Elvis Costello Fan Forum

Also, nobody's mentioned the gorgeous piano on You'll Never Be A Man - and his work on Sad About Girls. Heartbreaking.

Also his harpsichord on You Little Fool and My Science Fiction Twin, and - Christ - his organ work on practically everything he does is bloody incredible.

I guess the tix are expensive cos they have about seven extra band members to pay. Don't fancy dragging myself down to the Dome to see 'em. It always looks like a car park down there. I'm strictly a Festival Hall, Shep Bush Empire, Hammersmith Apollo man meself!

Aw, that's nice to read the article further up the page about Cait not being bitter, and looking back on her marriage as an amazing time. Glad she's not as bitter as she might've been.

Don't think such a venue exists! Maybe it's in the process of being built?

Indigo theatre? Is there such a theatre in London?

And the title of Just A Memory, which is in the style of a Dusty ballad, is a quote from You Don't Have to Say You Love Me. (i.e. "left alone with just a memory")

Oh dear! Thanks for being our Elvis Costello correspondent par excellence, though, Jon!

Anyone know if Elvis and/or Diana performed at Elton's 60th birthday bash this weekend? It's on telly in the week, so I wanna see if it's worth taping. Macca played, I believe.

Yessss! The first line of The Beat is the probably his best, most twisted use of a famous lyric! The jaunty lyric of Cliff's song "We're all goin' on a summer holiday"...is brought crashing to down with the scary next line "Vigilante's coming out to follow me"! it's even more twi...

Another pointless list but, shit, I'm an obssessive fan, so what do you expect? So how many direct quotes are there from other song lyrics? I can think of 'Some things you never get used to' which is apparently a Supremes song title (tho I've never heard it) There's the sarcastic inclusion of the Ab...

Hang on, is this the final? These are the two whittled-down finalists? Oh God, I suppose I'll go for Man Out of Time, then, for its melancholy grandeur - though of course I love Beyond Belief's paranoid sound, understated claustrophobic vocal, scary imagery in the lyric, crazy heart-palpitation drum...

Exactly - he's as great a rock and pop singer as he's ever been - it's just that he sometimes attempts stuff that doesn't suit his voice. I totally agree with Jupitus that he's one of the greatest voices in rock - but I can understand why people would scoff at that: if you've never got 'into' Elvis,...

Oh God, the Frasier episode! So embarrassing. And the Letterman hosting! He's such a great artist, but these appearances seriously dented his credibility! But if you hear him interviewed, he seems to think he's good at it! He's fine at between-song banter, but actual entertainment show hosting: no, ...

Your memory serves you well: the film was a stinker, and Elvis was particularly bad. Soz Elv, love you as a singer-songwriter, but as as thesp you're not great shakes!

This is cruel - I can't decide between these two, which should always be on an Elvis best-of CD burn, in my book.

Aha, I see - digipacks are those nice slim, snug CD cases - not those nasty plasticky jewel cases!

Don't think I'll be buying them, however, unless there are incredible extras. Doesn't sound as though there will be, though.

Erm, excuse my ignorance, but what actually is a 'digi-pack'? And what is the 'Spkg' abbreviation referring to next to the titles in Amazon?

Maybe there's a spoken-word (Spkg) disc with each one, with Elvis talking through the songs?

God, yeah - all the piano on How Much I Lied is so beautiful! So sweet and sad at the same time!

Sweet Dreams, I agree, is gorgeous! I also love his accompaniment on Black Sails In The Sunset - think that's my fave!

Gawd, I got the piano one. couldn't listen for very long I'm afraid! I thought it was a bit embarrassing. Think it needs someone with a stronger voice!

That's a point! When my mate and I went to see EC and the Imposters in Hammersmith Odeon last time they were in town, we were jumping up and down with excitement at the opening numbers, which including a lot of faves like Blue Chair, Uncomplicated etc. We got some really sniffy looks from the people...

watched this on the weekend. Some fantastic stuff! Tears Before Bedtime sounded superb - reminds you of the days when Elvis's music was very British and poppy, before he became obsessed with becoming American and bluesy. That said, you do feel his love for the music he's influenced by - all the duet...

I'm amazed Elvis has the balls to take this on! He must be bonkers. I absolutely LOVE his Johnny Cash-style song Hidden Shame - superb Cash pastiche, which is still affecting cos of the great lyric, with its twist in the tail - and love Cash's version. But when you hear the Elvis demo, his (superb a...

If the trend of adapting artists' back catalogues into musicals were to extend to Elvis (doubt it though as he hasn't had enough popular hits to pull in the punters in the same way as Queen or Abba), what songs would be used? Songs that would make sense in a story without altering the lyrics, I mean...

Plus, to be honest, he just can't act! V embarrassing.

But what a singer and songwriter (just in case he's looking in)!