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Elvis Costello
Carré, Amsterdam
Richard Groothuizen
Nov. 25, 1984
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November 25th 1984, a date in history as Bob Geldof records his single with Band Aid. 200 miles east, Elvis performs his first solo show in Holland. This was an eagerly awaited concert which sold out in two days.
As such talents as John Hiatt, John Cale and Billy Bragg had done before him, Elvis Costello proved that it is possible to present an acceptable live show without a band. With a show of two and a half hours Elvis maintained the attention of a somewhat wary audience who it seemed didn't know what to expect.
The audience enjoyed the support set by T Bone Burnett, but it was not until the third number of his set that Elvis managed to break the ice. Then he relaxed and made contact with the audience who were now listening carefully to the lyrics of his songs and responding to his very articulate wordplays which could now be understood — a change from the concerts with the Attractions! The mood changed from vitriolic to romantic, from uptempo songs to slow ballads and from tight to loose. Elvis created an extra tension with songs such as "Luxembourg," "Love Field" and "Inch by Inch" and even new songs were greeted favourably.
Costello enjoyed the show (as he told me afterwards — yes I finally met him) and rewarded us by playing over 40 songs including the new "Suffering Face" and "Having It All," and some covers including Los Lobos' "A Matter of Time," "Image of Me" by the Flying Burrito Brothers, "Smiling Shore" from June Tabor's Abyssinians LP and Richard Thompson's "End of the Rainbow."
This was a great event. It's only a shame that not one photograph has emerged from this show but, as Nick Lowe sang in "So It Goes," "Security's so tight tonight!"
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Elvis Costello
National Stadium, Dublin
John Foyle
Nov. 17, 1984
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Like the September visit, the crowd arrived in from a cold rainy day. T Bone hit the stage at around eight. Most of his material was familiar to us as his Proof Through the Night LP has been one of the most popular airplay records on local radio over the last year. A very professional performance, emphasised by the fact that when a string broke during "Ridiculous Man" he launched into an a capella version of "King of the Road."
This set ended at 8.45, to be followed by Elvis ten minutes later, who promptly belted into "Home Truth." It immediately became obvious that we, the audience, were expected to behave as if we were attending some kind of classical concert. However this afforded Elvis to carry on a kind of conversation with us. A reference to Napoleon Solo before "Men Called Uncle" and a joke about his "Debussy-ous" piano style before "Shot With His Own Gun" (the first number at the piano).
A persistent female shouting for "I'm Your Toy" finally resulted in Elvis delivering a really emotional interpretation of the song, while "Worthless Thing" was preceded by a long monologue about "a guy with a name like mine." The message of the song was emphasised much better than the version on Goodbye Cruel World. Switching to keyboards, he turned in a great version of "Motel Matches" but he never seemed completely happy with this instrument as he kept making gestures to sound personnel off-stage. Another highlight of the main set was his performance of "Luxembourg" which bettered any reading of the lyric sheet.
The first encore included a new song called "Your Suffering Face." This made charmingly depressing listening. I can't remember the words, but they struck me as one of his most bitter songs ever. This part of the show concluded with "Alison" featuring the lyric change ("the stupid things I say") and the extra verse (he really should release a live version of this song) as well as the refrain from Hank Williams' "You Win Again" — very dramatically done.
The second encore was the "Coward Brothers Show." They introduced themselves as being from Tennessee, Yugoslavia (not Albania as later reported). Reference was made to this being a re-union tour "which was not worried by the current tour by those other brothers that have re-united" (the Everlys). They performed the "San Francisco" medley, and by this time the audience was on its feet and crowding up against the stage front.
The third encore was designed to wind us down as El blended together some very doom-laden songs. "Shipbuilding" ended with a few new lines "All you get are a bunch of flowers on the grave / And a box for the baby," while "Peace in Our Time" featured "why did they have to elect him again" and "lighting a bonfire on every hilltop in Ireland."
The concert finished at around 10.55, and though great, it did not quite hit the pleasure point with the same impact as the Elvis Costello and the Attractions gig a few weeks earlier.
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Elvis Costello
Musikhalle, Hamburg
Barry Richards
Nov. 28, 1984
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Playing in the plush surroundings of the small hall of the Hamburg Musikhalle, a venue normally associated with classical music, Elvis treated the few hundred faithful to close on two and a half hours of splendid music.
After a fine set by T Bone Burnett which was well received by an enthusiastic crowd, Elvis strolled on leisurely and with a brisk version of "Girls Talk" started a set which took in four encores and forty-one songs and included a radically shortened version of "Instant Karma" which he performed twice at the piano.
