Spectacle Season 2 Release Date - 7 December 2010

[bronxapostle]

While you're waiting for the DVDs, I invite you to enjoy virtually every music clip from Season 2 on my Youtube channel...start with the very best performance of the entire series:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uKGWpqnS8E

DF and christopher both are SO VERY CORRECT on this matter. as this was the only taping i got to in season 2, let me also state. during this song, the audience was simply mesmerized and EVERYONE knew they were witnessing a magical moment. and anyone there, went home a jesse winchester advocate! a classic!

[Otis Westinghouse]

Gosh that's wonderful. Typically enough, I'd only seen the Ron S moments off this show, but what an evening that must have been. As someone comments on YouTube, Neko's tear at the end is very affecting. Elvis himself is choked up too.

I happened upon this on the tv the other night:

What I love here is seeing the drumming Thomases in unison on their matching DW kits. He looks on benignly to make sure his charge is in sync with his every move (until the closing roll where she waits to whack the cymbals when dad gives the cue. I've never seen The Like in action (though they did play a local pub venue not so long ago), but Tennessee certainly has his drumming genes and can thwack the kit with the same venom as pappy.

[Pigalle]

they now have April 30th and cover art on amazon us

http://www.amazon.com/Spectacle-Season- ... rvi_cart_3

Pushed back to 7 June according to amazon

[And No Coffee Table]

http://www.spectacleelviscostello.com/

The season two DVD also includes four all-new bonus tracks:

Elvis Costello and The Imposters - U2's "Dirty Day”
Bono and the Edge- Elvis Costello's “Alison”
Elvis Costello- “She's the One”
Elvis Costello and The Imposters - “I Want You”

"She's the One" isn't really "all new" since it was in the original broadcast. Maybe this is a longer version, like the bonus "No More Tearstained Make-Up" on the season 1 DVD?

[Jeremy Dylan]

I hope there's more extras than that. What about Brilliant Disguise?

[johnfoyle]

http://www.blu-raydefinition.com/review ... eview.html

[docinwestchester]

The supplements provided with this release are:

Behind-the-scenes documentary, Spectacle: Elvis Costello with… Inside Notes (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 0:42.11)
Elvis Costello & The Imposters – “Dirty Day”
Bono, Edge, and Elvis Costello – “Alison”
Elvis Costello & The Imposters – “I Want You”


Somewhat disappointing, but I'll be buying the Blu Ray.

[bronxapostle]

i LOVE "Dirty Day" from U2's most underrated punk rock lp ZOOROPA! but, sure wish we got a Nils Lofgren "Like Rain" or the "Point Blank" as well.

[Jeremy Dylan]

No Brilliant Disguise? Darn.

[docinwestchester]

http://www.rollingstone.com/videos/new- ... e-20110607

Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello
Perform 'Seeds' On 'Spectacle'
June 7, 2011

In the fall of 2009 – during downtime on his Working On A Dream Tour – Bruce Springsteen taped an amazing appearance on Elvis Costello's talk show Spectacle. Recorded at Harlem's Apollo Theater, the two artists talked for hours and performed an killer set backed by members of the E Street Band and the Impostors. A DVD of the entire second season of Spectacle hits stores today. Check out this clip of Springsteen and Costello performing Springsteen's lost 1980s classic "Seeds."

Springsteen has kept a very low profile over the past year and a half. There's been the occasional charity gig and guest appearance as well as scattered rumors of recording sessions at his New Jersey home studio, but that's about it. Here's some unsolicited career advice: take a page out of the Prince playbook and announce a 28-night stand at New Jersey's Izod Center. Some markets on the Working On A Dream tour were soft, but that'll never happen in New Jersey. Also, the Nets don't play there anymore – so the venue will bend over backwards to accommodate him.

