Read a review of Sir El Tom John's debut American theatre tour.
Tom Cridland is an Anglo-Portuguese singer and piano player from London. He performs the music of Elton John live in concert through his alter ego, "Sir El Tom John".
Tom "became Sir El Tom" by accident. He only started playing piano aged 30 during the Covid-19 lockdowns in 2021. He began simply with the aim of distracting himself from the difficulty of recovering from alcoholism, inspired by Elton.
The first "Tom's Elton Tribute" performance was in January of 2022 at the Carrollton Station, a juke joint in New Orleans. Tom then developed his act in Tennessee, with residencies at the Players Inn, a dive bar in Bellevue. By May 2023 he was playing to 1,500 people at McKelligon Canyon Amphitheatre in Texas.
"Sir El Tom" initially toured with a three-piece band, just as Elton himself began his touring career in a trio with Nigel Olsson (Tom's close friend) on drums and Dee Murray on bass. With this line up and in the space of just three years, Tom went from gigging in pubs to headlining some of the world's most prestigious theatres, amphitheatres, arenas and stadiums.
Sir El Tom John now either performs solo, singing at his grand piano, or with his full band, naturally comprising Sir El Tom on grand piano and vocals, backed by drums, bass, guitar, second keyboards and percussion. He plays all of Elton John's best loved classic hits, album tracks, deep cuts and fan favourites, including Bennie and the Jets, Tiny Dancer, Rocket Man, Candle In The Wind, Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me, I’m Still Standing, Crocodile Rock, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Your Song.
Tom has performed in every single American state and at hundreds of iconic venues all over the world.
This includes shows at the Adelphi Theatre, Carnegie Hall, Teatro Tivoli, Casino Estoril, Vivo Rio, Théâtre du Gymnase Marie Bell, Emerson Colonial Theatre, The Granada Theatre Santa Barbara, Balboa Theatre, The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, Perot Theatre, Sioux City Orpheum, Robinson Center, Koger Center for the Arts, Buskirk-Chumley Theater, Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo, Scottsdale Performing Arts Center, Sunrise Theatre, Teatro Positivo, Ulysses Centro de Convenções, Vibra São Paulo, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Sheffield City Hall, New Wimbledon Theatre, Bristol Beacon, New Theatre Oxford and Birmingham Symphony Hall.
Defiantly old school, Tom puts the music first, with extraordinary attention to detail. In contrast to most of the modern day industry, Tom plays 100% live, with no backing tracks or lip-syncing at all. Indeed as Elton himself put it, "I think everyone who lip-syncs on stage in public when you pay like 75 quid to see them should be shot".
A truly "full circle" moment for Tom came on August 5th 2024. Nigel Olsson returned to the Troubadour in West Hollywood to play with him, nearly 54 years to the day of his legendary original performance at the same venue with Elton John himself. He has also worked with both Nigel and Davey Johnstone in the recording studio.
Aside from performing as "Sir El Tom", Tom has produced, written songs and recorded with the likes of The Stylistics, Shania Twain, Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones, Gene Simmons of KISS, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Bill Champlin, Jay Graydon, The Real Thing, Nathan East, Kenji Suzuki of Simply Red, Tower of Power and Steve Lukather of Toto.