Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Pretty self-explanatory
johnfoyle
Posts: 14852
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 4:37 pm
Location: Dublin , Ireland

Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by johnfoyle »

Elvis is talking up the first date of the forthcoming tour .

http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainme ... story.html

The big wheel keeps on turning for Elvis Costello


By Francois Marchand, Postmedia News April 3, 2012 8:02 AM



When the special limited-edition version of Elvis Costello's Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook was released just before Christmas last year, Costello did something rather odd: He asked people not to buy it.

Costello was apparently none too pleased with the CD/DVD/vinyl box set's hefty price tag, which was more than $300 in Canada, and he took to his website to tell his fans what he thought.

The price tag, he wrote, was "either a misprint or a satire."

"If you should really want to buy something special for your loved one at this time of seasonal giving, we can wholeheartedly recommend Ambassador of Jazz - a cute little imitation suitcase, covered in travel stickers and embossed with the name 'Satchmo,' but, more important, containing TEN re-mastered albums by one of the most beautiful and loving revolutionaries who ever lived - Louis Armstrong."

Costello also wholeheartedly recommended fans wait for the retail version of the live album, recorded during a two-night stand at the Wiltern in Los Angeles in May 2011, to be released before making a purchase - that is, if you hadn't acquired it through "unconventional means," he added.

Now that said version is slated to hit store shelves (digital or otherwise) on April 3, Costello still stands by his rather sardonic attack on the pricing of what was meant to be a fan-oriented package.

"What I couldn't accept was the pricing of this deluxe edition," Costello said in a phone interview. "I think the record business was the most fun when it had some sense of panache, and you occasionally did things without worrying about the cost of them, because they got people jazzed up. Obviously, these are different times, and I haven't really appreciated that. So I had a difference of opinion. It had nothing to do with the music, of course."

There is indeed little to complain about when it comes to The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook.

On the album, Costello and his band the Imposters - keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Davey Faragher and drummer Pete Thomas - revive the spirit of a concert that was conceived 25 years prior at the Beverly Theatre in L.A., which proved to be one of the last shining moments for Costello's band the Attractions, featuring bassist Bruce Thomas.

The concert, which makes its Canadian debut in Vancouver on April 10, stars a giant "wheel of fortune" contraption - featuring a number of song titles, names and "open" topics - that fans are invited on stage to spin.

The original Beverly Theatre concert featured special appearances by the Bangles, who returned for the Wiltern show to sing "Tear Off Your Head (It's A Doll Revolution)," and Tom Waits.

"I didn't really think of it as an anniversary of that first time," Costello said of the May 2011 performances documented in the live album, which have since lead to a long Spinning Songbook tour. "We did it then and we're doing it now, and I don't think the two things are really connected, because, when I first came up with it, it was part of a five-night presentation with different bands and solo shows, and, one frivolous night, the show was run this way.

"Obviously, 25 years later, there's so much more material to consider, that the reason for doing it is perhaps different: It gives us a way to put all those songs in play, from the most recently written to the oldest, and let them fight it out."

That means songs from Costello's latest album, National Ransom, are now duking it out against classics like "Allison," "Radio Radio" and "(What's So Funny 'bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," as well as a selection of covers Costello has a soft spot for.

The whole thing is presented like a colourful cabaret game show, complete with assistant hostess and go-go cage.

Because of the fickle nature of the wheel, the show can jump from an upbeat number to a solo acoustic ballad without notice, but Costello said he ensured all the songs on the "spinning songbook" were ones he enjoyed doing.

"It makes for a really unique show," Costello said. "The fact that people are involved, not just in selecting it, but that they are persuaded to go into the go-go cage - you see people who can dance and people who really shouldn't, but are having a great time nonetheless. I really don't think we could ask for more from an evening."

The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook show also allowed Costello to resuscitate alter ego host, Napoleon Dynamite, which he created for 1986's Blood and Chocolate, and he initially brought to life at the Beverly Theatre show 25 years ago. (Costello's character, evidently, predates the 2004 indie geek movie of the same name, with which it has no connection.)

"You have to be a different sort of character to cajole and flatter people who come up on stage," he said. "It's a slightly schizophrenic existence, but it's enjoyable. You can get away with saying the most outrageous things to people."

Costello laughed.

"From night to night, the show is different. Any one recording of this particular presentation would be radically different than the next. That DVD and CD is a snapshot of it, but of course, we went on and had all sorts of adventures throughout the last year. We didn't anticipate doing this fifth run of dates with the wheel. People have really loved it."
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Also here -

http://www.windsorstar.com/entertainmen ... story.html


http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/earsho ... bum-306974

Elvis Costello's Spectacular Spinning Songbook Keeps His Band and Fans Alike Guessing

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer spoke with THR about the set list that has brought new life to his tours and features in his new live album.

4/3/2012 by Jordan Zakarin

Relentlessly prolific, fearlessly genre-bending and still a staple on the road, Elvis Costello makes trying to follow him a dizzying proposition. And that's even before he brings the giant, spinning wheel onto the stage.

