Pictures (and brief review) of Edinburgh Show
Pictures (and brief review) of Edinburgh Show
Just a few pics from the show tonight. I committed a schoolboy error and took a battery that was nearly used up...
Last edited by Gilbert on Mon Feb 14, 2005 7:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Four eyes - one vision
It was a tremendous show and Elvis and the band were in fantastic form (and voice). I don't have a setlist as I was too busy enjoying the show but they played straight through for just under 2.5 hours.
Highlights for me were the opening Blue Chair, You Bowed Down, the songs from North and In the Darkest Place. They performed almost all of The Delivery Man and ended with a simply beautiful rendition of The Scarlet Tide.
I have seen Elvis over 30 times now and this was one of the best I have ever been to. An added bonus was that I was in the third row of the stalls and it was like having your favourite band perform in your living room. I was in heaven.
The crowd were a bit subdued, although the Usher Hall was almost full. Things only really got going with Pump It Up when some girls started to dance down in front of the stage and even old stiff-arses like myself got up to groove gracefully.
A great night was had by all - roll on the next time whenever that may be.
Highlights for me were the opening Blue Chair, You Bowed Down, the songs from North and In the Darkest Place. They performed almost all of The Delivery Man and ended with a simply beautiful rendition of The Scarlet Tide.
I have seen Elvis over 30 times now and this was one of the best I have ever been to. An added bonus was that I was in the third row of the stalls and it was like having your favourite band perform in your living room. I was in heaven.
The crowd were a bit subdued, although the Usher Hall was almost full. Things only really got going with Pump It Up when some girls started to dance down in front of the stage and even old stiff-arses like myself got up to groove gracefully.
A great night was had by all - roll on the next time whenever that may be.
Four eyes - one vision
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From bill, eclistserv
Elvis made the cover of the Edinburgh Evening News today, as well as getting a
pretty good write up. OK, so it's only a local rag but......
just a couple of surprises last night. You Bowed Down and Hidden Shame made
appearences, but otherwise a fairly similar running order to other UK shows.
Siut of Lights and Favorite Hour appeared too, although on the latter attempts
to sing through the guitar pickup didn't go too well, although marks for
persistance after feedback and no sound didn't stop him trying.
Having seen set lists from earlier in the tour, I was expecting an out and out
Rock and Roll show similar to Glasgow at the end of last year, but this was
rather more subdued than that. The voice was a bit on the husky/croaky side for
a lot of the gig, but it didn't seem to hold him back much and only really
hampered him on a couple of occasions. I must say I enjoyed the bits where
DF filled in for EmmyLou!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/print ... =174322005
Tue 15 Feb 2005
Elvis leaves the building to a standing ovation
MUSIC REVIEW
SIMON MCKENZIE
Elvis Costello and The Imposters ****
Usher Hall
ELVIS COSTELLO has spent much of his career deconstructing failed relationships and examining why people can so easily go from loving each other to hating and hurting each other, so it comes as no surprise that he makes no direct reference to Valentine’s Day at the Usher Hall.
"I guess the reason we’re not talkin’, there’s so little left to say we haven’t said", he sings in Good Year for the Roses, but having nothing left to say is one accusation you could never level at Costello.
He plays a good deal of his most recent long-player, Delivery Man, but rather than hawking it like a travelling mountebank, he intersperses the album’s best songs with as comprehensive a career retrospective as even the most demanding fan could hope for.
And the best songs from Delivery Man can stand proudly alongside Costello’s classics that still see him filling venues of this size around the world.
Needle Time and the title track will no doubt figure in his live repertoire for many years, the former in particular proving he has lost none of his lyrical bite. But for all his scathing lines, Costello is still an old pro when it comes to entertaining. He strikes poses for the press photographers during instrumental breaks and sings through the pickups of a cheap guitar he picked up in a Mississippi backwater, much to the delight of the crowd.
His backing band are also seasoned veterans - drummer Pete Thomas and manic keyboardist Steve Nieve were in Costello’s first great backing band, The Attractions, and bassist Davey Farragher has served with the likes of John Hiatt and Cracker.
Initially their sound is a little muddied as they blast out old rockers like Uncomplicated, but things soon clear up as Costello moves into newer and less sonically forthright material like Country Darkness that gives the band room to breathe.
(I Don’t Want to Go To) Chelsea is played fast and a little flat, losing some of the sinister swagger of the recorded version, but it is far from just a perfunctory run-through. When I Was Cruel shows Costello at his best lyrically and with his guitar, coaxing forlorn wails from it as gut-wrenching as any of his lyrics.
