Elvis Costello - 1978-04-16 London

<<   1978-04-16 London

ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS
Roundhouse
London
16 April 1978

01. Stranger In The House (Solo)
02. Oliver's Army (Steve Nieve only)
03. Accidents Will Happen (Steve Nieve only)
04. Waiting For The End OF The World
05. No Action
06. This Year's Girl
07. Lip Service
08. Less Than Zero
09. Big Tears
10. Hand In Hand
11. The Beat
12. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
13. Alison
14. Miracle Man
15. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
16. Mystery Dance
17. Watching The Detectives
18. You Belong To Me
19. Pump It Up *
20. (I Love The Sound Of) Breaking Glass *
21. Heart Of The City *

Elvis Costello - vocals, guitar
Steve Nieve - keyboards
Pete Thomas - drums
Nick Lowe - bass guitar, vocals

* with special guest Martin Belmont-  lead guitar


40 years and one day on .............................. 
One would forgive Elvis for having his mind already on the next U.S. tour which would follow this, the last date in the U.K. and Ireland tour, in 72 hours and, having already had to deal with the loss of Bruce Thomas with his hand injury, it would have been easy to play safe with a standard setlist of songs which were straightforward for Nick Lowe to play and would appease the London crowd. However, at this point in his near vertical trajectory, Elvis would never play safe and instead chose to open the gig with his Country and Western diversion, Stranger In The House ( which purchasers would have heard on the freebie 7" single b/w Neat, neat, neat given free with U.K. copies of This Year's Model) and then playing two brand new songs accompanied only by Steve Nieve. Considering the relentless pressures of recording and touring, it is almost inconceivable that Elvis would have been able to put any pen to paper and yet in the preceding couple of months, he had been able to write two of his most celebrated and recognised songs which would become staples of his concert performances for the next 40 years and provide him with his most successful hit records. It's no wonder that Nick Lowe and The Attractions were in awe of his prolific and unremitting talent and his evolution as a songwriter would enable him to see particularly Accidents Will Happen as a song with the versatility to be performed either as a "pop" song or in the dramatic piano and vocal tour de force that was forever captured on the Live At Hollywood High E.P recording just a few weeks after this debut. His vision of where these songs might sit in his canon may be difficult to determine but the audacity of starting this final show in this manner shows an authority and confidence which some would say completely exonerates his brash arrogance, especially as shown to the press. 
After Oliver's Army, Nick Lowe an Pete Thomas join them on stage and work their way through a pretty standard setlist now, although it's important to remember that this was only the 7th time they'd performed live together. the Melody Maker reported on this and the reviewer seemed disappointed by the "looseness " of the ensemble performance but to my ears, it just seems like a band that hasn't had the same degree of continuous touring that The Attractions had achieved to this point. I would say that Nick's vocals are definitely "off-hand" but this may just be the reaction to entering the final furlong. Martin Belmont joins from Pump It Up onwards and adds his usual fills and trills. 
Originally, I intended to upload this using my bootleg L.P. "Accidents" as the source but the recording I made showed considerable limitations and sonic imperfections and a conversation with a good friend and extremely knowledgeable Costello concert collector suggested that there was an alternative source in the form of an audience 
tape and I almost immediately located my copy and this is presented here. The quality is much better than the vinyl source ( although I've yet to hear the Toasted copy) but it required a major pitch adjustment, though nothing else. The final two songs sung by Nick Lowe were located on the cassette recording from 15th April and were re-united with the other songs here. Co-incidentally, this tape suggests Phil Lynott joined the band on 15th for a performance of Mystery Dance ( which wouldn't have required too much in the way of rehearsals ) and not on the 16th as I had mistakenly believed. The only guest here is Martin Belmont's presence as previously mentioned. 
Lineage : TDK Normal C90 cassette>Sony TC WE475 cassette player > Sony CD Recorder W100>CD-R> EAC >Nero 8 for song separation and pitch adjustment>TLH>FLAC