Elvis 'Detour ', Singapore , September 11 2016

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Elvis 'Detour ', Singapore , September 11 2016

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Re: Elvis 'Detour ', Singapore , September 11 2016

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Re: Elvis 'Detour ', Singapore , September 11 2016

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The latest circulation figure I can find for the Wells Journal (in Somerset) was for 2014 when the Wells Journal and Shepton Mallet Journal between them had a circulation of 7,258. I am sure that Tom Henry, the author of the quote used in this poster, would be proud that it is now reaching a wider audience on the other side of the world.

If you want to read the full review from which the quote is pulled, it is here.

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Re: Elvis 'Detour ', Singapore , September 11 2016

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Short promotional video on YouTube to support this concert:



Tickets seem to be selling well.

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Re: Elvis 'Detour ', Singapore , September 11 2016

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Preview by Dylan Tan published in the Business Times on 26 August 2016.

" Sharing the stories behind the songs

Pop icon Elvis Costello is set to play both songsmith and storyteller in his latest concert Detour, which comes to Singapore in September.

YOU can see why Elvis Costello loves fedoras - it might as well be a metaphor for his illustrious career where he has been donning countless musical hats for close to four decades now.

Since breaking on to the scene in 1977 with his debut album My Aim Is True - which yielded classics like Less Than Zero, Alison, (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes and Watching the Detectives - the English singer-songwriter has developed a reputation for being a walking music encyclopedia.

Although best known for playing rock and roll with his bands The Attractions - with which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 - and The Imposters, the 62-year-old has refrained from just sticking to one particular genre and has a knack of hooking up with the least likely of collaborators in the recording studio.

Costello's last album Wise Up Ghost (2013) saw him playing with hip hop funk group The Roots; before that there were also sojourns into New Orleans R&B jazz (The River in Reverse, 2006) with Allen Toussaint and classical (The Juliet Letters, 1993; Il Sogno, 2004) with The Brodsky Quartet and the London Symphony Orchestra respectively, just to name a few.

He recollects his never-ending musical adventures in his memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink released late last year with a companion soundtrack and audiobook; but you can hear them straight from the horse's mouth when Costello the songsmith and storyteller brings his Detour World Tour to Singapore in September.

It will be the third time he is playing here after shows in 2009 and 2011. The stripped-back one-man gig will feature Costello running through his extensive back catalogue and talking about the inspirations behind it instead of plugging a new record which most touring artistes tend to do.

"I don't think in terms of albums - I think in terms of songs - and over the last few years, I have been finding different ways of telling stories of songs I've written," explains Costello, who is of Irish descent and was born Declan Patrick MacManus before adopting his catchier stage moniker, over the phone earlier this week.

Previous retrospective tours include one that was first introduced in 1986 and revived in 2011 where Costello invited audience members to spin a giant wheel with 40 song titles before playing the tune the target landed on.

"Expect the unexpected for Detour (as the name suggests because) it's not a show where I play the obvious choices in a predictable order," he explains.

Long-time fans are in for a treat as the set list for the tour which kicked off in the United States last March changes every night and mixes the hits with B-sides and other rarities. To date, Costello has also performed 30 cover versions as well as debuted 21 unreleased new songs. "The best number of the night might even be something the audience doesn't know," he reveals.

Like in his memoir, Detour will also feature stories about Costello's own musical heroes which include his late father Ross McManus - who was also a singer and is such a big influence that the trademark horn-rimmed glasses Costello dons are a tribute to him - as well as fellow pop icons like Burt Bacharach and Paul McCartney.

"I've never in my wildest imagination dreamt I would work with (Bacharach and McCartney)," Costello shares. "When I started out, I never though I would have the skills necessary to communicate with musicians like them."

Costello and Bacharach's collaboration can be heard on their duet album Painted from Memory (1998) which features the hit God Give Me Strength.

Off-stage, the ex-computer programmer claims he is not keen on revealing too much of himself on social media on a day-to-day basis ("I'm not big on telling the world what flavour of cappuccino I'm having this morning.") but drops in from time to time: "You don't need to send a postcard everyday - you only do it when you have something to say."