After six songs on acoustic guitar, taking in a superb version of "Men Called Uncle," Elvis switched to piano for a poignant "Almost Blue" followed by "I Can't Stand Up" and a chilling "Pills and Soap." He then strapped on an electric guitar for a superb "Charm School" and "Kid About It." Jerry Dammers' "Girlfriend" was also enjoyed immensely by the appreciative crowd and when Elvis left the stage for the first time after an impressive stint at the keyboards, which culminated with "Riot Act," most of the evening's expected the obligatory one encore to end the entertainment.
How wrong they were! It seemed as though Elvis wanted to go on forever, encoring for nearly one and a half hours and introducing several new songs in the process. Bleak though the contents of the new material undoubtedly were, there was little to spoil the mood and good humour of the evening, especially when T Bone Burnett joined E.C. on stage for the Coward Brothers Revival Tour. The dynamic duo ran through six tunes, during which Elvis went to great lengths to illustrate what a mean guitar picker he is!
Elvis closed the show with a set which featured "Inch By Inch," "Shipbuilding" "Home Truth," "Drowning Man," "Instant Karma" and finally "Peace in Our Time" which included a reference to the recent US presidential election.
It was great to see Elvis in such fine form. The singing was outstanding, the playing was sensitive and the jokes weren't bad either! A memorable evening.
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Elvis Costello
Palladium, Geneva
Dominic Ferry
Nov. 23, 1984
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The room is full. T Bone Burnett comes on stage, and plays piano, then he turns around, the piano continues to play while he's holding his hands on his back and does some other funny motions. He leaves the piano while it continues to play, the audience understands the joke and laughs. T Bone grabs his guitar and plays a few tunes. The audience is not too happy with him and whistles and boos. After 20 minutes or so T Bone leaves. The room turns to black. Impatiently the crowd awaits Elvis Costello.
Suddenly Elvis Costello walks on stage and the crowd gets exited, but some expected him with his band, so they start arguing, this is peaking during the 6th song ("Kid About It") when Elvis has to interrupt his song and sharply says: "Will you please shut your mouth. It's no use coming here to spend your money to argue." This seems the end of the incident, but the audience is also getting worried about the rest of the concert. Another incident follows, Elvis really gets sarcastic! "Now I'm going to perform the last song of Afrika Bambaataa so that the bastards who came here to dance will be happy."
Although musically the concert is OK, the damage is done, no ballads or slow songs are performed anymore (a situation that can be compared with Zwolle (Netherlands) April 25th, 1982).
After some abusive talk from some "fans" Elvis seems furious and throws his plectrum in the crowd, who are not amused. He leaves his acoustic guitar and returns with his electric Fender guitar and his black glasses (he started the show with his normal transparent glass spectacles) and plays, then changes for the piano.
Elvis decides to try to sing ballads in this first encore, a good move as the slower songs seems to soften the audience, a successful change! He leaves, to return with T Bone Burnett, although most of the audience is pleased the minor part continues to interrupt the show. A person even throws a glass of wine at Elvis. He stops and "invites" the guy to come onstage, instead of doing so he escapes with his girlfriend.
Afterwards Elvis says: "this incident is the first one I can recall in my eight-year career. A room with no seats, if I had known that before, I would have cancelled the concert, of course people couldn't sit down and listen!"
Anyway, back to the show: Elvis and T Bone perform "Baby's In Black" and "San Fransisco." Kindly, the audience got quiet. They leave the stage half-heartedly — Goodbye Cruel World! 28 songs and that's it.
Backstage I asked Elvis: "What do you think of the Swiss?
He replied to me: "You know what they say in The Third Man: 'In Italy for 30 years they killed the Borgias, they had a civil war, tenors and you were killed for nothing, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance, whereas in Switzerland, they practised brotherhood, they knew peace and democracy for 500 years and they produced a small cuckoo clock'." Mr. Revenge has spoken...
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Elvis Costello
Konserthus, Stockholm
Peter Lundström
Nov. 30, 1984
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Elvis' second solo visit in Sweden (the first being in September 1977 where he played at the Västervik Folkfestival) was a big event. The opening time was set to 7.30 pm, and the show started around 7.45 when T Bone Burnette entered the stage. The whole event didn't stop until 11.00 and included:
1.) around 10 songs by T Bone Burnett,
2.) the main act, Elvis performed 20 songs (solo) with three guitars, one grand piano and an electric piano,
3.) 1st encore: Elvis played six songs,
4.) 2nd encore: The Coward Brothers (Elvis and T Bone), three songs,
5.) 3rd encore: Elvis only, six songs.
