Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will team up with Chong Lim and Jason Dean to honour the 40th anniversary of their tour with Elton John.
Elton John contains multitudes. He’s a classically trained pianist who released some of the most successful pop music of the 20th century. He’s a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a knight of the realm, and a close friend to both the British royal family and Eminem. He’s collaborated with Dua Lipa, Britney Spears and Bob the Builder, and is a big fan of Kneecap.
So, of course it was John who pioneered the symphonic rock concert – which he did when he partnered with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for a major tour of Australia in 1986.
MSO: The Music of Elton
- Thursday 1 to Sunday 4 October
- Hamer Hall
- Tickets on sale here
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
Elton John first toured Australia in 1971, and he returned once every few years up until his retirement from touring in 2023. But the 1986 tour was John’s biggest run of shows around Australia. He performed for three-and-a-half hours every night, backed by his band during the first half, and joined by the 80-piece MSO during the second half, with John dressed in a Mozart wig.
The setlist included songs from John’s then-recent albums, Ice on Fire, Leather Jackets, and Breaking Hearts, as well as fan favourites from his back catalogue, including the climactic closing sequence of Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me, Candle in the Wind, Burn Down the Mission, Your Song, and Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.
A recording taken at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on 14 December 1986 was released as the live album and concert film, Live in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, in 1987.
It’s now 40 years since the tour, and the MSO are marking the anniversary with a series of shows at Hamer Hall this October. Longtime John Farnham collaborator Chong Lim is the show’s musical director, while Jason Dean will be on lead vocals and piano, backed by his band, Superband.
Prudence Davis, who has held the position of principal flute with the MSO since 1980, was part of the original tour. She has nothing but the fondest memories of the six-week stint travelling the country and performing with Sir Elton.
“It was one of the happiest times for the whole orchestra,” Davis says. “It was probably the best tour that we’ve been on.”
Film composer and former rock keyboardist James Newton Howard composed the arrangements for the tour. The MSO rehearsed the songs in Melbourne before flying to Sydney to pick up John.
“We stayed on the plane and Elton got on the plane and then we flew to Brisbane because that’s where the first performances were going to be,” Davis says. “And he came around the whole cabin and said hello, introduced himself to each one of us.”
By 1986, Elton John was already guaranteed a place in pop music history. But he was extraordinarily nervous about the collaboration with the MSO.
“He’s a perfectionist, of course,” says Davis, “and he was very intimidated playing with a symphony orchestra. I don’t know why he felt that way, but that’s just him.”
John’s nerves didn’t stifle his gregarious spirit, however.
“The night of the first performance, we had a dinner provided for us. But before the dinner, he called each of us into a big green room and presented us each with a bottle of Moët et Chandon champagne, which in those days was a really big deal, and a handwritten card.”
View this post on Instagram
The MSO’s annual schedule now includes frequent collaborations with rock and pop acts – recent examples include the Hoodoo Gurus, Lime Cordiale, Birds of Tokyo, Electric Fields and Sigur Ros. But in 1986, a classical orchestra going on tour with a pop musician was a genuine novelty.
“It was the first venture into such a thing,” Davis says. “And so we took it up and it was just such a brave thing for the MSO to do, but it turned out to be so incredibly successful…”
“After that, a lot more [offers] came, but Elton was the first. And he took such care of us. After the gigs, maybe there’d be a bar somewhere and he’d turn up and he’d shout the bar and he’d buy all the drinks and bring in a whole lot of champagne. He was just very generous in that way. He was really looking after everybody.”
Find out more about the MSO’s The Music of Elton performances here.
This article was made in partnership with MSO.
