The Elvis Costello Home Page

Bibliography: Articles

Review of concert from 2005-02-12: Bristol, Colston Hall - with the Imposters
Nick Ratcliffe

Bristol sees new song played

Two hours twenty five minutes with no encores. The band and EC were onstage the whole time. EC was in good voice. Mystery train was introduced as "A little song we learned today". It may appear again..... You'll see from the above that the set was drawn from many different albums from MAIT to the present day.

Highlights were "In the darkest place" leading into "Favourite Hour" and a slower than usual version of "WIWC#2". Also the closing "The Scarlet tide" sung off-mike and a spooky "I want you" dramatically lit in purple. More guitar changes than I care to think about, but no broken strings, and all the effects pedals seemed to work. An interesting Imposters take on "Our little angel", with good backing vocals from Davey on the chorus. It was a bit like hearing the Coward Brothers, with drums and piano. It was introduced with the evening's only bit of chat from EC, all about early gigs (with Alan Mayes?) playing at the lonely hearts club, catholic girls looking like Dana, except less sexy, sitting opposite fifteen sweater guys (like EC) and one on the end in a regimental blazer and a weak moustache trying to be Leslie Phillips. Not much talking between songs, - those from TDM got introduced, others mostly didn't. No suggestion that "There's a story in your voice" is the new single.

In Oliver's army, the three rivers (The Mersey and the Thames and the Tyne) remained unchanged. An opportunity missed.

The audience in the seated venue remained seated until Monkey to Man, then remained standing. The stalls were full but I couldn't see the circle. For "Hidden Charms" Elvis used a 150 dollar "antique" electric guitar with a label (price tag?) still on it. He sang into the pickups.

Clothes-wise, EC was in a dark suit with dark shirt and a blue tie with pink flowers on it and those silver pointed boots. Steve was in a jacket and tie with dark trousers. The jacket came off about twenty songs into the set. Davey was in a suit without a tie, and had his hair slicked back - no hat. Pete was in a dark T-shirt.

On now to Warwick later today......