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A true punk and new wave pioneer from the late seventies and at sixty-seven years of age, one Declan Patrick MacManus aka Elvis Costello is still going very strong indeed as this two-hour fifteen-minute show proved this evening and he is sounding in just great form too as he roars through tracks from his now very vast and varied back catalogue that includes five songs from his most recent recording, the excellent, The Boy Named If.
Penelope Halfpenny is a song about one of his young, attractive, and ambitious teachers from his catholic school days when he was also a young and impressionable young man, that he seemed to have had quite a crush on, his explanation about the song helps to explain his outpouring.
Accidents Will Happen and Green Shirt are the first two songs played this evening in a twenty-two-song strong set list and they set the tone for a quite brilliant performance from Elvis and his amazing band that features long term collaborators Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas and the excellent Davey Faragher and Charlie Sexton.
He has made some quite incredible music in his career since he arrived on the scene with his debut album, My Aim Is True, including some truly wonderful collaborations with the likes of Burt Bacharach, Paul McCartney, and the Brodsky Quartet.
He is thoroughly engaging with the audience as he reminisces and gets very nostalgic. There is plenty of good dialogue throughout the evening as he reflects on his career and in particular playing in Ipswich in the past when he was first starting out to a mere handful of people (some of whom are claiming to have been in the crowd on that night!) and then in later years in the same venue as we are in this evening, when it was called the Gaumont.
He informs us that he loves visiting the independent record shops in the Towns and City’s that he is visiting when he is touring to discover new music and re-discover some long-forgotten music but explains that there just wasn’t time today due to the challenges on the A11 as he headed over to Suffolk from London.
Unlike his bad night at the office in Liverpool earlier in the month where there were issues with the sound quality and his microphone and a bit of a resulting tiff with some members of the audience, there are no problems tonight and being the professional that he is he simply puts that show on Merseyside down to being just one of those things. Well, we all have bad days sometimes at work, don’t we?
Tonight, he is on fire as he roars through the songs, he delivers Watching the Detectives, (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea, Pump It Up, a jazzy version of Good Year For The Roses, (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace and Love And Understanding. There are a couple of personal favourites missing from the show in Shipbuilding and Oliver’s Army, but when you have so much material, something must give, and you just can’t please everyone all the time now can you?
As the show draws to its conclusion, he sings Alison, and a mass singalong ensues, and it’s sounding truly beautiful and by now just about everyone is on their feet as he wraps up with Man You Love To Hate and We Are All Cowards Now.
The man is a living musical legend of that there is no doubt, it has certainly been well worth the trip from across the border.
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