Elton John News

After having seen Elton John live you´ll want to buy the music which will last a lifetime...

"I´ve always wanted to smash a guitar over someones head! You just can´t do that with a piano"

Die drei Konzerte in Rio und Mexiko stehen vor der Tür und die Band hat bereits mit den Proben begonnen. Adam Chester, der bei den Proben den Part von Elton am Piano übernimmt, hat dieses Foto über seine offoziellen Kanäle gepostet. Alle Jungs sind an Board und wir sind gespannt, wie gut sie in Form sind.

Charlie Morgan, ehemaliger Drummer der Elton John Band, feiert heute seinen 71. Geburtstag! Wir möchten Dir an dieser Stelle im Namen aller User von www.eltonjohn-fan.de recht herzlich gratulieren! Genieße den Tag und lass Dich heute mal so richtig feiern und hochleben!

Charlie Morgan war im Juni 2011 der Erste, der bereit war mit mir über seine Zeit in der Elton John Band zu sprechen.

Charlie Morgan;I was one of the top session drummers in the UK, and very busy in the studio. Elton heard my drumming on Nik Kershaw's "Human Racing" album and asked producer Gus Dudgeon to book me for a session on the Ice On Fire album. When I was on the session, Elton asked if I would be interested in "playing a little charity concert" later that year. This turned out to be Live Aid!!!

eltonjohnfan.de: The last Concert in 1995 was a show in Rio de Janeiro. Many Elton Fans Love this show. You were in a good condition and played a good concert. After the show you wanted to get back to England. Can you tell us about the journey?

Charlie Morgan;Hah! yes... we had been using an old Douglas DC8 freight plane to carry all our equipment around South America (there were seats at the back for the crew). I wanted to get back early (and the earliest flight back to the UK from Rio was late the next day), so I hitched a ride back to the USA with the crew. This meant I had to get to the airport at 3am the morning after the show!! We flew back through San Juan (Puerto Rico), to Philadelphia. Then I had to get a cab to JFK, to catch my flight back to London! I arrived back (with Pete Mills, my drum tech) after over 22 hours of travel...

eltonjohnfan.de: How many shows did you play with Elton?

Charlie Morgan;That's a question to ask John Higgins. I believe it is over 1,500. I know the 1985-6 tour had around 185 shows alone! As I said, John Higgins has a database that lists all the shows each member played. I do know I played on 7 albums: Ice On Fire, Leather Jackets, Live with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Reg Strikes Back, Made In England, The Big Picture and Love Songs, oh, and also Two Rooms (Kate Bush's Rocket Man cover)... Plus the DVD of the Barcelona concert in 1992, and the Rio show in 1995, of course! And Tantrums & Tiaras (I celebrate my 40th birthday somewhere in there!)...

eltonjohnfan.de: What is your favourite Elton Song?

Charlie Morgan; Burn Down The Mission. For a drummer, it is such a technical song.... I loved playing it.

eltonjohnfan.de: How did Elton and Billy work together during their Face to Face-tours?

Charlie Morgan; Remarkably well. They are good friends. they have a mutual respect for each other and their respective talent.

eltonjohnfan.de: What is it like to play with someone like Elton on stage?

Charlie Morgan; About the biggest buzz of all time. There were many moments when I felt like pinching myself to see if I was dreaming!

eltonjohnfan.de: Are you still in touch with Elton?

Charlie Morgan; I am - but not often enough. I do write to him from time to time.

eltonjohnfan.de: If you would have the opportunity to tour with Elton again, would you agree or not?

Charlie Morgan; Yes, I would agree. I always loved playing with him, and the band are amazing, too.

eltonjohnfan.de: If you had to do a "normal" job - which one would you choose?

Charlie Morgan: Probably truck driver. I did that for 4 years when I was starting out - drove huge trucks around Europe. I love long distance driving. When I was younger, I was quite a good race driver, and there was a short time when I had a possibility of a "pro" seat in a racing team (sports cars). But I decided to stay with what I knew.

eltonjohnfan.de: What instruments do you play beside, and which one would you like to play beside?

Charlie Morgan: I play a little piano, and a tiny bit of guitar...

eltonjohnfan.de: What is elton like in the studio?

Charlie Morgan: Brilliant, funny (Hilarious), witty, moody, perfectionist... wonderful

eltonjohnfan.de: Have you ever met Bernie Taupin and if yes what do you think about him?

Charlie Morgan: I have met Taupin many times, and love his company. He is very quiet, but also very witty.

eltonjohnfan.de: How does Elton behave before going on stage?

Charlie Morgan: He often gets nervous. But sometimes he would come into our hospitality room and chat with us before the show. Sometimes, on the side of the stage, waiting to go on, he would tell jokes, or make funny comments...

eltonjohnfan.de: Did you have a good relationship with elton?

Charlie Morgan: I believe so. I never fell out with him, or the organisation. He has a small group of close friends, and at one time I think I could count myself as one of them. But we have not spoken recently. I will always be a huge fan of his music, his talent and his personality!

eltonjohnfan.de: Charlie, thanks for this Interview!

Billy Trudel, ehemaliger Backgroundsänger in der Elton John Band feiert heute seinen 66. Geburtstag. Dazu möchte ich im Namen aller User von eltonjohn-fan.de gratulieren! Happy Birthday Billy! Billy war im Jahr 2000 bei den beiden legendären Konzerten im Madison Square Garden, die als Live Album One Night Only erschienen sind, mit von der Partie. Vor ziemlich genau 10 Jahren habe ich dann ein Interview mit ihm gemacht, in dem wir über diese magischen Konzerte gesprochen haben.