Rolling Stone's three-and-a-half star review from the April 28, 2011 issue:

The second season of Costello's chat show once again features famous songwriters answering serious questions about their craft and performing with Costello's Impostors. Bruce Springsteen's visit is especially fascinating; during two 50-minute segments, he and Costello touch on a vast array of topics, including the musical tastes of Springsteen's three kids (punk, Top 40 and Dylan), and bang through a charged-up medley of Springsteen's "Radio Nowhere" and Costello's "Radio Radio." Also great: the episode featuring Bono and the Edge, where the frontman wails "Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad," a rare 1997 track that U2 wrote for Frank Sinatra. - Barry Walters

[docinwestchester]

I bought the Blu-ray today at my local Best Buy. According to their website, which is surprisingly accurate in terms of individual store availability of specific products, they had 2 copies of the DVD, 2 copies of the Blu-ray. No one in the store could find them. I eventually found all 4 in the music DVD section. When I showed the person helping me, she promptly moved them to the front of the store on the "new releases" display. So I felt I did my small part in helping sales.

Regarding the supplements, the best part for me is a quick 45 second moment in the behind-the-scenes doc. It's a snippet of Ghost Train during the Sept 21, 2009 soundcheck. Just EC and guitar. Unfortunately, David Furnish is talking over most of it. Kind of like an annoying neighbor who ruins a bootleg with his nonstop chatter. But it's worth a listen anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BfWx7h_qdg

Bono singing Alison is kind of awful, but heartfelt. A little too much for me.
I Want You is good, but nothing new.
Dirty Day is outstanding - a really good cover by our guys.

[migdd]

Got my blu-ray yesterday. A day late since I paid extra for Amazon to deliver it on my birthday (6/7). Looking forward to giving it a go.

[watercamp]

Don't have mine yet and I'm pissed!

[Ypsilanti]

...
Regarding the supplements, the best part for me is a quick 45 second moment in the behind-the-scenes doc. It's a snippet of Ghost Train during the Sept 21, 2009 soundcheck. Just EC and guitar. Unfortunately, David Furnish is talking over most of it. Kind of like an annoying neighbor who ruins a bootleg with his nonstop chatter. But it's worth a listen anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BfWx7h_qdg

...

It's a shame the actual full performance of Ghost Train isn't among the bonus material. It was awesome--a real treat. Am I correct that it was the first-ever performance of it? He made some interesting, comments beforehand about how he came to write it, too. I get the feeling there are some songs Elvis possibly loves too much to sing in public--maybe he doesn't want to wear them out. Perhaps this is the case with Ghost Train, but it's a drag because it's great--always been one of my faves...one of those odd songs that sound like nothing else--Music Hall...Ice Rink...Beatles...Circus...Cloying '60's Pop & I don't know what else. I'd group it together with Dr. Luther, Tiny Steps and a few more. Plus, Ghost Train is like Jimmie's older, less-depressed sister...

[Man out of Time]

Release of a Region 2 version of Season two seems to have been put back to 25 July.

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/20376618 ... oduct.html?

Amazon.co.uk are not even listing the region 2 version yet.

Does this delay suggest that it will get actually be broadcast here before then?

MOOT

[invisible Pole]

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/144 ... -costello/

'Spectacle with Elvis Costello: Season Two' Gives Us Shows Worth Rescuing From a Fire
By Terry Lawson 28 June 2011

The graybeards who comprise the majority of Elvis Costello’s faithful audience, who return summer after summer to hear “Pump it Up” and “Watching the Detectives” one more time, tend to make much of his transformation from the Awful ‘80s-Angry Scowler to today’s Beloved Entertainer. But the first of Costello’s incarnations may actually have been the most theatrical invention of them all, and was close to disappearing by the time of his third LP, Trust, which he promoted by appearing on the late Tom Synder’s Tomorrow show in 1981, where the host, more argumentative than his guest, accused him of “mellowing”

“That makes it sound as if I were a piece of cheese,” Costello shot back.

