I agree totally with Nick about Elton John - I can't stand his music/image etc - but the man DID pay his dues in the early years - working the club circuit as a band member, playing as a session man and composing music, for years before making it big. The man writes his own music and plays it well. I too, saw him in 1970 when he was just beginning to be accepted by the then hippie/alternative rock scene as the next big thing. John Peel at the time championed him and said "One day this man will be a household name" people laughed. When Elton made it. The same hippies that had cheered him at the London Roundhouse turned their backs and snarled "Crap"