EC and the Imposters play Auckland, NZ, Jan. 19, 2013

[And No Coffee Table]

Costello back for a summer's day out on the green after a long gap
5:30 AM Wednesday Oct 24, 2012

Veteran English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, who's had a hit-and-miss time on past New Zealand visits, is returning to play next year.

Costello and his band The Imposters - two-thirds of the line-up of his original backers The Attractions - will headline the A Day on The Green show at South Auckland's Villa Maria Estate on Saturday, January 19.

Costello was last here to perform at the ill-fated Sweetwaters festival in 1999 for which he and other performers went unpaid. He was also due to play The Grass Roots Festival in Auckland at Easter last year, which was cancelled due to slow ticket sales which promoters blamed on the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes.

This time, Costello is headlining the late afternoon-to-evening vineyard show with support from Don McGlashan and band The Seven Sisters, as well as Tim Finn and former Australian Crawl frontman James Reyne.

In recent years, the once-prolific Costello has pulled back on releasing albums, though he's remained busy as a live performer, a sometime TV presenter and a husband and father to his young twin sons with wife, Canadian jazz singer Diana Krall.

Costello - who was born Declan McManus - is a nominee for this year's induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside B.B. King, Ray Davies of the Kinks, Fleetwood Mac and the Eurythmics, among others.

Tickets for the show go on sale on November 1 while coming A Day on the Green shows at Villa Maria also feature Devo, Simple Minds and The Church (December 15) and the The Black Seeds, Fly My Pretties, and Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra (December 16).

[johnfoyle]

Win tickets -

http://www.viewauckland.co.nz/prizes/wi ... -1658.html

[johnfoyle]

Danielle posts to Facebook-


Elvis's Auckland show next month has been moved from the annoying winery to my absolute favourite local venue, the Civic Theatre. I don't know what this means about ticket sales, but Brent and I are very pleased!


http://www.ticketmaster.co.nz/event/240 ... norcatid=1

http://www.the-edge.co.nz/thecivic.aspx


http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU1212/S ... -venue.htm

Elvis Costello Change of Venue
Friday, 21 December 2012, 11:17 am
Press Release: Mushroom Group


Elvis Costello & the Imposters

One Show Only in New Zealand
Change of Venue to the Civic Theatre

Roundhouse Entertainment wishes to advise that the previously announced Elvis Costello and The Imposters concert at a day on the green Villa Maria has now changed venue to The Civic Theatre in Auckland. The concert date Saturday 19th January 2013 remains the same.

Elvis Costello and The Imposters will be joined by Don McGlashan at their only NZ show. Original support acts James Reyne and Tim Finn are no longer performing.

All tickets already purchased for the concert at Villa Maria have been relocated to The Civic Theatre show. Refunds are now also available from Ticketmaster if required.

For more information or if you would like to obtain a refund, please email customer.service@ticketmaster.co.nz by Friday 11th January 2013.

ELVIS COSTELLO
Elvis Costello has followed his musical curiosity in a career spanning more than three decades. He is probably best known for his performances with The Attractions, The Imposters and his concert appearances with Steve Nieve. In 2003 The Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame while he has twice won the prestigious Ivor Novello Songwriting Award. The extensive list of performers that he has enjoyed collaborations with – including his wife, the jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall - and that have covered his songs reflects his interest in a wide range of musical styles. His internationally acclaimed music television series “Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…. “perhaps best showcases this uniquely qualified musician, a songwriter and performer comfortable in almost every genre imaginable and a musicologist of formidable breadth and knowledge.

DON McGLASHAN – From “Anchor Me” to the Hollie Smith sung hit “Bathe in the River”, Don McGlashan has penned some of New Zealand’s most loved songs. Prolific throughout the 80s with Blam Blam Blam & The Front Lawn, the 90’s with The Mutton Birds, and the 00’s with solo albums and writing music for soundtracks and theatre shows, Don is showing no signs of slowing down.

SATURDAY JANUARY 19 – THE CIVIC THEATRE, AUCKLAND

TICKETS ON SALE NOW
From http://www.ticketmaster.co.nz Phone: 0800 111999

Three days before, at the same venue, The Waterboys , well worth seeing !

http://www.the-edge.co.nz/Event-Pages/U ... rboys.aspx

[johnfoyle]

Any subscriber here who can get the rest of this ?

http://www.listener.co.nz/culture/music ... the-songs/


Elvis Costello: every day he sings the songs

Forget releasing a new album – Elvis Costello is having too much fun performing live.

