Hammersmith

frank · Post by **frank** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 5:49 am

What strikes me, when I reed the English reviews, is that they seem to talk more about the person 'Costello' than about his music. They want to classify Costello but they can't; the English press really seems to have a problem with that. Do they still bother to listen to his music? I wonder.

A big difference with the European press (for instance here in Belgium) where the reviewers don't have any problems with the different faces of Costello and are writing about what it's all about: his music en the quality of his concerts.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 8:42 am

It was a great show and the meet up beforehand was good too. It was great to meet Muggy, Jackson and DrJ for the first time as well as seeing SoLack, BWAP and Otis again.

There were no great surprises though apart from possibly Temptation.

Personally, I didn't think You Turned To Me worked as a band version and The Scarlet Tide is far far better with Elvis playing solo on the ukelele. Jackson - if you thought the band version was good you should see that!

It was interesting in that at Brighton he played encores. At this show - and subsequently - the audiences have been encourages to get up during Pump It Up and then he's playing the show straight through. I think he feels the momentum will be lost if he pauses for an encore.

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 8:51 am

I preferred the Bournemouth ukelele version of Scarlet Tide too.

I think he's just trying to fit more in before the curfews, and doesn't want to waste time by going through the rigmarole of encores.

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 5:35 am

.......and there I was on Monday half watching 'Britains fave love songs' on channel five when Paul Morley kept popping up making caustic comments about the trashier songs. He, and a couple other 'experts' made it just about worth watching.

By the way No1 was Unchained Melody and No.2 Love Me Tender. Fair enough I suppose but also in the top 5 (maybe no3 can't remember) was Lady In Red....................

excuse me I had to go and puke.

Jackson Monk · Post by **Jackson Monk** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 6:24 pm

If you're quick you can catch a 'shock' positive (if v.basic) review of the Hammersmith Apollo gig on Ceefax atm. Go to page 530 for the link.

oily slick · Post by **oily slick** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 11:48 pm

did i miss the photos of you folks somewhere?

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 4:08 am

Yes, and I'm to blame. Remedy coming soon.

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 7:24 pm

http://brex.org/musicblog/index.php?p=12

12/2/2005
Elvis Costello @ Hammersmith Apollo

Filed under: Music— breX @ 4:55 pm

Went to see Elvis Costello in concert on Thursday this week. Think we were amongst the youngest in the audience.. Didn’t seem like Mr Costello has been discovered by the new generations, which is a shame cause his latest studio productions have been very good, not least ‘Delivery Man’, out late last year, but the man isn’t exactly aiming for Pepsi top 40!

I was surprised to learn that our dedicated seats were on the last row on the balcony, downer… Not easy to ‘connect’ when one is that far from the action, Hammersmith Apollo is a relatively large venue, and very elongated too…

Elvis Costello is a special - especially special - & truly original artist. He’s an entertainer, singer, songwriter, producer with clear folk music roots who doesn’t seem to care much about music trends & popular opinion. Through his ~30-year career he has worked on so many different projects that I couldn’t even mention half of them.. He has touched on opera, film, orchestral symphonies & music genres like folk, country, pop, rock, punk & more. A prolific genre-hopper as the BBC calls him.

As with most people, I like some of his work more than the other, but I have enormous respect for him as an artist.

This evening he just didn’t want to leave the stage; must have enjoyed himself to another level, & he ended up playing 2 ½ hours (no support act). The band kept returning to stage after they seemed to be finished for the night, much to the delight of everyone in the audience. He played a mixed set of old and new which confused me a bit, but it was phenomenal. I don’t personally know his 80s material that well, but it seemed like most of the ‘mature’ viewers disagreed with me on that. The band struggled to get some energy back from an exclusively seated audience, but managed to get them/us of our bums and raised the temperature towards the end… 2 ½ hours is a long time to sit crammed into an old Victorian theatre seat, but if 50 yr old Costello can operate his intense vocals for that long, then I can sit still for that long. A truly thrilling experience!

PS. Something I could not understand though, is why they closed the bar at 9pm mid-way through the gig, hmmm, not good.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 8:11 am

According to John Everingham's site there is a DVD bootleg of this show

http://www.elviscostello.info/disc/boot ... deo_05.php

If anyone has it could they PM me please. I'll be your friend. Forever (this may not be a good thing though!).

Cheers
VG

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 4:33 pm

CD, yes, DVD no:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... eName=WDVW

What's 'Shotgun', which Uncomplicated segued into? That passed me by!

King Teddy Wogan · Post by **King Teddy Wogan** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 1:04 pm

Does anyone have any photos from this show, not the ones taken by the professionals, woud be interested in seeing them!

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 4:54 pm

Yes, I have some not great ones, and ones of board members. Too pissed off with the tedium of having to mail them to Spooky rather than being able to load them myself to have got round to doing anything with them. Sorry, folks.

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 3:48 am

Ah, the long promised Otis Bailey photographs raises it's ugly head again.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 10:23 am

Otis Westinghouse wrote:What's 'Shotgun', which Uncomplicated segued into? That passed me by!

It's a great song by Junior Walker & The All Stars

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 2:02 pm

How many tequilas did I have?

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:17 pm

Confucius he say "Never lose count of your Tequilas".

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 3:56 am

Otis Westinghouse wrote:How many tequilas did I have?

As I remember it was

One tequila
Two tequila
Three tequila
Floor

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 6:46 pm

http://www.pbase.com/lindarocks/elvis

An intimate night with Napoleon Dynamite

An intimate evening with Elvis Costello and the Imposters at the Hammersmith Odeon - I will never get used to it being the 'Carling Apollo' - it's always Hammy Odeon to me.

Fourth row seats and Elvis in the mood to be photographed - he saw me and he moved his mike stand to the front of the stage just in front of me quite deliberately. He graciously let me get my fill of photographs over three songs or so and I am truly grateful to get a second shot at photographing the master songsmith ( the first such occasion was in about 1980).

I was worried about being stopped but had no problems with using my camera at all.

How I wish I could get that man into my studio for a properly lit session but he doesn't even know I exist. Such a shame when he is such a huge part of my world.

For more than twenty five years I have been watching him play all over the UK - I don't know how many times I've seen him play but it is certainly in the dozens. For more than twenty five years I have anticipated and eagerly awaited the next gem of an album.

Photos , including -

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 6:47 pm

Nice one. Some great shots there, and I enjoyed the Edwyn gallery too. And Cornwall - what light!