In the July Issue of The Word Magazine

[History History]

From Mark Ellen's Diary:
To the Albert Hall for the return of The Spectacular Spinning Songbook, "the showbiz model of the age", Elvis Costello's phenomenal three-hour set vaguely ordained by members of the audience turning the giant lit-up fairground wheel of track titles. '"Round and round and round it goes" he declares, top hat and cane, "where it stops, nobody knows!"
Occasionally it stops at a theme like GIRL or Time- "You've hit the jackpot!"- and a series of related tunes ensue. Had he chosen any men from the crowd, they'd probably have looked hideously embarrassed and mooched about texting their mates, but The Beloved Entertainer has the good sense to only select women who hurl themselves into the spirit of it, spinning wheels or bashing The Hammer Of Songs with a giant mallet to ring the bell and get a request, and then flinging themselves into the betassled cubicle stage left for some energetic cage-dancing - all,sadly, bar EC's old Liverpool pals, the shadow cabinet's Maria and Angela Eagle, who sit at the cocktail bar nursing dubious turquoise drinks by a flickering TV "tuned to the Leveson Inquiry, 'cos we wouldn't want to miss any of that!"
Beyond Belief morphs into Purple Rain, Pump It Up, into Day Tripper, Elvis gradually drenches his heat-retaining three-piece suit, Steve Nieve pounds the hall's vast pipe organ with a gothic flourish, Tenessee Thomas wallops a smaller kit directly behind her father Pete's, Nick Lowe strolls on for three numbers - which sort of gets you right here: Costello's Flip City were modelled on Lowe's Brinsley Schwarz and it was Nick's discovery of EC's demo tape that got him signed to Stiff in the first place.
We pile down for a drink afterwards, Jo Brand and Mark Lamarr at the bar, Costello remembering the old days of the Attractions - "like The Who, all of us madly soloing in different directions", talking movingly about the death of his father last year and his half-brothers' tribute to him the previous night, and restaging his seamless music-hall intro for that show's special guest - "We'd like to bring on a friend who's just arrived on the 3:10 from Yuma! He's the romper-stomper of lurrrve! He's the master and commander, the gladiator of the guitar! Mister Rusell Crowe!"