The British rock icon has made a career of defying expectations of the staid music establishment, garnering a loyal audience even as he jumped from pub to punk, new wave to jazz, piano ballads to orchestral numbers and back to rock again. And while he's found ways to harness all those discordant sounds into playlists before, these days, he's upping the live ante: enter the Spectacular Spinning Songbook, a massive wheel packed with different songs from throughout his career; spun after each performed number, Costello and his band the Imposters perform whichever song comes up next.

"The wheel just at least sort of gives them a glimpse at some of the options before we break their hearts," Costello joked to The Hollywood Reporter before he performed at an event in support of the SeriouslyFun Paul Newman Foundation summer camps.

First introduced during a 1986 tour, when his discography was just a fraction of today's offering, Costello brought back an even bigger version of the wheel to his stage show during last year's Revolver Tour. Today marks the release of The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook, a live CD and performance DVD recorded during a two-night stay at LA's Wiltern Theatre during the Revolver jaunt. Spun by a kind of quasi-showgirl Vanna White, it serves as a career-spanning shuffle that keeps everyone guessing.

"I think it makes it more fun for everybody. It has a lot of fun in the show, but when you’re doing the show, if you get a serious song, which you can, or a blues song, you try to sing it for what it’s worth," Costello said. "There’s no point if the whole thing was just a satire. Obviously, we have a dancing girl who is terrific; she has a great sense of humor about it. We’re obviously not going to suddenly turn ourselves into that singing and dancing routine."

Of course, while Costello and the Imposters aren't becoming a vaudeville act, it does mean that they have to be extra prepared for the shows; they've got more than 150 songs that will pop up over a given tour, with tones liable to shift at any time, an ironic consequence of his wide-ranging career. And for fans, it means accepting that their favorite songs may not get played, and getting excited to experience tunes with which they hadn't been familiar.

"It’s the same as every show you go to; you go hoping you hear certain songs, but you also hope that you hear the songs played well," Costello said. "So, the songs are chosen in an intelligent way when I program the set, or whether they’re chosen randomly, which means that we have to drop right into them, we have to react to the idea of them right away. That actually creates a different kind of tension and excitement for us in playing them and hopefully that communicates to the audience."

Costello sets out on a 13-date tour of North America next week, followed by two months in Europe. And while those dates are concrete, what will happen at those shows will be a surprise.
johnfoyle
Posts: 14852
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 4:37 pm
Location: Dublin , Ireland

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by johnfoyle »

More promo chat -

http://www.straight.com/article-651241/ ... ictability

Elvis Costello relishes unpredictability


By Alexander Varty, April 5, 2012

Scanning the set lists from Elvis Costello’s Spectacular Spinning Songbook tour, you could get the impression that the man formerly known as Declan Patrick MacManus has assembled a career-spanning retrospective—or, to put it another way, a live sampler of his greatest hits. On any given night, Costello and his band the Impostors are likely to pull out everything from first-album favourites “Alison” and “Watching the Detectives” to the title track of 2010’s estimable but underpublicized National Ransom. According to Costello himself, though, these Songbook performances are more zippy, vaudevillian performance art than a stroll down memory lane.

“I don’t see it as looking backwards,” he stresses, reached at his part-time residence in New York City. “The songs are there in the moment as we’re playing them, whether I wrote them last year, or 20 years ago, or 30 years ago, or whether I didn’t even write them. I mean, if we’re playing them, they’re happening in that moment. They could be songs from 70 years ago; they’d still be happening right now. It’s not a history lesson; it’s just music.”

The Spectacular Spinning Songbook concept is also an attempt to give the audience some input into the performance. Over the course of the evening, audience members will be invited on-stage to spin an enormous roulette wheel emblazoned with 40-odd song titles, with Costello and band ready to perform whatever lucky number turns up.

The Songbook itself, he explains, is “a gigantic, not to say immense, piece of theatrical machinery”.

“It must be, I don’t know, 100 feet tall or something. At least that’s what it looks like to me when I come on the stage,” he continues, laughing at his own hyperbole. “It dominates the stage, anyway, this wheel. I think it’s actually about 20 feet high, and it has coloured banners on it with song titles. Some of the banners are purple, and they’re jackpots, which are simple to explain in that they might be a word like time, which is found in the title of maybe half a dozen songs of mine, or the word girl. If that should come up, it gives us the opportunity to play some of those songs without any other announcement. So that’s like winning a prize, when that happens. And there’s a green ‘joker’ banner, which means that the person that comes up gets to select any song from those on display—because people do come up and have a favourite. They’re hoping luck will smile upon them, and sometimes they spin it and it comes up, and sometimes it doesn’t, you know.

“Part of the game is that all of the songs that we’ve got—whether they be well-known or obscure or written by other people—have an equal chance of coming up. Now, I can’t say that we don’t cheat sometimes, when we’re feeling like it. But, you know, it makes for a different connection with the audience. For one thing, somebody or a couple of people are up on the stage, representing the audience, actually determining what comes next. There’s some sport in that: we get to hear from them, and they’re invited, if they should care to, to go and dance, if their selection should suit that. There’s a lot of fast tunes up there. But there’s also just the prospect of hearing a very well-known tune followed by something you’ve never heard of, and it falls to us to make musical sense of whatever comes up.”

