World superstar John uses fame and name to help
LEGENDARY Australian promoter Michael Chugg remembers the night he was sitting backstage in Elton John’s inner sanctum when their conversation was dramatically halted by the sound of the angelic, otherworldly voice of Gurrumul Yunupingu from the stage.
It was John’s first-ever concert in Darwin in 2008, and Gurrumul had released his self-titled debut record that year to critical acclaim.
What happened next would help launch the unique indigenous artist worldwide.
Renowned from championing emerging talent behind the scenes and via his Beats 1 radio show, John knew he was hearing something very special.
“We were talking about young bands coming up and he heard Gurrumul and asked ‘Who’s that?’,” Chugg recalls.
“That’s Gurrumul, he’s a young, blind Aboriginal artist from Yothu Yindi. Elton asked if I could get him 40 copies of his album … he was leaving in
Australia in about four hours.”
Chugg quickly sought out Mark Grose, the head of Gurrumul’s label Skinnyfish Music, who only had six copies of the record and would have to drive for 90 minutes to pick up more. Grose made the dash and they were loaded on to John’s jet just before take off.
“Three or four weeks later, all these English producers and people start ringing to find out what’s happening with Gurrumul. Then his record is put out in Europe and Gurrumul is playing with Sting in Paris,”
Chugg says. “Elton went home and gave away those CDs because he believed in him. And that’s just one example of what he does for artists.”
PNAU, Catherine Britt, Ruel and now Tate Sheridan, who has won the coveted opening spot on John’s threemonth-long leg of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, have all had first-hand experience of how John’s passion for music can have a ripple effect.
As well as art, clothes, furnishing and one would imagine, children’s toys, John’s shopping obsession includes record stores.
He is renowned for perusing the new release sections to uncover emerging artists, buying up all the stock and then sharing it around Team Elton.
When I met John in Hong Kong back in 2004 for a chat about his Peachtree Road record, a buffet in his hotel suite was lined with hundreds of CDs ranging from Chinese gospel choirs to the unreleased album from an artist whose career he helped launch called James Blunt.
He discussed his love of Australian country music artists including Catherine Britt and Kasey Chambers.
John discovered Australian soul pop sensation Ruel in 2017 and gave his debut single Don’t Tell Me a spin on his influential radio show, declaring he was so astonished by his talent “I give up”.
“From Australia, this is a 14year-old boy … with an amazing track,” Sir Elton said. “It’s astonishing someone so young can write something so good. I give up.”