By Nick Bollinger

In Music
3rd January, 2013


The parlous state of the record business has seen a lot of veteran rockers returning reluctantly to the road at an age when they might have expected to be living comfortably off their record sales. But for Elvis Costello, who doesn’t have a record contract at the moment (“and I don’t particularly want one”), the situation has been reinvigorating. He’s returning to New Zealand this month for the first time since the fraught Sweetwaters festival in 1999, bringing his crack band the Imposters (pianist Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas from the original Attractions, plus dazzling ...

Subscribers can read the full version of this story.

[johnfoyle]

After paying a 1 Week (Snack) $5.00 (non-recurring) I get this -


http://www.listener.co.nz/culture/music ... the-songs/


Elvis Costello: every day he sings the songs

Forget releasing a new album – Elvis Costello is having too much fun performing live.

By Nick Bollinger

In Music
3rd January, 2013



The parlous state of the record business has seen a lot of veteran rockers returning reluctantly to the road at an age when they might have expected to be living comfortably off their record sales. But for Elvis Costello, who doesn’t have a record contract at the moment (“and I don’t particularly want one”), the situation has been reinvigorating.

He’s returning to New Zealand this month for the first time since the fraught Sweetwaters festival in 1999, bringing his crack band the Imposters (pianist Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas from the original Attractions, plus dazzling American bass player Davey Farragher) and an ever-changing set list.

The concert Costello will perform at Auckland’s Civic Theatre has its origins in the Spectacular Spinning Songbook, a device he first used in 1986 and revived for a tour of North American theatres last year. In place of a conventional set, songs were selected at random by audience members invited on stage to spin a 12-foot carnival-style wheel adorned with titles of Costello songs, both well-known and obscure.

We won’t be seeing the big wheel here, but the ongoing effect of this dance with chance is that Costello and his band have many times more material at their fingertips than most touring groups. “It’s reacquainted us with so many songs that our shows are very diverse now. Put us on a jazz festival, a bluegrass festival, a punk festival, a winery, a concert hall, we can do it. I mean, I have a terrific band. I sound like I’m boasting, but they really are; they can play anything and we’ve got 150 songs.”

Tunes that may not have got their due on disc can shine unexpectedly in live performance. That includes material from Costello’s most recent album, National Ransom, released two years ago.

At an hour in length (“and there were at least four more songs we could easily have put on there”), the album, in typical Costello fashion, gives you a lot to digest. It is packed with puns, arcane language and a smorgasbord of musical styles. Still, a jazz-flavoured ballad like Jimmy Standing in the Rain emerges as one of his leanest, most elegant compositions. “I would say that the album contains four or five of the best songs I’ve written, and I know it’s true because any time I play one of those songs it stops the show.”

If the album hasn’t had the acknowledgement given to his earlier discs, Costello isn’t blaming listeners, or even the music business. “To be truthful, it would be tremendous arrogance to assume that something you do 20 or 30 albums into a career is going to mean as much to people as something you do when you started.

“I know that people are pretty impatient, they don’t listen to albums as much as individual songs. These are more serious songs, they are kind of sombre; they were never going to be hit records, so in some ways we have found a more communicative framework for them in performance, because people are just not that focused on record albums anymore.”

That said, Costello enthuses at length about a concert he saw the night before we speak: Crosby, Stills and Nash performing their entire self-titled 1969 album in sequence for the first time. “It was absolutely unbelievable, to hear how they negotiated the dynamics of those songs. They played every song the way it should be played and seemed to take a lot of joy in doing it, and it was really great to witness it. So there’s an awful lot of ways to look at music that’s gone by without it becoming a burden, and it’s the same thing with finding a framework for newer songs.”

Costello doesn’t see himself releasing another album in the near future. In the meantime, the stage has become a viable and enjoyable place not just to air the hits (most of which Costello says he still enjoys) but also to play those overlooked songs. For the audience, too, it offers an experience quite different from sitting at home with your downloads.

“You buy the ticket, you’re going out of the house, you’re going to be part of something for an evening. The audience has a part in how well it goes. It’s not a movie. We’re up there trying to think on our feet. You don’t have to buy the album, you don’t have to read the reviews. You don’t even have to caress your mouse. You just have to turn up with your body and have a good time – or whatever time you’re planning on having.”

ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE IMPOSTERS, Civic Theatre, Auckland, January 19.

