Elton John Confirms He Will 'Never Be Touring Again'

Elton John performs at the final leg of his 'Farewell Yellow Brick Road' tour in Stockholm, Saturday, July 8, 2023. Photo: Ben Gibson / Rocket Entertainment

Story by Rebecca Friedman

When Elton John sang "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" in Stockholm in July 2023, he meant the lyrics literally.

The famed singer recently confirmed the final concert of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour in Sweden last summer was definitely the conclusion of his touring days, as the 77-year-old wants to focus on time with his husband, David Furnish, and their two children, Zachary, 13, and Elijah, 11.

In a new interview with a news outlet published Thursday, June 27, John confidently answered "no" when asked if he would ever consider touring again.

The "Tiny Dancer" singer's hubby, 61, helped elaborate on John's firm decision to retire, explaining: "We’ve got our sons, you know, they’re getting into their teenage years now. We don’t want to miss anything. We want to be present for that."

"It’s sort of a key decade, I think, in a child’s life," Furnish continued. "He’s been doing it for 60 years, so it’s nice to have that time to spend at home with family."

Elton John and husband David Furnish with children Zachary and Elijah, St Tropez in 2016. Photo: Maxppp / PA Images

The "Rocket Man" hitmaker chimed back into the conversation to admit he was pleased with the way he wrapped up his final tour.

"The last show in Stockholm on the farewell tour after Glastonbury, I got in the car and went, 'Yes! Yes!' We went out on the biggest high, just the way I wanted to, and there’s no going back [after] that," he declared.

At the time, John thanked his crowd full of fans for a "magical" finish to his touring life while expressing gratitude for his "wonderful" career.

First published at OK Magazine, June 29, 2024

The World of Paul Gauguin - an extraordinary Canberra exhibition for 2024

One of Paul Gauguin's most recognisable paintings, Three Tahitians, 1899, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh.

For many weeks now a buzz of excitement has been building at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) as the art works of one of the world's most famous artists, Paul Gauguin, arrived from their usual homes around the world.

More than 65 leading public and private lenders from as far as the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Sao Paulo and Abu Dhabi have shared their Gauguin collections to create what will be the largest exhibition of the artist's work to be presented in Australia. Many of the works have never been exhibited here before.

Significantly, the exhibition, Gauguin's World: Tona Iho, Tona Ao, brings together the art works and a range of other elements in a deep exploration of the French artist's journey from his Impressionist beginnings to his final destination, in the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia.

"It's very exciting to see these works in our part of the world," said NGA's curator of international art, Dr Lucina Ward. "Gauguin's work is in great demand - he's one of those artists everyone wants to see. Bringing so much of his work together from so many collections around the world to Canberra is extraordinary. It is huge.

Paul Gauguin, Portrait of the artist with The Yellow Christ 1890-91, Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

"It's a very rare opportunity for people to experience these works all together - there are more than 130 paintings, drawings, and sculptures - and to get insights into the art and life of Gauguin, his impact and his legacy on the late 19th century and 20th century."

The utmost care was needed to ensure the safety of the works as they made the long-haul journey. To manage the risk, the works have been coming in a series of shipments, most travelling with a conservator or curator from the originating museum.

"Canberra is one of the most complex and often furthest away venues that many of our colleagues can come to," said Dr Ward. "We don't have many direct flights and when you're dealing with 65 lenders from all over the world, just the shipment schedule is very complex.

"Sometimes there are layovers between flights there are periods when a work has to be put in security storage between flights and then most often there's a truck trip at the end to bring the work from Sydney or Melbourne. It's huge but that is part of the excitement of bringing the exhibition here."

An exhibition for contemplation

Dr Ward said while the art works are at the centre of the exhibition, the wider program aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of Gauguin's work and life, including how it is viewed through a contemporary lens, and from the perspective of Australia's Moana/Pacific neighbours.

"While we celebrate Gauguin's work and his links to the Pacific region, we needed to acknowledge that he has a complex legacy; he was a pretty rotten individual in many respects and behaved badly certainly in 21st century terms," she said.

"We can't change history so we have approached museums, artists, community members in Tahiti and in the Marquesas Islands and invited people to be involved in the project. It's inviting a conversation."

Paul Gauguin, Bonjour, Monsieur Gauguin, 1889, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.

In the exhibition, Gauguin's life, art and the controversial aspects of his legacy are explored through talks, public programs, a podcast series and films, as well as a display of a collection works by contemporary artists from the Pacific and further afield.

A highlight is the SaVAge K'lub, a celebration of all forms of art and culture, that's being presented alongside Gauguin's World: Tona Iho, Tona Ao. First conceived by artist, activist and scholar Rosanna Raymond in 2010, this latest iteration sees her collaborate with Tahitian artists.

