Gig review: Elton John at First Direct Arena

“Leeds, this is the three-hundred-and-fourteenth show on the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour,” Elton John tells a sweltering First Direct Arena. He marvels at the beaming crowd, visibly overcome. “This is a great county, a great city.”

Few in British music royalty can match the stature of the man born Reginald Dwight, the Pinner-born session player who grew to become one of the nation’s most decorated musical exports.

Now, after seven decades in the game, he is hanging up his sequined jackets; this mammoth final jaunt, the highest-grossing of all time, is finally nearing a close five years after it began.

There is a fitting circularity for both performer and venue here. It was in 2013 that the 76-year-old officially opened Leeds’s then-sparkling-new arena, following an ad-hoc pre-launch party by Bruce Springsteen. Tonight, the Rocket Man bids goodbye to Yorkshire in a glittering triumph of pop songcraft and showmanship.

From the staccato chord stabs that herald opener Bennie and the Jets, through the bluesy beat of Have Mercy on the Criminal, this two-and-a-half-hour performance not so much an elongated sign-off as it is a retrospective showcase of his cast-iron catalogue.

Backed by long-time compatriots the Elton John Band, it is a musically dazzling affair, whipping between the swelling balladry of I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues to the progressive pop standout of Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding with aplomb.

Much has been made in recent years of John’s voice, and it is true his range no longer possesses the power it once had. Nevertheless, fears of unfortunately butchered renditions are unfounded; with age comes the trade-off of melancholic wisdom and smoky grit. Tiny Dancer’s falsetto is rendered with an effective bass-rasp; Someone Saved My Life Tonight trembles with an aching wistfulness.

Even in a gig stuffed to the gills with copper-bottomed classics, the home straight plays like a smash hits revue: The Bitch Is Back, I’m Still Standing, Crocodile Rock, Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.

A three-song encore opens with 2021’s clubby remix hit Cold Heart, a late-breaking reminder of John’s remarkable commercial virility after all this time. But it is the final coda of Your Song and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, rendered with a romantic lushness, that offer a fitting final bow as the star departs the stage.

“Leeds, I love you!” he hollers. There’s only a few dry eyes left in the house.