Sir Elton John sure knows how to brighten up people’s commute to work. On the 4th of February 2016 he randomly surprised the people of St. Pancras international station with a wonderful performance using a piano especially placed there for his performance on that day.
Sir Elton, at the end of his performance, signed the piano with a note saying, “It’s a gift. Love, Elton John.” The crowd was stunned, most of them taking a very valuable memory and video home with them that day. The musical superstar donated the piano to London’s St Pancras station to coincide with the release of his 30th studio album, “Wonderful Crazy Night”.
After his performance, Sir Elton posted on his Instagram account, “Surprise!! I popped into St Pancras International to christen the Yamaha piano which I donated to the station. Now everyone can have a play.”
The public piano has since been played by many different people including other superstars, superstars in the making, and very talented passers-by.
Jools Holland was one of the first notable musicians to try out the Piano. Performing in September 2016, he played the piano before announcing he would be releasing a new instrumental piano album.
Jools Holland wasn’t the last superstar to shoot across the international station to perform on Sir Elton’s public piano. The brilliant vocalist and pianist John Legend had a go on it too. Performing a wonderful version of “All Of Me” for commuters back in 2017. It’s the piano that keeps on giving.
This is exactly what Sir Elton would have wanted and why he placed this piano in the international station. There have been many public recordings of passers-by performing on the piano too. A brilliant young musician called “Cole Lam” played the Queen classic “Bohemian Rhapsody” attracting a large crowd at the station. His video has received over 32 million views on YouTube.
There is a long list of wonderful talents that have walked passed and blessed this piano with their skill. Another one on the list is a Pianist that goes by the name of “David Pianosound”. David loves performing in public, so when he spotted the piano he sat down and played a magnificent cover of Pirates Of The Caribbean mashed up with the Game Of Thrones opening music.
There has even been a piano battle, featuring talented pianists Brendan Kavanagh and Terry miles playing “Boogie Woogie”. Both Brendan and Terry have played Elton’s piano a few times with more than one performance video uploaded to YouTube.