http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/capi ... _page.html
King of cool
Feb 11 2005
Kate Mansey talks with a musical legend
Liverpool Echo
ELVIS Costello is a Reds fan. But it might not have turned out like that.
In the 1970s his Birkenhead father would take him to alternate games at Anfield and Everton so that he could make his own mind up.
And although he may have stuck when it came to football - music has been a very different story.
In a career spanning more than 25 years, Costello has made a virtue of diversity. He has performed with industry legends from Burt Bacharach to Paul McCartney and if imitation is the highest form of flattery then Costello is not short of compliments, with covers of his work performed by the likes of Dusty Springfield, Chet Baker, Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash.
His album The Delivery Man, released towards the end of last year, is a return to what Costello does best.
Declared by U2's Bono to be one of the best records of last year, it has a definite rock sound not present in his previous smoochy North album and has already earned him four nominations for the Grammy awards held in LA on Sunday.
But critical acclaim or otherwise, especially in Britain, is a thorny issue for 50-year-old Costello.
Now living in the US and married to jazz pianist Diana Krall, the music business in this country is clearly a source of frustration - and he knows exactly which direction to aim it at.
Simon Cowell, look out. "North was praised everywhere except England and that's because England doesn't have any culture," he argues dismissively. "That's one of the reasons. If your ears are tuned to Pop Idol all the time then you can't hear anything. You are not going to be able to hear subtlety if you are used to these people shrieking at you like bad karaoke singers.
"And there is a bit of mistrust. It's very uptight. It's a weird combination of utterly brazen and garish sexuality crossed with a prurient, morbid interest in that and a prudishness about it.
"These are the defining aspects of the country I have grown up in and have left gladly. I can now see it and love the things that I love about England when I come here because I don't spend all my time here so I am not bound and gagged by it.
"Every country has its archetype and its easily lampoonable stereotype. England is no exception and my part in it is very small. I come to visit and all I want to do is play. I don't want to explain. I just want to get on there and play."
Born Declan Patrick McManus to a jazz band leader father and a Liverpudlian mother, Costello perfectly reflected the new music oozing from the city in those early years of rock and roll.
Bursting onto the New Wave punk scene in the 1970s and 80s with his band The Attractions there was no stopping him.
Now Costello, who only learned to read and write music 10 years ago, has taken his classical turn further, writing an opera about children's writer Hans Christian Andersen to debut at the Copenhagen Royal Opera Theatre in October.
He says: "Of course the minute opera is mentioned it's like a big, fat woman with a Viking helmet. Everyone sees that image and thinks that it has to sound like Puccini.
"What I am actually doing is telling a story about Andersen. I didn't want to set one of the tales because that has been done.
"I'm right in the process of writing it - it's about Andersen who was this weird misfit kind of guy who came from a very poor background and rose to prominence because he basically invented children's stories. Andersen was a very conflicted person in his own sexuality. He kept falling in love with the wrong people.
"But it is not going to be written for an orchestra and I'm singing two of the roles in the initial production so it won't be like formal opera."
But then Costello has never been one for playing by the book.
"The other night we were in Rome," he says.. "I was a bit sick and I just sat on the edge of the stage and sang two ballads. I brought the microphone down - I had no monitors or anything. I just sat there with my legs dangling over and the next thing I had all these people around me.
"It was like I was telling them a story. I finished the song and this girl reached up and kissed my hand so I figured I must have been doing something right."
Now the Liverpool FC fan is coming back to Liverpool next Wednesday with his band the Imposters and, he says, diehard fans can have high expectations.
"I can do much more with this group and also we have 25 years of experience," he insists.. "It's not just about youthful, nervous energy, attractive as that is for the first little while, it isn't as multi-dimensional.
"I think we are a 10 times better band than the Attractions ever were. That's my view. I know some people would disagree because they are sentimental about it. I know it is true."
* Elvis Costello is at the Royal Court next Wednesday.
