Elton John

OVO Hydro, Glasgow

IN December 1967, after a concert in Scotland, a young musician named Reg Dwight announced that he was quitting Bluesology, who were then the backing band for the singer Long John Baldry, and embarked on a solo career.

Some fifty-six years later, Elton John, as Reg soon became, is winding down his astonishingly successful, 300-plus Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which has so far raked in an estimated $887 million.

In his time Elton, now 76, has sold some 300 million records, staged 4,000-plus shows worldwide, has had more than 50 Top Forty Hits in the States and the UK, and, together with lyricist Bernie Taupin, has been responsible for some of the best-loved pop songs of the last fifty years. He has had, as he puts it in his memoirs, Me, an extraordinary life.

His two sold-out concerts at the Hydro, on Saturday and Sunday, were a reminder of not just how far he has come but also of his unparalleled gifts as a showman. Not for him a swift and uncomplicated run, as if on autopilot, through his greatest hits. Instead, supported by a first-class band - including the Edinburgh-born guitarist Davey Johnstone, drummer Nigel Olsson, and percussionist Ray Cooper, all of whom played their first gigs with Elton at the dawn of the Seventies - he programmed a set-list that, yes, included the greatest hits but also extended to some of his lesser-known songs, such as Levon, from his 1971 album, Madman Across the Water.

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The band delivers powerful, extended versions of songs, among them Levon (the piano-led outro is thrilling), Burn Down the Mission, Rocket Man, and Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding. "He's a lot rockier than I expected - I thought he was more about the ballads", one fan remarks.

Tiny Dancer brought back memories of that lovely scene on the bus from Cameron Crowe's Seventies-set film, Almost Famous. A stately Candle in the Wind was accompanied by poignant footage of its subject, Marilyn Monroe, vamping it up for the camera.

It's in the last half-hour or so that the place comes to life, as Elton delivers one gold-plated hit after another: Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, The Bitch is Back, I'm Still Standing, Crocodile Rock, Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting. Fans get to their feet and dance. All over the auditorium, hundreds of pairs of souvenir Elton glasses flash on and off in the darkness. It's an extraordinary sight.

A quick word about the splendid staging. Little expense has been spared. As David Furnish, Elton's husband, and one of the show’s creative directors, mentions in the concert programme, the musicians are presented in front of a 33ft, hand-carved yellow brick road frame consisting of more than 3,000 individually sculpted, gilt-edged gold bricks. It's one of the most striking sets I've seen at the Hydro.

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The encores are Cold Heart (his collaboration with Dua Lipa), Your Song and, finally, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Before that final song Elton gives a heartfelt thanks to the fans who have followed him over the years, and briefly hymns the beauty of Scotland. The song over, and with the audience delivering a standing ovation, Elton is whisked out of sight in a sort of stairlift, waving to the fans one last time, a showman to the last.

It's anyone's guess as to when he will appear in Scotland again. As he puts it in his autobiography, Me, he has other plans - he wants to make more albums, and to stage a huge exhibition, covering his entire career.

He also wants to play smaller shows, in which he can focus on playing different material. Classic songs such as Rocket Man, Your Song, and I'm Still Standing can, he concedes, take on a life of their own and overwhelm everything else he does.

Though it's an inarguable point, it was good to hear the classics done live, and so well, in concert, even it was for the last time. His headlining Glastonbury set this Sunday evening will certainly be worth watching on TV.