Elvis Costello - 1982-12-24 London

<<   1982-12-24 London

Elvis Costello And The Attractions, with The Imperial Horns
Royal Albert Hall
London, England
24 December 1982


01. Pills And Soap (incomplete) (playback)
02. New Amsterdam - EC solo
-   The World And His Wife  - EC solo -- removed as released commercially
03. Pidgin English
04. Hand In hand
05. Green Shirt
06. Shabby Doll
07. Backstabbers - King Horse
08. ...And In Every Home
09. Watching The Detectives - Help Me - includes It Takes Time
10. Kid About It
11. Temptation 
12. Mouth Almighty
13. From Head To Toe
14. Two Steps From the Blues 
-   Everyday I Write The Book -- removed as released commercially
15. You Belong To me
16. New Lace Sleeves
17. Good Year For The Roses
18. Almost Blue
19. Alison - includes Living A Little, Laughing A Little
20. Beyond Belief
21. Clubland
22. Imperial Bedroom (part)
23. Shot With His Own Gun - EC and SN
24. Baby Pictures - EC and SN
25. Big Tears 
26. Shipbuilding
27. Oliver's Army
28. Big Sister's Clothes
29. Possession - with The Imperial Horns
30. Secondary Modern - with The Imperial Horns
31. High Fidelity - with The Imperial Horns
32. Town Cryer - with The Imperial Horns
33. Watch Your Step - with The Imperial Horns
34. Man Out Of Time - with The Imperial Horns
35. Clowntime Is Over (slow version) - with The Imperial Horns
36. I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down - with The Imperial Horns
37. Pump It Up - with the The Imperial Horns


Elvis Costello - vocals, guitar
Steve Nieve - keyboards
Bruce Thomas - bass guitar
Pete Thomas - drums

Imperial Horns:

Dave Plews - flugelhorn, trumpet
Brian Brummitt - alto saxophone
Paul Speare - tenor saxophone
Jim Paterson - trombone


Recorder: Unknown
Lineage: Unknown


Comments by area51GM:

40 years on ................................
And an epic year ends up with two concerts sandwiching the Holy Season and these point clearly the way Elvis and The Attractions would be veering throughout 1983. Along with Paul Weller and his drive towards an every increasing soul vibe and Dexy's also ploughing similar stylistic movements, Elvis uses the brass section largely formed as part of Kevin Rowland's soul rebels to enhance the band at the end of the concerts. I have a little theory here that may be of interest (you can always skip this if you've had enough of my verbal diarrhoea) but I wonder if this was the start of the end of The Attractions as a watertight ensemble with the introduction of other musicians on stage and in the studio? Certainly the concerts from 1983 with the T.K.O. brass section lacked a subtlety that we've witnessed during this review of the 1982 shows and there were few variations in the setlists. The recording method of Winstanley and Langer would also have isolated the band so that just individual performances would have been recorded piecemeal (according to both Steve and Bruce) and the ability of these virtuoso musicians to play together and respond and react to each other would have become more limited and inhibited. Though maybe I just think too much about things that no longer matter!
Here we have the first of two shows in that terrible non-auditorium and although I can find no history of this being upped before, I can't believe it's not appeared before. MJK5510's comments on the earlier upload on 27 December discusses this concert and I'll add his text on 27th but this performance has the two commercially released tracks removed. His comments on the fact that the official releases are the wrong pitch is brilliant ! Many thanks as always .
The show begins with the taped intro (partly cut here) of "Pills And Soap" and then two solo songs only - the missing "The World And His Wife" and "New Amsterdam" followed by a steady stream of Attractions songs much like the previous U.K. tour format. The first encore sees two melodies played with just Steve Nieve, "Shot With His Own Gun" - making up for the fluffed performance from the beginning of the year with the R.P.O. as Elvis acknowledges. The second is the debut of a lovely ballad, "Baby Pictures" only played once more three nights later and never adapted or recorded for commercial release which seems a real loss to the public. After a typical encore of Attractions songs, they leave for a second encore and return with the Imperial Horns, with Elvis welcoming everyone to the Albert Hall Dance Hall!
I've taken this from the wiki FLAC files and not needed to adjust the pitch so someone has worked hard on it - many thanks to the anonymous sources.
My Lineage: FLAC files from wiki > TLH > Nero Platinum for pitch checking and fade adjustments > TLH > FLAC > you