Talk:Concert 1978-11-15 Winnipeg (late)
Reports of EC's appearance at St. Vital Hotel following his concert with the Attractions' earlier that night at the Playhouse Theatre.
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KentonsInfotainmentscan.blogspot.com, May 16, 2009 Elvis Costello will be playing this year's Winnipeg Folk Fest - and no one is happier than me. Costello hasn't actually played in Winnipeg since 1978, when he performed at the Playhouse Theatre with the Attractions. Afterward, he showed up at a local bar and played a set with - someone help me, please, I can't remember who it was! I remember reading the article about it in the Winnipeg Free Press at the time, but was too young to go, so if anyone happens to be at the Millennium Library today, you know what to do. ...In no time flat, the boys are darlings of the Winnipeg social scene -- a scene defined by rye bread and cheddar cheese. Frantic, sold-out Fuse shows at frozen-in-time venues like the Native Club and the Indian-Métis Friendship Center become a weekend ritual. The Fuse look to be the Next Big Thing. November 1978. Fresh off his own concert at the Playhouse Theatre, kindred spirit Elvis Costello drops by the St. Vital Hotel to see what the Fuss, errr, the Fuse is all about. Although thousands of Winnipeggers have since laid claim to having been there, Jeff pegs the number at closer to 250. "Back then, the St. Vital had a licence for 199 people but they regularly overstuffed the place. We had a feeling Costello would show up; at that flashpoint in time there weren't a lot of Winnipeg bands playing New Wave or old-style rock or whatever you wanted to call it." Costello watches from the wings awhile before staging a coup on the microphone. After ripping through I Stand Accused and Alison, he invites the Fuse to join in on Heart Of The City. Backstage, Costello makes noise about one day working with the band but nothing ever comes of it. |
cdbaby.com/cd/swandel (see "Read more..." section) ...In 1978, one of the heroes of that effort, Elvis Costello, toured Canada and visited Winnipeg. Someone told him about a kindred group performing across town. Costello and company checked out The Fuse, then obliged the bar crowd with a short set of their own, before inviting Jeff to add guitar to a version of Nick Lowe's Heart Of The City. Backstage, Costello talked enthusiastically about working with the group, perhaps as producer, although the zeal of that night did not translate into concrete plans. Uptownmag.com, 2009-07-16 The other big surprise of the festival came early in the week, during Elvis Costello's preposterously stupendous gig on Wednesday night. I'd prepared myself for an elder-statesman-with-new-album show - full of his roots and country material from Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, with a few old faves sprinkled in here and there. What I hadn't realized was that the version of The Imposters with which Costello is touring is essentially The Attractions without bassist Bruce Thomas (Davey Faragher fills that role these days). So when they started with Accidents Will Happen, Mystery Train and (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea, I was suddenly transformed into the 13-year-old who'd first fallen in love with those songs. When Elvis finished - after a seven-song encore that included a dub version of Watching the Detectives, Alison (in which he quoted Smokey Robinson's Tears of a Clown and Tracks of My Tears), (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes, Radio Radio, Pump it Up and (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding - I thought my head and heart would explode with excitement. Perhaps the coolest thing about the Costello gig was seeing at least two members of The Fuse in the audience. When Costello last performed here, at the Playhouse in 1978, he ended up jamming a Nick Lowe tune onstage at the St. Vital Hotel with the Winnipeg group, which featured Jeff, Don and Paul Hatcher and Dave Briggs. This time around, a young girl who looked to be in Don Hatcher's party kept screaming "We love you, Elvis!" in between songs, earning a nod from The Man and smiles and chuckles from fans who'd rushed to the front of the stage. |