That song then morphs into Watching the Detectives, and later on when the unmistakable throbbing beat of Pump It Up fills the old hall, Costello exhorts the crowd to come forward and dance. He tampers with delightful old favourite Alison, turning it into Suspicious Minds, before launching into What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace Love and Understanding and Oliver’s Army.
But lest any couples enjoy themselves too much on Valentine’s Day, he offers up one of his most bitter and possessive songs, I Want You, laying emotions bare that few other performers would on stage.
After nigh on two-and-a-half hours, Costello closes with The Scarlet Tide from Delivery Man and quickly exits.
Not for him the little death of encores, where a crowd eulogises a performer more fondly with applause when they have departed the stage than when they are on it in the hope of cajoling them back; the house lights come up swiftly as a satisfied full house gives him a standing ovation.
Delivery Man indeed
Elvis made the cover of the Edinburgh Evening News today, as well as getting a
pretty good write up. OK, so it's only a local rag but......
just a couple of surprises last night. You Bowed Down and Hidden Shame made
appearences, but otherwise a fairly similar running order to other UK shows.
Siut of Lights and Favorite Hour appeared too, although on the latter attempts
to sing through the guitar pickup didn't go too well, although marks for
persistance after feedback and no sound didn't stop him trying.
Having seen set lists from earlier in the tour, I was expecting an out and out
Rock and Roll show similar to Glasgow at the end of last year, but this was
rather more subdued than that. The voice was a bit on the husky/croaky side for
a lot of the gig, but it didn't seem to hold him back much and only really
hampered him on a couple of occasions. I must say I enjoyed the bits where
DF filled in for EmmyLou!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/print ... =174322005
Tue 15 Feb 2005
Elvis leaves the building to a standing ovation
MUSIC REVIEW
SIMON MCKENZIE
Elvis Costello and The Imposters ****
Usher Hall
ELVIS COSTELLO has spent much of his career deconstructing failed relationships and examining why people can so easily go from loving each other to hating and hurting each other, so it comes as no surprise that he makes no direct reference to Valentine’s Day at the Usher Hall.
"I guess the reason we’re not talkin’, there’s so little left to say we haven’t said", he sings in Good Year for the Roses, but having nothing left to say is one accusation you could never level at Costello.
He plays a good deal of his most recent long-player, Delivery Man, but rather than hawking it like a travelling mountebank, he intersperses the album’s best songs with as comprehensive a career retrospective as even the most demanding fan could hope for.
And the best songs from Delivery Man can stand proudly alongside Costello’s classics that still see him filling venues of this size around the world.
Needle Time and the title track will no doubt figure in his live repertoire for many years, the former in particular proving he has lost none of his lyrical bite. But for all his scathing lines, Costello is still an old pro when it comes to entertaining. He strikes poses for the press photographers during instrumental breaks and sings through the pickups of a cheap guitar he picked up in a Mississippi backwater, much to the delight of the crowd.
His backing band are also seasoned veterans - drummer Pete Thomas and manic keyboardist Steve Nieve were in Costello’s first great backing band, The Attractions, and bassist Davey Farragher has served with the likes of John Hiatt and Cracker.
Initially their sound is a little muddied as they blast out old rockers like Uncomplicated, but things soon clear up as Costello moves into newer and less sonically forthright material like Country Darkness that gives the band room to breathe.
(I Don’t Want to Go To) Chelsea is played fast and a little flat, losing some of the sinister swagger of the recorded version, but it is far from just a perfunctory run-through. When I Was Cruel shows Costello at his best lyrically and with his guitar, coaxing forlorn wails from it as gut-wrenching as any of his lyrics.
That song then morphs into Watching the Detectives, and later on when the unmistakable throbbing beat of Pump It Up fills the old hall, Costello exhorts the crowd to come forward and dance. He tampers with delightful old favourite Alison, turning it into Suspicious Minds, before launching into What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace Love and Understanding and Oliver’s Army.
But lest any couples enjoy themselves too much on Valentine’s Day, he offers up one of his most bitter and possessive songs, I Want You, laying emotions bare that few other performers would on stage.
After nigh on two-and-a-half hours, Costello closes with The Scarlet Tide from Delivery Man and quickly exits.
