Booing, beer throwing and Liverpool won the cup!
Some key facts first - the ticket said doors open 7:30, no support. The European Cup final was on TV. Elvis is an enormous Liverpool FC fan who were in the final.
So here we are and at 8:10 the support band takes to the stage, plays a few songs and comments that they are such-and-such and were here while Elvis watches the football. They were a good little band and the crowd gave them a warm reception.
Then Liverpool got the football score back from 3-0 to 3-3 and there was 25 minutes of normal time left. Will he wait that long? Yes he did. Slow hand clapping between background music and the crowd of middle-aged nice people started to get annoyed.
Then full time came, the TV's went off and the band took to the stage to a bit of booing. Elvis went to the microphone and shouted "Norwich, I have only one thing to say to you - Let's Be Having You" - a comment made by the Norwich Football Club Director, celebrity cook Delia Smith, at a recent match. This was met with more booing and a pint of beer being thrown over Costello, who was startled and almost amused. So we were back in 1979 and it was brilliant. The beer thrower was hustled out by Security and Costello walked the stage, coming to the side and mouthing "Come on you F*%$&ing W*%^ers". The band was now electric and they were rattling through the set.
Half an hour later a rumble went through the crowd and a roadie came on from the side of the stage with his thumbs up, Liverpool had won the cup on penalties after extra time. This led to an impromptu version of You'll Never Walk Alone with the crowd singing along.
After two hours the set was finished. A blistering concert with no encores, but time was up as the venue had an 11:30 finish time.
I spoke with Pete Thomas after the gig and he commented that it was surreal playing as they could see the only TV from the stage and new the score as it happened. He agreed that it had been a very crisp set with a few "Muddy Waters moments" where he thought to himself "Hmm we seem to have missed a chorus and a few verses". I told Pete that it was really nice to meet him as I had seen him play often, the first time being in 1978, to which he commented "I think we played the same set tonight".
Lots of highlights in the music, but just a wonderful unrepeatable night. Great stuff.