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DECLAN McManus has always been provocative. In 1977 he controversially adopted his idol (Elvis) and mother's maiden name (Costello).
Two years later he allegedly said some racist things about Ray Charles. And in 1981 he was criticised for audaciously taking on Nashville with a country album, Almost Blue.Today he's still provoking people.
Playing two-and-a-half hours of old standards and new favourites, Costello always looked like he was going to do, or say, something out of turn.
Early number The Delivery Man is 'a number I wrote for Johnny Cash', he says, before Watching The Detectives flows into a cool-as-mince rendition of Suspicious Minds. At one point Costello sings into the pickups of a cheap guitar he bought in Mississippi. He even backchats the audience when they fail to clap loudly enough after an upbeat number: 'I thought you'd lost your gift of song, Edinburgh?'
There's no flashy stage backdrop, no pretentious showboating. Every song is given special attention - apart from (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea, played so fast it could have been a speed metal number. But everyone came to hear Oliver's Army. And they got it, played with lung-bursting venom.The audience danced their hearts out before Elvis (in true Elvis style) left the building without returning for an encore.
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