Cash For Questions - Elvis Costello

[Pigalle]

From qthemusic.com:

Elvis Costello is next in line to receive a Cash For Questions grilling from all of you Q readers. Elvis, who has been making music since the '70's is about to release his tenth solo album National Ransom on October 25th. So get in those pressing questions, weird, wonderful and/or music related.

Submit a question for Elvis Costello:
Tweet your suggestions to us @QMagazine (hash tag #CostelloQ if that makes sense) or add it in the comments below. As well as seeing it in print, you could be the recipient of £25 if your question gets used.
11:12 AM | 25/08/2010

http://news.qthemusic.com/2010/08/cash_ ... s_cos.html

[johnfoyle]

I just submitted this -

'Long as a constables truncheon', 'enjoying the lay of the land', 'the part of him you're leaving', ' try to jump your borders' - the lyrics of National Ranson are littered, delightfully, with double entendre. Have you been indulging your inner 'Carry On' ?

[Top balcony]

I just submitted this -

'... Have you been indulging your inner 'Carry On' ?

John - what are you going to do with the £25?

Best wishes

Colin Top Balcony

[johnfoyle]

John - what are you going to do with the £25?

http://www.barbiecollector.com/shop/pro ... ?sku=R4556

[sulky lad]

There goes my hopes for a couple of pints of Magners on October 16th

[johnfoyle]

Best question so far!

#

You have been known to use scarfs to keep your throat warm and protected. I'm wondering if you use a neti pot to clean your sinua passages?

Posted by Fern at 3:37 AM | 31/08/2010 | Report Abuse
#

Ooops, that would be "sinus" passages. Do you use a neti pot to clean your sinus passages. Cause it might improve your tone!

Posted by Fern at 3:40 AM | 31/08/2010 | Report Abuse

[johnfoyle]

The issue of Q with this feature would appear to be about to come out-

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/st ... ds_1169235

05 October 2010

Costello Eyes Vinyl Release To Scupper Downloads

ELVIS COSTELLO is going back to the future - he's releasing his next album in an old-fashioned 78rpm format to thwart illegal downloaders.

The veteran British rocker insists he doesn't mind fans stealing music online but is also adamant they are "cheating" themselves if they don't also buy a copy on disc.

And in an attempt to create a non-downloadable record, he is releasing "excerpts" from his forthcoming album, National Ransom, on 78rpm vinyl - one of the earliest formats for recorded music.

He tells Q magazine, "I am of the mindset, pay for everything, steal everything. But you are cheating yourself if you don't get the music in the best format. There will be a vinyl version of National Ransom, and we're pressing some excerpts on 78rpm, just because I want to create a beautiful object. Then people will have to hunt for something to play it on. You can't upload a 78."

[johnfoyle]

Cash For Questions, Q , Nov. 10

ELVIS COSTELLO

HE'S TACKLED ACID-FRIED NAKED STAGE INVADERS AND SHOT THE BREEZE WITH A US PRESIDENT. SO TALK OF HIS "SAD GIT MUSIC" AND AN "EMBARRASSING" TURN ON THE SIMPSONS SHOULD HOLD NO FEARS FOR THE MAN BORN DECLAN MACMANUS. OH...

WORDS MARK BLAKE PORTRAITS AUSTIN HARGRAVE

Vancouver's Yaletown district is all coffee shops, chi-chi bars and boutique hotels. Everyone here is either sipping skinny lattes and looking inscrutable behind their aviator shades,jogging in figure-hugging sportswear or walking bijou dogs down bythe harbour. The sun is out, but even when it's not, you suspect the whole place still glows with positivity and good health. Perhaps that's part of the attraction for full-time singer-songwriter, part-time TV chat-show host, actor and Vancouver resident Elvis Costello.