Painting with light

That the exhibition will mark the return to the South Pacific of many of the works Gauguin created while living in French Polynesia is also exciting for lovers of his work. The natural environment and the light in this part of the world inspired Gauguin to use an entirely new palette of brilliant colours European audiences hadn't experienced before.

"In Australia we are very used to living where the light is stronger and the colours seem more intense but Gauguin's eyes were opened by that when he travelled to the South Pacific," said Dr Ward.

"I find it really fascinating to consider Gauguin's knowledge of optics. Like many other artists of this time he was learning about the structure of the eye - he had a very strong knowledge of simultaneous contrasts, which means putting reds adjacent to green it makes the red seem redder and the green seem greener."

Paul Gauguin, Tahitian women 1891, Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

'So it's exciting to see the works here, in this part of the world, for all sorts of reasons but that knowledge that Gauguin had brings even more admiration."

Tahitian cultural knowledge holder Tahiarii Yoram Pariente - who was invited by the National Gallery to perform a ceremonial Karakia to prepare for the exhibition - said having the paintings here meant he could see the colours that "are only possible in this part of the world".

"I think to have the works coming back here is going to bring us the shine that our sun and nature gave to those paintings in those days," he said.

Gauguin's World: Tona Iho, Tona Ao opens at the National Gallery of Australia on June 29.

For tickets and more information visit Gauguin’s World (nga.gov.au)

Article published at The Canberra Times, 29 June, 2024

Painting: Mozart family portrait by Johann Nepomuk della Croce (circa 1780)

 

Mozart family portrait by Johann Nepomuk della Croce (circa 1780)

Oil on canvas

Depicted are Leopold Mozart at right, at the piano are children Maria Anna Mozart (aka Nannerl) and younger brother Wolfgang Mozart. A portrait of mother and wife Anna Maria Mozart (1720 - 1778) hangs on the wall.

Johann Nepomuk della Croce (1736 - 1819)

Leopold Mozart (1719 - 1787)

Nannerl Mozart (1751 - 1829)

Wolfgang Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Painting: Schubertiade (1897) by Julius Schmid

"Schubertiade" by Julius Schmid (1897). Collection Wiener Männergesang-Verein, donated by Maria Dumba.

Painting also known as Schubertabend.

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)

Julius Schmid (1854 - 1935)

View auction history at New Orleans Auction Galleries, here.

...and at artnet, here.

Painting: "A concentrated Franz Liszt in the ball room in Budapest" (1872) by Franz Schams

"A concentrated Franz Liszt in the ball room in Budapest". (March 18, 1872) The audience include Emperor Franz Joseph (fourth from right in blue), crown prince Rudolf, Archduchess Gisela and the Hungarian nobility). 

Painting by Franz Schams (1823 - 1883). Vienna, Bösendorfer Collection.

This artwork of Schams is also known as: "Franz Liszt konzertiert im Redoutensaal in Budapest."

Franz Liszt, pianist and composer; 1811 - 1886.

The piano Liszt is playing is a Bösendorfer (made in Vienna).

Visit art9000 to order prints (link here).

Painting: Franz Liszt Fantasizing at the Piano (1840) - Josef Danhauser

 

"Franz Liszt Fantasizing at the Piano" by Josef Danhauser (1840)

Oil on panel.

Current location: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Stiftung PresBischer Kulturbesitz, Alte Nationalgalerie F.V. 42

Liszt playing a piano by Conrad Graf (who commissioned the painting). The imagined gathering are seated: L-R Alexandre Dumas père, George Sand, Franz Liszt (at piano), Marie d’Agoult (on floor); standing L-R Hector Berlioz or Victor Hugo, Niccolò Paganini, Gioachino Rossini. A portrait of Byron is on the wall, a statue of Joan of Ark on far left and a bust of Beethoven is on the piano.

Josef Danhauser (1805 - 1845)

Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886)

Dick Van Dyke becomes the oldest Daytime Emmy winner

Dick Van Dyke, with wife Arlene, says he was stunned to win the award. (AP PHOTO)

By Beth Harris in Los Angeles

Dick Van Dyke has won an historic Daytime Emmy at age 98.

The actor was honoured as guest performer in a daytime drama series for his part as amnesiac Timothy Robicheaux on Days of Our Lives, pipping Australian actor Guy Pearce of Neighbours for the award, making him the oldest Daytime Emmy winner.

“I don’t believe this. I feel like a spy from nighttime television,” he said.

“I’m 98 years old. Can you believe it? This really tops off a lifetime of 80 years in the business. If I had known I would have lived this long I would’ve taken better care of myself.”

General Hospital won four trophies, including its fourth consecutive honour as best daytime drama. It’s the second time in the ABC show’s 61-year history that it won four daytime drama trophies in a row.

