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On the inauspicious date of Friday, March 13, 2020, Elvis Costello was on stage at the Hammersmith Apollo with his band the Imposters, performing the encore to what would be his last big gig held in London before the first Covid lockdown. That morning’s front page had led with a government warning that “many more families are going to lose loved ones” and a smattering of empty seats in the venue testified to a growing sense of public unease. Costello’s response? He launched into a storming rendition of his apocalyptic 1991 rocker Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs Are Taking Over) sample lyric “Better make like a fly, if you don’t want to die”.
“Maybe it was in bad taste,” he concedes now, smiling. “But you’ve got to whistle past the graveyard sometimes.”
The following day, the remaining dates of his live tour were cancelled and he flew to Vancouver, where he shares a home with his third wife, Canadian jazz pianist Diana Krall, and their twin teenage songs, Dexter and Frank. “So then I’m staring at the ocean thinking, “Do I just sit here watching the waves until it’s all over? Or am I gonna make a record?” In fact he made three.
Remaining text and scanner-error corrections to come...
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