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When Elton John rose to stardom in the ’70s, there was a little fan who was developing his own passion for music and was dying to meet him; his half-brother, Geoff Dwight.
And that meeting came when Geoff was five and Sir Elton was 25, in Liverpool, where Elton treated his estranged family to backstage VIP treatment at one of his shows.
Little else came of it. With a pair of mothers who didn’t get along and a 20-year age gap, it’s no surprise half-siblings aren’t closer.
Their lives couldn’t be further from each other now. While Elton spends his days working closely with charities close to his heart, walking red carpets and attending royal weddings, Geoff lives from day to day in an alternative community in Ruthin, North Wales.
He faced Llandudno Magistrate Court yesterday where he was fined £120 after he was found to be in possession of magic mushrooms.
Geoff Dwight (pictured), 56, from Borthyn, Ruthin, North Wales, pleaded guilty yesterday to possessing ‘magic mushrooms’ after they were found at his home in December 2021.
Geoff Dwight (circled for seven years) has hardly been in contact with his famous half-brother Elton (right). In the photo with his father and his brothers in 1973.
Elton spends his days working closely with charities close to his heart, walking red carpets and attending royal weddings.
Geoff was self-employed and earned around £6,000 a year, but his income dropped to zero last year after police confiscated his phone and computer.
It’s unclear what he was doing for work, but over the years he told the Daily Mail about the odd jobs he took to survive and feed his family.
He leads an alternative lifestyle in the picturesque Clwyd Valley, making harps and yurts, as well as organizing music festivals.
Once money was so tight that he rented his house and built a garden shed to live in for a year, worshiping Hare Krishna and living on vegetables donated by friends.
Geoff is happy with the life he leads. In 2010, he said that he would rather “be Geoff Dwight than Elton John”, adding that he had “all the riches” he could want.
In 2021, Geoff was fined £200 for breaking coronavirus rules. Pictured: Outside his garden shed
Once money was so tight that he rented his house and built a garden shed to live in for a year, worshiping Hare Krishna and living on vegetables donated by friends.
But as a teenager, he initially seemed poised to emulate his brother’s smash hit.
He loved music, mostly the guitar, and got an academic scholarship to an independent school, but dropped out before graduating and mixed with the wrong crowd.
One bad decision led to another, and at 18, Geoff received a four-year sentence for a botched robbery.
Geoff ended up in court again in 2021, when he was fined £200 after breaking coronavirus rules by going to an illegal rave with more than 200 revelers in the Welsh countryside.
At the time, he insisted that the ‘Blackpearl’ event near Llandrillo was a private spiritual gathering that he had attended for many years.
His most recent offense dates back to December 2021, but it only made it to court this week.
At his appearance before Llandudno Magistrate Court, Dwight was fined £120 and ordered to pay costs of £119.
With a pitchfork slung over his shoulder as he made his way to court, Geoff pleaded guilty to possessing the Class A drugs at his home. He was fined £120 and ordered to pay £119 in costs.
His defense lawyer, Nia Dawson, told the court: “A small amount of fungus was found on his premises. He had forgotten they were there. They are against the law.
Geoff said that his trident was a ‘religious’ pole representing Sheba and Britannia. He was not allowed inside the building. He didn’t talk about the famous brother of his.
And while it’s true that Geoff and Sir Elton have led very different lives and are unlikely siblings, Geoff’s partner Karen told The Daily Mail in 2010 that there is one thing they have in common; music.
“Musical talent runs through this family,” he said in the interview.
Sir Elton has never shied away from opening up about his rocky relationship with his father, and some of his most heartbreaking childhood memories were documented in his biopic, Rocketman.
Dwight criticized Rocketman, the biopic starring Taron Egerton (right) as Elton John, saying his father (played by Steven Mackintosh, left) was portrayed as “cold.”
Geoff added: ‘Our father had his own swing band and our grandfather was a champion bugle player. And you should listen to our brother Stan on the piano – he is the true musical master of the family.
“He played one of Elton’s songs once, I think it was Your Song, the best he ever did, and it was brilliant. You could put them back to back and you wouldn’t know the difference.
But his taste in music is different. Geoff said at the time that Sir Elton’s music was “not exactly his cup of tea”, adding that he only listened to his brother’s music when it was inevitably heard in a grocery store or local pub. .
“I don’t have bad feelings towards Elton,” he said in a follow-up interview in 2019. “Far from it. I love him, but our paths have gone in different directions.
His recollection of interactions with the star also changed over time.
Geoff Dwight at his home in Ruthin Denbighshire. Geoff is happy with the life he leads. In 2010, he said that he would rather “be Geoff Dwight than Elton John”, adding that he had “all the riches” he could want.
In the same interview, he recalled that first meeting with his half-brother in 2010, detailing the letters and Christmas cards Sir Elton sent his father and memories of the star turning up to play football with his brothers whenever he was in town. the area. bringing with him gifts for the children.
In a later interview, he said that Sir Elton visited him only once and arrived in a cream-coloured Rolls-Royce driven by a chauffeur.
They spoke once in recent years, according to Geoff, when his father Stanley died.
Sir Elton had a well-documented strained relationship with his father, who abandoned Sir Elton and his mother when he was 14 years old.
Pictured: Sir Elton in 2019
Geoff remembers going through “the gibberish” of tracking Sir Elton through his label and management, hoping to arrange a reunion for father and son at Stanley’s deathbed.
It didn’t happen.
Sir Elton never attended his father’s funeral, although Geoff claims he was invited.
Sir Elton has never shied away from opening up about his rocky relationship with his father, and some of his most heartbreaking childhood memories were documented in his biopic, Rocketman.
Geoff sees things differently, despite not even being born during most of Sir Elton’s recollection. He said: “My dad loved Elton very much, no matter what Elton had said about him, and he never got mad at him, and he never, ever uttered a word against him.”