All rise for the King
Turned out that wondering whether or not to stand for Elvis Costello was a good question to ask. As I mentioned the City Hall is all seater, and with the average audience member in their mid 30's folks walked in and took a seat. This turned out to be a good plan for the support act, Chris Difford, who used to be the front man for Squeeze. This too was a good thing, because if he hadn't been able to rely on things like 'Up the Junction', 'Take me I'm Yours' and 'Cool for Cats' he'd have been stuck with his new material, which was pleasant enough but wasn't really going anywhere. Still, he may just have sold me a Squeeze greatest hits compilation somewhere along the line.So, we were all sat down when Elvis hit the stage, well except for two brave souls who pegged it to the front and stood gazing up at the man. It pretty quickly became clear that they were the ones with the right idea. When the roadies had been setting up they'd brought on a stool, the kind singer songwriters sit on while they strum an acoustic and deliver a song. Not this singer songwriter. He bounded on, saluted the crowd and leathered the hell out of an electric guitar, opening with 'Daddy can I turn This?' from the new album, and following straight up with the much older 'Watching the Detectives'. More followed in the same vein, old hits and new material blending seamlessly.
It was around the third song that I began to realise something. This guy can play. Not in a bashing out the rhythm guitar part while singing kind of way, but in a guitar pounding, soloing, power chord hitting adrenalin charged wall of sound kind of way. 'Spooky Girlfriend' turned into something more Hellraiser than Hitchcock while When I was Cruel developed some extra verses? to fit between the manic guitar playing. This wall of sound approach got ample support from the band with the keyboard player in particular doing his best to match Elvis' hyperactive sound generation.
So, fifty minutes later and he's singing 'Ship Building' to widespread tyneside rapture, steps away from the mike for the last few words just to prove he can sing so loud he doesn't need it and leaves the stage. We're still sitting down. I mean, we want to stand but this is a concert hall and if you stand up in the 25th row you're not going to be popular. So the more adventurous of us pack the aisles down the sides for the encore. There may not be much left, but we're standing for it.
Only there's loads left. Mr Costello has a massive back catalogue of hits and for a while it seems like he wants to play all of it. The rest of the crowd starts to cotton on that the folks on their feet are having a better time of it and finally the whole place is on their feet. "Now you look familiar" he says and turns up the pace. There is the odd break for a ballad - 'Good year for the Roses' and 'Alison' get outings, but by the time he gets round to 'Pump it Up' sparks are flying.
Its at times like this you can't help but wish that folks like Paul Weller hadn't gone all acoustic on us. Elvis Costello has been knocking out pop punk for twenty years and he does it with a verve and style that younger acts can't match cause they haven't had time to practice. They haven't got two hours of material either. So if you get the chance go see the man, lyrical genius, one hell of a singer, and as it turns out he plays a pretty mean electric guitar.