Elvis Costello and the Imposters – Royal Albert Hall – 5^th June 2013

In some quarters Elvis Costello is seen as a somewhat curmudgeonly performer. The lie to that is proven tonight as Elvis returns with his ‘spectacular spinning songbook’ on the 13 Revolvers Tour, which he oversees in the guise of ringmaster / MC Lord Napoleon Dynamite. That’s not to say that this particular top-hatted character isn’t a little bit scary and disturbing, just as some of the best clowns are.

However, before we are introduced to Lord Dynamite, Elvis leads the Imposters (effectively The Attractions minus Bruce Thomas) onstage and crashes into Welcome To The Working Week quickly followed by No Action. From the start there is a go-go dancer in a cage (although some of the ‘bars’ are actually chains) and one gets the feeling that this is actually a bit more than a gig. There’s a very real feeling of some sort of circus at large.

After Accidents Will Happen, Elvis makes his transformation into Lord Dynamite, and introduces us to “the mysterious Josephine”, his glamorous assistant who periodically disappears into the audience to bring a lucky fan onstage. They then have the opportunity to choose a song from Elvis’s wheel of fortune that they would like to hear, and then spins the ‘wheel of fortune’ to select another  song for Elvis to play. He plays them both, often with one or two others that he considers to be complimentary, while the fans sit in a ‘VIP area’, which looks like a small bar. Elvis himself wanders into the audience to pluck out a fan more than once.

In doing this Costello demolishes the barrier between artist and audience at one fell swoop. He has in fact been undertaking tours of this nature for around twenty-five years, but that takes nothing away from its value. The result of this method of playing live is that the audience gets a mixture of greatest hits, fan favourites, and songs that Elvis clearly wants to play. So for every Oliver’s Army you get a Human Hands and a Sweet Drag Josephine.

Tonight’s set features such an embarrassment of riches that there are too many highlights to mention. Particularly powerful was Tramp The Dirt Down which featured in the first batch of encores. Elvis was virtually spitting bile as he told us that he was inspired to play it by seeing David Cameron on the TV on Prime Minister’s Question Time. It’s a relief to know that he hasn’t lost any of his righteous anger.

We’re sent out into the night with Heart Of The City ( a Nick Lowe cover), Pump It Up and (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love And Understanding (another Nick Lowe cover) ringing in our ears. The crowd walking down Exhibition Road had a particular energised spring in their step. Tonight was much more than a mere gig. At times it felt like some kind of unholy communion.

                                                                                                Mark Kelly