Not for him the little death of encores, where a crowd eulogises a performer more fondly with applause when they have departed the stage than when they are on it in the hope of cajoling them back; the house lights come up swiftly as a satisfied full house gives him a standing ovation.
Delivery Man indeed
Costello biographer Graeme Thomson was at the Edinburgh show . He has given me permission to pass on his comments as long as I ' make it clear that these were strictly off-the-cuff, top-of-the-head personal comments to you - nothing as grand as a 'review', as such' .
Great show - great sound in the hall too, which helped. EC probably in the best voice (and mood) I have ever heard (seen) him in.
Nice set - Blue Chair & Uncomplicated opened, You Bowed Down came in early, and he played a really daring and beautiful triptych in the middle of the set: In The Darkest Place, Favourite Hour and You Turned to Me, a little melancholic suite all on its own and quite wonderful.
Country Darkness was just fantastic, as was GYFTR, for some reason. Suit Of Lights was rattling. The TDM stuff all worked well, aside from TNOTTINL, in my opinion. Even the smattering of well-worn oldies (PIU, Chelsea, OA, PL&U) sounded fresh, although Alison wasn't a highlight. He completely - and very enjoyably - messed up Hidden Charms, his attempts to sing into the pick ups just eliciting feedback. And he fittingly played the pastiche that is Hidden Shame in full Johnny Cash boom-chicka-boom mode.
About 32 songs, I think, 2 and half hours and no break. Great stuff - even his somewhat Uncle Brian-esque endeavours to get the younger female members of the audience dancing. Davey's backing vox make such a difference. And ain't Pete looking old? And Steve remains mind-boggling, no matter how much you think you already know it.
Yeah, he did well.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The U.S. edition of Graeme's book is on the way -
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books
Complicated Shadows: The Life and Music of Elvis Costello
by Graeme Thomson
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Canongate Books (April 10, 2005)
ISBN: 1841956503
Great show - great sound in the hall too, which helped. EC probably in the best voice (and mood) I have ever heard (seen) him in.
Nice set - Blue Chair & Uncomplicated opened, You Bowed Down came in early, and he played a really daring and beautiful triptych in the middle of the set: In The Darkest Place, Favourite Hour and You Turned to Me, a little melancholic suite all on its own and quite wonderful.
Country Darkness was just fantastic, as was GYFTR, for some reason. Suit Of Lights was rattling. The TDM stuff all worked well, aside from TNOTTINL, in my opinion. Even the smattering of well-worn oldies (PIU, Chelsea, OA, PL&U) sounded fresh, although Alison wasn't a highlight. He completely - and very enjoyably - messed up Hidden Charms, his attempts to sing into the pick ups just eliciting feedback. And he fittingly played the pastiche that is Hidden Shame in full Johnny Cash boom-chicka-boom mode.
About 32 songs, I think, 2 and half hours and no break. Great stuff - even his somewhat Uncle Brian-esque endeavours to get the younger female members of the audience dancing. Davey's backing vox make such a difference. And ain't Pete looking old? And Steve remains mind-boggling, no matter how much you think you already know it.
Yeah, he did well.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The U.S. edition of Graeme's book is on the way -
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books
Complicated Shadows: The Life and Music of Elvis Costello
by Graeme Thomson
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Canongate Books (April 10, 2005)
ISBN: 1841956503
http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=176832005
The Scotsman
Wed 16 Feb 2005
Elvis Costello
BARRY GORDON
ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE IMPOSTERS **
USHER HALL, EDINBURGH
EVERYONE likes a bit of Elvis. The problem is deciding which era you like best. And that’s the trouble with an Elvis Costello concert: you never know what you’re going to get.
Recent forays into classical music and love-song crooning have tested even the most ardent supporter. Thankfully, long-winded violin solos and self-indulgent schmaltz were ditched in favour of music more commonly associated with the Mississippi Delta.
Soaked in Americana and varnished in blues, the majority of the set - a two-and-a-half hour journey through Costello’s back catalogue - focused on the 50-year-old’s 21st album, The Delivery Man, the story of an ostensible anti-hero.
Heart Shaped Bruise, a plaintive country ballad, and Button My Lip, about a desperate man on the verge of committing a terrible crime, were notable highlights. Still, it took gut-bursting versions of Chelsea and Pump It Up to spring the audience into life. Looking portly in seam-busting suit, stubbly Costello brought things to a crescendo with Oliver’s Army. But while he was seemingly enjoying it, you couldn’t help feeling Costello wished he was somewhere else.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/33480.html
Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Usher Hall, Edinburgh
KEITH BRUCE
The Herald , Edinburgh
February 16 2005
NEVER one to leave his audience wanting more (as I observed after having to hotfoot it from the Barrowland in October to meet our deadline), EC is a value-for-money act. This has always been so, but now goes down particularly well with his constituency, burdened as we are by mortgages, the education of our children and the prospect of failing pension schemes.
