Remember when Elton John came to town?
Most will remember the last time the rockstar was here, as his farewell tour came through BC Place in October 2022, selling out the huge stadium two nights in a row. That may be the last time he plays a show in Canada, as they were the last shows on John's Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour in the country (though he may do one-off concerts still and did recently buy an apartment in Toronto).
Few will likely remember the first time John played a concert here. More than 50 years ago he played his first-ever Canadian show on a Vancouver stage.
On April 23, 1971, John took over the Agrodome Theatre at the PNE for one night; he'd just released Tumbleweed Junction, which came only a few months after Elton John. Between the two albums, John's star was rising fast, and on a global scale, but his biggest hits (aside from "Your Song") were still in his future.
At that Vancouver show was Gary Cullen, who brought along an 8 mm film camera to shoot the show. He put a series of clips up on YouTube, catching the energy of a young John (who had just turned 24).
While the footage has no audio (such was the technology at the time) it catches the energy John had on stage, and his antics at the piano, leaping into the air or playing sprawled on the ground.
"I was in the second row. My reserved seat tickets cost $3.50 each," notes one YouTube commenter. "I've been telling people about Nigel Olsson's drum set-up for years, so it's great to see actual footage after all this time. You captured exactly the moments and images that match my memories."
While there's no sound to go with the footage, Cullen comments the end of the footage is of the song "Burn Down the Mission." There's footage from another show he did a couple of months later playing the same song in a similar manner, to help with imagining exactly what the Vancouver show looked like.
