It must be strange being Elton John. On the one hand he’s rock royalty, playing to hundreds of thousands people a year. He writes best-selling musicals. He’s the kind old Godfather who looks after his troubled counterparts. He sang at the funeral of a dead princess.

But on the other hand he’s a short, old, nearsighted, fat, bewigged fool from Middlesex who’s constantly trying to make up for a past of wearing ridiculous glasses and dressing up like Donald Duck by being rude to as many people as he sees fit.

Now Elton John is having a pop at Live 8, which he’s described as an "anti-climax".

If Elton John (CDs) isn’t calling Taiwanese people "vile pigs", he’s telling
television audiences that Madonna should be shot. Maybe he’s trying to
maintain some kind of an edge, making sure he doesn’t turn entirely into Phil
Collins. Who knows?

Before Live 8 took place, Elton John seemed to be rather excited by
the whole affair. He gave the impression that because at the original Live Aid concert he was a "self-obsessed drug addict", he was looking forward to performing to an immense crowd and
actually remembering it. In fact, he’s reported to have "cried with joy".

What actually happened was that Elton invited gormless drug-monkey
Pete Doherty to perform a duet with him that was so spectacularly crap
that most of the world watched it through their fingers. Doherty has
since blamed his hopelessness on Bob Geldof’s daughter, because she
pinched his bum, or something. Anyway, now Elton’s on the backtrack.
Here’s his Live 8 quote in full…

"Oh God, here I go. I thought it was a bit of an anti-climax, to be
honest. The thought behind it was fantastic, but Hyde Park is a
charisma-free zone. There was no sense of occasion and from a musical
point, I didn’t think there were too many highlights. I was very
pleased to be a part of it, but I didn’t think it was anywhere near as
good as the first one. How could it be?"

What do you think? Is Elton right to say there weren’t enough
musical highlights at Live 8? Oh has he simply realised that he messed up his chance and he’s trying to cover his tracks? leave your comments below.

[story by Stuart Heritage]