Elvis Costello - 1980-08-17 Edinburgh

Elvis Costello And The Attractions
Playhouse Theatre
Edinburgh, Scotland
17 August 1980


01. Shot With His Own Gun - Costello & Nieve
02. Accidents Will Happen
03. The Beat
04. Temptation
05. Green Shirt
06. Lovers Walk
07. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
08. You'll Never Be A Man
09. High Fidelity
10. Secondary Modern
11. Lipstick Vogue
12. Clubland
13. Oliver's Army
14. Watching The Detectives
15. You Belong To Me
16. Pump It Up
17. I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down
18. Mystery Dance


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


Recorder: Unknown
Lineage: Unknown

Comments by area51GM:

40 years on ..............................................
Between recording "Trust" and the extra-curricular activities of Elvis working with The Specials and Squeeze, he still managed a handful of one-off concerts with The Attractions which may well have been chosen for their lucrative nature but also gave the band the opportunity to establish his newly composed songs and polish them prior to a final version being laid down in the studio for the new album. This gig in Edinburgh took place on the first night of the famed Edinburgh Festival and would be the second of only 3 appearances in the city during those frenetic periods of cultural celebrations, the other being in 1977 & 2002.
The gig kicks off with a dramatic and powerful statement with just Elvis and Steve premiering the magnificent "Shot With His Own Gun" one of Elvis' most distinctive and sensational songs with Steve's classical training being very much to the fore in his own piano interpretation. Elvis has used this particular format in a number of gigs both before and since where the full band has been kept in abeyance whilst new songs are performed in a stripped down manner but there is little that Bruce or Pete could have contributed to make this song any more special and unique. Once the rhythm section join the others, the next 5 songs serve as familiar performance for the players to accustom themselves a little and get back into the swing of playing together after a month apart. Once these are complete, Elvis introduces some of the newer songs. However this doesn't stop Steve playing a somewhat different ending segment to "Green Shirt" with descending arpeggios and with only the third performance of "Lovers Walk" there's a key change just before "Now love's limping on a lover's crutch" and a different flow to the song.
Just before the start of another debut, "You'll Never Be A Man" Elvis warns the punters of the dangers of the floor in the Playhouse Theatre and the possibility of the whole arena collapsing before he has a sly dig at the available space there for dancing! There's a slight cut at the end of "You Belong To Me" and the band reach their usual musical climax with a flurry of hard paced and exciting playing through "Pump It Up", "I Can't Stand Up" and "Mystery Dance".
I received this in trade from a Scottish dealer called Allan back in the early 80s who provided me with a number of recordings from the north of England as well as from Scotland, and who I believe was a source for a wide variety of recordings of bands around that time. A tip of the hat to him, this is probably a 2nd or 3rd generation copy.
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