London Independent, June 9, 2013: Difference between revisions
m (update previous in browser) |
(formatting / linkage) |
||
| Line 2: | Line 2: | ||
{{:Bibliography index}} | {{:Bibliography index}} | ||
{{:London Independent index}} | {{:London Independent index}} | ||
{{:UK & | {{:UK & Ireland newspapers index}} | ||
{{Bibliography article header}} | {{Bibliography article header}} | ||
<center><h3> | <center><h3> Elvis Costello's army bares its soul once more </h3></center> | ||
---- | ---- | ||
<center> Simon Price </center> | <center> Simon Price </center> | ||
---- | ---- | ||
'''The old man of New Wave leaves his setlist to luck these days, and the wheel of fate turns up some gems | |||
{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
As a stand-up comedian, Elvis Costello makes an excellent singer-songwriter. Minutes into the show, Costello replaces his trilby with a topper, brandishes a silver-capped cane and adopts a persona somewhere between Bruce Forsyth on The Generation Game and a circus ringmaster, complete with corny American accent. A natural comic he ain't. But you warm to him for trying. | As a stand-up comedian, Elvis Costello makes an excellent singer-songwriter. Minutes into the show, Costello replaces his trilby with a topper, brandishes a silver-capped cane and adopts a persona somewhere between Bruce Forsyth on ''The Generation Game'' and a circus ringmaster, complete with corny American accent. A natural comic he ain't. But you warm to him for trying. | ||
The set-up of the 13 Revolvers tour is familiar. On a set that's half funfair sideshow and half Sixties supper-club, the titles of approximately 40 Costello songs are painted on a wheel of fortune, spun by audience members, to ensure that every show is different. It also allows for unscripted chortles, like the wisecrack from a superfan called Ant, stood next to his hero: "It's the Ant & Dec Show …." | The set-up of the 13 Revolvers tour is familiar. On a set that's half funfair sideshow and half Sixties supper-club, the titles of approximately 40 Costello songs are painted on a wheel of fortune, spun by audience members, to ensure that every show is different. It also allows for unscripted chortles, like the wisecrack from a superfan called Ant, stood next to his hero: "It's the Ant & Dec Show …." | ||
| Line 16: | Line 16: | ||
As a rapid-fire format for Costello and his Imposters – bassist Davey Faragher plus Attractions stalwarts Pete Thomas and Steve Nieve (who absconds in the encores to play the Hall's massive organ) – to showcase his back-catalogue, it's fine. And it is mostly back-cat: Costello's upcoming album with The Roots can wait. | As a rapid-fire format for Costello and his Imposters – bassist Davey Faragher plus Attractions stalwarts Pete Thomas and Steve Nieve (who absconds in the encores to play the Hall's massive organ) – to showcase his back-catalogue, it's fine. And it is mostly back-cat: Costello's upcoming album with The Roots can wait. | ||
It opens with his cover of Sam & Dave's "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" | It opens with his cover of Sam & Dave's "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down." It's followed by "High Fidelity" whose Supremes-referencing first words are "Some things you never get used to." Which establishes Costello's credentials as a soul fan, if not quite a soul man. Regardless of the strength of his voice, which he demonstrates unamplified off-mic, its tone is too adenoidal for that. | ||
There comes a day in everyone's life where they're grown-up enough to get Elvis Costello, and I passed it some time ago. At 13, his pedal steel-drenched cover of George Jones's "Good Year For The Roses" was insufferably schmaltzy, but now it's almost painfully close to the bone. Funny, that. | There comes a day in everyone's life where they're grown-up enough to get Elvis Costello, and I passed it some time ago. At 13, his pedal steel-drenched cover of George Jones's "Good Year For The Roses" was insufferably schmaltzy, but now it's almost painfully close to the bone. Funny, that. | ||
"Oliver's Army" | "Oliver's Army," though, is the big one. When you're a child, it's just a jolly romping pop melody. Then you figure out it's one of the most chilling political pop songs of all time. Its power is the sound of measured anger, articulated with restraint. Nowadays, sneaking a song about The Troubles, complete with the provocatively loaded phrase "white nigger" to No. 2 in the charts, seems impossibly audacious. Performed half-quiet half-loud, it's requested tonight by a woman whose father is dying of cancer. Costello agrees immediately. | ||
