Sir Elton John Concert

Concert in Tenerife

Elton John gave an amazing concert in Costa Adeje, Tenerife. There have been many concerts by top artists. Sir Elton John was the biggest name to play there. Rod Stewart was another. Elton’s concert was fabulous. As an official photographer, I was allowed to stay and take shots for the duration of the show. I was in the group of photographers kept in a holding pen like sheep before the start. Some artistes were very strict on what we can take photos of and for how long. So it was a great pleasure to find that Sir Elton gave no restrictions.

The slideshow is best viewed in landscape

Biggest crowd

It certainly was the biggest crown I had ever seen at the festival arena. He was the biggest star to play there at that time. It was a couple of minutes to 9pm. We were led to the’pit’. This was an area between the crowd and the stage. When the crown spotted us, you could hear them saying ‘photos, photos’. They knew the concert was about to start when they saw us being led to the pit. Elton came on to a huge cheer. As a result, we photographers started clicking away. This time, there was no panic to get the shots. Elton gave no restrictions on us. Therefore, we had the time to change angles and positions with total freedom. The usual scenario on previous concerts was, ‘only the first three minutes’. Or, ‘only the first song’.

Well to Elton’s credit, he played his  music for three hours solid. How his fingers kept going all that time I’ll never know. After a while, I left the pit and cruised around the open arena taking more shots. It was such a delight to work freely. On Rod Stewart’s concert, I had a tap on the shoulder by officials saying ‘no photos’. But, I can honestly say, it was a fabulous concert to photograph. Sir Elton was well respected by the other photographers for his ‘press freedom’ attitude.

Other stars to play the golf course arena at Costa Adeje, Tenerife were Michael Bolton, Mark Antony, Jamiroquai, Kenny G and the Dj’s Tiesto and Nine.