In May 1977, Elton John took the stage at London’s iconic Rainbow Theatre with percussion legend Ray Cooper for a six show residency. These performances were the first of 233 Elton-and-Ray only shows that would follow, and featured the live debut of deep cuts; “Roy Rogers”, “Cage The Songbird”, “Idol” and “I Feel Like A Bullet (In The Gun Of Robert Ford)”.
May 1977 was the first time in five years that a full month had passed without an Elton LP or single appearing on the UK charts. It had also been eight months since his last performance, after averaging one show every four days throughout the previous seven years. Ticket holders expecting to see a typical Elton concert were in for a big surprise. The first half of the set would be Elton alone at the piano, the second half would see him accompanied by Ray Cooper, the two performers working together telepathically, harking back to the earliest days of Elton’s rise to superstardom. The stripped back performances have since been regarded as some of the finest of his career.
The material selected represents a generous sampler of Elton’s career to date, yet without the big hits that were part of his regular set, offering a glimpse of what he would have been playing had he been a cult artist, not the global superstar he had become .
The release comes in the wake of Elton’s chart topping album with close friend and eleven-time GRAMMY winning US superstar Brandi Carlile, Who Believes In Angels? A true collaboration between Elton, Brandi, Bernie Taupin and multiple GRAMMY Award winning producer and songwriter Andrew Watt, the ten track LP was a global critical and commercial success and Elton’s tenth UK number one album.
Elton John – Live from the Rainbow Theatre with Ray Cooper Track List:
The Greatest Discovery Border Song Cage The Songbird Where To Now St. Peter? Ticking Better Off Dead w/Ray Cooper Sweet Painted Lady Tonight w/Ray Cooper Idol w/Ray Cooper I Feel Like A Bullet (In The Gun Of Robert Ford) w/Ray Cooper Roy Rogers Dan Dare (Pilot Of The Future) Goodbye*
*Bonus track available on digital and CD release only
About Elton John: Elton’s career achievements to date are unsurpassed in their breadth and longevity. Elton is one of the top-selling solo artists of all time. In the UK and US charts alone he has 2 Diamond, 43 Platinum or Multi-Platinum, and 26 Gold albums as well as over 85 Top 40 hits. He has sold more than 300 million records worldwide.
Among the many awards and honours bestowed upon him are six GRAMMYs, including a GRAMMY Legend award, a Tony, two Oscars, a Best British Male Artist BRIT Award, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Kennedy Center Honor, Legend of Live Award, 13 Ivor Novello Awards and a knighthood from HM Queen Elizabeth II for “services to music and charitable services”. In January 2024, Elton John joined Hollywood’s elite group of EGOT winners after securing his first-ever EMMY Award for his historic Disney+ live, concert special Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium.
August 2018 saw Elton named as the most successful male solo artist in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart history, having logged 71 entries, including nine No. 1s and 29 Top 10s. ‘The Lockdown Sessions’, an album of collaborations recorded during the COVID-19 Pandemic, was released in October 2021 and went straight to No. 1 in the UK album Charts, becoming Elton’s 8th UK No. 1 album in the process. Its lead single “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix) with Dua Lipa” became a bona fide global hit, reaching No. 1 in over 20 charts world-wide, including the UK and Australia. Its success meant that Elton became the first ever solo artist to score a UK Top 10 hit single in six consecutive decades. In America, he holds the record for longest span between Billboard top 40 hits among soloists at 51 years and currently has logged 57 entries. Elton also holds the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart record with 18 No. 1s and 76 total songs. Summer of 2022 saw another global smash single, as Elton and Britney Spears released ‘Hold Me Closer’, a Top 5 hit in the UK and a No. 1 hit in the Australian single charts.
Elton announced the ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour at New York’s Gotham Hall in January 2018. The tour kicked off on 10th September 2018 in North America and subsequently saw Elton play 330 shows to over 6.25 million fans across the UK, Europe, North America, and Australia. The shows marked his retirement from touring after more than 50 years on the road. In 2019 it was named Billboard’s Top Rock Tour and Pollstar’s Major Tour Of The Year. The U.S. leg of the tour concluded with 3 sell out shows at Dodger Stadium. The concert was live streamed on Disney + in every single territory the channel broadcasts in, a global first. Elton headlined Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage in June 2023, the final UK show before the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour concluded. The Sunday night closer was widely heralded as one of the greatest performances in the festival’s rich history, attracting one of the largest crowds ever witnessed at the festival. It also received the biggest ever televised audience for a Glastonbury set, reaching 7.6m overnight on BBC1. Elton has delivered more than 4,600 performances in more than 80 countries since launching his first tour in 1970.
2019 also saw the release of ‘Rocketman’ and global bestselling autobiography, ‘ME’. An epic fantasy musical motion picture of Elton’s life, ‘Rocketman’ has been a commercial and critical hit, taking close to $200m at the box office. It has won an Oscar, two Golden Globe Awards and a Critics’ Choice Award and garnered four BAFTA nominations. The soundtrack was also nominated for a GRAMMY Award. ‘Elton John: Never Too Late’ follows Elton as he looks back on his life and the astonishing early days of his 50-year career in an emotionally charged, intimate and uplifting full-circle journey. Directed by R.J. Cutler and David Furnish the documentary premiered in December 2024, on Disney+.
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