"Back in 1995 Bob Birch (EJ's bassist) was hit by a vehicle in Montreal on the MADE IN ENGLAND tour. Bob was badly hurt and David Paton received a call from the Elton John HQ and was asked to fill in IMMEDIATELY on the tour! David graciously agreed and helped save the rest of the tour. In fact, David was the bassist at the next city (Detroit - Palace of Auburn Hills) and was excellent...I was fortunate enough to be there for it. I was worried that he wouldn't be able to play that huge 2 3/4 hour setlist but he was simply great.
That 1995 performance wasn't the only time that I was fortunate enough to see David Paton. I also went to see EJ and the Band in an all-time record rainfall in August of 1986 at the Toronto CNE. Whoa! Lightning, thunder, and buckets of cold rain! But a really hot show!
The band's version of "One Horse Town" remains, to this moment, one of my most enjoyable concert memories. After the eerie intro to the song, they just blew us away. "Can I Get A Witness" as an encore was pure heaven - David Paton always seemed to enjoy playing live and the band had a great sound on that tour. Songs like "Sad Songs" and "This Town" (check the great live version of this from 1985 on Youtube) really excelled live with this line-up."
Doug
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