Wir haben es mal wieder geschafft und ein ehemaliges Bandmitglied für ein Interview zu gewinnen. Wir haben Billy Trudel, ehemaliger Backgroundsänger in der Elton John Band, 12 Fragen über seine Zeit in der Band geschickt.

Hello Billy, thank you for the readiness to make an Interview with us. We are very proud to do that with you. Here are my Questions:

eltonjohn-fan.de; When did you first meet Elton and how did you come to join the Elton John Band?

Billy: I first met Elton in 1991 at a dinner party that I was invited to with Davey Johnstone and Nigel Olsson and our manager at the time Phil Blurton, that's when we had a band together called War pipes. We were in New York on a promotional tour for our new record and Elton was hosting a dinner party at the Four Seasons Restaurant for a record called "Two Rooms" that all his friends in the industry recorded performing one of his and Bernie Taupin songs. A few years later 1995 I got invited to sing with Elton at the Academy Awards when he won his Oscar for The Lion King. That was my first introduction to working with Elton.

eltonjohn-fan.de: When did you start touring with Elton and how many shows did you sing with Elton?

Billy. I first started touring with Elton in 1997. John Mahon and myself would both got the audition to join out and storing the Band full time . John and I would get together twice a week at my house to learn Elton songs, I think we learned about 60 songs all together then about a month-and-a-half later we flew Nice, to rehearse for a one-off show in Aschaffenburg Germany in front of 70,000 people . Elton felt if we can do a show this big we can do anything. It was a great show, I kept trying without me until the end of 2000 when I sang with him for the last time at Madison Square Garden where we recorded the DVD CD One Night Only. I'm not sure how many shows I did with him but I think it's somewhere around 150 to 160.

eltonjohn-fan.de: Let us talk about the “One Night Only” shows in October 2000. Elton introduced you with the words “singing and dancing like a maniac”. What can you tell us about the “Magic” of these two nights in October 2000?

Billy: Preparing for the One Night Only concert was weeks of hard work making sure everything sounded amazing then as all the artists that were coming in to sing at the concert, we had to change keys and styles to adapt to their voice. So as far as the magic, that is the end result from all the hard work. You're so busy trying to get everything right that you're really don't have time to get caught up in what's happening but seeing it later, made me proud to be a part of it.

eltonjohn-fan.de: In the video we can see, that you have a lot of fun on stage and with the audience. What is it like to sing on stage with stars like Elton John, Brian Adams, Anastacia and all the others?

Billy: Rather you're singing with a Megastar or somewhere intimate in front of a small group of people, you always want to be the best you can be. I love singing and performing it's a part of who I am. I also love being in the studio recording and writing a song, doing something that was just a thought that you sit down and write it on a piece of paper then put what you wrote on that paper to music and creating a melody with emotion and feeling . There's nothing like that, just like standing on a stage in front of thousands of people and feeling their energy, it becomes an addiction, you fall in love with the adrenaline.

eltonjohn-fan.de: In the introduction of “Don´t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” you can guess, that something went wrong in the first show. Can you tell us what went wrong?

Billy: I don't remember what went wrong or if anything went wrong at all. Even if there was a mistake that's part of the art of doing something live. One thing I loved about working with Elton was that he was a true perfectionist, and that made me always want to be better. So if you were out in the audience and saw something happen, then you can see how much of a perfectionist he was and still is. There are not very many artists out there that can sustain a career of 40 plus years and still do it as great as he does.

Billy: I love all of elton's music, but I have to say that to really stick out in my mind. The first one was Someone Saved My Life Tonight, because of the personal meaning behind it and the other was Bennie and the Jets, because when I was in Middle School the first time I had to do a performance in front of anyone in drama class I did a monologue dress like Elton John and lip sync Bennie and the Jets, it was that moment on that I got the bug to be an artist. Who would have thought all those years later I would actually be on stage singing Bennie and the Jets with Elton John?0

eltonjohn-fan.de: In the 90´s you had a project with some members of the Elton John Band called “War Pipes”. Are you still playing together?

Billy: In 1989 1990 I was doing a lot of sessions in the studio, making my living as a session singer. I had a recording contract at Chrysalis records in 1985 too 1987. And even though I was on MTV and all over the radio, I was completely broke. So when my contract was up, I went out and started getting work doing sessions singing on other people's records. And I was back making money. One of the jobs I did was singing a title song for a cartoon called pigsberg pigs. After you during that session the next day, I got a call from another singer by the name of David Joyce. Apparently I took the job away from him. I didn't even know I was competing with anybody, but the reason why he called me was he was talking to Davey Johnstone who is looking to put a new band together. David thought I would be perfect for this band. He asked me if he could give my phone number to Davey Johnstone. At the time I was a little put off making records as an artist again because I didn't want to be broke. But then I thought hey why not let's see what happens. So a few minutes later my phone rang again, this time it was Davey Johnstone and he was telling me about this new project he had called Warpipes. After meeting with Davey and Guy Babylon, I thought it would be a lot of fun to be in a band with these guys. So I said I will do this for 2 days a week so that I can keep making money and paying my bills the other 5 days a week. They agreed to that so on Tuesdays and Thursdays we went into the studio to record. And the end result was we made a really good record together. I have so many good memories of those days and being in a band with those guys Davey Nigel Bob Birch and Guy Babylon we're all outstanding musicians, and I felt honored to be a part of it.

Billy: I just released a new CD on Escape music, with a long time friend of mine Michael Thompson who is a great guitar player. Our project is called Culver Kingzs. The record just launched a few weeks ago and is already getting great reviews. The other project I'm doing now is called Billy T and the Soul. It's a very old school Soul project that I have always wanted to do. I can't wait for people to hear this.