The Bitch was back....and as brilliant as ever

I had the treat of my first Elton John gig more than 40 years ago. I loved him then and I love him still. I have been faithful. Oh yes, I have flirted with the music of others over the years... but he is still The One.

And didnt he prove it this week when he was back in Nottingham for the first time in eight years ( I was there for the last one too!) and he Crocodile Rocked the house from the second the familiar notes of Funeral For a Friend (Love Lies Bleeding) opened an outstanding set jam-packed with the songs of my life. And those, I suspect, of hundreds of others who packed the Capital FM Arena to court our rockiest national treasure.

It's the 40th anniversary of the release of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road this year - my copy of the album is still cherished, still listened to. I had been longing to hear him play Roy Rogers... but it wasnt to be - ah never mind, every song sounded as fresh as ever as he hit us so many favourites from the album - and  others - from Elton John to Captain Fantastic, Madman Across the Water to The Diving Board.
This was a set so jammed with famous favourites Your Song, Are You Ready for Love, I Guess That's Why they Call it The Blues, Sad Songs, Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, Crocodile Rock, Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting.... he could have played til dawn and still have just been scratching the surface.

He seemed relaxed, totally at ease in his own skin and, of course  note perfect, his piano playing has never been better and it was clear he was having a good time too.... Davey Johnstone and a white-haired Nigel Olsson still there, still rocking and still clearly having a great time with their mates. It reminded me how bloody good they are musically, performing at  this level, outlasting generations of music's so-called superstars and still deliver a set that had young fans rocking with their mum and dad!

And I felt old enough and free enough to rock away too. I'd earned it - Elton's sung the songs of my life. So  - from the old fan in the 22nd row  (Well Row S so technically I suppose it's only the 19th) who sees you as more than Elton....you're still my hero!

Ooh Mr Bennett!

A lovely, life-long friend invited me to join her and her husband in Leeds at the weekend for a performance of Alan Bennett's Untold Stories at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
It's part of a Bennett season in the home city of one of our most erudite national treasures. And, since Leeds is around the half way point between my home in Nottingham and theirs in my home village of Marske, on the Cleveland coast  I jumped at the chance of a catch up and this affectionate 'home-age'.
It was my Bennett stage 'debut' so I didnt know what to expect - certainly not the nasty fall on the slippery, sodden Leeds pavement I had trying to get from my car to the theatre!! But I was buoyed up by the excitement of seeing no less than Alison Steadman in the ladies (Ooh Mr Bennett!) as I frantically tried to dry off my trousers' dripping, moss-coated rear end  with paper towels before curtain up (more Mr Bean than Mr Bennett).
I was beginning to think the whole day was fated to failure when we took our seats in the lovely bright, modern and yet intimate Courtyard Theatre. A perfect setting for the intimate memories and observations of childhood and the author's parents final years - told in Hymn and Cocktail Sticks.
We were treated to Hymn a half-hour first act of Bennett observations on the childhood violin lessons and the parent-son relationships that were to set the chorus , I suppose, for his life.
 This first act was, if I am honest, a little slow - though I felt churlish and unsophisticated feeling slightly irked by the lack of pace. We guessed it was constructed this way to showcase the accomplished musical performances or a live string quartet.
It took remarkably little make-up and costume to transform the still youthful Reece Dinsdale into a convincing Alan Bennett (the author himself was appearing for An Audience the next day) and his accent, intonation and expression were all delightfully convincing.
But it wasnt until we got to Cocktail Sticks which explores Alan's relationship with his parents during his early and their latter years that the pace and the experience really took off.
Moving, hilarious, affectionate and disparaging, it was a drive-by account of growing up in a long-gone era that we could all associate with.
We explore his mother's doomed social aspirations - her dreams of hosting gatherings with cock-tails  (the emphasis always in the wrong place), her  depression, his father's lack of aspirations, early sexual encounters (or near misses) and he pokes fun mercilessly at himself throughout.
It was a joyous, funny, delightful observation on the love and wonder that lie in the 'ordinary' which showcased some fabulous acting talent - Reece Dinsdale was superb and the supporting cast adept and delightful.
But it's the dialogue (and frequent monologues) that, quite rightly, deserve the accolades. I can't wait to go back for more!