That said, Costello enthuses at length about a concert he saw the night before we speak: Crosby, Stills and Nash performing their entire self-titled 1969 album in sequence for the first time.

This show , perhaps?

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... k-20121023

[Jack of All Parades]

[quote="johnfoyle"]



Tunes that may not have got their due on disc can shine unexpectedly in live performance. That includes material from Costello’s most recent album, National Ransom, released two years ago.

At an hour in length (“and there were at least four more songs we could easily have put on there”), the album, in typical Costello fashion, gives you a lot to digest. It is packed with puns, arcane language and a smorgasbord of musical styles. Still, a jazz-flavoured ballad like Jimmy Standing in the Rain emerges as one of his leanest, most elegant compositions. “I would say that the album contains four or five of the best songs I’ve written, and I know it’s true because any time I play one of those songs it stops the show.”

If the album hasn’t had the acknowledgement given to his earlier discs, Costello isn’t blaming listeners, or even the music business. “To be truthful, it would be tremendous arrogance to assume that something you do 20 or 30 albums into a career is going to mean as much to people as something you do when you started."

Would appear he has a sound persepective on the worth of his own most recent recorded effort. Would love to bet on the 4 to 5 that he esteems- almost certain they mirror my favorites as well given the performances he has done of songs off of that record. Not certain I share his overall assessment that people no longer listen to albums- just songs. Might be true of my daughter's generation but not mine. I still very much hunger for the sound and textures of a complete record and that goes for the package that contains the album's songs as well. As to that final statement about a late career work and its being held in esteem like the earlier works that established an artist- I have only to offer Dylan and "Tempest" or Neil Young and "Psychedlic Pill" as counter arguments. Ransom ranks up in his catalog as these artists latest efforts in their catalogs. A real listener and fan knows this; I suspect he does deep down as well.

[verbal gymnastics]

Ransom ranks up in his catalog as these artists latest efforts in their catalogs. A real listener and fan knows this; I suspect he does deep down as well.

Of course he does - I think he's talking about younger people in the main in the interview. Many people listen in shuffle mode on their iPods etc. He's not talking about his long term fans but about a different [younger] generation.

[thepopeofpop]

Thanks for forking out the NZ$5 Mr Foyle! A good interview.

National Ransom is a fine album - certainly up there in his Top 10 - and would have been close to his all-time best with a little pruning. On the other hand, I see his point. There is such a thing as being too prolific - eventually the average fan does seem to glaze over in the face of so much material and as for the general public, well when you've done more than 30 albums they just don't know where to begin.

Also, Costello is no longer the critics' darling. Certain other aging songwriters only have to vaguely mumble something into a mike these days to get automatic A+ five star reviews while EC gets these sort of grudging "it's not bad" reviews. Not that EC needs critical adulation on a personal level, but it might help his music reach a wider (and younger) audience if it actually got some sort of recognition.

One thing EC (and the Imps) certainly can still do is wow a crowd, night after night - and no doubt he digs the instant feedback, plus he obviously just really, really likes singing live. I imagine that at some point in the future EC probably will have accumulated enough really good new songs to get the urge to put out some kind of collection of them. One thing about EC - he doesn't do things half-arsed and he never approaches things in a casual way. Sure, he sometimes does something mischievous like dropping 10 custom CDs randomly into record stores - but I really can't see him ever putting out songs ad hoc via an internet site on a regular basis. He's an all or nothing kind of guy.

[johnfoyle]

Who's going?

[johnfoyle]

Preview -

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/whats-o ... ew-Zealand

[johnfoyle]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment ... d=10859366


Elvis Costello: The main attraction

By Russell Baillie

Jan 17, 2013


Elvis is back in the building, at last. He talks to Russell Baillie.


Elvis Costello laughs down the line from New York when he's reminded that for him, playing in New Zealand can sometimes be an adventure.

The last time the celebrated veteran English singer-songwriter was here was in 1999 for the ill-fated Sweetwaters show. He effectively acted as whistleblower to the festival's financial debacle, but still took the stage.

Then he was meant to come in Easter 2011 to the planned initial GrassRoots Festival alongside other international acts. But the promoters of the outdoor show pulled the plug, citing low ticket sales after the Christchurch earthquake.

And this time he and his band the Imposters - two-thirds of his original backers the Attractions - were meant to headline one of the A Day on the Green shows at Villa Maria Estate on Saturday. But possibly wary of the risks involved in booking Costello outdoors here, promoters shifted the show to Civic.

