Interview "Costello can still be scary"
Sunday Telegraph, 2002-07-14
- Mathy McCabe

 

Dangerous man: Elvis Costello in Sydney Picture: Karin Catt

Costello can still be scary

By entertainment writer
KATHY McCABE

ELVIS Costello can still scare an audience more than 25 years after he first toured Australia as a punk rocker.

"We were a song away from blowing up the PA - we can scare the hell out of people and you have to have some fun," Costello said, grinning after his first Sydney concert last week.

Some of the songwriter's older fans did seem a little bemused by the ferocious rock show.

During the past decade, Costello has enjoyed myriad music forms - from Grammy award-winning ballads with Burt Bacharach to working with symphony orchestras and ballet companies.

His latest album, When I Was Cruel, has been heralded as the 47-year-old's return to rock.

"The next album with my name on it will be an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream which I recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios," Costello said.

"I realise that isn't going to interest all of the people, who like When I Was Cruel.

"But the critics are so behind the times because what people are listening to is much more varied."

Costello, who has become eligible for induction to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame in 2003, plans to return to Australia for a national tour in summer.