Having sat tight for the full duration of this return visit of the promotional tour for The Delivery Man album, I can report a set of two-and-a-half hours without a break, comprising more than 30 tunes, and 10 different guitars. This last total included a recently-acquired feedback-prone $150 plank with pickups that doubled, bizarrely, as a vocal microphone on old rocker Hidden Charms.
In what was a much better paced and constructed set than the autumn one, that song invited comparison with his tune for Johnny Cash, Hidden Shame, which itself is a cousin to the suite of songs on the new album, most of which had an airing.
In among them, however, there were enough other varieties of Elvis to tickle the fancy of any fan, from the opening salvo of Blue Chair and Uncomplicated, by way of King of America's Suit of Lights and North's You Turned To Me, to the run home of older hits through Pump it Up, Shipbuilding, Alison, (What So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding, and Oliver's Army.
But although A Good Year for the Roses was sung with real feeling and a lovely loose organic When I Was Cruel benefited from the ditching of the drum machine, there was little of the visceral thrill of past gigs. That'll be our age, then.
The Scotsman
Wed 16 Feb 2005
Elvis Costello
BARRY GORDON
ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE IMPOSTERS **
USHER HALL, EDINBURGH
EVERYONE likes a bit of Elvis. The problem is deciding which era you like best. And that’s the trouble with an Elvis Costello concert: you never know what you’re going to get.
Recent forays into classical music and love-song crooning have tested even the most ardent supporter. Thankfully, long-winded violin solos and self-indulgent schmaltz were ditched in favour of music more commonly associated with the Mississippi Delta.
Soaked in Americana and varnished in blues, the majority of the set - a two-and-a-half hour journey through Costello’s back catalogue - focused on the 50-year-old’s 21st album, The Delivery Man, the story of an ostensible anti-hero.
Heart Shaped Bruise, a plaintive country ballad, and Button My Lip, about a desperate man on the verge of committing a terrible crime, were notable highlights. Still, it took gut-bursting versions of Chelsea and Pump It Up to spring the audience into life. Looking portly in seam-busting suit, stubbly Costello brought things to a crescendo with Oliver’s Army. But while he was seemingly enjoying it, you couldn’t help feeling Costello wished he was somewhere else.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/33480.html
Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Usher Hall, Edinburgh
KEITH BRUCE
The Herald , Edinburgh
February 16 2005
NEVER one to leave his audience wanting more (as I observed after having to hotfoot it from the Barrowland in October to meet our deadline), EC is a value-for-money act. This has always been so, but now goes down particularly well with his constituency, burdened as we are by mortgages, the education of our children and the prospect of failing pension schemes.
Having sat tight for the full duration of this return visit of the promotional tour for The Delivery Man album, I can report a set of two-and-a-half hours without a break, comprising more than 30 tunes, and 10 different guitars. This last total included a recently-acquired feedback-prone $150 plank with pickups that doubled, bizarrely, as a vocal microphone on old rocker Hidden Charms.
In what was a much better paced and constructed set than the autumn one, that song invited comparison with his tune for Johnny Cash, Hidden Shame, which itself is a cousin to the suite of songs on the new album, most of which had an airing.
In among them, however, there were enough other varieties of Elvis to tickle the fancy of any fan, from the opening salvo of Blue Chair and Uncomplicated, by way of King of America's Suit of Lights and North's You Turned To Me, to the run home of older hits through Pump it Up, Shipbuilding, Alison, (What So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding, and Oliver's Army.
But although A Good Year for the Roses was sung with real feeling and a lovely loose organic When I Was Cruel benefited from the ditching of the drum machine, there was little of the visceral thrill of past gigs. That'll be our age, then.
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From The Scotsman
"BARRY GORDON
ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE IMPOSTERS **
USHER HALL, EDINBURGH
EVERYONE likes a bit of Elvis. The problem is deciding which era you like best. And that’s the trouble with an Elvis Costello concert: you never know what you’re going to get. "
Why do I need to decide what era I like best. And more importantly, surely the whole purpose of going to an Elvis concert is that you never know what you're going to get.
