Blog: “Elton John concert in Shrewsbury – June 2011”. When I saw this my first reaction was “Oh, no”, writes student blogger Liam Thomas, of Shrewsbury.

Why? Well, it’s the sort of music my mum likes, and it’s a bit embarrassing seeing her dancing round the house to it.

My image of Elton John has been shaped not by his music but by a DVD we watched at the end of the school year in one of my maths classes. It was 2D TV, a satirical animated comedy made up of different scenes involving different celebrities. Elton John had a ridiculously long limousine and was telling his driver to take him to his pool. When he arrived there the car wasn’t close enough, so Elton told the driver to go closer, so he did. By this time the limo was half off the cliff that was next to the pool. Elton got out of the car and it went plummeting over the edge. I laughed my socks off.

So, that’s my image of Elton John. I’ve been told that he makes music as well.

I do have to admit that in my first draft of this blog, I didn’t like him at all.

Then I looked into what he’s famous for – his music. I sat listening to him on Spotify and soon found my foot twitching up and down.

And then I started singing along, too.

What was happening to me?

I found songs that I knew and liked. But I didn’t realise until then that they were by Elton John. And there were some really early songs as well, good cover versions of Spirit in the Sky, In The Summertime and Signed, Sealed Delivered, to name a few.

As someone who’s 18, I do tend to prefer more established bands, not these new acts which seem to be manufactured.

If there’s one act that’s at the top of my “annoying bands list”, it’s JLS. They were on X Factor in 2008 and now seem more popular than the winner, Alexandra Burke. I think the only reason they are so successful is the fact that there’s loads of teenage girls who are in love with them.

Looking at my iPod, I’ve got music from Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and The Stranglers (I have to admit I started listening to these because of my mum), U2, Foo Fighters, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, The Monkees, and I’ve got music from a band called The Baseballs, who do Elvis style covers of new songs, which is pretty cool, and also Oasis, who bring back some brilliant memories of my end of school prom and all of us dancing on the stage to Wonderwall. It’s one of those songs that will stay with me for ever.

However, I think I will soon to be adding Elton John to my iPod.

I must confess, I’VE BEEN CONVERTED! He’s not as bad as I thought.

If it wasn’t for the cost of the tickets I’d now be looking at going to the concert, but on one ticket site the cheapest  price is £56.50 including booking fee, which on a student’s budget is a little steep. That does make me feel a little put out.

It would be good if we could put on gigs like they do in Spain. One of my teachers, who is Spanish, told us that back home they have big names doing concerts for the equivalent of about £15. He said he went to the U2 Joshua Tree tour for around this price.

I suppose I’ll have to settle with listening to Elton online and getting a blow by blow account of it from a friend who’s proudly got his tickets. He’s only 17, and has a huge variety of music that he likes, including Mr John.

I’ll leave you with something I didn’t know about Elton John: he used to be called Reginald Kenneth Dwight. I think it’s got quite a ring to it, but presumably he didn’t.