Liverpool Echo, May 14, 2012: Difference between revisions

From The Elvis Costello Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
(create page for Liverpool Echo review of Concert 2012-05-13 Liverpool)
 
mNo edit summary
Line 25: Line 25:
But the real highlights were the haunting [[Shipbuilding]] and [[Alison]], which is arguably one of the rawest, most uncompromising love songs of the late 20th century .
But the real highlights were the haunting [[Shipbuilding]] and [[Alison]], which is arguably one of the rawest, most uncompromising love songs of the late 20th century .


When he dragged to the stage ex-Pele front man Ian Prowse for a duet of [[Ferry 'Cross The Mersey]], you could have been forgiven for thinking Costello wrote it, given his inimitable voice and style.
When he dragged to the stage ex-Pele front man [[Ian Prowse]] for a duet of [[Ferry 'Cross The Mersey]], you could have been forgiven for thinking Costello wrote it, given his inimitable voice and style.


This was a novel concept (with the amusement of Top Of The Pops-style dancing from the audience members dragged up) but, while it added some extra laughs to the proceedings, the music proved that it's the songs that really do all the talking.
This was a novel concept (with the amusement of Top Of The Pops-style dancing from the audience members dragged up) but, while it added some extra laughs to the proceedings, the music proved that it's the songs that really do all the talking.

Revision as of 17:11, 27 May 2013

... Bibliography ...
727677787980818283
848586878889909192
939495969798990001
020304050607080910
111213141516171819
202122232425 26 27 28


Newspapers

Template:Liverpool Echo index

-

Review: Elvis Costello, Liverpool Empire theatre


SOME would argue, where gigs are concerned, that if the concept isn't broken, don't fix it.

But Merseyside's own Declan McManus – better known to the world as Elvis Costello – has decided to break the mould with his spinning wheel show and combine the cheesy razzmatazz of an American TV quiz show with the conventional stage show.

It's certainly tongue in cheek, but works for both the audience and the man himself, whose galactic ascent to megastardom in recent years through his US TV show has clearly brought the showman out in him.

The premise is that he drags members of the audience up and gets them to spin the wheel, and whatever song it stops on, he and his tight three piece play.

Prior to all this he struts round the stage with a cane and trademark hat as some kind of hybrid of the Joker and the Riddler.

The problem with leaving the set list to chance is that there are some songs that are obviously more popular with the crowd than others.

Maybe, like any US TV quiz worth its salt, it was fixed, or maybe fate really was smiling down on the packed Empire, for everything you would have wanted to hear and more was belted out in that trademark sandpaper-on-vocal-chord voice: the exceptional Accidents Will Happen, the positively cinematic Watching the Detectives – which is so narrative it could be the synopsis of a TV show – and the brilliantly-crafted Every Day I Write The Book.

The songs came thick and fast, despite the interludes, including the stomping Oliver's Army and the frantic but super-tight I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea.

But the real highlights were the haunting Shipbuilding and Alison, which is arguably one of the rawest, most uncompromising love songs of the late 20th century .

When he dragged to the stage ex-Pele front man Ian Prowse for a duet of Ferry 'Cross The Mersey, you could have been forgiven for thinking Costello wrote it, given his inimitable voice and style.

This was a novel concept (with the amusement of Top Of The Pops-style dancing from the audience members dragged up) but, while it added some extra laughs to the proceedings, the music proved that it's the songs that really do all the talking.

---

9/10 Hats off

-

Liverpool Echo, May 14, 2012


Review of Elvis Costello and the Imposters, May 13, 2012, Empire Theatre, Liverpool, England.




-



Back to top

External links