Pooch-free and blessedly not in figure-hugging sportswear, Costello looks dashing in eye-catching jacket, double-cuffed purple shirt and pristine straw hat. He also looks slimmer and several years younger than someone with his date of birth (24August 1954) is entitled to. They must put something in the water... Costello resides in West Vancouver with his wife, jazz singer Diana Krall, and their twin sons. But not every aspect of this good life appeals to the man born Declan MacManus in Paddington, West London. "I don't ski," he grins, between sips of macchiato. "But over here, it's a hobby like going to the swimming baths." His mobile phone trills, but he answers it before you can be 100 per cent sure that the ringtone is The Clash's London Calling.

Costello has a new album, National Ransom, to in October. It was made in Los Angeles and his second musical home Nashville, with producer T-Bone Burnett, and features country heavvweights Jerry Douglas and Tom Waits's "transcendent guitar player" Marc Ribot. One of an elite group of musicians to be invited back for a second round of Q's Cash For Questions (his first was in 1998), Costello looks alarmed tn shown a copy of his last encounter. "Oh my goodness," he says, after spotting himself dressed in a gigantic waterproof jacket. "What am I wearing? That must have been my hip hop years... No, I won't read it. It's all lies."

( see '98 feature here - http://www.elviscostello.info/articles/ ... 0201a.html )

Shall we press on, then?...


"Long as a constable's truncheon", "enjoying the lay of the land", "try to jump your borders"; the lyrics on your new album, National Ransom, are littered with double entendres. Have you been indulging your inner Carry On... film?
John Foyle, via email

Actually, "long as a constable's truncheon" is a single entendre. I think we all start out imagining we are [Carry On... actor]Leslie Phillips but end up as Sid James, whom I resemble much more these days [laughs] But its interesting to hear what someone else thinks of a record, rather than someone asking me,"Is that real life?" Because my answer would be, `Is it your real life?"

What do you miss about England, and what's the worst thing about living abroad?
Will Davies, Swindon

I miss Radio Four. There's not a station like it anywhere else. But, apart from that, there's a little piece of England everywhere. If HP Sauce or Jaffa Cakes are your thing you can find a place that will sell them anywhere, even Kuala Lumpur. The worst thing? There is a creeping use of the word "Mom", even here in Canada [grimacing] It should be "Mum" or"Mam". We are resisting though I am aware that we lost a revolution over this.

As a rock star, it must have been easy getting other rock stars to guest on your TV chat show Spectacle: Elvis Costello With...? Matthew Toogood, via email

[Pauses]. Maybe. When I suggested Lou Reed, the show's people were like, "Are you sure? Lou Reed?" But you never know. He turned out to be great, very funny, even told a joke. He was on with Julian Schnabel, the painter, and Julian started talking about his father's death and how much Lou had supported him as a friend. That was extraordinary.

There might be a vacancy for a "music and chat" show host at the BBC, now that Jonathan Ross has been let go.
Do you fancy giving it a go? Martha,via email

They couldn't pay me enough forJonathan's wardrobe. I don't think I was ever on his show... [ponders]The one where you sit on the couch? They show it over here, and I've seen it when I've been back to England. Jonathan had my band for a while in the Iate '80s. Steve Nieve [Attractions keyboard player]was his band leader when he was essentially doing a Letterman knock-off. Jonathan genuinely likes music, but his shows are essentially about quips, the guest as human sacrifice and the host's personality. My show was totally about the story and the music. I didn't ever see it as a shift in vocation.


Spectacular Spinning Songbook? A good idea that got the audience going, or a disaster? Trisha MacNair, via email

It was a good idea, because by 1986, less than 10 years into my career, I already feIt like we had a lot of songs. So, on the tour, we came up with a game-show wheel from which members of the audience could choose songs at random. Being the singer and the MC was too hard, so I asked friends to help me out. Our first guest MC was Tom Waits. It couldn't get any better, but it was downhill after Tom [laughs] It was fun, but there were some wonderful road crashes. One night, a girl walked onto the stage and as soon as I saw her, I was like, "Oh my God, you're tripping." Next minute, she was taking her clothes off. It wouldn't work now, because people would think we were just doing American Idol or TheX-Factor. But, back then, we were playing three-to-five-night stands in every town and it was about trying to make the presentation different every night.