Based on The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook—a live CD-and-DVD package just released at an affordable price after Costello publicly lambasted his record company for gouging consumers with an earlier, and ludicrously expensive, limited-edition box set—the innate unpredictability of the format has invigorated both the singer and his band. Keyboardist Steve Nieve, in particular, is on fire, adding warped Moog textures and splashy piano solos to formerly bare-bones arrangements.

“He is incredible, and I don’t think he gets nearly enough notice for the work that he’s done,” Costello concurs. “Both as a composer and certainly in the work we’ve done together, he’s constantly surprising.…It’s hard to say what he’s playing half the time, and what instrument he’s playing: all sorts of sounds are coming out. It’s fantastic.”

Costello adds that another wheel-of-fortune option is a banner marked “Joanna”, which, of course, derives from British rhyming slang for “piano”. It’s a chance for the singer and his long-time accompanist to delve into the more intimate side of Costello’s vast repertoire.

“We usually rehearse three or four songs in the afternoon from a stack of 25 or more that we might be considering,” he notes. “Depending on the mood and the pace of the show, we’ll decide what we’ll do in the moment, if that banner should come up. Sometimes we’ll do two or even three songs if it’s feeling right. Likewise, there’s a banner that says ‘Napoleon solo’, which is a joke based on my MC alias for this show, Napoleon Dynamite. That calls for me to play a solo tune on acoustic guitar.”

Costello offers no apologies for turning the rock-concert experience into a more theatrical one. As he rather wryly notes, “Everything in show business is [theatrical] to a degree, you know. You don’t go up there in your street clothes. And I’ve worked with a nom de guerre—a nom de plume, a nom de plank—all my career, so to me it’s not unusual to take on a character to go up there. It doesn’t make what you’re singing about less sincere, because plenty of people in show business have names other than the ones they were christened with.”

The singer-guitarist does bristle audibly when it’s suggested that his spinning-songbook concept is a means of shaking off the usual concert protocols of the slow build and the big finish. That’s my fault, though: rather than asking him if he was intent on avoiding the predictable, I posit that he’s trying to bypass monotony.

“I wouldn’t be on the stage at all if I felt there was anything monotonous about anything I do,” he says, with a trace of the angry-young-man snarl that was his late-’70s stock in trade. At 57, however, baiting the media seems to have lost its allure, and he affably adds that even as far back as 1981’s country-tinged Almost Blue, he’s made a point of working within different formats.

“I play solo; I’ve played with other kinds of musicians from other worlds of music; the last time I was in Vancouver I played Malkin Bowl with the Sugarcanes, a band that’s largely acoustic,” he explains. “And I get to play festival occasions with an orchestra: a jazz orchestra or a symphony orchestra. Believe me, that stops it from getting monotonous. Each performance that you do that requires slightly different dynamics really, really keeps the music from getting routine.”


And if some of those performances require audience participation, a gigantic roulette wheel, and the spangled presence of Napoleon Dynamite? Well, let’s just say that this provocative and prolific artist is also perfectly at home in the role of the beloved entertainer.

Elvis Costello and the Imposters bring the Spectacular Spinning Songbook to the Orpheum Theatre on Tuesday (April 10).
bronxapostle
Posts: 4914
Joined: Wed Jul 12, 2006 2:27 pm

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by bronxapostle »

woo-hoooo! FIRST show tomorrow. in the words of one MR. FOYLE...."WHO'S GOING?"
Last edited by bronxapostle on Mon Apr 09, 2012 1:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
johnfoyle
Posts: 14852
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 4:37 pm
Location: Dublin , Ireland

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by johnfoyle »

More promo chat -

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2012/04/09/e ... kes-a-spin

Elvis takes a spin

Embarking on a new tour, the rocker reveals why he wants to cut out the middleman and just play


By Darryl Sterdan

Monday, April 09, 2012


Everyone's a winner at an Elvis Costello show these days. Including the man himself.

His Spectacular Spinning Songbook Tour -- which lets fans use a giant onstage roulette wheel to pick the band's set list -- is a treat for both the musicians and audience, he says.

"I never anticipated people liking it as much as they have," admits the 57-year-old singer-songwriter, about to embark on his latest Canadian tour with his Imposters.

"We have a lot of songs, so when we play, people always go, 'You didn't play this one.' This way, they have a hand in deciding."

From the Vancouver home he shares with wife Diana Krall and their twin sons, the loquacious rocker discussed the future of music and why nobody should hold their breath for his next album.

This sounds like equal parts concert, carnival and game show.

It's like a vaudevillian presentation of rock 'n' roll. My alter ego in this show is Napoleon Dynamite, which was my character long before they made that movie.

It's been about 18 months since your last studio album. Is anything new in the works?

No. Nothing. I'm just concentrating on the next show. It hasn't been easy to find time to write. There's been a lot going on away from the stage, like my father's passing. That's not something where I would sit down and get 10 songs out of that. I think it honestly could be years before I do that again. I don't doubt new songs will arrive. But I don't lose sleep over when that might happen. That's not unusual; I've had periods where I've gone years without writing. Everybody thinks I'm tremendously prolific. I'm not, actually; I just work very fast when I do work "¦ Right now, I don't have a record contract and I don't particularly want one.

