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Accidents did not happen to the thousands who slipped, and slithered, their way to the National Stadium in Dublin, last night, to hear Elvis Costello and the Attractions.
The hard-packed snow, and freezing conditions, did not make the slightest impact on the capacity crowd and they deserved and got one of the best performances by a rock singer Dublin has seen.
Costello hardly stopped to take a breath from an early opening at about 8.45 to the end of his second encore at close to 11 o'clock.
The feeling of rejecting the depressing weather permeated through the crowd even though the few who threw off their coats at the beginning of the performance quickly put them back on again. By the end the cold had ceased to matter and the sun almost shined during a brilliant rendition of "Good Year For The Roses."
Declan MacManus, for that is his real name, delivered each song with a haunting sureness amplified by the fog of his breath on the cold stadium air.
He varied between rockier and earlier classics like "Watching the Detectives," "Oliver's Army" and "New Lace Sleeves" and his successful entre into country music.
The slower country ballads came across better with a slow build-up and inspired keyboard and bass backing. The lead guitar, drums and synthesizer arrangements only served to highlight the gentler numbers.
The audience was delighted. despite the cold, except for one event which occurred when Costello was attempting to sing a quiet moody melody.
Some fool near the front of the stage insisted on interrupting until Bruce Thomas ran over and pretended to bash him with his bass guitar. The crowd howled its approval and Costello laughed and said: "I could keep singing this verse all night... or for ever."
They were almost the only words he spoke all night leaving his music to do the talking.
Costello on vocals and lead guitar looked like Buddy Holly without the buck teeth and the renditions of old rock 'n' roll numbers would have had the Crickets chirping.
Steve Mason on keyboards managed to vary between a sound which echoed the background piano of a New Orleans speak-easy and the blast of the heavy metal crescendo. His playing made some of the newer wave bands sound like they only know three notes of the scale.
As the happy crowd squeezed past the regulars in the Headlines pub afterwards the comments were all in the superlative. No one seemed to care about getting home.
It was that kind of night.
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