Elvis, solo, plays Harrogate, UK, June 6, 2015

[Man out of Time]

As the Detour moves North, first stop is Harrogate, where surprisingly Elvis has not appeared for 30 years.

Harrogate is a bit short on famous rock and rollers who were born or grew up in the area, which may be an issue if Elvis wants to give some local "flavour" to the show. Perhaps he will have to look to Leeds for inspiration.

Who is going (along with Paul Evans)?

MOOT

[Mikeh]

I am going - in fact I went to the last one in Harrogate in November 1984, the first time I saw Elvis. T Bone Burnett supported that night, I had to leave early and missed The Coward Brothers encore, and somehow managed to miss my last bus home as well! The taxi back to Bradford made it a VERY expensive show!

That night Elvis started with Strict Time, which has been rarely performed live since. From memory I think he did it in Edinburgh in 84 and then on the most recent Big Wheel shows but I stand to be corrected.

I have the 84 show on CD which I will play on the way to Harrogate. (Where have those 30 years gone?)

[Man out of Time]

That night Elvis started with Strict Time, which has been rarely performed live since. From memory I think he did it in Edinburgh in 84 and then on the most recent Big Wheel shows but I stand to be corrected.

The Wiki: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... trict_Time tells us that there are 127 known performances of Strict Time, although about half of those were before the Harrogate show in 1984. I saw him perform the song at the very excellent Spinning Songbook show in Southend two years ago. The Harrogate show in 1984 was one of only four shows where Elvis has performed Strict Time solo, so it was a bit of a rarity. That also makes it less likely to feature on this solo tour, but never say never.

MOOT

[docinwestchester]

That night Elvis started with Strict Time, which has been rarely performed live since. From memory I think he did it in Edinburgh in 84 and then on the most recent Big Wheel shows but I stand to be corrected.

The Wiki: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... trict_Time tells us that there are 127 known performances of Strict Time, although about half of those were before the Harrogate show in 1984. I saw him perform the song at the very excellent Spinning Songbook show in Southend two years ago. The Harrogate show in 1984 was one of only four shows where Elvis has performed Strict Time solo, so it was a bit of a rarity. That also makes it less likely to feature on this solo tour, but never say never.

MOOT

Me too. Twice in 2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuxMy7pgpJ0#t=1m30s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=licLyL8OETk#t=5m15s
(check out Pete here...a human metronome with amazing concentration...doesn't look up til the end)

[Mikeh]

The solo live Strict Time was much slower and you could hear the words. Similarly with Luxembourg at the same 1984 show! Shame he hasn't played it too often solo.

[sulky lad]

I'm pretty sure without looking at the wiki that Elvis did both of those in Cardiff in 1984 where I was transfixed by the clarity and range of his voice and being able to hear the words properly for the first time !! I'll be at Harrogate for my first time (please try and keep locals under control MikeH )!

[Man out of Time]

Review by Charles Hutchinson published on 8 June in the York Press :

Review: Elvis Costello, Detour, Harrogate International Centre, June 6

ONE man was desperately keen that he left the building before Elvis did. So keen, as he squeezed past your reviewer, that he missed the encores. All 12 songs of them.

"I'll get up for you," I volunteered. "That's OK. As long as I don't have to listen to any more of this noise," he said, brushing past in his urgency to exit Costello's first Harrogate show since the Royal Hall in 1984, wanting the Attractions but encountering too many detractions.

It should be noted that Agitated of Harrogate appeared to be alone in his disquiet, but Costello's set until to that point had been challenging, with the likes of After The Fall, Harry Worth, Stella Hurt and Wave A White Flag testing even the most enthusiastic devotees.

It is the perennial dilemma of a still prolific songwriter that while he wants to flick through all his songbook, the concert-goer craves the hits. When playing solo, as he does on Detour– dat's Scouse for 'the tour', he jokes – the harshness of tune and bitterness of lyric of Costello's later years becomes more exaggerated.

The trouble is, if you were to suggest a substitution, it would always be in favour of bringing in an earlier song, be it Clubland, Pills And Soap, Tramp The Dirt Down, Indoor Fireworks, Tokyo Storm Warning or So Like Candy, all absent from the Harrogate show, as they were from the Birmingham Symphony Hall concert your reviewer had encountered the previous Sunday.

However, as a cursory look at Setlist.fm, will testify, no two shows on the 21-date Detour are the same, allowing the 60-year-old Costello to detour in any direction with 400 songs in his canon, plus a repertoire of unpredictable covers stretching back to the jazz age.

At Birmingham, Elvis's younger brother, Ronan MacManus, had opened the show with his group Brand New Zeros and joined him later for a couple of encores. At Harrogate, it was straight from the career retrospective of promo videos on a giant retro television set to Elvis's entry in a natty navy blue suit and white Stetson.

The TV screen would play its part in a show that had family and reflection at its core, as Elvis switched between guitars, even ukulele and a loudhailer, or sat at a piano stool or in his blue chair, peppering the songs with stories from his life and the musical exploits of his father, Joe Loss's singer Ross MacManus, and his grandfather in the First World War. Watching father Ross looking the spit of Elvis as he sang If I Had A Hammer on TV, "you could see where I got my dance moves from", he said.

The Costello waspish wit had a sting in his tales too, with a dig at David Cameron and some teasing at Harrogate's expense for being the "weird sex capital of Europe".

If the setlist craved indulgence, nevertheless Elvis the showman's skills of musicianship and deep, dark, truthful voice were undimmed. Shipbuilding and a ballad reinvention of I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down stood out on the piano; Watching The Detectives hammered the loop effects pedal into submission; 2014's The Last Year Of My Youth is the veteran's best song in years; and when he turned the TV set into a mini-stage for Oliver's Army, he brought the house down.

A tender rendition of Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away on a special Holly Foundation guitar would surely have delighted even the early departee. Elvis will not be fading way or leaving the building any time soon."

Earlier in the week, Elvis had awarded the "Wierd Sex Capital of Europe" title to Brighton, so clearly an honour that can be shared.

MOOT

[sulky lad]

The rumour mill continues,- apparently there's a great recording out there in the ether !

[Mikeh]

I was in a car crash this week - I'm OK but my car is a write off. Just before it was towed away I managed to retrieve the excellent recording of the Harrogate show (thanks Sulky!) from the car's CD player.

[sulky lad]

Wow sorry about the prang , Mike, hope you're OK and no repercussions . I'm amazed at your need to retrieve the recording - I could always do you another one !! All the best D

[johnfoyle]

A tender rendition of Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away on a special Holly Foundation guitar

Possibly from this show -

https://twitter.com/Atkin_Guitars/statu ... 1810415620