Lithium Magazine

by Lisa McDonald (Live Music Head)

http://www.elviscostello.com/

Country music played overhead in the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts on what would have been June Carter Cash’s 82nd birthday. And did you know that singer-songwriter Elvis Costello (described by one critic as a “pop encyclopedia") is also an avid fan of country music, citing George Jones as his favourite country singer? Costello even released Almost Blue in 1981, an album of country covers by the likes of Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, and Gram Parsons. The album is a tribute to the music he grew up listening to.

Waiting for Costello and his band mates to make their appearance on the Sony stage, I noticed the backdrop of test pattern colour bars on a giant TV screen. There was also a giant spinning wheel at one end of the stage with a number of songs from Costello’s vast musical repertoire labelled on it (making for a spontaneous set list when contestants chosen from the audience got the chance to spin it), and a cage for go-go dancers was on the other end; all part of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook show which began when the house lights went down at 8:09pm. The extravaganza was part game show, part lounge act, and part vaudevillian revue.

Costello appeared in his customary grey suit, Buddy Holly-style glasses and grey gangster hat, with the Imposters pulling up the rear; drummer Pete Thomas, keyboardist Steve Nieve and bassist Davey Faragher. And the sex-pot who took over the go-go cage was dressed appropriately in an eye-catching black mini dress and hot pink boots up to the knees. The band opened with ‘I Hope You're Happy Now’ from the 1986 album Blood & Chocolate, and proceeded to play ‘Heart Of The City’, ‘Mystery Dance’ and ‘Uncomplicated’ without pause. The swirling circus-sound of the Nieve keys came from, what I was later told, a Leslie speaker cabinet. And the voice? Well, the voice was like listening to a life-long friend, so ingrained in popular culture it is.

Discarding the Fedora to don a black top hat and Fred Astaire cane, Elvis spoke with a charming British accent as he called out for a contestant, and glided a searchlight over the crowd. A sexy Vanna White-type hostess in skin-tight rainbow-coloured bell-bottoms accompanied a female fan by the name of Simonie to the stage for the first spin of the night. With Costello standing alongside her just like Bob Barker, the vegetarian ex-host of the Price is Right (Costello gave up meat too by the way), the pointer stopped at ‘Every Day I Write the Book’, the second track from the 1983 album Punch the Clock. Simonie took a seat on a stool alongside the Lesley (also used as a makeshift bar with a b&w television placed atop it), while the Imposters and Elvis got right down to it. The drummer bashed on a rainbow-coloured kit, as I remembered the eighties video made for this great song’s premise of domestic hell, starring the look-a-likes of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

Mary was the name of the second contestant and her spin had the arrow pointed directly at ‘Joanna’. Elvis proceeded to sing strutting to and fro the stage, guitar-less, with one hand-held mic, and the other in his pocket, just like Sinatra. Venturing into the audience, Costello walked straight past me and didn’t return to the stage until he fetched a couple whom he brought up to spin a double shot of ‘Turpentine (Momofuku, 2008’), and ‘Long Honeymoon’ from the Imperial Bedroom of 1982. While the band got down to playing them, the couple were delighted to take a seat at the bar while Mary danced in the cage.

Scanning the crowd, the demographic appeared to be mostly that of Costello’s age group, but the Spectacular Spinning Songbook show is good for the whole family; fun-filled, interactive, and joyful. And the concept and design of the production was perfect in a theatre setting such as the Sony. A stagehand even came out to give Mary a couple of hand-held percussion.

A fine guitarist who showed off his stuff using many different axes, the singer-songwriter who came to prominence via the punk-New Wave genre of the seventies, proved he can also move you by crooning a ballad or two. And immediately after playing the double spin, Mr Costello went back to 1977 to tell ‘Alison’, “my aim is true”. Mary left the stage, and the couple at the bar moved to the cage for a slow dance.

On an August day back in 1954, Declan Patrick MacManus was born in London, England. Ten years later, MacManus made a broadcast recording with his father, a jazz trumpeter that won a silver award at the International Advertising Festival. His father wrote and sang the jingle while the boy provided backing vocals. After finishing high school, MacManus formed his first band. And while he wrote songs and looked for a recording contract, supported himself by working as a data entry clerk and computer operator. He was soon signed to an indie label called Stiff Records where it was suggested he change his name. Combining the first name of the King of Rock and Roll and his mother's maiden name, the first single, ‘Less than Zero’, was released on Stiff in March of 1977 by the newly christened, Elvis Costello. Two months later, Costello released his debut album, My Aim Is True. Following that, Costello put together The Attractions, consisting of Steve Nieve (piano), Bruce Thomas (bass guitar), and Pete Thomas (drums). Before the year was out, the band appeared on Saturday Night Live where Elvis surprised the crew by abruptly stopping ‘Less than Zero’ mid-intro, and launching ‘Radio Radio’ instead.

