Jamie Lidell

Tourtagebuch: Unterwegs mit Elton John!

26.11.2008, 12:09, Text: Jamie Lidell, Foto: www.crackerfarm.com

Der Exil-Berliner und Elektro-Soul-Künstler Jamie Lidell staunte nicht schlecht, als ihm der Support für die laufende Elton John-Europatour angeboten wurde. Für intro.de berichtet Jamie Lidell exklusiv von der Tour! In plain English...

JAMIE LIDELL / Elton John / TOUR DIARY, #1.

Nov 19. Birmingham, UK.

We started counting the seats. Adding up the number of utilitarian moulded scarlet plastic chairs in one ring of Birminghams NIA. Phil used a logic to deduce the numbers. I guess it like the number of beans in a jar. Maybe I'm not hungry or it's simply that it's more than meets the eye. What looked to me like 5000 was more like 12.000, so maths tells us. Maybe it's just that we are not used to these places Elton frequents.

The big time. This is it! It's a hell of a stage. The whole thing looks like a huge dark slide. Imagine looking downhill on black ice that's slanted just enough to let you push a snowball and watch it tumble into a snowman. I feel a pang of guilt as my clunky souls scuff the slightly sticky sheer black vinyl surface. A floor so shiny you can steel a glance at the formidable lighting rig ovehead as you reach to tie your laces. We are surrounded by technology here in this hanger like hall. It's an all tech affair. Some high, some low.

Video: Jamie Lidell - "Another Day" (HQ)

Behind us is the largest LED wall imaginable. A concentrated gaggle of leatherman clad tough techie type are manning the controls under the stage in what looks like a scene from a Bond flick. There's all this high technology flashing around and also an incongruous and slightly daunting looking fold of flacid pink sacking dangling from the rafters. I'm told it's an udder. This is really a mega production. From the 3 courses for dinner to the all-you-can-eat Elton sonic buffet. It feels like we are slipping into a well oiled machine. So far though we are feeling like we are sticking out pretty hard! Outside there are 20 trucks and inside enough workers to construct a pyramid. It boggles the mind. Also explains why we are all giggling like idiots in this place. I look back to see the band all in a line stood on a riser. Looking like scruffy superheros. It's like vertigo on lauging gas. We are opening for a legend. I get a tap on the shoulder.

Word is Elton is ready for me. I feel ready, too, there's little whelm in me to over if you catch my drift. It's a perfectly manageable affair. I'm led down various nondescript corridors to a draped doorway. Eltons hounds greet me. 2 soft companions and the big man himself. He's hanging in one corner of a leather sofa his feet up. Looking very relaxed in a shiny black Adidas tracksuit, rose tinted glasses and some serious emerald like raw stones from each ear. Here, I think to myself is a man completely content living his own legend. It's the kind of presence that is utterly disarming and I find myself chatting with the man as if we were already friends.

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