Three decades later, touring with his “Spectacular Spinning Songbook” schtick—complete with a Vanna White-vamping hostess, a go-go dancer and a great helping of audience participation while doing audience-roaming encores in a gold lame jacket, Costello seems to have shamelessly embraced his Inner Cheese, the cheddar the better. Not only does he appear on the sit-com 30 Rock,), he actually wrote an episode for NBC, that perhaps thankfully, never aired. He even showed up in New Orleans to be the gag line of the first episode of Treme. Finally, encouraged by David Letterman and his ardent admirer Sir Elton John, he become a talk show host.

If you hadn’t heard about Costello’s Spectacle shmoozefest, don’t feel out of touch. Hardly anyone, save those who have his website bookmarked, would have. It was originally produced in 2008 for The Sundance Channel, which is harder to find on cable than sincerity at the Sundance Film Festival. Despite its obscurity, it was somehow renewed for eight more episodes in 2009. The original format might have been designed for failure: Usually bookended with fine performances by Costello and his crack band The Imposters, then joined by his weekly guests and other performers you would never expect to see on TV.

The meat in this sandwich was Elvis’ often insightful but always uncomfortable interviews with the likes of Police (who the angry young Elvis once dismissed as male models, but by then, was touring with) and other “heritage” artists, including that other chameleon known for his spectacles. Were you a music geek of Elton and Elvis’ standing, able to name every member of Little Richard’s recording band, you would undoubtedly have enjoyed it. But as any collector/obsessive who has a sagging shelf of Costello releases on CD, or better yet, on vinyl, and occasionally ventures out in public should know, most people don’t get a similar charge from dissecting obscure B-sides in mixed company.

The abbreviated Season Two, recently released on a 2-DVD set by VSC, has the tell-tale signs of a lame horse making a suicide run. It, too, was filmed onstage at the vaunted Apollo in New York City, but now in the performance segments the stage is subjected to a barage of colored lights, with Costello wearing complementary garish ensembles. Someone apparently wanted it to look like a David Lynch film, but it comes out looking like a sub-standard, pseudo-pyschedelic episode of The Flip Wilson Show shot in Wayne’s World.

Someone has obviously told Costello to lose the clipboard, the worst choice of a prop ever, and pour on the praise and hype. It’s gratefully toned down when Costello is in the company of another Boss, Bruce Springsteen, who remains a raconteur of note, with some great stories to tell. His humility, forced as it may be, is in decided contrast to the hour spent with Bono and The Edge, who, as usual, pretend to be just folks, and come off all the more smug for their trouble.

Still, there are three shows anyone who even faintly likes popular music would salvage from a fire. The best puts Richard Thompson (a bit of a blowhard who’s at least earned it), on stage with the ever-incredible Allen Toussaint, the ever-effacing Nick Lowe (who seems alarmed at his pal Costello’s descent into show biz), and the ever-enduring Levon Helm, who smiles and waves and drums like a fiend, but who, following his throat cancer, could no longer sing himself, at least in a setting like this one.

A Nashville-style guitar-pull with Ron Sexsmith, Neko Case (who, with Ray LaMontagne, is the only person under 50 to be booked, and who weeps as Sexsmith sings “Secret Heart” in his wounded angel voice) is almost stolen by an unrecognizable Jesse Winchester. He surprises everyone with a recently-written song that equals any on his debut album from 40 years ago. This is spoiled only by the presence Sheryl Crow, who seems to have been added in a quest to get someone to tune in. She proves only that an acoustic unplugged rendering of “Leaving Las Vegas” can be as histrionic and hammy as the original.

Memorable, too, is the assembly of LaMontagne and his spiritual godfathers, John Prine and Lyle Lovett, who remind us one more time of what great songwriters and gents they truly are. Sadly, the seaon wraps with a gushing and wince-inducing interview with its host, conducted by super-fan Mary-Louise Parker, who almost faints with an idoltry that might have even embarrased the first Elvis—if he could have actually been embarassed. While Parker’s crush Costello can still claim to be winking under hisshroud of irony, Parker, unfortunately, has no refuge—or shame.

