This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/10/2020
Click Here to read more about The Tom Fontaine Elton John Collection presented in this auction.
Please Note: A portion of the proceeds from sale of the Elton John lots, 229–281, will be donated to The Elton John Aids Foundation.
During his spring 1971 tour of the U.S., Elton John had two albums released, the live album 11-17-70 and the soundtrack album for the film Friends, and his 1970 studio album Tumbleweed Connection was still selling well and getting good radio play. The offered concert poster was created to his promote his scheduled tour stop at the University of New Mexico on May 15, 1971, but the show never happened. Though the show was promoted in a May 4, 1971 Albuquerque Journal article, there is no record of why it was cancelled. (see copy of article at left.) Elton played shows on either side of the date, in Anaheim and Denver respectively, but the tour's New Mexico stop was cancelled. The inclusion of the band Brinsley Schwarz as the opening act on the poster is interesting. The band did play in the states, notably the year before at New York's Fillmore East, but by mid-1971 they were entrenched in London helping creating the "pub rock" scene. Nick Lowe himself describes 1971 as a drug fueled haze that saw him have a nervous breakdown due to overuse of LSD. Concerts are cancelled for any number of reasons, and Elton's breakneck pace of shows could often lead to logistical issues, but it's more than likely something went amiss during the arrangements with the promoters. We may never know, but the incident (or lack thereof!) has left us with a rare artifact of a phantom show that never was. Brilliant. The poster measures 14 1/4 x 19 3/4 inches and has been linen backed to gorgeous apparent Near Mint to Mint condition.