It doesn't seem like you particularly need one these days.


I don't know that it's necessarily the most rewarding way of putting music in front of the public right now. Not for me it isn't anyway.

Criticizing your label over the $250 price tag of the Spinning Songbook box set probably didn't help.


Ironically, my guess is that the release probably wouldn't have been noticed at all if I hadn't done that. I probably got the record more attention by saying that. I really did think the price was a joke when they said it "¦ It really took me aback that we were so much on a different page. It kind of broke my will to work with that corporation anymore.

So what is next?


Well, I think it's a tremendously exciting time because anything is possible. You could say, 'I'm not going to record for a year,' and then the next year you could make 12 releases, because there's nothing stopping you. But these days, the lack of any kind of shop where you can find records means you're better to just cut out the middleman and not record at all, and just play.
bronxapostle
Posts: 4914
Joined: Wed Jul 12, 2006 2:27 pm

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by bronxapostle »

[quote="johnfoyle"]
You could say, 'I'm not going to record for a year,' and then the next year you could make 12 releases quote]

my fave part of this otherwise depressing interview!!!
johnfoyle
Posts: 14852
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 4:37 pm
Location: Dublin , Ireland

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by johnfoyle »

Interesting analysis.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Elvis+C ... story.html

Elvis Costello no easy read


By Tom Harrison, The Province April 9, 2012 12:47 PM


There are two ways to interpret Elvis Costello’s claim that My Aim Is True.

One is that it’s a lie.

In the intervening years since the 1977 release of My Aim Is True, Costello hasn’t been true to his punk songwriter roots, having delved into rhythm and blues, country, classical, folk, jazz and bluegrass.

He’s collaborated with T-Bone Burnett, Paul McCartney, the Brodsky Quartet, Burt Bacharach, Allen Toussaint, Madness, Sofie Van Otter, the Metropole Orkest and a full symphony orchestra.

He’s been an actor (briefly appearing as a magician with an inferiority complex in the film No Surrender), composed soundtracks, produced (Squeeze), been a writer for hire (Wendy James) and a TV talk show host (Spectacle, which had an extraordinary reach for the informed music fan).

Costello also has been challenging in concert, accompanied by various bands, notably The Imposters, solo with loyal keyboard player, Steve Nieve, and currently with a stage show with a game show aspect. In a carnival-like atmosphere, fans are invited onstage to spin a wheel bearing song titles. Wherever the wheel stops the band plays the song indicated. Thus, the set is in a different order every night, encompassing, say, “Tokyo Storm Warning” or “Allison,” the latter track being the one that features the line “My aim is true.” And that is, if those specific songs are on the wheel.

The other way to interpret Costello’s claim is to accept that this is what Costello intended to do all along, if allowed.

He’s been true to his own desire and interest, bringing everything back to music. Despite all his wanderings into different genres, giving in to his enormous curiosity, Costello has returned to his original songwriter identity, though a little more experienced and craftsmanlike, with albums such as Brutal Youth, The Delivery Man or National Ransom.

These only confirm the depth of his talent but can’t hope to recapture the original exhilaration of My Aim Is True or its exemplary sequel, This Year’s Model. Unlike anyone who has been as prolific as Costello and been around for several decades, he can’t be taken for granted. The breadth of his various projects might reflect boredom — a desire not to repeat himself — but they also reflect the confidence in himself.

When he appeared at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in 2010 as part of a Neil Young tribute produced by Hal Wilner, Costello added a little rock and roll attitude to an otherwise great night of music that spoke well of Young but perhaps was too respectful. Costello did what few had done, he made Young’s songs fit his style, which for that night was swaggering and a little arrogant.

So, his aim was true that night, taking us back to 1977 when he was called an angry young man and “Prince Charmless.”

However, that image was a deception.

Costello was born Declan MacManus, who got his feet wet listening to pub-rock bands such as Ducks Deluxe, Bees Make Honey, Chilli Willie and The Red Hot Peppers and, notably, Brinsley Schwarz.

Pub-rock was an antidote to 1970s arena-rock and a precursor to punk, a kind of transition from hippie values to an antistyle.

It embraced the old rock and roll from the ’50s, rhythm and blues, country and roots forms — all things that Costello subsequently explored. By the time of My Aim Is True, McManus was Elvis Costello, so named by manager Jake Riviera, who himself was formerly known as Andrew Jakeman. Riviera was behind the formation of the Stiff label that released Costello’s album and was in on the punk movement.

The album was produced by Nick Lowe, formerly of Brinsley Schwarz, managed in the band’s later years by Riviera. Before forming The Imposters, Costello was backed for My Aim Is True by Clover. Clover was an American band (latterly including Huey Lewis) that was becoming known on the English pub-rock circuit.

As Elvis Costello, he was cast as a punk, like it or not, with a pseudonym guaranteed to stir up some controversy. It also created an image that he likely had trouble living up to. He has been able to survive it by constantly doing the unexpected, and that ultimately has enabled him to live it down.

tharrison@theprovince.com
User avatar
watercamp
Posts: 142
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 8:54 pm

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by watercamp »

Have a great show Vancouver.