Robert Gossett of General Hospital won supporting actor honours. The first cousin to the late Oscar-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr was honoured for the second straight year for his role as Marshall Ashford.

General Hospital also won the directing and writing categories.

Thorsten Kaye of The Bold and the Beautiful earned his second straight lead actor win for playing Ridge Forrester.

“I got to be very honest. I don’t like award shows. I didn’t like award shows until tonight,” he said.

A clearly stunned Michelle Stafford of The Young and the Restless won best actress as Phyllis Summers, a trophy she first earned in 2004.

“I am honoured to be an actor. It is the greatest gig. It is a privilege,” she said. “I’m honoured to entertain people.”

Van Dyke received a standing ovation as he used a cane to make his way to the stage, accompanied by his wife, Arlene, who held the trophy.

“I brought this lady up because she was also on the show,” he said.

“She played the cop who arrested me.”

Producer Norman Lear was 100 when he received his final Primetime Emmy nomination in 2022 and died the next year.

Van Dyke has won four Primetime Emmys, including three in the 1960s for his classic comedy series The Dick Van Dyke Show.

As well as Pearce, Van Dyke beat out last year’s winner Alley Mills of General Hospital, Linden Ashby of The Young and the Restless, and Ashley Jones of The Bold and the Beautiful.

The Kelly Clarkson Show continued its domination of the daytime show category with a fourth consecutive victory. The singer, who moved her show from Los Angeles to New York last year, was on hand to collect the trophy.

“The move has been so great, not just for me and my family but for our whole show,” she said, singling out NBC.

“Thank you for thinking of mental health and not just a product.”

Courtney Hope, who plays Sally Spectra on The Young and the Restless, earned supporting actress honors. She originated the role on The Bold and the Beautiful in 2017 before moving to Y&R in 2020.

Melody Thomas Scott, who has played Nikki Newman on The Young and the Restless for 45 years, and her producer-husband, Edward Scott, were honoured with Lifetime Achievement Awards.

The wife-and-husband team of Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos won daytime talk series host for their Live with Kelly and Mark. Ina Garten won best culinary series for Be My Guest on Food Network.

The ceremony honouring soap operas, talk and game shows aired live on CBS from The Westin Bonaventure hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

The 51st annual Daytime Emmys returned to their usual place on the calendar, six months after the show’s 50th edition aired in December after being pushed back because of last year’s Hollywood writers and actors strikes.

First published at Canberra City News, via Australian Associated Press, June 8, 2024

Abba to get Swedish knighthood for pop career

Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson get the Order of the Vasa.
(AP PHOTO)

The four members of the Swedish pop quartet ABBA are set to receive one of the most prestigious knighthoods in Sweden at a ceremony.

The Order of the Vasa will be handed out for the first time in almost 50 years.

Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad will receive the royal Order of Vasa as “Commander of the First Class” for “very outstanding efforts in Swedish and international music life”.

Sweden has several orders, including the Royal Order of Seraphim awarded to heads of state and foreign royals, and the Royal Order of the Polar Star that is given to foreign citizens and stateless persons.

The Royal Order of Vasa, which is given in recognition of personal efforts for Sweden or for Swedish interests as well as the successful performance of public duties and assignments, was dormant until late 2022, when it was reactivated after regulations opened the Royal Orders to Swedish citizens again.

Earlier in 2024, candidates were nominated by the public and the Swedish government and King Carl XVI Gustaf approved the nominees that included the four Abba members, who triumphed at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with the peppy love song Waterloo.

The Eurovision victory turned Abba into a pop juggernaut, by far the most successful band to win the pan-continental music contest.

Abba’s melodic disco pop sold hundreds of millions of records worldwide.

The stage musical Mamma Mia! based on its songs is 25 years old and spawned two movies.

The Swedish band members have not performed together live for four decades, but released a comeback album, Voyage, in 2021.

The digital Abba-tars opened in London in 2022.

The ceremony will take place at the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

First published at Canberra City News, via Australian Associated Press, June 2, 2024

Belgium's Tintin-inspired Euro 2024 kit is just adorable

by Joe Foley
3 June 2024

Blistering barnacles, that's cool.

Football kit designs can generate as much controversy as sports logos, but Belgium has truly won us over with its current away kit. The team will be going to Euro 2024 with a striking Tintin-inspired getup in their luggage (the Euro 2024 logo design has an interesting story of its own).

The Royal Belgian Football Association's home kits for the male and female teams continue to sport the country's traditional red (the teams are nicknamed the Red Devils and Red Flames). However, the away kit should look immediately familiar to any fans of Hergé, the Belgian comic artist behind the original Tintin books.

