RAM, August 25, 1978

Bibliography   72 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 UK & Ireland weeklies UK & Ireland magazines UK & Ireland newspapers US newspapers US rock magazines US music magazines US magazines US alternative weeklies European magazines European newspapers Canada  •  Mexico  •  Asia Australia  •  New Zealand South America  •  Africa Blogs  •  Fanzines  •  Books Online publications RAM Magazine   1977 October 21 1978 February 24 1978 May 5 1978 June 16 1978 August 25 1979 January 26 1979 March 9 1980 April 4 1980 May 2 1981 March 6 1982 January 8 1982 March 19 1983 November 25 1984 June 8 1984 June 22 1985 July 17 1986 April 9 1988 January 27 1988 February 10 1989 March 8 Australia publications  Newspapers Adelaide Advertiser The Australian Brisbane Courier-Mail Canberra Times Lismore Northern Star Melbourne Age Melbourne Herald Sun Melbourne Observer Nation Review Newcastle Herald Queensland Times Sydney Daily Mirror Sydney Daily Telegraph Sydney Morning Herald Sydney Sun-Herald Victor Harbor Times West Australian West Australian Sunday Times Magazines ABC Radio 24 Hours Adelaide Review Audio Technology Australian Musician Australian Nat. Univ. Woroni Australian Women's Weekly Black+White BMA Magazine The Bulletin Countdown Crowd DB Magazine Drum Media EON Extra Follow Me Gentlemen Inpress Juice Juke Melbourne Beat Men's Style Australia Mint Magazine The Music On The Street Rage Reverb Magazine RAM Reader's Digest Revolver Rhythms Rip It Up Roadrunner Rolling Stone Semper Street Fever Sydney Star Observer Time Off UNSW Tharunka Who Online publications AU Review Australian Stage Music Feeds Scenestr Tone Deaf — Elvis wows L.A. Andrew Barnum Everybody secretly loves Elvis Costello, and at the same time fears his every word, recoiling at his anger. And he don't care. He's young and a rebel and sells records, so he'll be heard. Above all the cliches about what he's trying to say and who his influences are, comes one simple fact; he doesn't care how he has to wrap his anger, he wants to be heard. His genius lies in his ability to bend the rules enough to let himself into the winners' circle. That's about the only way left to make great music these days; the business is a players' game. Elvis re-opened the rule book. When I first saw Elvis in L.A. last year I was interested in this twitchy 28-year-old looking 22-year-old. His band was an energy wired group of faces almost under a trance from the power of the music they were fortunate enough to unleash. Elvis was semi-tough, all spaz attack gestures and twangy electro-sonic guitars. His stuff was great and even the rather naive, excuse the pun, "new wave" audience pogoed and screamed very nicely. Now he's even more for real; at the time I thought there would be no more, Elvis would return to England and reel off into another barnstorming project—oh no, the heat was just steam. So your roving reporter fronted up to the Santa Monica Civic, the heat making the crowd look anything but an Elvis C. crowd, and awaited the second coming of my favourite comedian. Pow... here's Elvis! That's the guy, tearing it up, pumping it up, spitting it out, really wild and already he hates this hall and the sound system, but who cares? The crowd absorbs his anger and dances. The people at the Civic in L.A. were smart enough to take the seating out for this one. The writhing mass looks like a huge sock hop. Neat. His band The Attractions load up and machine their way through what seems like 100 songs. Elvis just doesn't let up. There's "Watching The Detectives" a love-hate classic; "No Action" and from the new model, excuse me, album, "This Year's Girl" and "Radio, Radio." (Costello albums list different tracks in different countries. Oz didn't get "Radio" — ed), it's an amazing song that's become really big, and ironically the lyrics totally slander everything to do with the mechanics of a hit. Get a listen, it's mean. Meanwhile back at the show Twitching Jack Jive is powering to an appreciative rabble, still real angry at the sound. As he finished his last song he did something I wasn't ready for ... midsong he removed his guitar and, with a psychotic pas de deux, trashed his amplifier and stormed off. The performance was nevertheless energy-filled, strange, ugly ... all those words. Anyone with any sense had fun. << >> RAM, No. 91, August 25, 1978 Andrew Barnum reviews Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Tuesday, May 30, 1978, Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, California. Images Photographer unknown. Cover.

External links

• Wikipedia: RAM Magazine
• elviscostello.info