"I am hoping no one ends up under house arrest. If we just get through the show without that it would be great," he chuckles.

Despite the move indoors, Costello won't be bringing the "Spectacular Spinning Songbook" format he's been touring to much acclaim for much of 2012 in the United States and Europe.

Those shows involved a giant spinning wheel featuring the names of songs from Costello's two dozen-plus albums dating back to punk-era 1977 debut My Aim is True. They would be spun by audience members to select the next track to be played.

It certainly meant that no two shows were ever the same and it gave things a Vaudeville edge, says Costello. And it meant that he and the band - longtime keyboardist Steve Nieve, original Attractions drummer Pete Thomas and American bassist Davey Faragher - now have some 150 well-drilled tracks in their repertoire.

"I really honestly think that although we are not bringing the wheel there you will see the benefit of it in the way we have approached it. I feel it has done us good for the Imposters as an outfit because we really haven't played as much over the previous couple of years ... we had only gone on tour when were obliged to play 55 minutes in front of the Police which mostly involved people in the audience working out who we were."

"Although Steve and I have a long history, we still try to play [the oldest songs] like we just made them up. We try to keep that way of thinking in the shows where we don't use any devices ... though we might bring a few.

"We might saw a few ladies in half."

Apart from a 2012 live album distilling the spinning wheel shows Costello hasn't released a new album since 2010's National Ransom.

That's after he almost delivered an album a year for most of the preceding decade, whether it was solo sets, albums with the Imposters or side projects with New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint, Swedish opera singer Anne Sofie von Otter or his ballet score Il Sogno.

It seems the live band work is what the 58-year-old Costello is happier doing these days.

"It's been a hundred times more successful than the last record I made," he says of the wheel shows, "which tells you a lot about whether I should be on the stage or in the studio. The thing is, the songs from the last group of recordings I made stop the show any time we've played them. I have no doubts about the quality of the material. I have no qualms about putting them into the show. But it doesn't necessarily mean I have to make more records to have to do that, Maybe the best place for the songs is actually on stage. Just play."

And Costello has found something else about performing some of his old material - that the stuff which commented on its era, whether it was the Falkland Wars-set Shipbuilding (a co-write with Clive Langer originally recorded by Robert Wyatt) or the anti-Margaret Thatcher ode Tramp the Dirt Down still resonate.

"If there's any sense to singing songs that were written a good while ago it is to find out why they matter to you now and also why they've lasted with the audience.

"In England, with Tramp the Dirt Down and Shipbuilding there was a remarkable very emotional reaction. It was humbling to hear that these songs had mattered to people ... there is some truth in these songs that people still want to hear."

"Not every song you write can have a life like that. But to have one or two like that is ... well, if you told me that was going to happen when I started out, I would have been happy with that."

But Costello has had quite a career. One that has veered into media with his musical talkshow Spectacle - "People tell me constantly I wish there were more and I say 'I think we were incredibly lucky. You do 20 at that standard and maybe shows 21 through 40 wouldn't have been as satisfying. We might not have been as lucky with the guests that we got'." - and as a contributor to Vanity Fair.

He's also had an autobiography he's been working on for years and sounds in no hurry to finish. His live work and family commitments - he has young twin sons with wife, jazz star Diana Krall, who is frequently away on tour too - means that, no, everyday he can't write the book.

"It's not a formal biography ... and if people are buying it to find the secret identity of someone in a song of mine they will probably be disappointed."

"For someone whose cultural significance is negligible and who has sold a handful of records through the years, there's already an amazing amount of words wasted analysing every little detail and that is true of everybody now. So why would you argue with that account? I am just not in the business of arguing with my own past or refighting battles with record companies or old girlfriends or ex-band members. I don't care about any of that.

"I feel that the only thing that would be of lasting value would be the account of things that nobody else knows. I am not really interested in a round of applause or a lap of honour for what I have done because I don't really think it matters that much."

Who: Elvis Costello and the Imposters
Where: Civic (formerly A Day on the Green at Villa Maria Estate)
When: Saturday, January 19

- TimeOut

[johnfoyle]

http://instagram.com/p/UqLUjMkROa/



https://twitter.com/virginiafrankov

elvis costello wore a really cool straw hat and pinstripe suit and all his fans in upper circle sat on chairs nodding heads & tapping thighs


https://twitter.com/conanrichards


Im at a white middle class convention. Oops, I mean an Elvis Costello concert.