His aim is true, always was, everything changes that's life but you can't fake passion for music.
User avatar
And No Coffee Table
Posts: 3521
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2003 2:57 pm

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by And No Coffee Table »

Elvis was interviewed for five minutes on "CTV News At Noon" today.

Video here:
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loca ... /20120409/

This picture was on Twitter:
Image
User avatar
And No Coffee Table
Posts: 3521
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2003 2:57 pm

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by And No Coffee Table »

I can't make out many titles in the first pic of the wheel. (Does it really say "Please Please Me" and "The Comedians"?)

Image

Another picture: http://twitter.com/#!/vojun218/status/1 ... to/1/large
User avatar
And No Coffee Table
Posts: 3521
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2003 2:57 pm

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by And No Coffee Table »

Much better pics of the wheel:
http://twitter.com/#!/graeme_achurch/st ... to/1/large
http://twitter.com/#!/FMarchandVS/statu ... to/1/large

These are the titles I can make out:

Human Hands
Oliver's Army
I've Been Wrong Before
Joker
Detectives Vs. Hoover Factory
Bedlam
Tokyo Storm Warning
Happy
Joker
Monkey To Man
Watch Your Step
So Like Candy
End Of The World
I Want You
I Can Sing A Rainbow
Deep Dark Truthful Mirror
Everyday I Write The Book
Toussaint
New Lace Sleeves
Joker
The Comedians
Clubland
Chelsea
Beyond Belief
Joanna
Please Please Me
Alison
Imperial Chocolate
No Particular Place To Go
Peace, Love & Understanding
Girl
This Wheel's On Fire
Turpentine
Cash
King's Ransom
Accidents Will Happen
Just About Glad
Stella Hurt
Shipbuilding
User avatar
And No Coffee Table
Posts: 3521
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2003 2:57 pm

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by And No Coffee Table »

Twitter:
Costello's singing a Johnny Cash song and its really awesome. There is also a bar, on stage
User avatar
And No Coffee Table
Posts: 3521
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2003 2:57 pm

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by And No Coffee Table »

I don't think the show is over yet, but this partial review has already appeared.
Review: Elvis Costello concert a sight to see

BY STUART DERDEYN, THE PROVINCE APRIL 10, 2012 9:25 PM

The last time Elvis Costello appeared in town he breathed life into a star-studded Neil Young tribute show so dead it still mars my listening to the Canadian legend. This alone made Costello’s Wednesday night stop of the Revolver Tour at the Orpheum something to see.

The return of the “Spectacular Spinning Songbook” sealed the deal.

Picture a giant wheel of fortune loaded with song titles, lyrics, album title word games and more from throughout his career ready for fans to spin to win. Or land on the Joker and get — what, dealer’s choice? There was the Hammer of Songs too where you could whack away for the Hits of Tomorrow, Ladies Excuse Me or Songs of Sneer. He still has some of that too.

“Hello, it’s great to be home,” introduced Elvis.

Mr. Diana Krall is rocking out harder than he has in a decade plus these days. Complete with caged maraca-shaking go-go dancer and a Vanna White gal — Katarina Von Valentina — bookending the stage, he and the Imposters (his forever keyboardist Steve Nieve, drummer Pete Thomas and bassist Davey Faragher) hit the deck raging with gems such as “Mystery Dance” and the old Nick Lowe classic “Heart of the City.” Fans couldn’t contain themselves.

The first spinner came up uninvited and spun “New Lace Sleeves.” The next landed on Cash. As in Johnny. A story of the Man In Black followed with a version of “Cry, Cry, Cry” that slew.

Must be nice to have a band that can play anything and with such swaggering confidence.

Nieve remains one of the most engaging and original keyboardists ever, the rhythm section swingingly precise and the man in front a triple threat as singer (check that power on “Shipbuilding”), guitarist and raconteur.

Donning black top hat and gentleman’s walking stick, he ventured into the audience to pick the next contestant during an extended “Watching the Detectives.” The man likes blondes it seems. But we knew that.

At every turn there were surprises. Double spins, crowd votes, jackpot titles such as Time that yielded up three songs with the word in the title.

The chances of not hearing some of your fave Costello obscurities alongside the hits was all but assured. Brilliant.

“Yes, she is in the audience tonight so you never know what might happen.”

That comment added one more bit of icing on what was quite a cake already.

The only problem: this exercise in audience participation really broke the pacing. The energy of the opening four songs wasn’t really ever reached again. Yes, there were things worked into the concept to address this. They just didn’t do it. So great fun, without a doubt. But I prefer to let the bandleader, well, lead.
Photos: http://www.theprovince.com/life/Photos+ ... story.html
User avatar
And No Coffee Table
Posts: 3521
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2003 2:57 pm

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by And No Coffee Table »

More from Twitter:
#ElvisCostello is doing a lifeless medley of Motown and Elvis tunes that is beyond "meh."
#Diana #Krall is jamming with #Elvis!
Review: Elvis Costello spins a fine show in Vancouver
Rock icon's Canadian debut of Spinning Songbook a hit at Orpheum Theatre

BY FRANCOIS MARCHAND, VANCOUVER SUN APRIL 11, 2012 1:42 AM

VANCOUVER - It has taken over 25 years for Elvis Costello to bring his Spectacular Spinning Songbook show to Canada, but judging by the performance the bespectacled icon and his band delivered at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver Tuesday night, it was definitely worth the wait.