Your appearance on Frasier in 2003, where you talked in a Cockney accent and sang Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport. What was with the Dick Van Dyke accent?
Ian White, Thornton Heath

No idea. Not my finest moment [laughs] I was doing my man-of-a-thousand-voices routine... and that was the voice I settled on. I do not have a Dick Van Dyke accent in real life. My accent does shift around because I have lived in so many places, so, sometimes, I can sound like I come from the place I'm in. But no one comes from that place in Frasier.

Do you ever get the urge to dance the way you did in the video for [1980 Top 5 singlejl Can't Stand Up For Falling Down? Because I love it...
Anne-Marie Miller, via email

You may be alone there. We went to one of those proper dance studios with the mirror on the wall and the choreographer was trying to teach us basic Motown backing singer steps. I was drinking and said, "Well... the lead singer doesn't usually do the moves", so I did a few steps and left it to The Attractions to do it all. The idea behind those early videos was to make comical little films. Onceyou started to think,"I'm remaking The Third Man or Citizen Kane", it lost a little of the charm.


My ex-wife used to call Almost Blue "sad git music". But I loved it. Who was right? Martin Jagger, via email

That may be true in your life, but not mine. Women bought that album. It was the moment where I realised there was a different audience for my romantic songs. It was a strange thing when [Costello's 1981 cover of the country song]A Good Year For The Roses was a hit and everyone that liked what went before was horrified. Let's face it, if I was an actor I would never have been called on to do the Cary Grant roles, but I know for a fact that it wasn't just men that bought Almost Blue.

Was there anything you really wanted to ask Bill Clinton when he was a guest on Spectacle, but couldn't, because, well, he's Bill Clinton?
Lars LJ, via email

No. It wasn't a political interview, he'd agreed to talk about music, but the interview was shot while he was working on Hillary's campaign to become the Democratic nominee so his people told us that he would only be in the building for 45 minutes, not long to do a 52-minute show. He plays an instrument and some of the communicative skills as a musician have fed into his ability to charm people as a politician, to get ideas across. But then I asked him a question about the music that someone in office would refer to in a time of crisis. That was the one question where his demeanour changed. His eyes flashed. lt was like I was in the ring with Muhammad All and I'd managed to land a punch. We got a lot longer than 45 minutes, and we even talked after the show. He is a man, and whatever office he had held and decisions he has made, and whether you agree with them, when Clinton's talking about music he is just a man, like you and me.


You wrote a whole album, 1993's Now Ain't The Time For Your Tears, for Transvision Vamp's Wendy James. When was the last time you saw her? Andy Machin, via email.

I only met her the once. I have no idea what happened to Wendy James. I don't keep tabs on all the people I wrote songs for. She wrote me what I took to be a sincere letter [asking for guidance]. I wrote an album for her and said " Take it or leave it, but it's a suite of sangs, written as a piece." What did I think of the album? I thought it was a ghastly sounding record. She sings like she sings, but I thought the production was wrong It needed to be trashier. The songs were a parable about a girl who wanted to be famous. Put it out now, you could throw a rock and find someone that would be able to sing it.

What was more embarrassing. your appearance on The Simpsons in 2002 or US sitcom Two And A Half Men in 2004?
Paul Beadle, via email

Neither [incredulous] Obviously I have never been as yellow in real life as I was in The Simpson. But it was amazingto sit and read with the cast. Two And A Half Men came about because a friend of mine is the show's executive producer. There was an inherent ludicrousness in me being part of [Charlie Sheen's character] Charlie's support group. There was me, Sean Penn, Harry Dean Stanton... We were drinking iced tea, and I had to puff on a cigar. I'm not a smoker, so I was turning green, but there was Sean drinking real whiskey at nine o'clock in the morning. By take nine, he was saying anything. They cut out some of the best stuff as it was just too surreal.

