It’s like Elton John’s albums have come to life
Elton Rohn brings classic hits to the Showplace stage on Oct. 20
To do a music tribute well, you have to look, sing, play and act like the real thing – and that’s what makes Elton Rohn so successful.
“The biggest compliment we get when we play is, ‘Oh my god, it’s like watching another Elton John,’” said Ron Camilleri.
Camilleri performs as John in the band Elton Rohn.
It’s a seven-piece tribute act that’s returning to Showplace Performance Centre on Oct. 20 at 8 p.m.
They sold out their last Showplace performance in Sept. 2017, just a few months after playing at Musicfest.
“We went from not playing Peterborough to being able to play to twice in one year, and just having phenomenal support from the people there,” he said.
Elton Rohn has a drummer, bassist, two guitarists, a backup keyboard player, and a percussionist saxophone player. And six of the seven musicians sing.
“That’s one of the big highlights of the band – vocally we’ll do four-part harmony with six singers. It’s quite good.”
As a big fan of John’s work from the 1970s, Camilleri sticks to tunes from that era, though they do branch into the '80s once and a while, too.
That means the audience can expect to hear Crocodile Rock, Tiny Dancer and Rocket Man, to name a few.
“It’s a lot like Elton John’s old albums have come to life,” Camilleri said
Choosing songs for the show is tough, though, Camilleri said, because there’s just so many great songs. “He has four or five hours’ worth of hits.”
Camilleri launched Elton Rohn about nine years ago. He started off with a band called Ronnie and the Jets, performing Beatles and Oasis-type songs at bars.
One night, he sat down at the keyboard and played an Elton John song and the crowd went wild.
Soon after, Elton Rohn was born and they’ve since played 250 shows.
Becoming Elton John on stage wasn’t too difficult for Camilleri. He already looks like him, so that was half the battle.
As a musician, Camilleri could already sing and play the piano, so all it took was adopting John’s mannerisms and buying some fancy duds.
Don’t call him an impersonator, though - he’s not a fan of the term. That’s more for karaoke singers, he said.
“We give you an experience, so that when you come out of our show, you actually feel like it was for Elton back in the '70s.”
Before Camilleri started Elton Rohn, he said he’d often have people approach to him to say how much he looked like the singer.
And now that he has all the fancy clothes to match, Camilleri said he really feels the part, too.
In fact, he couldn’t imagine performing any other tribute.
“I feel like he’s the artist in my life that I was meant to do.”
NOTE: Tickets are $39.50 and are available at the Showplace box office and online at www.showplace.org