The conceptual concert - part cabaret gig, part game show - is built around a giant "wheel of fortune" that fans are invited to come spin on stage to determine the set list. The wheel features 40 favourite originals and covers, themes and keywords that Costello can use to pick random songs on the spot.

Instigated in 1986, the Spectacular Spinning Songbook was, as Costello put it in a recent interview with The Vancouver Sun, only "one frivolous night" out of a five-night run at Los Angeles' Beverly Theatre.

But 25 years later, Costello's collection of material having grown considerably, the Spectacular Spinning Songbook has become a fun way for the rock vet to change things up and keep things fresh every night while avoiding angering his fans with the song selection he and his Imposters - longtime collaborator and keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Davey Faragher and drummer Pete Thomas - come up with on tour.

Since the wheel dictates the fate of the band and what the audience will experience nightly, Costello can wash his hands clean of any responsibility if the set list is strange or doesn't include certain specific songs.

Being the consummate entertainer he is, Costello can't lose in this format.

And considering the sheer breadth of the two-and-a-half-hour show and what the wheel contains, neither can the fans.

Costello and the Imposters first opened with a snappy pre-prepared set consisting of I Hope You're Happy Now, Heart of the City, Mystery Dance, and Uncomplicated, the crowd awaiting the first "contestant" to hop on stage and come spin the wheel at the behest of Costello, who stepped into the shoes of his Napoleon Dynamite character from Blood and Chocolate.

"It's good to be back, it's good to be home," Costello said, referring to his time spent in West Vancouver with his wife, jazz chanteuse Diana Krall, and their kids. "Step right up! Round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows!"

(That phrase has been attributed to Tom Waits, who was part of the original Spectcular Spinning Songbook show 25 years ago.)

The first few spins yielded New Lace Sleeves, a cover of Johnny Cash's Cry, Cry, Cry, allowing Costello/Dynamite to dust off his impeccable sense of storytelling and deadpan sense of humour (not to mention the audience member's dancing skills in the go-go cage) and a snappy Clubland.

Nieve, Faragher and Thomas, whom Costello called "the best band in the world," switched things up on a dime and never missed a beat, answering the call when the reggae-fied Watching the Detectives was requested, a big "REQUEST" sign at the front of the stage lighting up to give it that extra game show feeling.

Costello went into the audience with top hat and cane to pick contestants, singing the song's chorus into a megaphone.

To keep things flowing, double spins, jackpot titles - such as the keyword "Time," which yielded a medley including Strict Time, a spot-on rendition of the Stones' Out of Time, and Man Out of Time - as well as other devices designed to keep the audience wanting more were all on the menu.

The "Hammer of Songs" was a nice addition that allowed a fan (Abby?) to hit yet another "jackpot" and choose any song on the wheel. With much encouragement from the crowd, she chose Accidents Will Happen.

For all the audience participation the Spectacular Spinning Songbook entailed, at times the concert felt a bit too static, the crowd remaining still and seated for most of the night.

Thankfully, Costello was smart enough to know when to take matters into his own hands and punch things up by kicking into an unrequited rendition of Radio Radio, which finally got some out of their seats, and spinning himself a "Joker" slot to do I've Been Wrong and The Comedians, where Nieve shone on keys.

The sometimes odd pacing of the concert was obviously a byproduct of the unpredictable nature of the wheel, but Costello and friends took it in stride, Elvis chasing away blue slow burner Watch Your Step by giving himself another free spin, forcefully landing on theme category "Happy" and kicking things up again with more upbeat numbers King Horse and fan fave Everyday I Write The Book.

Close to two hours into the show, Costello was revisiting material from his underrated album National Ransom, before handing out Allison, Chuck Berry's No Particular Place To Go and Pump It Up.

Krall even made a quick appearance to spin the wheel as well in the end, tickling the keys on finale (What's So Funny 'bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.

Whether the wheel gave you all the songs you wanted to hear, only some, or - if you were really unlucky - none at all, you pretty much walked out of Costello's Vancouver gig a winner
Ken(adian)
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2004 1:05 pm
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by Ken(adian) »

Best I can do with the setlist...

