Elton John at the SECC on the 10th June

When I think of songwriting partnerships many great examples spring to mind straight away, from Lennon and McCartney to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. However the standout combination for me is the genius of Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Sitting in the audience in the SECC on 10th June listening to Elton John perform I couldn’t help but wonder how they do it. The concert gave a great insight into not only a career which has spanned over 40 years but also into the songwriting partnership which made it all happen.He opened with the song "Funeral for a Friend" (love lies bleeding)", the opening track from one of his biggest selling albums "Goodbye Yellowbrick Road", which is one of my favourites. He then, along with his great band - many of whom have been with him from the start - treated us to classics from some of his biggest selling albums such as "Bennie and the Jets", "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me"", "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" and "Sacrifice" as well as some of the more recent hits like "I Want Love". A personal highlight for me was the performance of "Rocket Man" which lasted 15 minutes and was a perfect demonstration of Elton John’s masterful piano playing. We had the privilege of being treated to an obscure track which you don't hear that often called "Skyline Pigeon", one of his early songs. As someone who writes songs I can say it’s truly a masterpiece.Elton John may be one of the biggest music acts in the world but he showed a very humble and down-to-earth side to him when thanking his support act Pearl and The Puppets, one of Scotland's great up and coming acts who are signed to his management company. He even returned the gesture of dedicating one of his songs to them as they did to him at the start. A further highlight for the audience was learning, as he introduced his band to us, that it was Scotland’s very own guitarist Davy Johnstone’s 2,000th show with the Elton John band! With a show lasting over three hours he treated us to classics from four decades and as he came on for his encore there was only one song that had to be played - "Your song " which helped launch him into superstardom.Out of all the acts I’ve seen he has to be one of the greatest and in my opinion Elton John is one of the great singer/songwriters of our time.