Dublin Evening Herald, November 22, 1994: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 00:26, 18 January 2020

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Dublin Evening Herald

UK & Ireland newspapers

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Home truths about Elvis


David Burke

David Burke talks to Elvis Costello, who plays The Point next month, about Dublin, his kind of town and Aldo, his kind of footballer

Picture this, if you will. Elvis Costello, nerdish angry youngman turned angry middle-aged man, arch-enemy of compromise, engages in a spot of celebrity bonhomie with George Michael, finely-coiffeured, designer-stubbled purveyor of euphonic but innocuous Brit pop.

I mean, compare, again if you will, the vitriolic "Tramp The Dirt Down" with the insipid "Careless Whisper." And wonder just where the personalities behind these two songs would find some common patch of ground.

Their meeting was pure chance. The anecdote; as Elvis tells it, merely recalled to illustrate what a decentskin is the former Wham! person.

Elvis was hanging with his cool buddies — Tom Waits, Nicolas Cage and Crispin Glover — in a Los Angeles nightclub, when, who should hoover through the entrance, but George, a coterie of supermodels tugging at his coat-tails.

"They were the most beautiful women I've ever seen in my life," Elvis enthuses.

Anyway, leaving his gorgeous girls agape, George made for the the cerebral booth, and, all earthy-like, offered a hero-worshipping hand to Elvis.

It was accepted graciously. Inhibitions relinquished, amiable chat ensued 'till each man parted, if not the best of friends, at least the best of enemies.

Elvis still marvels at George's pristine appearance, at how he "looks exactly like his photographs."

And here now, as he sits across from me in windswept and interesting Soho, London's last bastion of bohemia, Elvis himself reveals a newly-hirsute image — the goatee beard.

Once the follicular badge of jazz anoraks everywhere, this nascent facial growth has since been hijacked by the grunge fraternity.

The goatee beard, he explains, is a tribute to John Aldridge, alias Aldo, alias one of the most prolific goal-scorers to grace the beautiful game, alias the Republic of Ireland striker who taught us all how to lip-read when he called a FIFA official a "f***ing w***er" on global television during last summer's World Cup.

Aldo plays for Tranmere Rovers in the English First Division. Tranmere Rovers are Elvis's "second favourite team" — his "first favourite team" being Liverpool.

Of course, more significantly, Aldo is Irish. Same as Elvis really. Born to Irish parents in London on 25 August 1954, Elvis recently returned to his spiritual homeland to set up house in Rathfarnham with wife Cait (O'Riordan — ex-Pogues bass player).

"It was mainly a private decision to move really. I wanted to have that little bit of freedom to make noise or not make noise and just be outside of the city in that sense, and if I was to move outside of London the same distance to enjoy that same kind of freedom, I'd be in a wholly English environment, which I didn't want.

"I like all cities where there is one culture laid on top of another, and Dublin to an extent has that when I need it. It has a lot of English influence there as well, and there's a lot of cultural input through music and theatre and cinema.

"So, you're not lacking that in Dublin, but, as I said before, I go there to get away from everything.

"I don't really get involved very much with the things that are going on there."

Though he has shied away from becoming a key player in the local community, Elvis professes to being "really happy" in his little part of Ireland.

"Everything else seems like a temporary place now. that I'm there. That's home."

Elvis insists that his decision to quit Britain was a private one, despite suggestions that he had become disenchanted living in the formidable shadow of Conservative government since 1979.

Think of the aforementioned "Tramp The Dirt Down." You'll not encounter, in the pop idiom, a more venomous personal attack than that which Elvis launched against Margaret Thatcher in this, the tour-de-force of his 1989 album, Spike.

"Well, when I wrote 'Tramp The Dirt Down' there was a particular character that brought out all that ill-feeling. That person has gone from a position of prominence, but the after effect of her inglorious reign is still with us and it doesn't necessarily fall to me to have the next comment upon it.