Elvis entered the stage in some red velvet jacket and immediately went into "Girl's Talk." He stuck to well-known numbers for most of the main act; he was in a good mood and did a lot of talking between the songs.
Some short notes from the act:
— Elvis introduced his special guests "Elvis Costello and his Guitar Army" (although there were not more than three this time)
— After the guitar solo in "Charm School" he said "that's noise infernal" and repeated the solo.
— He performed a different "Luxembourg" with sparse accompaniment on acoustic guitar.
— Before "Worthless thing" he talked about Elvis Presley: "They chopped off his bollocks and sent him to Hawaii, they put him into movies and tried to make him as big as Mickey Mouse."
The first encore featured three songs I haven't heard before, the first one was introduced as a song from a film.
The second encore was a very relaxed set with T Bone and Elvis talking a lot and joking about The Coward Brothers reunion tour. "People complain about these reunion tours, they just play a lot of old hits, though our songwriters couldn't come up with anything new!"
So we heard a couple of old hits, the most exceptional being "San Francisco" ("People in motion / People in the ocean...").
When Elvis ran onstage for the third and final encore someone in the audience called for T Bone. Elvis replied "No, he's taller than me." This last set contained a great "Inch by Inch," with Elvis making riffs On the guitar and getting the audience singing along in the chorus. He also served us his "new classics": "Shipbuilding" and "Peace In Our Time."
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Elvis Costello
Royal Festival Hall, London
Ian R. Cheetham
Dec. 3, 1984
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Reviewing this concert was always going to be a difficult task. And as it is now some weeks after the event and most of you will be familiar with at least one review (music papers, UK national newspapers, etc), all I am attempting to do is put it into some sort of perspective.
The setting of the Royal Festival Hall was incredibly grand, the whole idea of such a solo venture undoubtedly brave, in fact this was a great concert, but...
Yes, I have some reservations, shared by some of you, dismissed by others. For example — the Festival Hall is a beautiful auditorium, well suited to this kind of show but as one person wrote "it seemed as if the true Costello fans were seated at the back (or ticketless — ed) while the guests and celebrities were in the front." And while no one will argue about Elvis' bravery in undertaking such a venture opinions vary about the show itself.
Personally, I can't go along with the over the top reviews of "best concert of the year" or those of you who said it was the best concert you've ever attended. Basically this is because I prefer the full blooded music and dancing shows with the Attractions, but for other reasons,which I'll try and explain, as well.
Although the new versions improved some of the songs (e.g. "Luxembourg"), and while it was nice to here some of the lesser performed songs ("Men Called Uncle," "Riot Act"), covers (including "Image of Me," "I'll Make It All Up To You" and "Smiling Shore") and new songs, the concert taken as a whole did seem to lack variation. Nearly two and a half hours of one man, one voice and one instrument is an awfully long time.
Perhaps because it was a "variation" in the proceedings was why I thought the Coward Brothers spot was the highlight of the evening. Although no review of this show would be complete without mentioning "Alison," "Kid About It," "Charm School" and "Shipbuilding."
A further example of differing views is that many reviews cited the fact that many of Costello's lyrics could be heard in concert for the first time, demonstrating their (political) content, wordplays and puns, as the major success of the concert. But stripping the songs bare meant that the musical subtleties were missing, and while I can see the benefit for some people, most of us EC devotees know the words anyway.
In the end it all boils down to personal preferences in the presentation of songs as I'm sure no one will dispute that this show was a total success. I did enjoy this concert, it's just that, whereas I could go to three or four shows from one tour with the Attractions and be equally impressed with each, one solo show was enough for me.
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ECIS, No. 19, February 1985
Includes 1984 Solo Tour concert reviews:
Richard Groothuizen reviews November 25, 1984, Theater Carré, Amsterdam.
John Foyle reviews November 17, 1984, National Stadium, Dublin.
Barry Richards reviews November 28, 1984, Musikhalle, Hamburg.
Dominic Ferry reviews November 1984, Palladium, Geneva, Switzerland.
Peter Lundström reviews November 30, 1984, Konserthuset, Stockholm.
Ian R. Cheetham reviews December 3, 1984, Royal Festival Hall, London.
Plus many more articles on Elvis Costello.
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Back page and cover.
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