'England doesn't have any culture ', says Elvis
I don't get his comments about Idol and North. Is he delusional, or does he really think that the people who watch the Idol shows in England or the US for that matter comprise even 1% of the public that would buy any EC record? Did he really believe when he was "composing" North that he was making a record that would compete for the ears of the public that tunes in every week to see the S&M show that is Pop Idol?
I also find it odd that he now judges the state of English culture by whether or not they "get" North. Interesting, but consistent with my theory that his every utterance no matter the topic is about.....him.
I also find it odd that he now judges the state of English culture by whether or not they "get" North. Interesting, but consistent with my theory that his every utterance no matter the topic is about.....him.
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SoLikeCandy
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Well said, Alex. Reading interviews of him are making me increasingly uncomfortable--it's one thing to know you're good, and quite another to have a big head about it.
This is what being lauded by Bono and hanging out with Sting will get you.
This is what being lauded by Bono and hanging out with Sting will get you.
If there's one thing you can say about mankind--there's nothing kind about man
This undated interview is a Coventry paper's archive ; it's probably from this week , promoting this weekend's concert in the city.
It has the Rome story so it's probably from the same session as the Liverpool interview.
The fact that Elvis has to give these interviews so close to the dates indicate that tickets needed selling for the shows. The account here of
the London show last night tells of empty seats.
No wonder Elvis is, in general , feeling a little peeved at England !
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http://iccoventry.icnetwork.co.uk/whats ... _page.html
Elvis Costello Interview
By Jonathan Trew,
The Coventry Evening Mail
Q: The Delivery Man seems half love songs and half angry, political songs. Is that how you conceived it?
A: I started writing it in 1999. I suppose I wrote the first line-up of The Delivery Man narrative and then I started attaching the songs that were in the voices of the characters. Then for various reasons I put it to one side.
When I returned to Delivery Man, all the other songs came in a rush. I made the decision then just to give the narrative a central place in the record and speak in the voice of the characters, interrupted by the world.
So you have Bedlam knocking down the door. You have Monkey To Man which is not exactly a light-hearted song in terms of topic but is presented in a musical form which is lighthearted. Last of all is Scarlet Tide, which is hope.
So I didn't have a preconceived plan. I allowed the actual development of the music to come through.
Q: The album has quite a muscular, southern rock feel to it. How much of that is to do with it being recorded in Mississippi?
A: We recorded Monkey To Man in a great little studio, but it wasn't anything to do with the edges in the music.
Our approach to the recording with Dennis Herring helped. The fact that we went and played the songs at a club gave a spontaneous feeling to the performance.
Q: So in a sense you road-tested the songs before recording them?
A: Up to a point. We just played the local tavern a couple of nights. Then we went up to Memphis and did the same thing.
We recorded most of the record in one weekend.
I have loved a lot of the musical forms that the songs on this record refer to. For most of my semiprofessional/ professional career, somewhere in the mix has been a lot of the stuff - country, ballads and R'n'B.
Q: What factors influence the albums you make?
A: I don't really plan it in advance. Something just presents itself to me.
One of the reasons that I put The Delivery Man to one side was because the record company was in disarray.
I was already scheduled to produce Annie Sofer van Otter's For The Stars, and of course I got sort of promoted from producing the album to costarring on it. In the same year, I received this unexpected commission to write a score, Il Sogno - The Dream - from a dance company.
It wasn't anything as analytical as looking to challenge myself.
I'd had opportunities to work with orchestral groupings, but there was no evidence of it on record. For the record buying public, it came out of the blue.
Q: You often reinvent your own songs. When you first write a song and record it, do you regard that version as just a starting point?
A: I don't really think about it analytically - I think it's just a matter of process. The other night we were playing in Rome and they had put us in a concert hall. The acoustics would not really suit rock 'n' roll so we were playing on the more controlled end of our repertoire.