"I think things are still unravelling, and hopefully they will all be in jail by the time I get round to writing my next bunch of songs — then I can celebrate that.

"I'm surprised nobody's tried to assassinate any of the present cabinet. It seems very tempting to throw eggs at Michael Heseltine that's the least you could do.

"I'm not saying it should be encouraged, but I'm still surprised, given how far they're pushing it with certain areas of society, that worse hasn't happened to them."

Elvis admits that he himself "harbours dark thoughts of taking a hammer to some politician."

He adds, "Well, not to the politician themselves but the television. It's whether you can restrain yourself in time to think about what the consequences will be for yourself."

For the moment Elvis isn't seeking solutions. Reunited with his original group The Attractions, he just wants to rock out.

He ditched the band after the Blood & Chocolate album in 1986, but later confessed: "To be honest, I didn't handle the situation with much grace. I just sort of announced that I was going, and it wasn't negotiable. That must have been pretty hurtful after what we'd put in. I guess I got a little arrogant."

Whatever animosity there was during their eight years apart, it dissipated with the recording of the Brutal Youth album earlier this year.

Elvis says: "Well, obviously there was tension with everybody. We were always grumpy, and now we're older, actually a little bit less grumpy than we used to be.

"We're quite different as people. There's this illusion that bands grew up together or lived in a house together. But we put the band together through auditions and connections with the business and it just happened to gel.

"But we had no real reason to spend so much time together. We weren't naturally compatible socially and it was obviously forced on us that we spend this tremendous amount of time together. It was almost inevitable that we would end up falling out in some way.

"We probably fell out less dramatically than many other groups and consequently we've been able to just put it all to one side.

"We've never even really discussed the past and what anybody said about somebody else. It's irrelevant really and terribly boring for the people who weren't paying attention to every thing that you were doing along the way."

The Brutal Youth tour has not only showcased new material, but featured an impressive array of songs from either the Elvis Costello or Elvis Costello And The Attractions canons.

"Some of the songs haven't aged as well as others, but happily a lot of them have, and I think we actually play some of them even better than we ever did before because we can hear each other better.

"We're listening, we're not so selfish and consequently the band is, I think, probably in the top form it's ever been in, probably from the early days.

"The initial energetic thing when it's all fresh to you is irreplaceable, and you can never recreate it but probably since then I think this is the best the band has played."

All told, Elvis Costello is extremely happy with his lot. Not that such contentment can persuade him to take things easier. When the tour with The Attractions has finished, he will begin work on the score to Jake's Progress, another Alan Bleasdale TV presentation, with Richard Harvey. The two collaborated to marvellous effect on Bleasdale's GBH.

And then there's his appointment as artistic director of a music festival in London next year.

"I'm the one inviting people to play, and I'm trying to mix up contemporary classical music with players from jazz, players from folk music, players from pop music and not just have a big jam. I want them to do some things so the audience hears all the things that are happening now.

"There's all kinds of different music happening and there's a lot of really interesting things. There are a lot of charlatans, and I want to see how it all works when we do that — when we put that music into a festival together and invite people to come and hear a different kind of presentation just for a week."

Elvis Costello plays The Point on Thursday, December 1.


Tags: Point TheatreDublinThe AttractionsGeorge MichaelTramp The Dirt DownTom WaitsCait O'RiordanThe PoguesMargaret ThatcherSpikeBlood & ChocolateBrutal YouthJake's ProgressAlan BleasdaleRichard HarveyGBHMeltdown Festival

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The Evening Herald, November 22, 1994


David Burke interviews Elvis Costello ahead of his concert with The Attractions, Thursday, December 1, 1994, Point Theatre, Dublin, Ireland.

Images

1994-11-22 Dublin Evening Herald page 15.jpg
Page scan.

Clipping.
1994-11-22 Dublin Evening Herald page 17 clipping 01.jpg


Page scan.
1994-11-22 Dublin Evening Herald page 17.jpg

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