It was cool to see this coolest of slightly uncool dudes from my younger days looking dapper and sounding on top form. The audience demographic was predictable – lots of guys in hats, it was like a Heisenberg convention. His band – The Imposters – were polished and tight. The keyboard player, Steve Nieve – was awesome. And I was especially good on backing vocals during Oliver’s Army.
Costello wrote one of my favourite ever protest songs – a beautifully vicious diatribe against Margaret Thatcher that was replayed a lot when she died. His politics are just as loftily expressed these days and no less on point, as he reminded us – with genuine sadness – before singing ‘All These Strangers’ with a warning that we seem to be repeating old mistakes. Oh Elvis …
Here’s the setlist …
- Big Tears
- No Action
- Watching the Detectives
- Wild Honey
- The Other Side of Summer
- Flutter & Wow
- Moods for Moderns (instrumental) / Shotgun
- New Lace Sleeves
- Sunday’s Best / Polythene pam
- Walk Us Uptown
- Beyond Belief
- Clubland
- Stations of the Cross
- (I Don’t Want to Go To) Chelsea
- Bedlam
- Oliver’s Army
- (What’s So Funny ’bout) Peace, Love and Understanding
Encore:
- Pills and Soap
- Shipbuilding
- Face in the crowd
- Green Shirt
- All These Strangers
- Man Out of Time
And some snaps …
