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New Wave music makes its first live appearance in Kingston Saturday night when Elvis Costello performs at an 8 p.m. concert in Jock Harty Arena.
The whole New Wave-punk music scene heralds a return to early rock 'n' roll rawness with lyrics that reflect the bitterness of many of today's bands. Costello is no exception.
Listening to his records you're transported back to the early Sixties and the Mersey Sound of Gerry & The Pacemakers. The chorded electric organ sound (they didn't call them keyboards then) jumps out at you, and it's only when you listen to the lyrics that you realize you're in the Seventies.
Costello seems to have a lot of dislikes. One of them is the radio, and in a recent song, "Radio, Radio" he sings "And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools, trying to anesthetize the way that you feel." The chorus is equally scathing: "Radio is a sound salvation, radio is cleaning up the nation. They say you've got to listen to the voice of reason. They don't give you any choice because they think that it's treason."
Unlike many of the new breed of English rockers Costello did not grow up in a slum, and had a middle class existence until fame struck. He was born Declan MacManus, the son of a bandleader in the Forties and Fifties. Now in his early twenties, Elvis starting started writing songs eight years ago, and as recently as a year-and-a-half ago was working as a computer operator in a London suburb while he tried to peddle his songs to any record company who would buy them.
The method with which he chose to sell his songs was not exactly hard sell. He said in a recent interview, "I didn't go in and say, 'Look, I've got these songs and well, with a bit of patching up and a good producer, I might make a good record.' I went in and said, 'I've got some great songs, record them and release them.'"
Stiff Records finally took a chance on Costello, but after some contractual disagreements Costello ended up signing with CBS. The result was two smash albums, My Aim is True, which became the largest selling import album of l977, and an even bigger hit, This Year's Model.
The whole experience of trying to get recorded didn't improve Costello's bleak outlook on the world. In the same interview he said, "Like, I went around for nearly a year with demo tapes before I came to Stiff, and it was always the same response — "We can't hear the words." "It isn't commercial enough." — Idiots. Those tapes were just voice and guitar demos. I didn't have enough money to do anything with a band. I felt as if I was bashing my head against a brick wall. Those people just weren't prepared to listen to the songs.
"It's a terrible position to be in. You start thinking you're mad. You listen to the radio and you watch the TV and you hear a lot of rubbish. You very rarely turn on the radio or TV and hear anything exciting, right? And all the time, you know that you're capable of producing something infinitely better.
"But I never lost faith. I'm convinced in my own talent, yeah."
As one of the hottest acts in rock today, Elvis Costello doesn't have to worry about a recording contract anymore. Playing with him will be his band the Attractions, composed of drummer Pete Thomas, bassist Bruce Thomas, and Steve Young on keyboards.
Jock Harty Arena will be the second stop on the English rocker's 12-city Canadian tour, which concludes in Vancouver on November 17.
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