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This was my fourth time seeing Elvis and I had hoped that he would still be peddling the brilliant the Spectacular Spinning Songbook romp through his greatest hits: rarely have I seen an audience (or band) have so much fun during the two times that I was lucky enough to see it!
Anyway, at 8.05pm Elvis, Pete Thomas, Steve Nieve and Davey Faragher strode, bounded, shuffled and loped onstage to one heck of an ovation from the 2000-strong sell-out hometown audience. This is where the differences to those previous shows began…
EC decided to open with "Big Tears" and "No Action" before there was an almost audible collective nod of recognition for the uber-splendid "Watching The Detectives" and then straight into "Moods For Moderns." I was in the same boat as most seeing as how I'm not much more than a greatest hits merchant (to my shame)… that said, I defy anyone not to marvel at the level of musical ability onstage… does it matter if you're not familiar with the lyrics or indeed whether you know where the song will lead you? There were a couple of covers thrown in: "Wild Honey" and then "Polythene Pam." Again, I did wonder if these registered with the majority of the audience who did take a little while to reciprocate the effort. It really took "Oliver's Army" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" to get them up and cheering, hah-hah!
His master's voice divides folk I imagine: cards on the table time… I heart it, and he was as strident, wounded, pleading, broken and joyful as anyone/he could be. His guitar playing (no help required — he does all his own stunt work/heavy lifting you know!) was a delight too, alternating between his Jazzmaster, a beautiful gold-top LP and two or three acoustics and hollow-bodies. There were a couple of times when he was hunched over that LP that he reminded me of Pete Townshend, such was the intensity.
He does know the value of effects pedals too, giving it some subtle wah-wah now and again. He also commandeered Mr Nieve's Steinway on a couple of occasions. Speaking of which, any band that has that keyboard genius in its starting XI almost has an unfair advantage… he is that good! Same story with Mr Pete Thomas. He's surgical, inventive, subtle (at times, honestly!) but relentless on his kit: tell you what though… you wouldn't want to be reincarnated as his crash cymbal. Ouch…
Costello did introduce them all twice and referred to them affectionately as "the best band in the land," said in his huckstering/MC persona but you knew it was heartfelt.
The other notable point was that after 2/3rds of the 150 minute show, he paused for a chat and mentioned how pleased he was to be back near his roots (yeah, I know… corny old showbiz guff… he does that too) but he did have us acknowledge his sons that were present, as well as sing happy birthday to his Mum, Lillian!
After that jolly break, it was back into more light and shade, sour and sweet, joy and despair: "Night Rally," "All These Strangers" and into "Tramp The Dirt Down," unsurprisingly given which city we were in, and into "Good Year For The Roses" and "Shipbuilding"… towering stuff at times. Despite this, there were a couple of guys nearby who were pretty unhappy with the setlist and I guess that they weren't alone, which is a real shame.
In short: was this as much fun as the Songbook shows? No. Not a chance, and it wasn't meant to be. But it was an absolute performance of an artist refusing to "dial it in" and a band exploring their catalogue and challenging themselves and anyone else lucky enough to be within earshot. No bs!
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