Mystery surrounds the current recording plans of Elvis Costello. Since his British record company, Radar, sent out of business a few months ago, there's been some uncertainty about what label his new album, recently completed in Holland, and single will be released on.
There were rumours that the single, an old Sam and Dave song called "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" backed by his own version of "Girls Talk" would be appearing as a one-off on Two Tone. Indeed a few hundred copies were pressed for promotion purposes before the idea was scrapped. It now looks as though it will be released on a new independent label called Off Beat Records.
Warner Brothers, who took over Radar, are taking legal action to try to prevent Elvis going to another label and it's feared that he could find himself locked in the kind of prolonged legal struggling that kept Bruce Springsteen from working for over a year not long ago.
The trouble seems to stem from the fact that Elvis's contract with Radar was kept on a friendly word of mouth basis and never actually signed. Nick Lowe, who is managed by the same people and signed to the same label, will probably find himself facing similar problems.
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