Elvis Costello Fan Forum

Fantastic. Quirky, catchy tune, typically brilliant lyrics with some laugh-out-loud good rhymes. Unlike anything on Look Now but perhaps sonically reminiscent of some of WIWC? 65 and still at the top of his game, these are good times. Love it.

For the sake of posterity, here is the Elvis Costello Essentials playlist on Apple Music: No Flag, Single, 3:56 The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes, My Aim Is True, 2:46 Unwanted Number, Look Now, 3:33 Pump It Up, This Year's Model, 3:18 (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?, Armed...

At about 58 minutes into Steve Nieve's recent show on Facebook, with Elvis guesting, Muriel mentions that Sebastian Krys is watching. It prompts Elvis to drop some interesting hints about what seems to be ongoing sessions involving the Look Now producer. I imagine it's some kind of internet link up...

I love the disparity in all this -- so, for example, Episode Of Blonde is terrific - and I'm trying not to rave like a man possessed with no critical faculties here - I'll never forget the start of the London Astoria gig with My Little Blue Window and the shivers that went up my spine at that momen...

I don't think either is remotely 'a clunker', but FWIW there are a lot more tracks on WIWC which I regularly listen to than there are tracks on TRIR which I regularly listen to. So, using that criterion, TRIR loses. Although I do think the title tack of TRIR is one of the best things he's ever writt...

The homemade yet aggressive sound reminded me somewhat of National Ransom No. 2 from 2011 or so. I gave it another listen and remembered thinking at the time how much I wished he’d do an album entirely like that — just him performing everything — and I wonder if we’re finally getting that now? I do...

I think it's good but agree with SL in as far as you can pretty much spin a fruit machine of EC tracks, see what comes up, and get a fantastic 20-track CD out of the traps every time. I like the focus, in yours, on the darker/rowdier tracks, though. As a thought-experiment...if you had to drop five ...

Remarkable. A reminder that, at 65, he can knock it out of the park with a flick of the wrist. If this had been released in 1978 it would be a standard encore to this day.

Agree that it was a great show, I've only seen Liverpool and Manchester this time out, Liverpool was fine, but man, he was on fire last night. Really going for it. I took a longtime friend and serious Dylan fan - we take each other to our idols' gigs from time to time as a kind of competition, I sup...

sulky lad wrote:I clearly remember a snippet of JSB’s “Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desiring” in a live version of “I Want You”

Hasn't Steve inserted sections of that into 'The Only Flame in Town' before now? Even on the recorded version - try here from 2:50.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04UjhPm2Z_A

I'm up for this, and very excited. First date of a new tour, and in Liverpool. Mrs H is a scouser and the house she grew up in is less than two miles from the venue so that's a good start. Plus all of EC's Liverpool connections - last time I saw him was at the Phil in 2016 when his Mum was there, an...

I don't know if it strictly qualifies as 'marmite', but, for me, some of the classical stuff. Il Sogno , for example. I don't hate it or anything, but I only bought it because there was an Elvis involvement. I wouldn't have bought it otherwise. And I've played it, maybe, two-and-a-half times. Same w...

I bought the (I think, first edition of the) book and then had a brief exchange of letters with Dave Gouldstone about a couple of things in the book. That's how we had to do things, pre-internet. When the revised 'God's Comic' edition came out, Dave was kind enough to thank me in the acknowledgement...

Colywn Bay : Clive Langer and the Boxes supporting. yeah supporting the next night in Southport too. Obviously decades ago now, but I think I was a bit disappointed with Clive and his band. I loved Deaf School, so was hoping for more of the same from one of their leading lights. Clearly he went on ...

Not to be pedantic, but Belmont actually ably filled in for Steve Nieve after Steve had a car accident and couldn't make several dates during the tour which followed the release of Get Happy , including the night at the Hope and Anchor in 1980. Bruce did cut his hand a year or two earlier and was s...

sulky lad wrote:Hawksmoor at Colwyn Bay...

Clive Langer and the Boxes supporting. Which, given that that was my first 'proper' gig, makes them the first band I really saw live. I went out and bought their LP, 'Splash' the next day. It's not great, to be honest, but it still holds an affectionate place in my heart.

I knew it - the UK tour is going to mimic the Get Happy! Tour of 1980 and do all the out of the way places, Yeovil, Fishguard, Hastings , Bere Alston ( my Home village ) and even more obscurely Goodison and Orpington :shock: That would be fantastic. The first time I saw EC was at the legendary Dixi...

One thing I think we can rule out is this guy - a man called John Pope born in Prince William county... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pope_(Kentucky_politician) Ha! That's brilliant. 'One-Arm Pope'. I now have a great image of somebody coming up to him in the pub and saying 'why do they call...

Very eloquent debate. Just a small point Hawksmoor on your comment on the “Prince William” line from Little Palaces, I always took that as a reference to William Prince of Orange. The lyric goes on to reference the Pope, and E.C. would be well aware that different sides of the religious divide in L...

This gets back to the brawl you wandered into. Consider how all this has looked from the outside: "Hey, this guy whose music we all like just got some kind of state honour for his music. Pretty nice, huh?" To which came the reply from some quarters: "ARGH!!! How could this happen?? T...

I think you are greatly overestimating the extent of EC's "social media team". It seems clear to me that this team consists of EC himself and perhaps occasionally some slice of the time of an underpaid functionary at Macklam and Feldman. EC probably planned those song postings ahead of ti...

So you're old and Scottish? 'Every day when I wake up, I thank the Lord I'm Welsh'. And yes, probably 'old', although it's all relative these days. Maybe you're just a guy who wandered into the bar just as the brawl was winding down and got himself pasted for his trouble. On the other hand, you did...

sulky lad wrote:Hawksmoor please see my PM - even more relevant since your first post !

Replied to...I hope. I can't get the knack somehow. It's still appearing in my Outbox rather than my 'Sent' box...PM me again I you haven't received.

I think you have set this up as an either/or thing, but that's just the way you see it. Well...yeah. That is the way I see it, if I'm honest. I've set it up as an either/or thing because - to me - the two things of publicly saying 'I'm going to accept this award because...' and publicly saying 'the...

My dearest Hawksmoor, To put it nicely, you may want to consider the possibility that EC's Facebook and other communications are not intended exclusively for the consumption of the tiny subset of his fans that feel substantially conflicted or negative about his accepting the OBE. Furthermore, to pu...