Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin to phase to start with United kingdom visual artwork display | Artwork

They are a person of the most effective songwriting duos in pop audio, but whilst the musician Elton John is the final flamboyant showman, the lyricist Bernie Taupin has always most popular to be out of the highlight.

Having said that Taupin, who has been writing tunes with John for more than 50 % a century, will now choose centerstage – as a visual artist – with his to start with Uk exhibition using position following thirty day period at the Iconic Photographs gallery in central London.

In a uncommon interview, he instructed the Guardian: “I’m by no usually means Greta Garbo, but I couldn’t do the kind of factors that he [John] does. He’s likely one of the most identifiable figures in the planet and it’s tricky to dwell in that bubble. I couldn’t do that.

“He’s certainly exemplary at it, but I like to be capable to go to the sector on my own and go and get my espresso in the early morning. I keep very significantly to myself. I’m a extremely personal particular person. I really don’t enjoy movie star that much,” he extra.

Artwork has been a lifelong passion for Taupin and, if he experienced not bought fortunate as a songwriter, he may possibly properly have pursued it as a vocation. The son of a farmer from Lincolnshire, he achieved John in London in 1967, immediately after they just about every answered the exact record organization ad for songwriters. Taupin was 17 and could not produce melodies, and the singer and pianist John – then still known as Reginald Dwight – was 20 and could not generate lyrics.

They hit it off quickly, getting the closest of musical companions, the lyricism of Taupin’s words inspiring John’s melodies. Their a lot of typical songs incorporate Rocket Person, Crocodile Rock, Candle in the Wind, Sorry Looks to Be the Toughest Term, Goodbye Yellow Brick Highway and Daniel.

The duo have often prepared separately. Taupin states he has published dozens of new tracks, but they are in an early stage and he has still to present them to John: “Too early to say everything about that ideal now,” he adds.

Given that 1970, Taupin has lived generally in the US, wherever he has experienced exhibitions of his abstracts and combined-media pieces with observed objects, amongst other functions.

His exhibit at the Iconic Photographs gallery is inspired by his good friend, the photographer Terry O’Neill, whose shots captured the spirit of the pop and movie worlds of the 1960s and 1970s.

Named Taupin and O’Neill: Two Sides of the ’60s, the exhibition attributes 15 mixed-media paintings, every single a pop-art transforming of one particular of the photographer’s images of famed faces of the ten years, which includes Audrey Hepburn, John Lennon and Queen Elizabeth: “The 1960s were being pretty alive and vibrant,” states Taupin. “Times ended up changing fast and these ended up the individuals that have been on the cusp of that modify … They ended up the lights that burned brightest.”

Ahead of O’Neill’s dying in 2019, they experienced collaborated on the task, Taupin states. “[Terry was] quite eager … We didn’t seriously know how or when to present them. That’s why they obtained pushed into the background for a though.”

Discussing the reworked illustrations or photos, he stated: “The portrait of Paul Newman, for occasion, is a mix of acrylic spray paint and bubblegum wrappers … [With] the portrait of the Queen and Prince Philip, I took out the tapestry which is in the rear of them and stuffed it in with [a collage of] things that are wholly English [including Marmite and custard wrappers].

“The matter about this certain exhibition is it’s all carried out in fantastic great humour … Hopefully, [it’ll] make you smile.”

Even though Taupin speaks of emotion a “little gun-shy” about unveiling his function in the British isles – “I’m normally wary of how persons react to things” – he pays tribute to O’Neill: “Terry was these kinds of a dynamic photographer … When you did a picture session with Terry – ordinarily picture classes are laboured and time-consuming – he produced them pleasurable. It was like owning your photo taken by an East Conclude barrow boy. He received the incredibly finest out of the very best. You can see that entirely in his work.”

When Taupin is doing the job on his artwork, he listens to audio, everything from jazz to blues: “I’m not a lot of a pop person.”

He does not listen to songs that he co-wrote with John: “I imagine you have to be of a specified moi to sit all over listening to your personal.”