Elvis Costello's Detour takes place at the Esplanade Concert Hall on Sept 11 at 8pm. Tickets from S$48 to S$218 available from Sistic and the venue's box office."

It looks as though Mr Tan has been consulting this page on the Wiki: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Detour which shows 30 unreleased covers and 21 unreleased originals played on the Detour since 2015.

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Re: Elvis 'Detour ', Singapore , September 11 2016

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http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/e ... prise-fans


Elvis Costello tweaks his classics to surprise fans


Eddino Abdul Hadi

10 September 2016

Music Correspondent

A master of reinvention, veteran English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello is known for the constantly changing styles of music in his discography dating to the 1970s.

Still, not all his fans are happy when he fiddles with live versions of his best-known tunes at his concerts.

In 2011, for example, after his gig here at the Grand Theatre, Marina Bay Sands, a fan wrote to The Straits Times to say how "very disappointing" it was to hear the bespectacled artist play tweaked versions of his classic songs.

Costello, who will be back for his fourth gig in Singapore, this time at the Esplanade Concert Hall tomorrow, shrugs off such concerns.

"It's better for the audience if I keep trying to find new ways to express the songs rather than rely on playing them exactly like in people's memory," he says in a telephone interview from Vancouver.


"Obviously, when you've sung the song 1,000 times, you need to surprise yourself before you can surprise the audience.

"I don't go out of my way to be perverse in the way I change songs, but I am also not afraid of change."

The Grammy winner is still finding ways to breathe new life into old songs, adding that he recently came up with two new ways to play one of his best-known tunes, Everyday I Write The Book, from his 1983 album Punch The Clock.

The 62-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee says he is looking forward to performing at the Esplanade Concert Hall again, a venue which he described in a previous interview as "one of the best in the world I've ever played in".

He first performed there for his maiden Singapore show in 2009.

"For a solo performance, you have the benefit of a concert hall with acoustics that is like having an orchestra there because it is so rich.

"It's ideally suited as not only can you throw your voice out into it, but you can also sing very intimately and invite the audience in."

His wife, multi-Grammy-winning and best-selling Canadian jazz singer and musician Diana Krall, has also performed at the venue, including two shows there in February. The couple, who married in 2003, have nine-year-old twin boys.

Seeing them play together there would certainly be a dream pairing, but it is unlikely to happen, he says.

"It's always difficult for us to be in the same place because we have young children who have to go to school. And we try to plan our lives to have as much time together as a family, which sometimes requires either of us to be away from home."

Born Declan Patrick MacManus in London, his stage name is taken from his musician and bandleader father, who performed as Day Costello, and rock 'n' roll icon Elvis Presley.

His first album, My Aim Is True, was released in 1977. A collection of tunes that straddled genres such as punk, new wave and power pop, it has been hailed by critics as one of the most impressive debut albums in rock history for his lyrical dexterity and sharp songwriting. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007.

In a long and consistently productive career, the prolific artist has released 30 albums, both under his own name and with his bands, The Attractions and The Imposters. His discography covers many genres, ranging from rock to jazz and classical.

He has also released collaboration albums with artists from disparate genres, including legendary pop composer Burt Bacharach (1998's Painted From Memory) and hip-hop band The Roots (2013's Wise Up Ghost).

He has also dabbled in acting on television and in movies over the years, including appearing as himself several times in movies such as 1999 comedy Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, television sitcom 3rd Rock From The Sun and even as a cartoon character in The Simpsons.