[johnfoyle]

http://13thfloor.co.nz/reviews/concert- ... y-19-2013/




Elvis Costello set list:

I Hope You’re Happy Now
Heart Of The City
Radio Radio
Everyday I Write The Book
Either Side Of The Same Town
You Little Fool
Mouth Almighty
Song With Rose
(The Angels Want To Wear My) Red Shoes
Stations Of The Cross
Poisoned Rose
I Lost You
Crying Time
All This Useless Beauty
(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea
Watching The Detectives
Beyond Belief
Clubland
Alison
A Slow Drag With Josephine
Walkin’ My Baby Back Home
Jimmie Standing In The Rain
Shipbuilding
God Give Me Strength
Lipstick Vogue
I Want You
Oliver’s Army
Pump It Up
(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?


Elvis Costello – The Civic Theatre January 19, 2013

Marty Duda

It could have been called “The Many Moods Of Elvis Costello”. In a two-hour set that featured 29 songs, Costello played everything from punk to country, ballads to rockers, old time standards to newly-fashioned classics, he ranged from angry and bitter to charming and romantic. And with 35 years of his own songs under his belt, he proved that he deserves to be ranked among the best songwriters of the rock & roll era.

Sporting a Panama hat, looking trim and beard-free and chewing casually on a stick of gum, Elvis Costello, along with his band, The Imposters, took the stage just before 9pm. His attire and demeanour immediately reminded me of Bob Dylan, with a bit of Woody Allen and Charlie Chaplin thrown in for good measure.

The Imposters consist of Steve Nieve (keyboards) and Pete Thomas (drums), both of whom were members of The Attractions, along with Davey Faragher on bass. They got right down to business, starting the evening with one of Elvis’s most vicious tunes, I Hope You’re Happy Now from 1986’s Blood & Chocolate.

Having decided to stop making new music after 2010’s National Ransom album, Costello had no album to push, a situation that allowed him to cherry-pick through his impressive catalogue, throwing in a few choice covers along the way. In fact, Nick Lowe’s Heart Of The City came up next, followed by another rocker, Radio Radio.

“How ya been? Seems just like yesterday”, Costello remarked before a jaunty Everyday I Write The Book. After that, he made a reference to his last appearance in New Zealand, the troubled Sweetwaters Festival of 1999. “It’s good to be back. Last time I was at Auckland airport I was departing, rather quickly, followed by a mob of people with pitchforks and flaming torches”, he quipped. This being the “first show of this particular run, we decided to scare up a couple of tunes we haven’t played for awhile”. They then proceed to play two songs from 1982’s Imperial Bedroom, You Little Fool and Mouth Almighty.

Bassist Davey Faragher provided backing vocals throughout the evening and was particularly tuneful on Song For Rose, a tune Elvis wrote with Rosanne Cash.

Then came the first song of the evening from My Aim Is True, Costello’s classic 1977 debut album. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes sounded Ok, but the old venom wasn’t really there.

Better was the jazzy Poisoned Rose from King Of America. Elvis really put on am impressive vocal performance and he was grinning broadly at the end, as if to say, “Nailed it!”

From there, Elvis strapped on his acoustic guitar to show off his country side with a song he co-wrote with Jim Lauderdale, I Lost You. That was followed by Crying Time, the Buck Owens weeper made famous by Ray Charles.

The old rock & roll fire was rekindled during (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea, with Elvis breaking out his wah wah pedal. A deliciously jagged Watching The Detectives followed quickly.

Costello and the band closed the regular set with a couple more oldies. Clubland showed off the dexterity of the band and Costello’s guitar playing prowess and Alison was treated to a unique arrangement that featured segments of Jimi Hendrix’s The Wind Cries Mary and Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

With 19 songs performed in and hour and 20 minutes, most acts would call it a night, but it turned out there was plenty more to come.

Elvis returned to the stage alone…”The others are backstage putting on makeup and lipstick for the glam-rock finale,” he told us.

Armed with just his acoustic guitar he introduced A Slow Drag With Josephine, a song from National Ransom. “This is rock & roll like it used to be in 1922”.

Elvis was clearly in the mood for old-time tunes, treating the crowd to his version of Walkin’ My Baby Back Home and Jimmie Standing In The Rain.

The Imposters re-joined Elvis (sans makeup) for Shipbuilding. By this time Costello had put down his guitar and was holding his mic, pacing the stage, singing.

