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He's currently top of the album charts with his LP. He's high in the Top Ten with his single. He could fill the biggest concert halls in the land several times over...
Yet Elvis Costello, rock music's most enigmatic and arguably most creative force right now, is out in the sticks.
For his current gruelling tour of Britain takes in not one single city of any size. On Monday he came the nearest he'll be to Manchester — when he played at the Pavilion, Matlock, of all places.
And while the legions of fans in the big towns won't get to see him, venues in the rock and roll backwoods like Shrewsbury, Halifax and Margate are packed to the doors with fanatic, all-standing, audiences.
Why is it like this? Because single-minded, uncompromising Elvis Costello wants it that way. Like the Gospel, Costello is taking rock to the people.
So much his own man is he that when recording company giant WEA took over the independent Radar label which put out his records, Costello rebelled. It meant a delay in the release of his smash single "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" — but the die was cast. Costello set up his own label.
First fruits is his brilliant album Get Happy (F-Beat), 20 slick songs making the best kind of follow up to last year's Armed Forces and rivalling 78's This Year's Model.
You've probably seen the promotional TV advertisements for Get Happy when the hard sell is left to the man in charge... Costello himself.
He cuts an unlikely figure for a rock hero behind the owlish spectacles but he sees his own direction quite clearly. The record business and the rest of us just better believe it.
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