Elton John - Russian Here And There
In 1979, Mrs Dwight's little lad began a tour of the USSR. Both the country and his career were ailing. Only one would survive.
In early 1979 Elton John was lunching with his manager and former lover John Reid and the concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith. The trio were reflecting on the singer-songwriter’s extraordinary decade.
All but unknown at the start of the 1970s, John had topped the US album charts on six occasions, had had three chart-topping LPs in the UK, six Billboard No.1s, and toured extensively on both sides of the Atlantic.
Keen to find new challenges for their charge, Reid and Goldsmith asked John whether there was anything in particular he wanted to do next. The singer was most determined about what he didn’t want to do. “I’m not touring,” he insisted. He was clearly bored by the prospect of re-visiting familiar territories.
As Goldsmith later recalled: “He kept saying, ‘I’m not touring, I’m not going to all those places I normally go’.” But with so much of the globe thus ruled out, John did have one idea that surprised his dining guests. “What about Russia?”
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