Winnipeg Tribune, April 12, 1979

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Elvis Costello another unlikely rock idol


Lisa Robinson / Field Enterprises

I have always had mixed feelings about Elvis Costello. Sometimes he leaves me cold. Then I'll hear "Pump It Up" at the Mudd Club and I'll want to dance.

Perhaps he is as unlikely a rock idol as was... oh, say Elton John. Then again, Elvis is more like a latter-day Buddy Holly — hiding behind his eyeglasses and writing catchy, melodic songs with clever teen-age lyrics.

Elvis has been compared to Bruce Springsteen, and both artists do have an energetic, sometimes angry honesty in their lyrics. Both, too, have a bit of the poser about them. They've developed colorful stances about cars, girls. politics, white lower-class life and older people's values.

I first saw Elvis at the basement Hope and Anchor Club in Islington (outside central London) in late July, 1977. At that time, he recorded for the small, independent Stiff label, and while he was already a minor sensation in England, he had no American record deal.

The Hope and Anchor stint coincided with the CBS Records' convention, held that summer in London. Knowing that the CBS execs probably wouldn't schlep to the tiny, hot basement club, Elvis picketed in front of the Hilton Hotel convention headquarters. He played guitar, sang and refused to leave the premises until he was seen by an important CBS executive.

I ran upstairs and took a receptive president Walter Yetnikoff down to hear Elvis. This was encouraging, but the "happening" broke up when police dragged Elvis off in a paddy wagon.

Eventually, and partly due to the enthusiasm of CBS Records' A & R coordinator Gregg Geller, Elvis was signed to that company, and his LP, My Aim is True was released in this country.

Than began one of the most interesting "new wave" campaigns: very few interviews; an attitude. At first who really cared? But the press loved Elvis, anyway, and it all worked, He got major pockets of important radio airplay, and became the only really commercial, new-wave English artist. Palatable punk? Or really catchy songs fit for the U.S air waves? My Aim Is True sold nearly 500,000 copies.

Two albums later, his inaccessibility continues: no interviews, no photos of Elvis may be taken offstage: no At Home with Elvis photo spreads. We see one image: Elvis staring out at us from behind his specs.

But that facade was somewhat shaken last week when the Village Voice reported a fight between Elvis and Bonnie Bramlett in a bar in Columbus Ohio. Elvis even called a press conference to "clear up the confusion" that ensued when, as he claimed, his racial comments against Ray Charles and James Brown (who quite possibly had never even heard of Elvis Costello before this) where taken out of context.

"I am not a racist," said Elvis, faced by a battery of reporters and photographers last week in the CBS building. "This was an argument that went on in a bar and in the course of the argument, it seemed necessary for me to outrage these people with the most obnoxious and offensive remarks I could muster to bring the argument to a conclusion.

"I'm sorry people got needlessly angry about it. Sometimes people say things they don't believe. Just ask Lenny Bruce."

As a public person, Elvis will, no doubt, be plagued by this incident for some time. But he would prefer that we consider him a musician and performer. and in that category, he is clearly an established star. His new LP, Armed Forces, just went gold. His U.S. tour is a smashing success.

And, last Sunday night at his Bottom Line show (the second of three club dates Elvis did that night in Manhattan), the overwhelmingly responsive audience included an enthusiastic Mick Jagger — no stranger himself to racial controversy — who sat at a front table and bopped along to Elvis' songs.

It's a long way from the Hope and Anchor.

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The Tribune, April 12, 1979


Lisa Robinson profiles Elvis Costello, recalling his July 1977 busking outside the Hilton Hotel, London and reporting briefly on his concert with The Attractions, Sunday, April 1, 1979, Bottom Line, New York.

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1979-04-12 Winnipeg Tribune page 33 clipping 01.jpg
Clipping.

1979-04-12 Winnipeg Tribune page 33.jpg
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