Elvis Costello - 1981-03-14 Bridlington

<<   1981-03-14 Bridlington

Elvis Costello And The Attractions
Spa Royal Hall
Bridlington, England
14 March 1981


01. Pump It Up
02. Accidents Will Happen
03. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
04. I Don't Want To Be Nice - King Horse
05. You'll Never Be A Man
06. Possession
07. Clowntime Is Over
08. Big Tears
09. Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down
10. Clubland
11. Little Goody Two Shoes
12. The Beat
13. Watch Your Step
14. Lovers Walk
15. Little Sister
16. Temptation
17. He's Got You
18. Mystery Dance - including Rip It Up
19. The Imposter
20. You Belong To Me
21. Oliver's Army
22. Big Sister's Clothes
23. From A Whisper To A Scream
24. Watching The Detectives - including Master Blaster (Jammin')
25. I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down


Elvis Costello - vocals, guitar
Steve Nieve - keyboards
Bruce Thomas - bass guitar
Pete Thomas - drums


Recorder: Unknown
Lineage: Unknown

Comments by area51GM:


40 years on ...............................................

Not the greatest audience recording which may well explain why it isn't in wide circulation but this show is certainly listenable enough and has a couple of quirky moments.

Elvis seems to have spent most of the last few days on this tour oscillating back and forth across the Pennines, starting in Bradford, then Manchester, then a couple of Scottish gigs and then Newcastle, then back and forth again between the two counties from Lancaster, Bridlington, Liverpool and then Sheffield. Perhaps Elvis had some urgent business in Huddersfield or Halifax in between these treks. Here in Bridlington, a town in Yorkshire north of Hull on the coast, and with nothing much to make it an attractive centre for the usual concert tour, The Attractions eventually get very wound up by the audience though this comes later in the gig. To begin with a warm reception greets the appearance of the players and the three hit singles all are very warmly received and then "King Horse" is prefaced by "I Don't Wanna Be Nice" with Steve playing some staccato chords at the start. This is followed by Elvis introducing "a song from our new album called Trust" and a rare outing for this tour follows with "You'll Never Be A Man" which sounds just fine in this arrangement. One of my favourite EC songs follows in "Possession" which has an instrumental verse after the classic (but short) bridge which marks it as different to many other versions. Elvis says "As it's Saturday night, I'm sure you've had a drink before you came here" before "Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down" and then after that acclaimed version the stiffed Christmas single follows, succeeded by the new "Little Goody Two Shoes" which marks a slight dip in proceedings. There's a tape flip just before "Lovers Walk" and then "Little Sister" which seems undergo a change in sound by the 3rd verse and then it becomes much more noticeable that the audience is becoming raucous and although they seem to be chanting "Elvis, Elvis!", it seems to be swamping the other sounds. It certainly disrupts the quiet sections of "He's Got You" and Elvis passes some comments about the chorus of yobs and then The Attractions launch into one of the most ferocious versions of "Mystery Dance" that I think I have ever heard. There are some extra lines that I've been unable to decipher in this but it seems to subdue the chanters but the anger in the performers spills through into both "The Imposter" and a wickedly spiteful "You Belong To Me".

Only one encore follows but it does seem as though there was an uncertain feeling in how to deal with the shouting and though Elvis certainly doesn't curtail the gig unduly, maybe there weren't quite as many songs as some of the other shows.

Not sure where I got this apart from a trade in the early 1980a, just needed a bit of pitch adjustment which still varied throughout the recording.

Lineage: TDK SA 90 cassette > Nakamichi DR3 (no dolby) > NAD 660 CDR > EAC > Nero 9 for track separation and pitch adjustment > TLH > FLAC > you