A tour of North America saw Live at the El Mocambo, a Canadian recording made at Toronto’s very own rock club on Spadina Ave, also known for hosting and recording a surprise gig by the Rolling Stones. In 1979, Costello released his third LP, Armed Forces which has the opening track ‘Accidents Will Happen’ (a song that Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation named a two-part episode after in 2004). The album also saw the song ‘Oliver's Army’ go straight to #2 in the UK. Elvis Costello’s musical career was well underway, yet the only 1980 appearance he made in North America was at the Heatwave Festival, again in Toronto, Ontario.

1983 saw the release of Punch the Clock, which garnered Costello his first Top 40 hit in the U.S. But despite the success, tensions within the band had Costello announcing the break-up of the group in 1984. Goodbye Cruel World was their last release. In 1989, Costello signed a new contract with Warner Bros, and released Spike. This album contained the hit ‘Veronica', Costello’s biggest single in the United States of America, and one of several that he’s co-written with Paul McCartney.

The early nineties saw Costello experimenting with instrumental, orchestral, and classical music as well as movie soundtracks (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me for one). Before the end of the decade, a Greatest Hits record was released, another contract signed with Polygram/Universal, and he worked and performed with Burt Bacharach.

The 2000s saw Elvis Costello appear in an opera, as well as appear as a folk singer at Cafe Nervosa in the television sitcom, Frasier. He wrote the music for a ballet in 2001, and also formed The Imposters (with the same members as the Attractions, but with Davey Faragher replacing Bruce Thomas on bass). In 2003, Costello performed The Clash’s London Calling at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony with Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt and David Grohl to honour the late Joe Strummer. That same year, Elvis Costello & The Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Three times divorced, Costello is currently married to Canadian jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall, and his wife gave birth to twin sons in 2006. In 2008, Declan McManus was awarded the Doctor of Music, an honorary degree from the University of Liverpool, and then there’s Spectacle... the UK-Canadian television program that features performances, as well as the talents of Elvis Costello as an interviewer of other musicians and artists. Elton John is the executive producer of the series, which aired 19 episodes over two seasons. In 2010, Costello released an album produced by T Bone Burnett called National Ransom, featuring guest musicians Vince Gill, Marc Ribot, Buddy Miller, and Leon Russell. The curriculum vitae of Elvis Costello to date is so impressive and so extensive, the lengthy summary at his Wikipedia page alone will make the head spin like the giant wheel. And from the Toronto stage, Costello was heard saying... “We may be here for a while, because I’ve written a lot of songs!”

‘I Want You’ was the next one the pointer landed on when Kayley took her turn at the wheel. It’s another one from Blood & Chocolate, and it sounded awesome even piped in to the ladies room, where I suddenly found myself during the number. ‘Shabby Doll’ came after that, also from the Imperial Bedroom, followed by an enthusiastic roar rising from the Sony seats when Kimberly (who “rainbow pants” brought down from the balcony), spun the pointer to ‘Accidents Will Happen’. As this song was played, a 3-way dance got underway in the cage between pink boots, Kimberly, and the one wearing the rainbow bell-bottoms. It was also noted that bassist Davey Faragher wears a gangster-style hat, too.

Norma and Nicki were brought up from the front row, and their double spin got us Living in Paradise, and a jackpot of Girl. Costello played four for the ladies, including the one recorded by The Beatles for Rubber Soul. A pin drop could be heard at moments during the show, particularly for ‘Shipbuilding’, a song Elvis wrote in 1982 during the Falklands War. At the song’s end, Costello voiced a plea to those in power to bring all our soldiers home, now. The song was also the show’s finale. But the standing ovation was short as Elvis wasted no time returning to the stage for a 3-song acoustic solo encore, dressed in plaid suit jacket and white hat. And after that, the entire band returned for another encore of eight more songs!

It was already well past the two-hour mark when many from the crowd rushed down and formed a dance party on stage. So I’ll say it again, the show was fun-filled, interactive, and joyous! ‘Pump it Up’, from This Year’s Model was the most rousing of the encore songs, and it rocked, really rocked. So having said that, you’d think they’d surely be done after that one… but no, Costello kept it going by segueing Pump into Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’! Two more songs were performed before they were actually done, including one from ‘National Ransom’. And then the house lights came up to great applause.

Now, I may be a little disappointed that I didn’t get to hear the great drum opening and groovy bass playing of ‘Watching the Detectives’, this writer’s favourite Elvis Costello song (a song with a reggae beat that grabs my complete attention from the get-go), but I must say, the Live Nation presentation of the 2011 touring version of Elvis Costello and the Imposters with their Spectacular Spinning Songbook is a show definitely worth seeing. Be sure to catch one in a city near you.