"They come off occasionally, it's not something I have an ambition about, as an actor. Usually I'm playing "man in glasses" or "man in glasses wearing hat", sometimes I'm called by my professional name, and they're usually good humoured. I would do it if somebody asked me to do an acting role, but I don't believe the world is poorer because I have not acted as Hamlet or Macbeth."
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Re: Elvis 'Detour ', Singapore , September 11 2016

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http://m.todayonline.com/entertainment/ ... songwriter


Why Elvis Costello is still the consummate singer-songwriter

The legendary musician gave a masterclass on performance and songwriting in 2-hour concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall
mail



BY
KEVIN MATHEWS
SEPTEMBER 13, 2016


SINGAPORE — For his third concert in Singapore in seven years, award-winning and critically acclaimed British singer-songwriter Elvis Costello managed to surprise and intrigue with numerous twists and turns despite the apparent constraints of a one-man show. Watching him on Sunday night, it was clear that this performance was more than an entertaining gig (which it most certainly was), that it delivered concise lessons for the observant singer-songwriter.

REINVENT YOUR REPERTOIRE

For diehard Costello fans, the musician’s early material (from the 1970s and 1980s) is particularly sacrosanct. But without any backing performers, Costello needed to change things around to keep their attention for over two hours. This was accomplished by re-presenting his classic songs in new forms. Songs such as (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes and Accidents Will Happen were re-arranged as acoustic rave-ups, Watching The Detectives and (What’s So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding were tweaked and expressed with dark distortion, while the smooth soul classic Everyday I Write The Book was given a jagged up-tempo facelift.

KEEP THINGS VARIED

Following on from the previous point, another means by which Costello kept the audience intrigued was by changing up the instruments he used. While primarily utilising a couple of acoustic and electric guitars, he surprised many in the hall by getting onto the grand piano to deliver a couple of songs, reminding all that he is married to jazz singer-pianist Diana Krall, without any hint that the piano was not his main instrument of choice. The highlights on the ivories were certainly the impassioned versions of Deep Down Truthful Mirror, Almost Blue and Shipbuilding.

TELL MEANINGFUL AND HUMOROUS STORIES

Late last year, Costello released his memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink and, perhaps, it was inevitable that Costello would incorporate stories about his past (and in particular his father, musician/bandleader Ross MacManus) into his live act. And key to a successful engagement of the audience was the injection of humour. As Costello regaled the crowd with tales of his “firsts” which included the first time he heard one of his songs on the radio (which was less than earth-shattering) and the first time he mimed playing guitar (that was grossly out of tune) in his father’s big band (an experience that prepared him for mimed variety show Top Of The Pops).

ALWAYS INTRODUCE NEW MATERIAL

If a singer-songwriter wants to remain vital and relevant, it is imperative he or she introduce new songs during concerts, to demonstrate continual growth as an artiste. Costello, of course, went one further, sharing numerous new compositions taken from the upcoming musical A Face In The Crowd, which is based on writer Budd Schulberg’s story about an obscure country singer who rises to fame, and becomes extraordinarily manipulative to preserve his success and power. On this night, Costello performed the title track Vitajex — on a ukulele, no less — and an emotional Burn The Paper Down To Ash (intended for the female lead in the musical), all of which were very well received by the rapturous audience.

A standing ovation was the barest minimum that Costello deserved at the denouement and, perhaps, when Costello next returns to our shores, he might have a band in tow as well, maybe The Imposters. Wishful thinking but, in the meantime, we will always have the first (and last) night of the Singapore Detour series.


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Re: Elvis 'Detour ', Singapore , September 11 2016

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http://pinoytuner.com/features/2501/Dee ... -Singapore

Deep Dark Truthful Mirror: Notes on Elvis Costello’s Detour in Singapore
by Aldus Santos
October 10, 2016

This is not so much a belated take on a show but my take-away musings on musical artistry. That probably sounds a little too ambitious—if not a little too hokey, for a short piece—but alas, after watching the force of nature that is Declan Patrick MacManus (Elvis Costello to you and me) twice (first on October 5, 2009, and again on September 11, 2016, both at the Esplanade in Singapore) my ideas on songwriting, arrangement, and the rock show were turned on their heads. The more recent show fell under Costello’s much-lauded current tour, Detour, which is part-café-scaled set and part-talk show. It comes in the heels of the Liverpudlian songwriter’s first official autobiography, Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink, a sprawling survey not just of the man’s life but of popular music at large. The tour’s format is the logical next step after the memoirs: after opening up about himself, he is now opening the songs up to reinterpretation—to a certain extent to rewriting, really—through anecdotes, annotation, alternative assertions.

