AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

Right now is one for the historical past books – Sir Elton John is giving his ultimate U.Okay. efficiency when he headlines the Glastonbury Pageant in Somerset, England, this night. The 76-year-old is about to surrender touring for good subsequent month, a lot to the chagrin of his British tremendous followers. In one other period, you might need known as them groupies. Reporter Rebecca Rosman has this tribute from London.

REBECCA ROSMAN, BYLINE: Paul Smith remembers that first second prefer it was yesterday.

PAUL SMITH: I used to be 8 years outdated. This was November 1972. And Elton John occurred to be on that Royal Selection present that night. And I used to be simply completely taken by every thing.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “ROYAL VARIETY PERFORMANCE”)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Good night to you from the Palladium Theatre in London. We welcome now a younger English singer who has traveled all the best way from the West Coast of America to be right here tonight.

SMITH: He was sporting a really shiny type of inexperienced swimsuit.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SMITH: No, sorry, it wasn’t a inexperienced swimsuit. It was a stripey type of silver, purple and blue swimsuit with a high hat on.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “ROYAL VARIETY PERFORMANCE”)

ELTON JOHN: (Singing) I bear in mind when rock was younger. Me and Suzie had a lot enjoyable.

SMITH: And he had all these form of like – he had this faucet dancer man come on. And it was simply unbelievable, the entire form of factor.

ROSMAN: Possibly it was the stripy, glittery swimsuit paired with platform boots. Possibly it was the falsetto hook within the la-la-las (ph) singalong little bit of the “Crocodile Rock” or the upbeat piano chords. No matter it was, Paul wasn’t simply hooked. The path of his life modified.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “ROYAL VARIETY PERFORMANCE”)

JOHN: (Singing) I by no means knew me a greater time, and I assume I by no means will.

ROSMAN: He began accumulating data, hundreds of items of memorabilia. He even opened his personal report store in Salisbury, England, that he nonetheless runs immediately. Then there have been the dwell exhibits – oh, so many dwell exhibits – which have taken him everywhere in the world.

SMITH: I have been to 78 exhibits, after which after I go to Stockholm in July to see the ultimate present of the farewell tour, will probably be my 79th present.

ROSMAN: Subsequent month’s Stockholm gig will be the final act of Elton John’s epic five-year farewell tour. However for British followers like Smith, the ultimate leg of U.Okay. performances over this previous month have carried a particular weight, even when the U.S. is the place the “Rocket Man” bought his first massive break.

ADRIAN EVANS: This was the place it began on the very starting.

ROSMAN: This being London’s Soho district. I am at a park with 34-year-old Adrian Evans. He is solely been to a handful of dwell exhibits, however he’s an excellent fan nonetheless, with an encyclopedic information of Elton John historical past. He tells me Soho is the place John began working as a tea boy at a neighborhood report firm, then met his writing associate Bernie Taupin, in the end recording their first massive hit at a studio not too far-off from the place we’re sitting.

(SOUNDBITE OF ELTON JOHN SONG, “YOUR SONG”)

ROSMAN: Evans says it was his mother who launched him to Elton John and his music when he was only a child. And that discovery, he says, has helped him get by way of a lot in his life.

EVANS: I bear in mind rising up at college being an ungainly autistic teenager who might – at 14 or 15, might title just about each Elton John tune, each Elton John B-side, and nobody else knew them.

ROSMAN: That’s, till he found Elton John chat boards on the web within the early 2000s.

EVANS: And I bear in mind pondering, wow, I am not the one one who is aware of that tune.

JANE BEHRMAN: It simply escalated as soon as social, you already know, media began – social media. I’ve met very shut buddies that I’ve identified for 20 years, 30 years.

ROSMAN: That is tremendous fan Jane Behrman, who has been to dwell exhibits in every single place from Tokyo to New York. Her final Elton John live performance was in Birmingham earlier this month.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JOHN: (Singing) And I feel it should be an extended, very long time until landing brings me round once more to seek out I am not the person they suppose I’m at residence.

BEHRMAN: I regarded on the band, and I felt a bit unhappy. I checked out all of them and thought, God, I am by no means going to see you all collectively once more. You already know, it is arduous.

ROSMAN: Plus, the dwell exhibits have not been simply in regards to the music itself, Behrman says. It is in regards to the group of buddies she’s made through the years and journeys everywhere in the world. Tremendous fan Paul Smith agrees.

SMITH: However having stated that, we have all of the movies, we have all of the again catalogue of his music, and I do not suppose will probably be the tip.

ROSMAN: Possibly there would be the occasional dwell gig right here and there, however it’s undeniably the tip of this period for these Elton John tremendous followers.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD”)

JOHN: (Singing) So goodbye yellow brick highway the place the canines of society howl…

ROSMAN: For NPR Information, I am Rebecca Rosman in London.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD”)

JOHN: (Singing) …Penthouse. I am going again to my plough. Again to the howling outdated owl within the woods…

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