I Hope You’re Happy Now
Heart of the City
Mystery Dance
Uncomplicated
Spin – New Lace Sleeves
Spin – Cash = Cry Cry Cry
Spin – Clubland
EC Spin – Detectives vs Hoover Factory (guess which one)
Double Spin – Shipbuilding & Time Jackpot
Time = Strict Time / Out of Time / Man Out of Time
Impromptu bit of Temptation
NEW! Hammer of Song (like the carnival Ring the Bell with a mallet) with 3 sections: The Hits of Tomorrow, Ladies Excuse Me & Songs of Sneer. If you ring the bell and it’s your choice from the wheel
Her Choice – Accidents Will Happen
Spin – Beyond Belief
You Belong to Me
Radio Radio
EC Spin - I've Been Wrong Before
The Comedians
EC Spin - Happy Jackpot - Watch Your Step
Secondary Modern
5 Gears in Reverse
King Horse
Every Day I Write the Book

Encore Solo
Slow Drag With Josephine
Jimmie Standing in the Rain
Alison/Tracks of My Tears/Suspicious Minds
Cheat Spin – Chelsea
No Particular Place To Go
Pump it Up
Diana Krall Spin was King’s Ransom = One Bell Ringing
Peace, Love & Understanding (Diana joins Steve and plays the piano at the end)

I’ll let someone else do the colour commentary.

Cheers,
Ken(adian)
Last edited by Ken(adian) on Wed Apr 11, 2012 2:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
when i was cruel
Posts: 348
Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 8:47 pm

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by when i was cruel »

This has gotta be taped ! Looks amazing ! Cry, cry, cry !
It's not the days when you leave me, but all I fear are the nights.
User avatar
And No Coffee Table
Posts: 3521
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2003 2:57 pm

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by And No Coffee Table »

Thanks, Ken. Any idea where "No Particular Place To Go" was played? Or was it?
Ken(adian)
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2004 1:05 pm
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by Ken(adian) »

And No Coffee Table wrote:Thanks, Ken. Any idea where "No Particular Place To Go" was played? Or was it?
Oh yes!!! That is what that scribble was. I place it after Chelsea and and he told the story about Leonard Cohen's acceptance speech and then how nervous he (Elvis) was to play a CB song in front of CB.

Cheers,
Ken(adian)
bronxapostle
Posts: 4914
Joined: Wed Jul 12, 2006 2:27 pm

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by bronxapostle »

looks like an awesome set; who woulda thunk 5IVE GEARS!!! COMEDIANS & WRONG BEFORE are two more deep LP tracks i never caught. this tour rocks!
chickendinna
Posts: 114
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2005 10:44 am

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by chickendinna »

Any tapers out there?
johnfoyle
Posts: 14852
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 4:37 pm
Location: Dublin , Ireland

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by johnfoyle »

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/art ... nt=2398425


Elvis Costello spins his hits to a captivated audience

Fiona Morrow

Apr. 11, 2012

Elvis Costello and the Imposters

At the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver on Tuesday

Embracing the cornball spirit deep in his heart, Elvis Costello brought a splash of old vaudeville to Vancouver on Tuesday, with a giant wheel of fortune, a go-go dancing cage and a string of anecdotes that namedropped everyone from Johnny Cash and Chuck Berry to Barney, that annoying purple dinosaur.

Costello couldn’t have looked more comfortable bouncing though his back catalogue with the able assistance of his long-time crew, the Imposters (Steve Nieve, Davey Faragher and Pete Thomas) as he kicked off his Spectacular Spinning Songbook tour on his adopted home ground.

Taking interactivity back to its music-hall origins, Costello – and a demurely burlesque assistant – invited audience members onto the stage to spin the wheel and thus decide the next song the band would play. A nifty way to keep himself on his musical toes, the random set added a definite collaborative frisson to the evening, with the room becoming increasingly invested in where the wheel would stop.

Of course, Costello plays by his own rules and regularly diverted off on a musical tangent to throw in as many extra tracks he felt like performing as he could. (This was a hearty set with no opener that broke the two-and-a-half-hour marker with ease.) “Some of these songs are my friends,” he said, gazing up at the flashing wheel. “Some of them have, frankly, betrayed me.”

But it would be hard to pick the duds on this night’s evidence: Clubland, Chelsea, Watching the Detectives, Alison, New Lace Sleeves, Everyday I Write the Book. And then there were the covers: Berry’s No Particular Place to Go, Cash’s Cry, Cry, Cry, not to mention bursts of Tears of a Clown and Tracks of My Tears.

Costello can rock with the best of them – and on Tuesday he was no less fully charged than one would expect – but it’s when he dials it down for the ballads that the true beauty of his voice and the sincerity of his passion are laid bare.

A heartbreaking rendition of his anti-Falklands War ode Shipbuilding, for instance, was made more poignant with the backdrop of current events revisiting the islands’ sovereignty, while an acoustic interlude of songs from the T-Bone-Burnett-produced 2010 album National Ransom was captivating.

Ever the showman, Costello drew the night to a close by walking through the rows of seats to drag wife Diana Krall to the stage to spin for the final song. Even that – King’s Ransom – wasn’t the end, however, as he couldn’t resist launching into Pump It Up before persuading Krall to jam on the keyboards for (What’s so Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.

The Brits in the audience were tickled even further: After the house lights went up, Bring Me Sunshine by beloved U.K. comedy duo Morecambe and Wise played us out into the street. Now that’s entertainment.

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loca ... lumbiaHome

Elvis Costello plays game show host in Vancouver

By: Robert Collins


Apr. 11, 2012

Is there anything Elvis Costello can't do? Great songwriter, singer and guitarist. Now he's added terrific game show host too.