Though attempts by this writer to secure a sit-down with the man on show day ultimately failed, I realized such an effort would have been moot, would have served no clear purpose but massage my unflagging fandom. After all, Detour is essentially an exercise in self-inquiry. In his spiels (both about his material and his life) Costello is informative and comically self-effacing, as opposed to cold and encyclopedic; in his remodeled renditions, meanwhile, there is both reverence for the songs’ essence, but also a seething sense of invention. “I think I have found a way, a route, through all the songs that allows me to be surprised by the older songs,” he earlier told the South China Morning Post before he played Macau, adding, “By virtue of that I think I offer the audience a better rendition in many cases than if I were to be simply listing my best-known songs. You need to find the heart and soul of the songs even though they maybe have existed for a long time.”

Viewers who entered the Esplanade Theater early got to spy-eye the Detour set design, which consisted mainly of a blown-up vintage TV set which projects music videos and old photographs from Costello’s personal archives. There are pictures from his childhood—fans would recognize several that were initially used for the sleeve of Brutal Youth—along with performance videos of his late father, singer Ross MacManus from the Joe Loss Orchestra, singing signature standards, among them “If I Had a Hammer.” Costello, despite his dry wit, has evident veneration for the man, one that goes beyond blood, and I would hazard a guess that much of Unfaithful Music and, consequently, Detour, was anchored on this very relationship. The resulting spectacle is not so much a VH1 Storytellers-type proposition but a full-on mapping of a personal history recounted through song and talk.

It being a one-man show, Costello had to approach several of his high-octane earlier material with The Attractions—“(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” from his debut My Aim is True, along with “Accidents Will Happen” and “Oliver’s Army” from his third outing Armed Forces, among others—with a more laidback tack. Luckily for the audience, when Costello channels “stripped-down,” he does it not like the simpletons who populated MTV Unplugged back in the day, but like a true master arranger. Costello’s “acoustic” arrangements are not negative renderings; in other words, they are not simply the absence of drums or distortion, but rather full-on chiaroscuro plays, where dynamics reign supreme over the familiar. Detour sees the man not being tethered to agreeable, popular arrangements; he is unafraid to go to mangling extremes, where his cult hits, on occasion, even teeter on being unrecognizable.

“Everyday I Write the Book,” for one, sheds its jumpy pocket rhythms but retains its plaintive melodic structure; “Alison” adapts a more song-speak execution, its cadence loose but nevertheless affecting. Among the hits, however, it is Costello’s pass at “She” that takes the cake in the jarring meter. The musician in me was pleased at the asymmetry between time-keeping and melody, but I just knew people in the audience might have been frustrated at the virtual impossibility of a sing-along. Of the non-canonical numbers in Costello’s catalog, meanwhile, his turns at the piano were, hands-down, the most glorious. Though his chops on the keys may be deemed lacking, his brave takes on “Shipbuilding” (originally played on record by Attractions co-conspirator Steve Nieve) and “Deep Dark Truthful Mirror” (originally tracked by his late friend, the great New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint, on piano) remain heart-rending.

Gear-wise, Costello goes through an assortment of vintage acoustic guitars of varying sizes and resonances—dreadnought and parlor-sized Gibsons, mainly—only to sport an archtop and a looping pedal on “Watching the Detectives,” the lone number of the night to take on a sonic quality consistent with the musician’s most popular iteration: that of literate punk. Ultimately, Costello’s Detour may not scream punk, but with its smattering (and attendant shattering) of forms, it might as well be.

A figure as iconic could have just gone the greatest-hits route while miming to set-in-stone arrangements, but not MacManus, whose wide-ranging output—from Americana (National Ransom, Secret, Profane, and Sugarcane) to soul (The River in Reverse) to punk (his first four Stiff albums) to Gershwin-style pop jazz (Trust)—are well-represented in these shows.
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