64869-039elton039+wows+wildwood+crest+crowd
Arts and Entertainment | Sat, 07/31/2010 - 10:28 pm | Updated 11 hours 8 min ago | Read 195 | Commented 0 | Emailed 0
Honeymoon over for gay marriage as fewer tie the knot
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23727990-honeymoon-over-for-gay-marriage-as-fewer-tie-the-knot.do
Sir Elton John and David Furnish had a civil partnership ceremony the day they became legal in 2005
Sri Carmichael, Consumer Affairs Reporter
Stars including
Sir Elton John and
Matt Lucas led the rush to "marry" their partners in the weeks after gay civil partnerships became legal.
High-profile politicians, including
Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw and the shadow leader of the Commons
Alan Duncan, as well as television presenter
Clare Balding, followed suit.
But three and a half years on, the honeymoon appears to be over.
The number of ceremonies registered in
London plummeted 18 per cent last year, the third full year that unions were permitted, following a fall of nearly 50 per cent in 2007.
In London 1,729 gay couples entered into partnerships last year compared with 2,110 in 2007, according to the
Office for National Statistics. The sustained slump in gay weddings is mirrored nationwide.
Gay community leaders said the fall was a "normalising process" after the initial surge in demand for ceremonies from couples who had been together for years.
Alice Arnold and Clare Balding are still together
But they acknowledged that younger gay and lesbian couples were less keen than older generations to make their relationships official, suggesting the attraction may wane in the long run. The average age of those entering same-sex unions in Britain is nearly 41.
Gay rights campaigner
Peter Tatchell said: "After civil partnerships were legislated there was a huge surge of older couples who had been together for decades who wished to take advantage of the legal recognition.
"Now we've settled into a pattern of civil partnership take-up which reflects people who have recently fallen in love. But just like younger generations of heterosexual couples who often prefer to cohabit, young gay and lesbian couples aren't so concerned about formalising the legal status of their relationship."
Westminster has retained its position as the most popular place in Britain for gay weddings, with 282 last year.
Kensington and Chelsea and
Islington were also in the top five, registering 147 and 140.
The number of gay "divorces", where civil partnerships are dissolved, rose to 180 last year across, up from 42 in 2007. Couples must wait 12 months before they can end their union.
Little Britain comedian Matt Lucas had the first celebrity gay "divorce" in October last year, when he ended his relationship with television producer Kevin McGee. The couple married in 2006.
The Government introduced civil partnerships in December 2005. Sir Elton John and his partner
David Furnish had a civil ceremony on the first day they became legal in England.
Heterosexual marriages in England and
Wales fell by 3.3 per cent in 2007 to 231,450, the lowest since 1895.
http://eltonjohnnews.blogspot.com/2010/07/union-unveiled-to-uk-media-last-night.html
Sir Elton John says his career as a hit singles artist is now effectively over and he will now concentrate on making albums, starting with a collaboration with Leon Russell.
Sir Elton is one of the most successful singles artists of all time with his run of hits across four decades including Candle In The Wind 1997, the biggest-selling single globally of all time.
However, in conversation last night with writer and broadcaster Paul Gambaccini to promote the forthcoming The Union album with Russell he effectively drew a line under this part of his career.
"I don't have to make pop records any more," he told the event at the Electric Cinema in London. "In the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties the record companies said you had to have a single. I think I've fulfilled my brief. The singles chart is not one I'm going to be in very often any more so my view is to make records that fit my age. I don't think I'm going to do Crocodile Rock any more."
He said his aim now was to make albums like Bob Dylan does, citing the American's Modern Times as a model for his new album with Russell.
The album came about when Sir Elton heard Russell playing on his partner David Furnish's iPod and thought he had not done enough for who he called last night his idol and whom he had not spoken to in more than 30 years. American Russell was one of the most influential songwriters and musicians of the late Sixties and early Seventies and had previously played with the British artist but has been completely out of the limelight for three decades.
Sir Elton then phoned Russell in what turned out to be the nick of time with Russell's wife Jan telling the star, "He had more or less given up and this phone call brought him back to life."
In fact, just the week before recording started on the album Russell, writer of such clasic songs as This Masquerade and Delta Lady, had to have a five-and-a-half-hour emergency operation.
The new album, which will be released by Mercury in the UK in October, is produced by T Bone Burnett who shares its writing with Sir Elton, Russell and Sir Elton's long-time lyricist Bernie Taupin. It also features a stellar line-up of musicians including Booker T, Neil Young and Brian Wilson.
Sir Elton told Gambo most of the tracks were recorded in two takes, a way he now wants to record going forward. "Some of it isn't in perfect time, some of it is a little rough around the edges, but that's good for me," he said.
He also suggested the album would be a difficult seller. "The only way this record can sell is by word of mouth because it's not going to get any radio play, especially in America," said Sir Elton who plans to play live with Russell to promote the album with different artists guesting, including Elvis Costello, Tom Waits and Neil Young.
But his main aim is for the spotlight to be thrown back on the prestigious back catalogue of Russell , who is now being managed by Sir Elton's company. "There's no point in doing this record and not to bring to life his great work," he said.
- Music Week