Last night at Vancouver's Orpheum Theatre the game show was the Spectacular Spinning Songbook; a twenty-foot wheel, possibly reclaimed from The Price Is Right, bearing the names of songs from Costello back catalogue (plus a few special bonuses) that audience members would come up onto the stage and rotate. Whatever track the wheel landed on, that what the band would play.

The exact rules were ambiguous. It was all about the host anyway, as Costello demonstrated when the wheel delivered the mysterious word "Cash."

"Times are tough. Throw money on stage," he cracked, before explaining that it was an excuse to play some Johnny Cash and launching into a brilliant anecdote about the Man Himself. "I knew it was him at the door. He was wearing black and his belt buckle said JC."

If Costello's Spectacular Spinning Songbook sounds like a weird concept for a concert, it turns out it's weird in practice too. Because when you bring up "contestants" on stage to spin the wheel, they need to have something to do once they've "won" their song. Last night's solution was to lead both men and women into a fake cage (originally occupied by an athletic go-go dancer) and let them shake tush in front of a packed house. When Elvis Costello and his frankly awesome band The Imposters were playing, it was bordering on an unnecessary distraction. When on-stage guests took to opportunity to record the moment for posterity on their smartphones, it was pushing towards rude.

Not that Costello minded. The whole point of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook is that's it's terrific entertainment; a way to reframe his hits and some of his personal favourites into a novel live environment. At one point he abandoned the wheel to offer a straight alternative – "Hoover Factory" or "Watching The Detectives" – the latter, naturally, walking away with the decision. A little later, a lucky young lady brought out of the crowd successfully rung the bell playing the old fairground sledgehammer game. Her prize? Any track she wanted from the wheel (she chose "Accidents Will Happen").

The longer the marathon two and a half hour set went, the more likely Costello became to grab the wheel himself and steer it towards his favourites. He's certainly earned the right to make his own rules, and the crowd were rewarded by classics including "Shipbuilding," "Radio, Radio," "The Comedians" and "Everyday I Write The Book."

By the time Costello returned for a solo acoustic encore of "Jimmie Standing In The Rain," the pretence of the game show had seemingly been forgotten. The Imposters swaggered back on stage, which cued an avalanche of hits – "Alison," "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea," Chuck Berry's "No Particular Place To Go" and "Pump It Up." During the onslaught Costello wandered back into the crowd and brought up his wife, Diana Krall, for a spin of the wheel, who in turn was offered the seat of the brilliant Steve Naïve on keyboards for the grand finale of "(What's So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding."

Will the game show as rock concert catch on? Unlikely. Most musicians don't have the chops, the tracks or the sense of humour to carry it off. Elvis Costello, effortlessly cool, and comfortable enough in his adopted hometown to join his fans go-go dancing in the cage, had all three in spades.

Inspired lunacy, for sure. But still lunacy.
Ken(adian)
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2004 1:05 pm
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by Ken(adian) »

And No Coffee Table wrote: These are the titles I can make out:

Human Hands
Oliver's Army
Here's a pic but I can't see Oliver's Army just solid purple slices on either side of Human Hands. Did they pull the blank ones down at show time? I didn't notice if they did.

OK. I have tried to attach pics but too much 'file size' grief. I would post a few other pics but no luck.

Cheers,
Ken(adian)
User avatar
docinwestchester
Posts: 2321
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2010 7:58 pm
Location: Westchester County, NY

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by docinwestchester »

bronxapostle wrote:looks like an awesome set; who woulda thunk 5IVE GEARS!!! COMEDIANS & WRONG BEFORE are two more deep LP tracks i never caught. this tour rocks!
What's next, ba? B Movie perhaps?
User avatar
And No Coffee Table
Posts: 3521
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2003 2:57 pm

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by And No Coffee Table »

Ken(adian) wrote:Here's a pic but I can't see Oliver's Army just solid purple slices on either side of Human Hands.
I think "Oliver's Army" can be seen in this picture (to the left of "I've Been Wrong Before"): http://twitter.com/#!/graeme_achurch/st ... to/1/large

I have to zoom in and adjust the brightness on my screen, and even then I'm not totally sure that's what it says.

Do you know which version of "The Comedians" was played?
Ken(adian)
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2004 1:05 pm
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Re: Elvis Costello & The Impostors , Vancouver April 10 '12

Post by Ken(adian) »

And No Coffee Table wrote:
Ken(adian) wrote:Here's a pic but I can't see Oliver's Army just solid purple slices on either side of Human Hands.
I think "Oliver's Army" can be seen in this picture (to the left of "I've Been Wrong Before"): http://twitter.com/#!/graeme_achurch/st ... to/1/large
I have to zoom in and adjust the brightness on my screen, and even then I'm not totally sure that's what it says.
Do you know which version of "The Comedians" was played?
Yes I see it too. From that angle you can see behind the cover and from my pics either side of Human Hands was covered? I have no idea if they removed the covers later.
These pics should be open to viewing for a while at least...
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 985aba8790

I have no idea which version of "The Comedians" ... I was in shock :-)

Off to Seattle.

Cheers,
Ken(adian)
Post Reply