Rating - 8 out of 10

[johnfoyle]

Mojo, August '11

Spectacle: Elvis Costello With...
Season Two
4 stars

An impressive TV talk show host's transformation continues.

These two discs deliver a veritable rock aficionado's feast, as Elvis Costello presents, among other things,a singer-songwriter summit, Bono and The Edge (discussing their dinner with Frank Sinatra),and a 'supergroup' comprised of Richard Thompson, Nick Lowe, Allen Toussaint and Levon Helm. Actor Mary Louise Parker is an awkwardly fawning interviewer during a show devoted exclusively to Costello, but the music performed — from (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea to Bob Dylan's I Threw It All Away — is awe-inspiring.Two 50-minute segments with Bruce Springsteen are alone worth the price, as these great songwriters riff on craft, Catholicism and their own heroes, joining forces for a thunderous medley of Radio Nowhere/Radio Radio, among other classic jams."It wasn't me!' Elvis Costello protests when The Boss mentions a British artist who once claimed Springsteen's early albums were too romantic". Springsteen laughs. "I've waited 30 years for this moment. Of course, it was !"

Bill Holdship

[johnfoyle]

Record Collector, Sept. '11

Elvis Costello Spectacle: Season Two

VSC 17699 (2-DVD)

Long overdue release for last year's model

Terry Staunton

It's baffling that the second series of Costello's superior music and chat show remains unseen by British television viewers well over a year after it first aired on the Sundance channel in the US, especially considering the calibre of its guests. Ever the engaging and informed inquisitor EC has settled more comfortably into the host role, showing a genuine interest in his subjects.

Of course, the big hitters here are Bono and The Edge, explaining their intuitive writing and recording process and talking about their surprising friendship with Frank Sinatra, and two extraordinary shows featuring Bruce Springsteen. The Boss is particularly evocative about his days before the E Street Band, fronting various teenage groups in New Jersey. and the many musical highlights include a turbo-charged duet with Costello on I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down.

Yet, despite the undeniably A-list bookings mentioned above, its the informal songwriter summits that unearth the most thrilling gems. Costello openly admits he fell out of love with one of his own songs, Every Day I Write The Book, until Ron Sexsmith hit upon a more fluid acoustic arrangement for playing it live. As for the numerous jam sessions on offer, its hard to top Allen Toussaint rattling through A Certain Girl accompanied not only by Elvis but by a crack band comprising Levon Helm, Richard Thompson and Nick Love.

[verbal gymnastics]

From Terry Lawson's review above, does anybody have any information about the episode of 30 Rock that Elvis wrote? The review also implies that it was recorded.

[johnfoyle]

, does anybody have any information about the episode of 30 Rock that Elvis wrote?

It's probably a reference to the May '09 episode Elvis guested in -


http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB2 ... it=Baldwin

[verbal gymnastics]

That was a great episode but I don't think it answers my question.

[watercamp]

Great collection of musical performances, a must get for music fans let alone Elvis fans.

Bonus tracks include a blistering version of "I Want You" from the show featuring the man himself.

If you can't buy it where you live, you might want to check out the usual green devil.

[sweetest punch]

You can now pre-order Season 1 & 2 in one box:
http://www.amazon.com/Spectacle-Season- ... 259&sr=1-3
http://www.amazon.com/Spectacle-Season- ... 388&sr=1-4

[And No Coffee Table]

You can now pre-order Season 1 & 2 in one box:
http://www.amazon.com/Spectacle-Season- ... 259&sr=1-3
http://www.amazon.com/Spectacle-Season- ... 388&sr=1-4

And they're calling it "the complete series," which seems like the most official word yet that there won't be a season 3.

[sheeptotheslaughter]

I noticed on the HMV website the complete series is released in the UK in November. And is cheaper than series 1 is on it's own. £32.99 dvd or £42.99 bluray.