And from The Herald
"KEITH BRUCE
there was little of the visceral thrill of past gigs"
Was there? What about Hidden Charms or Bedlam then?
It's my own fault really I suppose. I only go to see the shows so that I can hear the hits
"BARRY GORDON
ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE IMPOSTERS **
USHER HALL, EDINBURGH
EVERYONE likes a bit of Elvis. The problem is deciding which era you like best. And that’s the trouble with an Elvis Costello concert: you never know what you’re going to get. "
Why do I need to decide what era I like best. And more importantly, surely the whole purpose of going to an Elvis concert is that you never know what you're going to get.
And from The Herald
"KEITH BRUCE
there was little of the visceral thrill of past gigs"
Was there? What about Hidden Charms or Bedlam then?
It's my own fault really I suppose. I only go to see the shows so that I can hear the hits
Who’s this kid with his mumbo jumbo?
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I have got one and it will be posted tommorrow afternoon hopefully as I've just come out of work and forgot to bring it with me....
Great show. It turns out that I was sitting amazingly close to Gilbert....but our fortunes never crossed!
Highlights for me were In the Darkest place, Suit of lights and a great version of Hidden Shame!
Much more North than I thought there'd be....still pushing the album!
Did all the hits....Im a bit tired of hearing Pump It Up now though, shock horror.
Random amusements were him commenting on the people dancing "I had a dream I was playing the Usher hall in Edinburgh and it was full of Glaswegians who couldn't dance!" (the joke being that Edinbuggers are less rowdy!) and he was singing Hidden Charms through the mic in the guitar which worked for a verse then failed spectacularly resulting in feedback and an a capella last lines! He was in really high spirits though, he came out like a matador to a reggae song, of which the name escapes me...(the one that goes something like 'I am the marvellous, I am the almighty').
I'll post the setlist tmrw.
Great show. It turns out that I was sitting amazingly close to Gilbert....but our fortunes never crossed!
Highlights for me were In the Darkest place, Suit of lights and a great version of Hidden Shame!
Much more North than I thought there'd be....still pushing the album!
Did all the hits....Im a bit tired of hearing Pump It Up now though, shock horror.
Random amusements were him commenting on the people dancing "I had a dream I was playing the Usher hall in Edinburgh and it was full of Glaswegians who couldn't dance!" (the joke being that Edinbuggers are less rowdy!) and he was singing Hidden Charms through the mic in the guitar which worked for a verse then failed spectacularly resulting in feedback and an a capella last lines! He was in really high spirits though, he came out like a matador to a reggae song, of which the name escapes me...(the one that goes something like 'I am the marvellous, I am the almighty').
I'll post the setlist tmrw.
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I think that's Double Barrel by Dave & Ansill Collins, which was also used @ Barrowlands, I seem to remember. Also, EC could be 'borrowing' those opening lines Bedlam.laughingcrow wrote:... came out like a matador to a reggae song, of which the name escapes me...(the one that goes something like 'I am the marvellous, I am the almighty').
"I'm the Rock and Roll Scrabble champion"
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Oh cheers ReadyTHTW! Here's the setlist...straight 2hrs 45, no encore(s).
Bluechair
Uncomplicated
The name of this thing is not love
You bowed down
Button my lip
Country darkness
Needle time
Hidden shame
Either side of the same town
IDWTGT Chelsea
Good year for the roses
Suit of lights
Heart-shaped bruise
Kinder murder
In the darkest place
Favourite hour
You turned to me
When I was cruel #2
Watching the detectives
The delivery man
Monkey to man
Hidden charms
Nothing clings like Ivy
Pump it up
There's a story in your voice
Shipbuilding
Bedlam
Alison/Suspicious minds
(What's so funny about) PL&U?
Oliver's army
I want you
Scarlet tide
Bluechair
Uncomplicated
The name of this thing is not love
You bowed down
Button my lip
Country darkness
Needle time
Hidden shame
Either side of the same town
IDWTGT Chelsea
Good year for the roses
Suit of lights
Heart-shaped bruise
Kinder murder
In the darkest place
Favourite hour
You turned to me
When I was cruel #2
Watching the detectives
The delivery man
Monkey to man
Hidden charms
Nothing clings like Ivy
Pump it up
There's a story in your voice
Shipbuilding
Bedlam
Alison/Suspicious minds
(What's so funny about) PL&U?
Oliver's army
I want you
Scarlet tide