Do you have fond memories of the demon heckler from your Brodsky Quartet gig at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in 2009? Martin Heron, via email

Ha! Somehow this woman managed to buy tickets for a clearly advertised Brodsky Quartet gig and still imagined we were going to start with Olivers Army. So she started shouting the words. The thing is the Royal Concert Hall is not Glasgow Barrowlands , where they'd hang you upside down and shake the loose change from your pockets. The ushers there are quite gentle, they move quite slowly. It's happened since. At one of my first shows with The Sugarcanes [the band that played on 2009's Secret, Profane & Sugarcane album], some drunk girlshouted out, `Rock'n'roll!" I thought "You haven't heard what we can do".

You've been known to queue outside record shops on the day albums are released. Are you saddened by the way all music is digital now?
Gareth Davies, via email

I am of the mindset, pay for everything, steal everything. But you are cheating yourself if you don't get the music in the bestformat. There will be a vinyl version of National Ransom and we're pressing some excerpts on 78rpm, just because I want to create a beautiful object. Then people will have hunt for something to play it on. You can't upload a 78. What album did I queue up to buy? [hesitates]I did it once or twice... U2's The Joshua Tree, but Tower Records was just down the road from where I lived [laughs].


I understand you're a big Ray Charles fan. So what's your favourite song by the great man?
Bill Johnson, via email


It changes. It Makes No Difference is a beautiful record. What Kind Of A Man Are You, Busted...[ wearily] Do I still get asked about the Ray Charles incident? [in 1979 Costello made a racist remark about Charles, for which he later apologised, blamingit on being drunk] Yes, you just asked me [hardstare]. It's in the CV, so I'm not gonna offer any more explanation.


I was upset and disappointed by your decision to cancel your recent shows in Israel (Costello called off two summer concerts in Caesarea in protest over Israeli treatment of Palestinian civilians]. Have you anything more to say on this?
Zoe, via email

I think given the essential levity of this interview...[hesitates] I wrote a very clear and conflicted stement of why l reached that decision [an open letter on his website in May 2010] it was very painful to me as I absolutely abhor the use of violence to achieve any political,theological, philosophical or ritual objective . I never used the word boycott, I am not and nor will I ever be a member of any political party. I made a personal and very painful decision, at that moment .I'm not brushing this question off... but I'm not getting into it.

What do you think of the film Napoleon Dynamite borrowing your pseudonym (Costello used the Napoleon Dynamite alias during the mid-'80s3?
Luke Dietrich, via email

I have never seen the film and I know nothing about it. I remember seeing the name and being startled by it. The guy who made the film swears he knew someone [called that], and he's not an Elvis Costello fan. I have no ill feeling I was just curious about it, as I made that name up.

You've made too many albums. Which is the best one?
Denise, via email

I don't have a personal favourite. They reflect different moments in my life. Fans are the same; some might tip towards Get Happy!!, others to Painted From Memory. I've never understood why you'd make one record and then make all the others the same. I didn't want the first three Elvis Costello albums to be the same, never mind the 22nd or 23rd. I don't buy into this juvenile way of looking at music: that if you do something gentler or with different instrumentation that it erases what you did before.

My parents named me after your song Alison. Does it bother you that your fans do his kind of thing or do you find it flattering?
Alison, via email

It doesn't bother me. Naming a child is a big decision, and it means that the song was significant and meant something to someone. I have met a couple who had an Alison and a Veronica [Costello hit in 1989], and they were that exact distance apart: 1977 and 1989. There's a Josephine on National Ransom [A Slow Drag With Josephine]. Maybe they'll have another child... although that might be testing the boundaries of science.

What's the worst thingyou've ever done that you wouldn't want anyone to
know about? God's Comic, via email

[Laughs]Absolutely nothing I am going to tell you!

[Jack of All Parades]

Thank you for sharing that. Thought your question, John, was thoughtful and new. Have to wonder how people would waste their one question on the old Ray Charles incident, though. You know he will not answer nor should he- he has done his mea culpa - or the recent Israel brouhaha where you know he is not going to elaborate. Go figure- at least they weren't questions like if you were a tree, what kind would you be?

