Posted on 09/23/2004 7:34:27 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
Raging 'Rocket Man' explodes By This is London 23 September 2004
Sir Elton John branded photographers in Taiwan "rude, vile pigs" today in a furious airport bust-up.
The star arrived in the country to play a concert, the last date in his tour of the Far East.
But after touching down at Taipei's Chiang Kai-Shek airport by private jet in the early hours of this morning, he was besieged by photographers and TV crews.
Taiwanese news channel ETTV showed Sir Elton, dressed in a royal blue tracksuit and matching sunglasses, clenching his teeth and muttering expletives as he stood with his arms crossed tightly across his chest.
"Rude, vile pigs!" he shouted. "Do you know what that means? Rude, vile pigs. That's what all of you are."
One of the photographers shouted back: "Why don't you get out of Taiwan?"
Sir Elton replied: "We'd love to get out of Taiwan if it's full of people like you. Pig! Pig!"
The star, who recently performed in Shanghai and Hong Kong, said: "We had a great tour of the Far East and then we come to Taiwan."
It is not the first time the 57-year-old singer has lost his temper in public.
In the fly-on-the-wall documentary Tantrums And Tiaras, made by his partner David Furnish, he famously threw a fit when a female fan waved at him and shouted "Yoo hoo!" on the tennis court of his French Riviera hotel.
He stormed off court saying: "I'm never coming back to the south of France again."
A spokeswoman for Sir Elton accused police and airport security officials of failing to protect the star but said he was "bravely" carrying on with tonight's concert at the Chung Shan soccer stadium.
"Elton John's arrival at Taipei Airport was greeted by what can only be described as chaos and confusion," the spokeswoman said.
"No sooner had he disembarked from the aircraft, he was led into the public immigration area of the airport which was immediately besieged by hordes of photographers and live TV crews intent upon disrupting his progress.
"The local police and security at the airport failed to protect Elton John from the ensuing chaos.
"Despite this frightening arrival, his spirits remain high and he is looking forward to performing the concert."
Yeah, the sequins on his bomb belt could hurt a lot of good folks...
;)
LOL. Very quickly done.
The title reminded me of Meat Loaf in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Didn't he eat too much and explode?
Someone needs to kick his diet pill habit.
The time has come when only the Taiwanese press want his picture, yet he hasn't figured it out yet.
"... on impact. There were no survivors and the flight recorders have been recovered and are being examined. Weight distribution problems, in addition to trim deficiencies, are believed to have been the cause."
I went to an Elton John concert as a kid. It was my first rock concert. It was so bad I never went to another concert. I just assumed if someone of his stature wasn't worth seeing, then nobody was.
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