Elton John

I first became aware of Elton John in the early seventies when he appeared on a light entertainment show as a guest - something like Morecambe & Wise or Mike Yarwood - and my father, who hated pop music, seemed not to object to him, liking his bespectacled, studious look. As a fan of the rebellious Rolling Stones image, that instantly made me hate Elton John. Such contempt was soon blown away, however, as Elton soon became a platform-booted preposterous glam rocker and I lapped it up, all the way down the yellow brick road.

I bought lots of his singles, plus Don't Shoot Me, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Captain Fantastic, also familiarising myself with Honky Château and Tumbleweed Connection via my friends' record collections. Even as a punk in 1978, I still couldn't help but warm to A Single Man.

Elton became part of my DNA in the seventies and has remained so ever since, despite his elevation to the status of "national treasure". Even though he seems a notoriously temperamental and unpredictable, even petulant, character I cannot help but have a bucketload of affection for the pudgy-fingered old so-and-so. That affection is given equally to Bernie Taupin, by the way, his quiet, unassuming lyrical muse.

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