[martinfoyle]

''Jonathan genuinely likes music, but his shows are essentially about quips, the guest as human sacrifice and the host's personality.''

Excellent description of the wretched show Ross presented during his time at the BBC. Elvis had first hand experience since he actually appeared on in it in 2002 promoting WIWC. Elvis got off lightly, since Ross liked him, while the other guest Cliff Richard didn't. Cliff was treated like the soft target that he is, Ross was truly obnoxious, while the audience indulged Ross, as they always did, baying away like morons. Have it on video somewhere, it really isn't worth the hassle of digitalizing.

Elvis certainly has chilled out a lot, the wonder of renewed fatherhood probably, he'd have swatted away most of these questions in olden times. Todays Attractionstastic free download bodes, along with less verbose features like this, well for the new album.

[verbal gymnastics]

Congrats Mr F on getting your question published although you got a minor lesson in grammar from the man himself.

Some good questions asked. I'd agree that there was no need for the Ray Charles incident to be raised again. Shame on you Q!

[blureu]

"HE'S TACKLED ACID-FRIED NAKED STAGE INVADERS"

What's the reference for this? I'm coming-up blank.

[verbal gymnastics]

It's the Brodsky Quartet Glasgow 2009 question from Martin Heron.

[Neil.]

"HE'S TACKLED ACID-FRIED NAKED STAGE INVADERS"

What's the reference for this? I'm coming-up blank.

It's in the answer to the question by Trisha McNair about the Spinning Songbook Tour.

I agree: I wish the press would stop with the Ray Charles stuff - especially the music press.

And, yeah, Jonathan Ross was such an annoying 'look at me' chat show host - he really wanted to upset and unsettle his guests, most of whom weren't trying to come across as anything special, so didn't need knocking down.

[Jeremy Dylan]

I used to be in a band called THE ACID-FRIED NAKED STAGE INVADERS. We cut an EP in high school, but the bass player wanted to do his solo thing so we split up after graduation.

[John]

I don't know if Elvis' memory is starting to go a bit but I am sure he was on Jonathan Ross' show at least twice. I used to have a video of him singing Alison, sat on the couch near and being very polite towards Cliff Richard. He was also on promoting Tear Off Your Own Head with Amsterdam.

[martinfoyle]

That's right, he was on twice around that time. Then again, Elvis has good reason to block out most of 2002 from his memory, bearing in mind the turnover/turmoil in his personal life at the time.

[FAVEHOUR]

I don't know if Elvis' memory is starting to go a bit but I am sure he was on Jonathan Ross' show at least twice. I used to have a video of him singing Alison, sat on the couch near and being very polite towards Cliff Richard. He was also on promoting Tear Off Your Own Head with Amsterdam.

That's all from the same appearance. March 29, 2002.

dave

[John]

Thanks Favehour for putting me straight - my memory is also starting to fail!

[InvisibleMan]

Was there anything you really wanted to ask Bill Clinton when he was a guest on Spectacle, but couldn't, because, well, he's Bill Clinton?
Lars LJ, via email

No. It wasn't a political interview, he'd agreed to talk about music, but the interview was shot while he was working on Hillary's campaign to become the Democratic nominee so his people told us that he would only be in the building for 45 minutes, not long to do a 52-minute show. He plays an instrument and some of the communicative skills as a musician have fed into his ability to charm people as a politician, to get ideas across. But then I asked him a question about the music that someone in office would refer to in a time of crisis. That was the one question where his demeanour changed. His eyes flashed. lt was like I was in the ring with Muhammad All and I'd managed to land a punch. We got a lot longer than 45 minutes, and we even talked after the show. He is a man, and whatever office he had held and decisions he has made, and whether you agree with them, when Clinton's talking about music he is just a man, like you and me.

next a whole episode talking with charlie manson about his music career.

