IT’S official. Rock superstar Elton John DID play at the Queens Hall, Narberth.

Elton John’s performance in the early 70s at the Queens Hall has gone down in local folklore, with some even disputing it had ever happened.

Even though there are a lot of verbal reminiscences, efforts to find physical evidence had previously drawn a blank.

That has all changed now.

The date was Saturday, June 13, 1970 and he took to the stage as ‘Chart and Top of the Pops star Elton John with his backing group former members of the Spencer Davis Group’.

Tickets were just 12 shillings and sixpence (60p) – compared to the £800 tickets on offer now for Elton John’s farewell tour.

The gig has been officially logged onto the concert database on the official Elton John website EltonJohn.com

Website editor John Higgins, who now has a copy of the gig poster, said: “Wow, well done, Queens Hall...this is superb! How unique to see the ‘former members of Spencer Davis Group’ on there!”

The Queens Hall search for evidence that Elton played in Narberth threw up some amazing memories.

Rob Jenkins of Llanelli was able to give the hall copies of gig posters, while the hall’s very own trustee Arthur Bates remembers being a steward at the gig.

“I remember thinking he was good,” he recalled.

And Robert Joseph of Giltar Grove Farm, Penally, was so taken with the experience that he wrote it down for posterity.

“I, along with half of Tenby, headed for Narberth. It was a lovely summer’s evening and the town was buzzing, every pub from the Angel and the Eagle, to the Farmers’ Arms was packed,” he said.

Robert recalls the magic of the gig: “Elton’s first words when he came on were: ‘Give me a few minutes the (bleep) piano is out of tune,’ as he was using the Queens Hall piano.

“He then proceeded to tune, cannibalise and mike up the piano, which had last been used for choirs and the WI and had never been played like this before.”

He added: “We were in the presence of a genius, a wonderful showman, and we watched in amazement as Elton played with his head and his feet, and sometimes with his hands, and brought the house down.”

The audience was treated to one of the first performances of Your Song, which went on to make Elton a global name.

“Incidentally this wasn’t Elton’s first visit to Pembrokeshire,” said Robert. “He came down a little while before, backing Long John Baldry at the Riverside Club, Haverfordwest.”