From a dive bar
to Carnegie Hall
Tom started playing to get sober in 2022. Three years later he had performed at Carnegie Hall and the Adelphi Theatre.
Tom Cridland
is Sir El Tom.
Tom is an Anglo-Portuguese musician from London. He is regarded as one of the world's best tribute acts to Elton John.
He started playing piano at 30, during the Covid-19 lockdowns. He was an alcoholic starting from scratch. He learned Elton John's catalogue song by song. He has not had a drink since.
His first performance was in January 2022 at the Carrollton Station, a juke joint in New Orleans. He then developed the show 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.
He puts the music first and plays 100% live, with no backing tracks or lip-syncing at all.
Tom has been to more than a hundred Elton John concerts as the guest of Nigel Olsson, Elton's drummer since 1969 and a close friend. Everything in the show comes from those nights: the lead vocal lines and harmonies, the piano sound, the band line up and instrumentation, and arrangements of songs taken from the tours they came from.
The costumes are recreations of the flamboyant signature outfits. The glasses are always a pair owned by nobody except Sir Elton and Sir El Tom.
"I think everyone who lip-syncs on stage in public when you pay like 75 quid to see them should be shot."
"Thank you for saving my life."
Elton John has been sober since 1990. Tom Cridland knew it when he sat down at a piano in lockdown. He was thirty, he had never played, and his own sobriety was on the line. There was only ever going to be one songbook on that piano.
He learned Elton's songs one at a time, and one at a time they gave him his life back. In 2023, at Elton's Oscars party in Los Angeles, the two met for the first time, and Tom told him exactly what his songs had done.
It is a story about starting from the first note and doing the work every day, and every room has someone who needs to hear it. Tom has given lectures and talks on his story at institutions and conferences such as UCLA, University of Texas at Austin, Palm Beach Atlantic University, University of Bristol, University of St Andrews, California State University Long Beach, University of Tulsa, Southampton University, Imperial College London, MODA, Pure London, Fortune Brainstorm and more.
Read in The Guardian →
EJAF Oscars Party, Los Angeles · 2023
The Troubadour, West Hollywood · 5 August 2024
Elton John Lineage
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.
Nigel Olsson has played the Troubadour twice. Once with Elton in August 1970, once with Tom in August 2024.
In August 1970, Nigel played the legendary American debut of the Elton John Band at The Troubadour in West Hollywood. On August 5th 2024, nearly 54 years to the day, Nigel returned to that same stage to perform with Sir El Tom.
Nigel, still Sir Elton's drummer today, has since joined Tom onstage at Capitólio in Lisbon and The Belasco in Los Angeles, and recorded with him in the studio.
Every American state.
Theatres, amphitheatres,
arenas and stadiums worldwide.
- Carnegie Hall
- Adelphi Theatre
- Teatro Tivoli
- Casino Estoril
- Qualistage
- The Troubadour
- McKelligon Canyon Amphitheatre
- Théâtre du Gymnase Marie Bell
- Emerson Colonial Theatre
- The Granada Theatre
- 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
- Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts
- Attucks Theatre
- Polk Theatre
- Poncan Theatre
- State Theatre of Ithaca
- Royal Oak Music Theatre
- Kirkland Performance Center
- Bank of America Performing Arts Center
- Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center
- Paramount Theatre
- Midwest Trust Center
- Macomb Center for the Performing Arts
- F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre
- Le Petit Theatre
- Miniaci Performing Arts Center
- Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall
- Toronto Opera House
- Teatro Acacia
- Alaska Center for the Performing Arts
- Superbock Arena
- Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
- Sheffield City Hall
- New Wimbledon Theatre
- Bristol Beacon
- New Theatre Oxford
- Birmingham Symphony Hall
- Vivo Rio
- Teatro Positivo
- Ulysses Centro de Convenções
- Vibra São Paulo
- Teatro San Gabriel
- Kursaal
- Gemeinschaftshaus Langwasser
@sireltom
Tom is a composer and producer in his own right, and has recorded original music with the likes of Shania Twain, Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones, Kenji Suzuki of Simply Red and Bill Champlin of Chicago.
He has worked at studios such as at Abbey Road, Metropolis, Sunset Sound and The Village.
Tom interviews guests and friends on his Greatest Music of All Time podcast.
SLO ReviewRead the full review →“Rejoice. Tribute band music, which has been going through a rather uneventful, overly-saturated period lately, finally has a legitimate star.”
“He's Tom Cridland, a 33-year-old Englishman whose Central Coast debut at the Performing Arts Center SLO was, in almost every way, magnificent.”
What they're saying.
“From first piano note in late 2020 to performing a concert in front of 1,500 people at McKelligon Canyon Amphitheatre in Texas in 2023”
— The Guardian“Tom Cridland has made it his career to play the songs of Elton John”
— KCRW“Learning to play the piano — especially Elton John's music — helped him overcome a life-threatening drinking problem”
— Men's Health“Learned piano in lockdown and now gigs around the world in tribute to his idol”
— Daily Mirror“It was learning the piano and all Elton's songs that kept him sober and lead to a successful new career as a tribute act”
— BBC“Tours the world as an Elton tribute act”
— Daily Express“Cridland got to meet his idol at the star's buzzy Oscar party”
— New York Post“I love Tom and Deborah Cridland”
— Nigel Olsson“Olsson — who is still Sir Elton's drummer today — took to the stage at the Troubadour to perform with Elton tribute act”
— Virgin Radio