How six nights in Los Angeles turned Elton John from an unknown into a rock star:
When Elton John flew to Los Angeles to make his U.S. debut at the Troubadour on Aug. 25, 1970, the prospect of a visit to America was so tantalizing to his British pals that many accompanied him. In addition to his band mates , John, then 23, traveled with his lyricist, Bernie Taupin, manager Ray Williams, producer Steve Brown, graphic designer David Larkham and roadie Bob Stacey. “We were very much a gang,” says Taupin.
John played eight shows in six nights at the Troubadour, and those shows helped turn him from an odd-named unknown into rock’s biggest star since the Beatles. Rolling Stone included the Troubadour shows in a recent list of the 50 greatest concerts of the rock era. The visit not only turbo-charged John’s career, it also altered the lives of Taupin and Larkham, who met their first wives, and Williams, who lost his job. At a time of maximum cultural contrast between London and L.A.
, but if you want the true story of the 1970 L.A. residency that catapulted Elton John to mass stardom, here it is.I didn’t think we were ready to try breaking America. I’d been performing as a solo artist for about a year in England by that point, and the shows had been going down really well. I felt I still needed to properly break the U.K. first, and I wanted to keep my focus there.Success? Pretty much nothing. Zip. Zero. The Troubadour shows were the blue-touch paper for our career.
I’d met Elton in 1968, when [producer] Steve Brown asked me to take publicity photographs of two unknown songwriters. We all became friends. We’d go buy albums, or as in Bernie’s lyrics [to the song “Social Disease”], we’d get juiced on Mateus and just hang loose. I decided to come along to L.A.Elton and Bernie were so nervous. Dick James had said, “If this doesn’t work, you can all come back and I’ll get you jobs in a shoe store on Oxford Street.” Yes, jolly decent of you!They land in L.A.
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