I was at his concert in Auckland this year, and yes I was a screaming fan, when in Rome - u'know. But his music has changed me, it has healed me, it has followed me through the deepest reaches of a foul depression, and I came out the other side, more or less, the better for it. Though it's not say I would want to do it again if I had the chance, but neither would I wish this from myself to someone else. If we did not encounter the things we have in our life, would someone else instead? Individual and collective suffering varies in severity from situation to situation, but I believe strongly that all pain is relevant to each and every particular situation, and it cannot be discounted at any time or any place. So you can perhaps understand then how Elton as a pure product of the power of his music holds a special place in my heart and in my life even. Maybe it is because I was so in need, maybe not, I find that of little consequence. What is, is, and his music is to me many many things. His songs reflect a myriad of my emotions and experiences. They bring back memories of people met, books read, films seen, situations encountered, at a time in my life when I was living on the edge of the knife. When one is surrounded by music, it is my unscientific contention that the vibrations soak into our skin and bone and become a part of our history and ingrained in our memory. Despite being born in the mid-seventies I wholly consider myself a child spawned of the eighties. My childhood was extremely joyful I am thankful to say, and consequently I am very fond of the music of that exciting era. Elton in particular had saturated my brain long before I first began to realise it, this decade.