Elton John is making up for lost time by adding five extra dates on to the Australian and New Zealand leg of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.
The Rocket Man singer is heading back to that part of the world, after first playing there in late 2019, on 10 January 2023. He’ll take in dates in Newcastle, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in Australia, before heading to Christchurch in New Zealand.
Announcing the shows on Twitter, Elton wrote:”Big news Australia & New Zealand! (star eye emoji) In 2020 I promised that when I came back to finish my interrupted farewell, I’d perform some encore shows. I love your part of the world dearly and cannot wait to share these concerts with you!”
Elton, who began the trek in September 2018, is currently touring in North America after wrapping up some of his European dates. He’s had to reschedule large parts of the show due to the pandemic and then suffering a hip injury.
In a new interview with Music Week, the 75-year-old superstar praised the current crop of female stars making music today.
“It’s so great to see Nova Twins, Wet Leg, Let’s Eat Grandma, The Linda Lindas, Haim and all these girls rocking out and making the best music,” he gushed. “Apart from Sam Fender, none of the boys are doing it, the girls are. It’s a breath of fresh air, because it comes from innocence and pure joy and that, for me, is what music is about.”
He continued: “It’s lovely to see Kate Bush at Number One, but there’s not many good records in the Top 20. And the albums chart is full of things like me, ABBA and Queen. The odd thing comes through, like Sam Fender or Harry Styles, or you get a new artist coming in at Number Three and then disappearing to 80-something. It’s depressing – there are a lot of good albums that deserve to be in the albums chart, like Juanita Euka, Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen. What I want to know is why aren’t they there? Because of people like me!”
