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Halfway through a remarkable two-and-three-quarter-hour set, Elvis Costello was crooning "Almost Blue" from the grand circle while members of the audience watched from the stage.
The vaudevillian conceit of Costello's Spectacular Spinning Songbook show allowed for a certain amount of blurring of boundaries as he embraced the seedy glamour of a faded cabaret turn, top hat and cane, dancing girls, cheesy clubland patter and all.
Throughout the night his "glamorous assistant" Josephine invited members of the audience onstage to spin the huge fairground wheel plastered with titles and themes, and shimmy in the go-go cage. It took three gallus Glasgow girls to really get the party started, but beyond the jokey framing device it was all about the music.
Performing nearly 40 songs in all, Costello's voice and energy proved undiminished. Backed by his versatile trio The Imposters, he revived the standards ("Alison," "Oliver's Army," "Pump It Up," "Peace, Love And Understanding" et al) but also prowled the margins of his voluminous back catalogue, including a poignant "Love Field," a stately "Suit Of Lights" and a wired "Strict Time," as well as covers of Johnny Cash's "Cry, Cry, Cry" and Nick Lowe's "Heart Of The City."
The mood was mostly mischievous but, at 58, Costello brought a new depth of perspective to his most charged songs. Power met beauty in his readings of "Shipbuilding" and his anti-Thatcher anthem "Tramp The Dirt Down," prefaced with a moving tribute to his late father which humanised its undiminished rage. A superb acoustic set included the pre-rock 'n' roll vignette "Jimmie Standing In The Rain," and no less than two whistling solos, rounding off an expansive, generous and unfailingly entertaining show.
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