Elton John’s trip to Brazil during the 1978 Carnival.
I was going through my archives once again and came across these rare images that I managed to save and digitize from 1978. Some newspaper clippings that I kept for decades — and only succeeded in scanning and uploading to the internet at the turn of the century — ended up becoming the only known photos of Elton John’s trip to Brazil during the 1978 Carnival.
According to newspaper reports from that time, Elton John arrived in Rio de Janeiro in early February 1978, flying from Paris on the Concorde at 4:10 p.m. He stayed at the Leme Palace Hotel, where he intended to rest and enjoy the Carnival festivities. During that same week, the main parades of the Rio Carnival took place between February 4 and 11, 1978.
Elton attended the famous Baile do Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf Ball), also known as Concha Verde, which traditionally opened the Carnival celebrations and took place on February 3, 1978 — the Friday before the official festivities. He was also mentioned in reports confirming his presence at the Baile do Clube Monte Líbano, held on Saturday, February 4, 1978.
One of the most remembered moments of his stay was when he and his friends, all dressed as sailors, were denied entry at the Copacabana Palace Hotel before heading to the Sugar Loaf Ball. Annoyed by the incident, Elton reportedly said, “It’s not a good thing to be a sailor in Brazil.”
He spent several days in Rio alongside other international artists who visited Brazil that Carnival, including Rod Stewart, Peter Frampton, Alain Delon, and Peter Allen. Elton enjoyed boat trips around Guanabara Bay and showed great interest in Brazilian music, especially bossa nova and MPB, which later influenced his album A Single Man, reflected in songs such as “Shooting Star.”
For that reason, I consider this collection a valuable historical document. I’m sharing these articles and texts so that the details of Elton John’s 1978 visit to Brazil can be preserved and properly recorded for future generations.
Elton John in Brazil, 1978
NEWSPAPER O DIA – FEBRUARY 1978
Ten centimeters shorter than requested, but blond, handsome, young, and “available 24 hours a day,” the bodyguard hired by ODEON to accompany musician Elton John couldn’t handle alone the crowd of around one hundred fans who greeted him yesterday at Rio’s International Airport. Screaming and excited, most of the fans were 16 or 17-year-old girls holding records, hoping to get them autographed. They left disappointed, as they didn’t even manage to see their rock idol’s face properly.
Wearing a diamond earring on his right ear, a cap, relatively discreet glasses this time, a zippered diagonal shirt, black knit pants, and navy blue patent leather boots, Elton John had to leave the customs area surrounded by six police officers and several security guards to protect him from the girls’ hugs. In the pushing and shoving, there were plenty of elbows and bumps exchanged. When he entered the brown Galaxie that took him to the Leme Palace Hotel, Elton was met not with screams and sighs, but with loud boos.
TO REST
Elton John—whose real name is Reginald Kenneth Dwight, age 30—said he came to Rio for a ten-day stay, accompanied by ten members of his record label, Rocket Records. Coming from Paris on the Concorde at 4:10 p.m., Elton didn’t imagine he would find fans waiting at the airport, thinking no one knew of his arrival, according to a representative from his label.
Odeon, which represents the American A&M Records (Elton John’s label), decorated the presidential suite of the Leme Palace Hotel with flowers and tropical fruits and spelled out the singer’s initials using twenty records on the twin beds. They also installed a sound system and stocked the room with Brazilian music records at Elton’s request—he said he was very interested in learning more about Brazilian music.
A VISIT
Peter Frampton, who canceled his scheduled press interview claiming to be “sick from the heat” (actually just a simple cold), showed up at the hotel around 6 p.m. to visit his musician friend.
Elton John—whose latest hit in Brazil was the single “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” which sold about 500,000 copies in 1977—had announced in London that he would no longer perform live. He had not recorded for a year and revealed that he now wanted to dedicate himself to soccer, a sport he had loved for a long time and for which he was even president of a football club in England.
With several invitations for cocktail parties and dinners, and holding tickets for all the main Rio Carnival balls, Elton said he was only sure to attend the parade of the top samba schools: “The rest depends on how I feel that day.” He also denied reports in the newspapers that he would attend the Baile dos Enxutos at Teatro São José dressed as a “baiana.”
