After listening to those Los Angeles gigs, I'm sure that you want to hear Elton John in much better voice! Here's a gig that I'm sure will be well-liked by people: Birmingham 1985! This fantastic show is a highlight of the tour (especially the UK leg), and was originally compared with 12/14 (the famous Wembley show from the tour), months back. However, this is an upgraded source (my original source was more distant, hissy, and distorted), and there are many more recordings from the tour that are in the running for the best gigs! I still stand by my original statement of "this is one of the best gigs from the tour:" We have every band member sounding energetic, and playing to a very enthusiastic crowd! This recording is pretty good quality (though some instruments distort/overpower the mix), and it's almost 100% complete (a few cuts between songs)!

Elton's voice is in superb shape (as usual for this time period), and offers excellent performances of "One Horse Town," "Better Off Dead," "Burn Down The Mission," "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" (which was considered the best version ever--before all the mass of shows got into the hands of myself and my bootlegging friends), "The Bitch Is Back," "Restless" (that sounds like an 1984 version in spots), "Passengers" (despite flubbing the words), "Bennie And The Jets," "Shoot Down The Moon," "This Town," "Nikita" (very clean embellishments), "I'm Still Standing" (one of the best versions on the tour), "Wrap Her Up," "Candle In The Wind," "Kiss The Bride" (despite not knowing the words in the beginning), and "Can I Get A Witness!"

Note: Elton has fun during the band introduction ("Nice Jacket Fred," and talks about Ray Cooper)!

- Greg, GregsynthWizard