New Musical Express, October 29, 1977: Difference between revisions
(add transcribed text) |
(add remaining transcribed text) |
||
Line 23: | Line 23: | ||
So, Elvis's real name is Declan Patrick McManus — though Costello, Ross tells us, is "a family name." | So, Elvis's real name is Declan Patrick McManus — though Costello, Ross tells us, is "a family name." | ||
Indeed, he himself used the Costello monicker on more than one occasion - not least when he called himself Day Costello to cut "The Long And Winding Road" for Spark in 1970 (see ''Blackmail Corner'' 17.9.77). | |||
Yes, we here at ''NME'' no longer think Elvis is Day. We ''know'' it was Ross, and he confirms the fact. | |||
"That wasn't Elvis aged 16," Ross laughs. "That was me aged 42! I often used the name Day Costello for writing." | |||
He explains how Joe Loss almost came to co-own the name Ross McManus, so it made life easier for Ross (real name Ronnie McManus) if he used his mother's name, Costello. | |||
Ross McManus joined the Joe Loss band in 1955, and enjoyed a fair amount of success. Not only did he place in the NME polls of the time, making 10th top big band vocalist in '55, but he stayed with Loss for 14 years. | |||
Back in the '50s, of course, big bands were real hip, and the paper was full of them until rock'n'roll came along. Thus Elvis - of rather, Declan - was brought up in a house full of jazz records, with a father who knew and worked with British jazz stars like Ronnie Scott, Phil Seamen, Joe Timperley, Tubby Hayes and Bill McGuffie. | |||
On top of that, Ross used to take Elvis along to the studios in the early '60s, and there he met the likes of [[The Rolling Stones|the Stones]], Hollies, Mojos, [[The Merseybeats|Merseybeats]], [[Beatles]] and so on when they recorded their spot for the ''Joe Loss Show''. | |||
Loss may latterly have slipped into fulltime schmaltzerama, but in the early '60s rock and Tin Pan Alley still rubbed shoulders quite happily. "I'd be a bit pissed off if anyone suggested that Elvis's influence were only ''Come Dancing''," Ross says fiercely. | |||
In the late '60s Ross had a German hit with a song called "Patsy Girl", and in '69 he and Loss parted company. Nowadays he works the northern cabaret circuit, singing and playing trumpet and piano, and is apparently a big name still. | |||
"The only time I see Elvis now is when we meet at Watford Gap service at six o'clock in the morning, on the way home from our gigs." | |||
Declan, we had heard, took his name from a Ross McManus album called "Day Costello Sings Elvis Presley." | |||
Not quite. There was an album called "Ross McManus Sings Elvis Presley's Greatest Hits", but Ross thinks Declan may have been calling himself Elvis before that. As for when he decided to use it as a stage name: "You'd have to ask Stiff Records. | |||
"It's a difficult position," Ross muses. "Elvis wanted to keep his image to himself - not because there was any rift between us, but just because it was a slightly mysterious image. It went well." | |||
He asserts repeatedly how proud he is of Elvis. | |||
Furthermore, he insists that Elvis's image as the guy who gets sand kicked in his face is quite misleading. Elvis is tough, he tells us - and in this aspect he takes after his grandfather. | |||
Patrick McManus was a jazz player who left Ireland after the 1916 Rebellion and went to New York. There he became caught up on the fringe of the Prohibition era gang world. "It was all boxers, musicians and bootleggers," Ross says. | |||
At one time, apparently, he went to stay with a boxer friend on the west side - and found himself sharing a house with Legs Diamond, the notorious gangster. | |||
(It's interesting to note, looking down Brian Case's ''Young Person's Guide To The Mafia'', that the Godfather at the end of prohibition in '31 was a guy called Francesco Castiglia, a.k.a. Frank Costello.) | |||
Ross's father is also credited with helping to bring the blues to Britain. Ross makes a lot of the fact that both Elvis and his grandfather were born on the Leo/Virgo cusp, seven days apart, and that they look alike (as if he and Elvis don't!) | |||
He also tells us Elvis had some great songs about his grandfather which have yet to be unveiled in public - especially one called "My Friend", about his grandad's New York experiences. | |||
"I think Elvis has got a touch of the old 'Legs Diamond'," he chuckles. | |||
Ross regales ''Thrills'' with a cavalcade of characters out of his own past - like Pat McCormick, the Irish big band singer who used to take a ''lion'' on the road with him - and then flashes on the future. | |||
"You know, Elvis has got three more little brothers, I'm not sure whether they're going to be altar boys or punk rockers!" | |||
''Thrills'' sincerely hopes that Ross won't catch hell from Elvis for talking so freely to us. | |||
Meanwhile, we've deliberately saved the best bit till last. | |||
'' | The ''real'' secret in this most secretive of families is this: Ross McManus is The Secret Lemonade Drinker! | ||
Don't say you don't get your 18 pees' worth. | |||
{{cx}} | |||
{{Bibliography notes header}} | {{Bibliography notes header}} | ||
Line 165: | Line 212: | ||
[[Category:New Musical Express| New Musical Express 1977-10-29]] | [[Category:New Musical Express| New Musical Express 1977-10-29]] | ||
[[Category:Magazine articles]] | [[Category:Magazine articles]] | ||
Revision as of 17:57, 10 January 2015
External links |