COMPOSER
Arriving today in Rio is American composer Mitch Leigh, who wrote Man of La Mancha and is currently finishing a musical comedy based on the Brazilian novel Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. The show will debut on Broadway at a yet-undetermined date. The choreographers are also coming to Brazil to spend Carnival in Bahia to “better capture the atmosphere.”
Already in Rio for Carnival are artists Rod Stewart, Peter Frampton, Alain Delon, Elton John, Peter Allen, and film producer Robert Stigwood of Jesus Christ Superstar. Also expected to arrive is singer Neil Sedaka.
Only Elton John’s bodyguard, Alex, answers the phone in the suite at the Leme Palace Hotel, where the musician is staying. Alex, who accompanies Elton 24 hours a day, regrets not being able to fulfill the reporters’ requests to speak with the artist:
“It’s not that he doesn’t want to give interviews,” he explained. “Elton John just asked me not to let anyone disturb him.”
It seems Elton really came to Rio to rest, as announced. Yesterday, he went to bed at 2 a.m. after dining at the Maria Teresa Weiss restaurant. He woke up at 1 p.m., had breakfast, and went to São Conrado Beach, returning to the hotel around 4 p.m. for another nap. He declined Odeon’s invitation to take a boat trip around Guanabara Bay and refused to attend the Ducha Fria carnival event organized by Carlos Niemeyer at the Marimbas Club gardens.
Antonio Ducan, Odeon’s international manager, said Elton John was very tired, as he had recorded for two days straight without sleep before coming to Rio. His attendance at another event—a cocktail party hosted by Alfredo Machado—was announced for today, but Alex, stationed in the Cr$ 2,995.00-a-day suite, would not confirm whether Elton would go, only saying the musician was very tired.
Elton was influenced by bossa nova and Brazilian popular music. His album A Single Man reflected this trip’s influence in songs like “Shooting Star.”
CLIPPING EXCERPT (PHOTOS):
Copacabana Palace may hold Brazil’s record for expelling foreign artists.
After the incident with Rod Stewart—thrown out by the hotel after a lively party—it was Elton John’s turn.
The artist, leading a nautical entourage all dressed as sailors, passed through the Copa’s pergola to have a beer before the Concha Verde ball. Before they could even order, the group was rejected and expelled by the waiter, who said that “sailors were not welcome by hotel management.”
It didn’t help to explain that it was just a costume. The waiter remained firm.
Elton John’s comment later, after his irritation had subsided:
“It’s not a good thing to be a sailor in Brazil.”
Rio had much more to show its famous visitors besides parties and parades. Between Carnival events, Elton John, Rod Stewart, and Peter Frampton went yachting, enjoying the sun to tan away some of the pale skin they brought from their countries.
They're Rocking in Rio
By Larry Rohter — February 8, 1978
A funny thing happened to Peter Frampton when he went shopping in Ipanema the other day. Somebody asked him if he was Rod Stewart.
For the group of surfers who had stumbled across Frampton on their way home from the beach, it was an understandable case of mistaken identity. Rod Stewart actually was in town, and to confuse things even further for Brazilians, who have a hard time telling funk from punk, so were Elton John and various members of the Sex Pistols.
Besides, the guy coming down the street obviously had to be a celebrity of some kind. After all, most tourists who come here at carnival time don't go looking for a pair of swim trunks with a full squadron of bodyguards, managers, secretaries, press agents and photographers in tow.
Vacationing rock stars, however, are an altogether different breed, as Rio residents are discovering. For the first time ever, Rio's famous festival, which ends today, has attracted some of rock's biggest names, and the Cariocas, more accustomed to the ways of visiting French and Italian movie stars, don't quite know what to make of it.
Leading the way has been Rod Stewart. When the carrot-haired singer arrived here in mid-January on a Concorde flight from Paris, saying he was tired and had come to Brazil just to rest, he was unknown even to many in the greeting committee of 300 teenagers his record company had lured to the airport with offers of free records and an air-conditioned bus ride.
