Queen handles breasts at the MEN Arena

The queen of pop, Sir Elton John, visited Manchester over the weekend and gave the MEN Arena a right rollicking, rock’n’roll riot of fun.

On Saturday evening, the whole thing was an absolute ball with the main be-spectacled focus of the evening, Sir EJ himself, camping it up like a gay sergeant major at Butlins.

He was energetic, funny and clearly enjoying every minute. His mood spread to an already adoring crowd and created a proper party atmosphere. At one point he even dragged the first two rows of the crowd on to the stage and got them all dancing along with him.

For the less committed fans, the fact that he played the classics from his 200 million selling back catalogue was a fat bonus. Tunes such as ‘I’m Still Standing’, ‘Rocket Man’ and ‘Daniel’, were proper sing-song fodder.

The show at the MEN was called the Red Piano.

The 61-year-old rockster has been showcasing this louche number in Las Vegas for about 17,000 years. Vegas glamour and excess runs right through the evening.

It even had Sir Elton making a right tit of himself and loving it. He also made a left tit of himself. And for good measure some really big inflatable boobs with streamers flying out of them. In fact if you were Sir EJ’s shrink you’d have to revisit that mother-complex thing he has going on.

But it was huge fun. Aside from the breast fetish there were big bananas (time for that shrink again), and dancing cherries (more shrink please). The graphics and videos in the background were intriguing and hugely entertaining. They illustrated how accomplished Sir Elton’s photographer and friend, David LaChapelle, the designer of the show (with the main man), is in handling large scale productions.

This wasn’t a concert or a gig, folks, but a show. An all singing and all dancing extravaganza and it was magnificent. It would be mighty good if we could have a few more of these completely over the top productions at the MEN Arena. Or indeed anywhere in the city.

Sir Elton John played the MEN Arena on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 December.