It's not the only moving moment: it's touching to hear the entire Albert Hall singing "Alison, I know this world is killing you …" Nor is it the only late Seventies smash. It's commonplace to credit The Clash with pioneering the rock-reggae cross-over, but nearly all the old punks had a try, not least Costello, whose "Watching The Detectives" and "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea" are immaculate exercises in paranoiac reggae-noir. | It's not the only moving moment: it's touching to hear the entire Albert Hall singing ''"Alison, I know this world is killing you …"'' Nor is it the only late Seventies smash. It's commonplace to credit The Clash with pioneering the rock-reggae cross-over, but nearly all the old punks had a try, not least Costello, whose "Watching The Detectives" and "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea" are immaculate exercises in paranoiac reggae-noir. | ||
"Some people won't like this …" | "Some people won't like this …," he apologises before a track which was namechecked almost as often as "Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead" this April. "But as long as there are still people about who believe the things she believed, and are doing the things she did, we can keep singing this song." The song is "Tramp The Dirt Down." And it's not even the night's most powerful anti-Thatcher song. That would be the haunting, Falklands-inspired "Shipbuilding," which recently merited its own Radio 4 documentary. | ||
An even more potent attack on Conservative values, "Pills And Soap," didn't make the wheel. And another personal favourite, "Everyday I Write The Book," refused to get picked. But you can't have everything. In the words of Steven Wright – unlike Costello, a proper comedian – where would you put it? | |||
{{cx}} | {{cx}} | ||
{{Tags}} [[ | |||
{{Tags}}[[Concert 2013-06-04 London|Royal Albert Hall]] {{-}} [[London]] {{-}} [[The Imposters]] {{-}} [[Davey Faragher]] {{-}} [[Pete Thomas]] {{-}} [[Steve Nieve]] {{-}} [[I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down]] {{-}} [[High Fidelity]] {{-}} [[Good Year For The Roses]] {{-}} [[Oliver's Army]] {{-}} [[Watching The Detectives]] {{-}} [[Alison]] {{-}} [[(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea]] {{-}} [[Tramp The Dirt Down]] {{-}} [[Pills And Soap]] {{-}} [[Shipbuilding]] {{-}} [[Everyday I Write The Book]] {{-}} [[Sam & Dave]] {{-}} [[Margaret Thatcher]] {{-}} [[The Roots]] {{-}} [[George Jones]] {{-}} [[The Clash]] {{-}} [[The Attractions]] {{-}} [[:Category:The Revolver Tour|The{{nb}}Revolver Tour]] | |||
{{cx}} | {{cx}} | ||
{{Bibliography notes header}} | {{Bibliography notes header}} | ||
| Line 39: | Line 42: | ||
'''The Independent, June 8, 2013 | '''The Independent, June 8, 2013 | ||
---- | ---- | ||
[[Simon Price]] reviews Elvis Costello | [[Simon Price]] reviews Elvis Costello & [[The Imposters]], Tuesday, [[Concert 2013-06-04 London|June 4, 2013]], Royal Albert Hall, London, England. | ||
{{Bibliography images}} | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
[[Image:2013-06- | [[Image:2013-06-08 London Independent photo 01 br.jpg|380px|border]] | ||
<small><!--Elvis Costello plays his hits to a backdrop that’s half funfair, half supper-club-->Photo | <br><small><!--Elvis Costello plays his hits to a backdrop that’s half funfair, half supper-club-->Photo by [[Brian Rasic]]/Rex Features.<small> | ||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} | ||
| Line 53: | Line 56: | ||
*[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/simon-price-on-pop-elvis-costellos-army-bares-its-soul-once-more-8650731.html Independent.co.uk] | *[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/simon-price-on-pop-elvis-costellos-army-bares-its-soul-once-more-8650731.html Independent.co.uk] | ||
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Independent Wikipedia: The Independent] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Independent Wikipedia: The Independent] | ||
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Price Wikipedia: Simon Price] | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:London Independent 2013-06-08}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:London Independent 2013-06-08}} | ||
| Line 59: | Line 63: | ||
[[Category:London Independent| London Independent 2013-06-08]] | [[Category:London Independent| London Independent 2013-06-08]] | ||
[[Category:Newspaper articles]] | [[Category:Newspaper articles]] | ||
[[Category:2013 concert reviews]] | [[Category:2013 concert reviews]] | ||
[[Category:The Revolver Tour|~London Independent 2013-06-08]] | |||
Revision as of 02:02, 16 March 2021
|
