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Elvis Costello and Steve Nieve review – 50 years of hits only improved by age
The singer-songwriter and his Attractions sidekick roam from 1977 to today – and pay a special tribute to the venue’s historic comedy heritage
‘We’re treading the boards trod by Houdini, Charlie Chaplin … and Frank Carson and Ken Dodd,” yells Elvis Costello, at Leeds’ famous 19th-century music hall, now restored, dipping between songs into the venue’s more comedic traditions. With longtime Attractions sidekick Steve Nieve alternating between exquisite piano playing, keyboard, melodica and electric accordion and Costello switching between a variety of very expensive and dirt-cheap guitars, the setlist ranges from 1977 (Mystery Dance, delivered as a slow blues) to 2024 (the theme song from forthcoming musical A Face in the Crowd, which gets as loud a reception as any of them). Costello just turned 70 – when someone yells “Happy birthday Elvis!” he quips “Don’t remind me” – and his voice is starting to strain occasionally, but this gives the sublime Country Darkness, from 2004’s The Delivery Man, more melancholy and vulnerability.
Or read this on The Guardian
