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Elvis Costello and The Attractions' concert at Dublin Stadium last Wednesday was a solid gold treat. Starting off with their rockabillied version of Hank Williams; song "Why Don't You Love Me Like You Used To Do," El and the chaps gave us two hours of magical music and some twenty-one songs, including the debut of unrecorded numbers like "Tears Before Bedtime" and "Kid About It"; fine stuff.
Sometimes there's that element off Costello that people used to describe Sinatra: "A Torch Singer," singing with his guitar around his neck, but not playing it, acting out the emotions of the songs with his hands and vocal expressions. After all, El has recorded the Rodgers and Hart classic "My Funny Valentine."
Elvis Costello: A True Star.
El was kind enough to record an hour long special with me — chatting about not only his own music but also choosing fave trax by other artists too. Tho' I say it m'self, it's a programme not to be missed when it's broadcast on RTE Radio 2 on February 10th.
El sure knows his music. At the Macroom Festival last summer, he leaned over to Paul Brady and said "You used to be in Planxty didn't you?"
Last Wednesday Philomena Begley cropped up in Costello's after-show conversation, and an extraordinary fact emerged as Willie O'Reilly was driving Elvis, The Attractions keyboard player Steve Nieve, his security man Paddy and myself back to Elvis' hotel. El spotted my lapel badge which says "Big Tom is King."
He grinned and said, "I was in L.A. on the last tour and we had three days off. I didn't fancy staying in L.A. and the alternative was to drive across America to Minneapolis. I didn't fancy staying in Minneapolis either, so for the crack (his word) I flew to Las Vegas to check the place out. And d'you know who was playing there? Big Tom!"
Still, I somehow can't see Elvis Costello covering "Four Country Roads."
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