[johnfoyle]

Photographer Austin Hargrave blogged this back at the time ( I never, by the way, ever got 'cash' for my question!) -

http://austinhargrave.com/blog/archives/95


Elvis…..
Posted on October 16, 2010



A quick flight up to Vancouver to shoot Elvis Costello for Q ended with my clothes and lights still hanging out at LAX, a call to the local rental shop and I was as good as new.

Something I’ve been shooting a lot with recently is an 1970′s Polaroid camera, which takes me back to my early days of film and just hoping something would be on it. Elvis stood and played the gutair and I shot a couple of pictures. We then took a developing picture each and stood watching them for a couple of minutes waiting to see what would come out. Elvis liked the result and took them home at the end of the shoot.



Polaroid Elvis



It was all shot in the suite I was staying in at the hotel, it’s my messy bed, mum would not be happy!

[Neil.]

Hilarious hotel shot - it looks as though Elvis is singing a love song to his very feminine-shaped guitar case, lying on the rumpled post-coital sheets!

[verbal gymnastics]

Neil. - what with your thoughts on Tart and this post, I am beginning to worry that you are a sexual obsessive

A drunken one at that!

[Top balcony]

Currently reading "Liverpool : Wondrous Place" by Paul du Noyer - highly recommend for your Xmas list.

Elvis crops up quiet a lot, which led me to access Paul's homepage and this earlier version of Cash for Questions :

Elvis Costello: the 1997 interview

Posted on: Monday, January 21, 2008 Category: Music Journalism

Late in 1997 I travelled to a pub outside Dublin to meet Elvis Costello, who was living in Ireland at the time. I always enjoy his company but he is a demanding interviewee. By this I mean his mind is sharp and his musical knowledge is vast, so you need to work hard at keeping up with him. Luckily for me, this particular job was easier, done for a regular Q magazine feature called Cash For Questions. I merely had to pass on Q readers' enquiries and duck for cover where necessary.


In the black fastness of a windy winter's evening on an Irish mountainside, the traveller's spirits are lifted by the sight of Johnny Fox's pub ("undoubtedly the highest licensed premises in Ireland - pleased to quote you for small farmer's outings, golfing awards, weddings and christenings"). Here is our rendezvous with Elvis Costello, resident of the parish, beloved entertainer and - as it happens - teetotaller. ("Fuck knows why he came to live over here, then," puzzles our taxi driver). And here he comes now, swaddled against the elements and every inch the hardy country walker - every inch, that is, except for the gold-painted fingernails of his left hand. "It's a style thing," he explains, with a cryptic smirk.
Cash For Questions is the game, and Costello lunges eagerly on the stash of Q readers' letters, fax messages and e-mail print-outs. Around the lounge are chintz armchairs and agricultural implements. Upon the mantelpiece are china dogs, chimey old clocks and the occasional vintage rifle from the glory days of Michael Collins' IRA brigade. It's a peculiar blend of twinkling bonhomie and faint, vestigial menace - not unlike the bloke in specs who now casts a beady eye across your enquiries. Costello is the same pugnacious, invigorating conversationalist he has always been. He turns the same, steel-trap mind to queries from his fans as he does to the probings of the press.
So, sleep uneasily, the reader from Birmingham who asked him why there hasn't been a decent Costello album since Blood And Chocolate. Not only does our man take issue with your view - as of tonight, he knows where you live...



I heard that in the early days your glasses had no glass in them, or were clear glass - pre-dating the now common practice of wearing them for purely aesthetic purposes. True?
GW, Northwood, Middlesex
At the time I had my first pictures done, I did wear glasses, regular cheapo ones. But I decided I was going to change to something striking. So I got what were old-fashioned ones then, but every 15 years someone comes along to make them fashionable again. Like in America Kurt Cobain wore them a bit, so the kids did, and over here Jarvis wore them. Every so often there has to be a speccy guy comes along. In some of my old shots you can tell they're flat from the way the light catches them, but I have worn glasses since I was 18, so I wasn't cheating.

Why are your songs never on karaoke machines?
DR, Colchester, Essex
Too many words in 'em. Can't fit them on the scroll.