I was teasing people, saying, "You know you can get up and dance if you want to". As often happens in these fancy halls, they were a bit embarrassed.
I said: "If you are all going to sit down then I am going to sit down too." So I just sat and sang two ballads.
Q: Can you tell me about the Hans Christian Andersen project you are working on?
A: Well, it has this word opera attached to it because the commission to write it came from the Danish opera.
What I am actually doing is telling a story about Andersen.
There are a lot of interesting things about him and the people he knew during his life.
I've invented a story that is extracted from certain details of his biography.
That's pretty much all I can say about it right now - I'm in the process of writing it.
It has the Rome story so it's probably from the same session as the Liverpool interview.
The fact that Elvis has to give these interviews so close to the dates indicate that tickets needed selling for the shows. The account here of
the London show last night tells of empty seats.
No wonder Elvis is, in general , feeling a little peeved at England !
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://iccoventry.icnetwork.co.uk/whats ... _page.html
Elvis Costello Interview
By Jonathan Trew,
The Coventry Evening Mail
Q: The Delivery Man seems half love songs and half angry, political songs. Is that how you conceived it?
A: I started writing it in 1999. I suppose I wrote the first line-up of The Delivery Man narrative and then I started attaching the songs that were in the voices of the characters. Then for various reasons I put it to one side.
When I returned to Delivery Man, all the other songs came in a rush. I made the decision then just to give the narrative a central place in the record and speak in the voice of the characters, interrupted by the world.
So you have Bedlam knocking down the door. You have Monkey To Man which is not exactly a light-hearted song in terms of topic but is presented in a musical form which is lighthearted. Last of all is Scarlet Tide, which is hope.
So I didn't have a preconceived plan. I allowed the actual development of the music to come through.
Q: The album has quite a muscular, southern rock feel to it. How much of that is to do with it being recorded in Mississippi?
A: We recorded Monkey To Man in a great little studio, but it wasn't anything to do with the edges in the music.
Our approach to the recording with Dennis Herring helped. The fact that we went and played the songs at a club gave a spontaneous feeling to the performance.
Q: So in a sense you road-tested the songs before recording them?
A: Up to a point. We just played the local tavern a couple of nights. Then we went up to Memphis and did the same thing.
We recorded most of the record in one weekend.
I have loved a lot of the musical forms that the songs on this record refer to. For most of my semiprofessional/ professional career, somewhere in the mix has been a lot of the stuff - country, ballads and R'n'B.
Q: What factors influence the albums you make?
A: I don't really plan it in advance. Something just presents itself to me.
One of the reasons that I put The Delivery Man to one side was because the record company was in disarray.
I was already scheduled to produce Annie Sofer van Otter's For The Stars, and of course I got sort of promoted from producing the album to costarring on it. In the same year, I received this unexpected commission to write a score, Il Sogno - The Dream - from a dance company.
It wasn't anything as analytical as looking to challenge myself.
I'd had opportunities to work with orchestral groupings, but there was no evidence of it on record. For the record buying public, it came out of the blue.
Q: You often reinvent your own songs. When you first write a song and record it, do you regard that version as just a starting point?
A: I don't really think about it analytically - I think it's just a matter of process. The other night we were playing in Rome and they had put us in a concert hall. The acoustics would not really suit rock 'n' roll so we were playing on the more controlled end of our repertoire.
I was teasing people, saying, "You know you can get up and dance if you want to". As often happens in these fancy halls, they were a bit embarrassed.
I said: "If you are all going to sit down then I am going to sit down too." So I just sat and sang two ballads.
Q: Can you tell me about the Hans Christian Andersen project you are working on?
A: Well, it has this word opera attached to it because the commission to write it came from the Danish opera.
What I am actually doing is telling a story about Andersen.
There are a lot of interesting things about him and the people he knew during his life.
I've invented a story that is extracted from certain details of his biography.
That's pretty much all I can say about it right now - I'm in the process of writing it.