Tintin is the guy on the right (Image credit: Hergé / Royal Belgian FA / Adidas)

While players won't be wearing Tintin's brown shoes or overcoat, the rest of the Belgian away kit matches the the intrepid reporter's traditional outfit quite faithfully with a white-collared blue jersey, brown shorts and white socks.

Fittingly, the Belgian FA unveiled the kit in a press conference at the Hergé Museum near Brussels in March, complete with models impersonating characters from the Tintin books.

Amusingly, Belgian media have often compared the Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne to Tintin. Comedian David Baddiel now wants manager Domenico Tedesco to dress as Captain Haddock.

Euro 2024 in Germany starts on 14 June and runs to 14 July. For more sporting inspiration, see NFL players draw their team logos from memory and the disturbing old Red Sox logo.

First published at Creative Bloq, June 3, 2024

About Joe Foley

Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.

See other Tintin related articles on this site (click links below):

Tintin artwork fetches record price (2008)

Mostly praise for Spielberg-Jackson Tintin film (2011)

Tintin auction fetches $2.4m (2011)

Tintin comic fetches record price (2012)

Is this the real-life Tintin? (2017)

Tintin, They Walked on the Moon - at Gallerie 123, Geneva (2023)

Christmas with Tintin (2023)

Yardley puts life into old and alien music

David Yardley and soprano Emma Griffiths perform at the National Portrait Gallery.

Music

David Yardley - harp, Emma Griffiths - soprano

The National Portrait Gallery

June 2, 2024

Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD

David Yardley is a performer of medieval troubadour songs, sung in the countertenor range while accompanying himself on a replica 13th century harp. 

Some of his material uses texts and melodies from the medieval period, some are texts both old and new set to music written by Yardley in a medieval style. 

The foyer of the National Portrait Gallery is not an obvious performance space, with gallery visitors moving through with conversations going on and further complicated by the provision of easels and drawing board with an invitation to visitors to sketch the performer as he sings. The space does have, however, a lively acoustic for this kind of music, with the winter sun streaming in through the high windows.

The original medieval material can sometimes sound very old and alien. Yardley’s performance of an anonymous Trouvere song Li Chastelains de Couci Ama Tant suggests that musicians of the 12th and 13th century heard scales, modes and melodies in quite a different way. At the same time these ancient songs sit quite comfortably beside his own setting of a modern poem by Emma Roxanas, Frozen Fens, which would not sound out of place in a recital of contemporary art songs, though perhaps with an expanded accompaniment.

Yardley included soprano Emma Griffiths for two songs. The first was a duet of sorts with the two alternating verses in another Trouvere song from the 13th century and the second was the setting by Yardley of a 14th century English text, ending on a couple of wonderfully high and sustained notes from Griffiths. She has a voice that sounds more folk singer than operatic soprano, strong and confident, with hints of the great Hungarian singer Marta Sebesten in the quality of her singing.

These medieval songs are quite a limited musical form, being essentially monophonic and the small harp being of restricted compass. They do tend to sound a bit the same. 

For all that, Yardley is an engaging performer with an obvious passion for, and understanding of, the genre though with this kind of performance, it would look better without the music stand.

First published at Canberra City News, June 3, 2024

LEAVE A REPLY

ONE RESPONSE TO YARDLEY PUTS LIFE INTO OLD AND ALIEN MUSIC

Tony Magee says: 4 June 2024 at 12:16am

Oh how I wish I’d been at this concert. When studying music at the tertiary level in the early 1980s, my favourite subject was Mediaeval and Renaissance music history, presented to us each week at the School of Music by Professor Warren Bebbington. The amount of research and preparation he did for each lecture was massive and his knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject was infectious. I absorbed it all like a sponge. 

We spent many a lesson studying the music of the northern French Trouveres and the Troubadours of Southern France, Spain and Italy that Graham mentions in his review. But there was a third group: In Germany, they were known as Minnesinger. And the most famous of them was a young minstrel named Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170 – c. 1230). 

Now, one of the other most valuable things I learned in studying to be a secondary school music teacher, was that in formulating a lesson plan, it was essential to start, in your mind, with “What is your motivator?” ie: what will I do or say when I enter the classroom to maximise grabbing the attention of these teenagers? 

And so one day, with my year ten elective music students, I just walked in and said loudly and with a grin on my face – “Walther von der Vogelweide”. “What?” they said. “Walther von der Vogelweide,” I repeated. “What’s that?” they asked. “It’s a real name, of a real person – a musician,” I replied, and the lesson proceeded from there. It was such a funny sounding name. 

As the week progressed, some of the staff would stop me in the corridors and say “What are you teaching those kids in your music lessons? They’re all wandering around the school saying some weird German name!” 

I miss those days.