Alison. Who is she?
JC, Kirkaldy
That's an impossible one. It's whoever you want it to be. I know who the song relates to, but I'm not going to tell you because the song is for you to listen to. It's for who it should be in your own mind. Is that a slippery enough answer?

Have you ever written a song to get a girl to sleep with you?
MK, Seattle, Washington
I think that was about the first 250 wasn't it? (Laughs) No, I don't think so. It may have had that effect but I didn't do it deliberately.

What's the story behind I Want You? Is it just a personification of lust?
YP, Ithaca, New York
I'm very reluctant to tell people the stories. For one thing it's none of their fucking business, and the other thing is, knowing how much is real and how much is invention spoils how you listen to it. Your business is to work out how you feel about the song, and if you can make up an even more dramatic story than the one I intended then you've done a good job.

What do your friends call you?
JC, Northern California
Anything but Gladwys. Depends on who they are and how they know me, simple as that. Family call me Declan.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
MB, Santa Monica, California
I've got more superpowers than I need. This X-Ray vision is a bit of a drag.

Apart from the Hank Williams lyric book I gave you, what's the nicest thing a fan ever gave you?
PG, Newbury, Berkshire
Some very nice things. People are generous to give you a record they think you might like. Letters are nice because they contain thoughts, so long as they're not written in green ink, saying things like 'You are the Angel of Death.' You get a fair share of those.

Your last several albums have not been great commercial successes. Do you feel you are creating 'useless beauty' for ungrateful masses?
SK, Stanford, California
No, I'm just making the music that means the most to me... I've worked hard, I've made good records and in the long run people will see them for what they are - or they won't, depending on whether they've been distracted by something else shinier... Since we started the industry has grown much bigger and some people are shouting louder and therefore getting people's attention. And people will invest more curiosity in a new thing, just as they did in me when I started. I'm passionate about what I do, but people are sceptical that you can mean it as much as you do, this far in. But I do. I mean it a lot more than some people I can see who are coasting.

Is it cool being Elvis Costello? Do you still look in the mirror and say, 'What a cool life I'm having'?
CP, New York
What a cool life I'm having! That's my mantra, I say it every day. No. I'm very lucky, I do the thing I want to do every day. The main frustration is not reaching your objective in the studio or writing, if I'm struggling with the song. And the unhappy things that happen are the same as in everybody's life, they're just magnified by being in public.

Any advice on handling hecklers and drunken ticket-bearers?
SO, Los Angeles
Anyone comes on the stage, they're fair game, unless they're coming to kiss you. And we always had a rule: anything thrown on the stage that's heavier than a paper cup, then we're off and we don't come back. One idiot is trying to get the attention. In 1978 in Britain, people would gob on you because that was part of being in the gang at punk gigs. In America we were the short-haired weirdoes and there were people in the audience who looked like members of the Marshall Tucker Band, taking Mogadon, so we actually alarmed people with the speed we were playing at. They'd complain we played too fast for them to hear. The first time we went to LA there were a lot of people walking around in bin-liners thinking that was what was going on in London. It was pretty sad, like seeing a Swinging '60s movie and walking round in Beefeater outfits.

Early in your career you famously said, 'I won't ever hang around to witness my own artistic decline.' Did you ever consider honouring this pledge around the time of Goodbye Cruel World or Mighty Like A Rose?
JW, Accrington, Lancashire
Well I'm still getting better, so that doesn't come into it. Commercial fortunes can go up and down, but I know I'm getting better. And I haven't even started yet.... [Peers at letter] Accrington? That's close to Manchester, isn't it? That's a real Mancunian question. I thought Mighty Like A Rose was a great record, so there you go.

Would you still tramp the dirt down? [as per 1989's song, set by Margaret Thatcher's graveside]
Ian Berrisford, Manchester
I'd burn her in Parliament Square.

Some interesting comments about self-belief and M******t T******r.

Paul's website available via this link: http://www.pauldunoyer.com/index.asp

Colin Top Balcony