Elton John says goodbye to Geelong

SIR Elton John wasn’t going to let the sun go down on him at Mount Duneed Estate on Saturday night without playing some of his greatest hits first.

The multi-million-selling singer and songwriter was in fine form in the latest show of his three-year global farewell tour, delighting the 20,000-strong crowd with material from the breadth of his 50-year career over the better part of three hours.

“Welcome to the Farewell Yellow Brick Tour on a really cold evening, we’ll try to liven it up for you,” he quipped early on.

Starting with the classic piano chords of “Bennie and the Jets”, John rolled out ballads (“Tiny Dancer”, “Candle in the Wind”), up-tempo pop (“Philadelphia Freedom”), what he described as “singalong time” (“Sad Songs”), instrumental epics (“Funeral for a Friend” and an extended version of “Rocket Man”) and snarling rockers (“Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”) with the help of his backing band featuring long-time collaborators Nigel Olsson on drums, guitarist Davey Johnstone and percussionist Ray Cooper.