But when Stewart checked into the presidential suite at the ritzy Copacabana Palace Hotel and set about having himself a good time, all that began to change. It took just one party to put him on the map here and make him a daily item for Rio's gossip columnists.
By local standards, it was no ordinary party that Stewart threw in his quarters. True, no one was particularly surprised when at 2 a.m. the hotel management asked Stewart and the 200 "friends" he had rounded up for an intimate little get-together to please quiet things down.
But when it was reported that the hotel management later handed Stewart a bill for nearly $5,000 to cover the costs of broken furniture, that made Stewart an object of curiosity. Busting up furniture was something that carnival regulars such as Alain Delon and Ursula Andress simply had never done.
At a press conference a few days later, though, Stewart shrugged off his expensive caper, telling Brazilian reporters that he had sold two million records in the last four weeks and had grossed $3 million on his last tour. As for the Beatles: "I've never heard of them."
The weekend before carnival, the cocky Stewart was back at it again. The Formula One automobile race and a big soccer game had been scheduled for the same afternoon, and Stewart, a former professional soccer player, was intent on seeing both events, even though they were on opposite ends of the city.
Money being no object, Stewart found a way to beat the traffic and the clock: he chartered a helicopter. The race completed, he hopped into the aircraft and zoomed over to the 200,000-seat Maracanã Stadium in time to catch all the big Flamengo-Vasco da Gama game.
With Stewart's image firmly fixed in the public mind, late arrivals Frampton and Elton John have been doing their best to catch up in the carnival publicity sweepstakes. Though both performers arrived here mouthing the Greta Garbo line about wanting to be left alone, copies of their "secret itinerary" were soon distributed to the press.
Since then, Frampton and John have been following a very carefully scheduled program that has them spending their days on yachts and at beaches and spending their nights dining with Rio high society and dancing at fashionable night spots like Regine's. Naturally, there are lots of photo opportunities for the press at every stop.
Brazilian reporters have found, however, that getting either Frampton or John to talk is another matter altogether. When Frampton canceled a press conference at the last minute, saying that he was "sick" and needed to rest, the press rushed over to John's hotel, arriving just in time to see Frampton sneaking in the door to visit his crony.
The three stars made their first joint appearance at Friday night's superchic "Sugar Loaf Carnival Costume Ball," with Stewart showing up in a flamenco uniform and Frampton opting for civilian clothes. Elton John, dressed as a sailor, "would have gone unnoticed altogether," sniffed one chronicler of the event, had it not been for his two burly bodyguards — who were also costumed as sailors.
The Sex Pistols, on the other hand, have been keeping a low profile. When it was first announced that guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook were coming for carnival, people began joking that, in view of their punk reputation, the Sex Pistols would shun the elegant beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana in favor of Ramos — a polluted piece of strand where bathers are frequently assaulted.
But then it was discovered that the Pistols could get no hotel accommodations at all, and a disc jockey began an "Adopt a Punk" campaign. Despite their criticism of the pet set lifestyle, the two Pistols ended up at a mansion owned by an executive of their record company and have been spending most of their time lounging poolside.
To the surprise of their Brazilian hosts, the two punk rockers expressed no interest in seeing carnival or meeting Stewart, Frampton, or John. Instead, they asked to be introduced to Ronald Biggs, the mastermind of England's "Great Train Robbery" of the early '60s, who now lives here beyond the reach of extradition laws.
That was easy enough to arrange, but some of the other requests made by visiting rock'n'rollers have made life very difficult for the Brazilians charged with keeping the pop celebrities happy. Finding bodyguards and cooks was no problem, but coming by the limousine that both Frampton and John demanded was no easy matter.
Black Cadillacs are not the most plentiful commodity in Brazil, and after much searching, the record company could only find one. That created a problem that required the wisdom of Solomon if it were to be resolved without wounding egos. Who gets the limo, Elton John or Peter Frampton?
After much soul-searching, a compromise acceptable to all was finally reached: both stars would use the black Cadillac. Or rather, they would take turns using it. When it was the other fellow's turn, the odd man out would simply have to humble himself and accept being driven around in a plain old Ford Galaxie.
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