This continued with God Give Me Strength, the song Elvis wrote with Burt Bacharach. It is a beautiful song, but I have to admit that I’ve never enjoyed Elvis’ own version. He is in crooning mode at this point and his voice just doesn’t sound pleasant here. I guess he’s doing the best with the tools he’s been given.

He is, however, a much better rock singer, and he proves that on Lipstick Vogue. Steve Nieve gets a chance to show off his Theremin one this tune.

I Want You, from Blood & Chocolate is among the evening’s high points. It’s gripping, snarling and downright nasty. Elvis throws in another wicked guitar solo and it looks like the evening is going to end on a dark note.

But, as they say on TV, that’s not all. Oliver’s Army has everyone up and singing along, Pump It Up has arms flailing in the air and finally the night ends with Nick Lowe’s (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding.

It took a few songs for Elvis to get into fighting shape, but once he got there, there was no stopping him. I don’t think there’ll be any pitchforks meeting him at the airport this time.

[Jack of All Parades]

Always thought the current incarnation of the Wheel was more of a hindrance- that is a nice set list and I like the nods to Imperial Bedroom and Trust. These should be some fun shows for those attending sans the Wheel-that is a good stroll through the song book.

[johnfoyle]

One minor fact quibble re.the blog account – Mouth Almighty is from Punch The Clock (1983) , not Imperial Bedroom (’82), performed by Elvis for the first time since 1998 ( in Milan , Italy at the Teatro Lirico , Feb. 16th.).

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... h_Almighty

[bronxapostle]

SONG WITH ROSE..........A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[johnfoyle]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment ... d=10860309

Concert review: Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Civic Theatre

By Russell Baillie

Sunday Jan 20, 2013




Originally, the long-awaited return of Elvis Costello was as headliner at another A Day on the Green vineyard concert.

Fortuitously, the show was pulled indoors and reduced to one support - just a short charming solo turn by Don McGlashan doing nifty things with guitar, voice, and loop pedal. He created disarming intimate versions of old songs of his like Don't Fight it Marsha and Andy.

That also meant that Costello and the Imposters - two thirds of his original backers The Attractions - had two hours on stage in front of an attentive seated audience, rather than facing a pinot gris-fuelled hoard just wanting to party like it was 1979.

Instead, we got a dense, often intense but ultimately terrifically entertaining performance of more than two dozen songs pulled from all over the 58 year-old English singer-songwriter's 35-year career.

There was much to remind that Costello's songbook is a deep, long, wide thing. True, he did sprinkle touchstones from those breakthrough New Wave era years in the latter stages of the both main set and the encore.

But often they were stretched into thrilling new shapes - an extended Watching the Detectives scorched the sunny reggae lope of the original with Costello's welding arc guitar.

So too was a seething dramatic I Want You during the encore, while the likes of Alison, I Don't Want to Go To Chelsea and Everyday I Write the Book also came with renewed spark.

It was also a show that managed to make a virtue of some drastic shifts of style and pace - one minute it was Costello the pop classicist belting out with maximum vibrato God Give Me Strength from his Burt Bacharach co-write album Painted from Memory; a few minutes later it was Costello the once angry young man spitting out the pneumatic lyrics of Pump It Up and still sounding like he meant it.

While they might have been Imposters, they sure weren't faking it - especially Steve Nieve who swung around his keyboards like a hyperactive mad scientist offering all sorts of deft and elegant touches. At the final bow, you half expected him to wave an extra pair arms aloft in triumph.

Of late, Costello's touring in the northern hemisphere involved a giant spinning wheel to spontaneously select the setlist as a way to deal with that grand catalogue - between 1977 debut My Aim is True and his last, 2010's National Ransom, he's almost managed an album a year if you count collaboration projects and live sets.

Here though, while the light show hinted at it, there was no wheel. It also strayed outside the lines on some covers of country swingers Walkin' My Baby Back Home and Crying Time.

Covering his one-time producer Nick Lowe's ye olde pub-rocker Heart of the City as the second song of the night was neatly bookended by the closing (What's So Funny `Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?, another Lowe tune which Costello has long made his own.

And after two hours, it wasn't a show to leave you wanting more. But it was captivating to see Costello up close, digging deep, delivering a rich core sample from that vast motherlode of songs.

Yes, that was quite a spectacle.

[johnfoyle]

Photos -

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... 8874,d.ZG4