Elvis/Brodskys, Basingstoke April 22 '09

Pretty self-explanatory
littletriggers
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Re: Elvis/Brodskys, Basingstoke April 22 '09

Post by littletriggers »

Eh pix on flickr , google and once on flickr try ELVIS COSTELLO @ THE ANVIL , Get 'em on John cheers
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And No Coffee Table
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Re: Elvis/Brodskys, Basingstoke April 22 '09

Post by And No Coffee Table »

Setlist from wiki:

01. Accidents Will Happen
02. For Other Eyes
03. Rocking Horse Road
04. You Turned To Me
05. I Almost Had A Weakness
06. Raglan Road
07. New Lace Sleeves
08. The Girl In The Other Room
09. All This Useless Beauty
10. Pills And Soap
11. Still
12. Romeo's Seance
13. My Three Sons
14. My Mood Swings
15. Either Side Of The Same Town
16. I Thought I'd Write To Juliet
17. Bedlam
18. Shipbuilding
Encore 1
19. Jacksons, Monk And Rowe
20. P.S. I Love You
21. Narrow Daylight
Encore 2
22. Sulphur To Sugarcane
23. The Birds Will Still Be Singing

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... asingstoke
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Who Shot Sam?
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Re: Elvis/Brodskys, Basingstoke April 22 '09

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

No review from SLL?

He must have been abducted by freemasons.
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Re: Elvis/Brodskys, Basingstoke April 22 '09

Post by The imposter »

And No Coffee Table wrote:Setlist from wiki:


20. P.S. I Love You


http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... asingstoke
That would be The Beatles song, right? Strange choice, interestin.
scielle
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Re: Elvis/Brodskys, Basingstoke April 22 '09

Post by scielle »

Or the Gordon Jenkins/ Johnny Mercer one that was on Diana's '99 record?

P.S. I Love You
(Mercer/Jenkins)

Dear, I thought I'd drop a line
The weather's cool, the folks are fine
I'm in bed each night at nine
P.S. I love you

Yesterday we had some rain
But, all in all, I can't complain
Was it dusty on the train?
P.S. I love you

Write to the Browns just as soon as you're able
They came around to call
I burned a hole in the dining room table
Let me see, I think that's all

Nothing more for me to say
And so I'll close but, by the way
Everybody's thinking of you
P.S. I love you
johnfoyle
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Re: Elvis/Brodskys, Basingstoke April 22 '09

Post by johnfoyle »

Hi from a 'net place near Waterloo Station, London where, this Thursday morning, Costello songs are playing on the P.A.!

Last nights show in Basingstoke was a triumph. Elvis was in great voice , pretty good shape and very relaxed. As the setlist shows a very varied selection of songs was dished up, holding everyone's attention all the time. Elvis regularly went off-mic. , specifically in Narrow Daylight's first and last verse.

A highlight was Raglan Road. After Paul Cassidy emphasised it's folk roots by starting it by lilting 'diddly idle diddily' and picking out some fiddle riffs Elvis sang it pretty straight, letting the pathos of the Patrick Kavanagh's lyric ( written originally as a poem in the 1940's about a women he couldn't have) come through. As with when I heard the echoey audience recording of the Sydney '06 performance, it was doubly ironic to hear Elvis sing about Grafton Street and other Dublin locations!

A few song references were blended into some songs. In the middle of Rocking Horse Road , Elvis sang the refrain to Chip Taylor's Wild Thing ,most famously done by The Troggs. Perhaps it was tip of the hat to Reg Presley , Troggs lead singer and native of Andover, 18 miles from Basingstoke. At the end of My Three Sons the Brodsky's played a coda which seemed to be a different tune. Last week in an interview Elvis said - Another new arrangement contains a reference to the Welsh hymn Ar Hyd Y Nos (sometimes called All Through The Night) but you’ll have to come to the concert to see which song it appears in. It seems to reasonable to assume this is the indicated reference. The hymn's wiki page quotes this translation of the song's first verse-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ar_Hyd_Y_Nos

Sleep my child and peace attend thee,
All through the night
Guardian angels God will send thee,
All through the night
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping
Hill and vale in slumber steeping,
I my loving vigil keeping
All through the night.

P.S. I Love You is, indeed, the Johnny Mercer tune and very nice it was.

I had come to the show anticipating , perhaps, a rough, out-of-town try out. The excellence of what was produced bodes well for the rest of the tour. It was great to meet up with - deep breath!- Paul, Steve, Nick, Peter, Samantha, Holly and ( at 10 years old , surely the youngest attender!) Tina. On to The Barbican.
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Re: Elvis/Brodskys, Basingstoke April 22 '09

Post by johnfoyle »

Little Triggers photos-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/littletrig ... 009/04/22/

including -


Image
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so lacklustre
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Re: Elvis/Brodskys, Basingstoke April 22 '09

Post by so lacklustre »

Enjoyed the show, and meeting johnfoyle and Little Triggers. The man's voice was as good as ever, the BQ were on top form and the audience very appreciative of the medium. STS was the only one he even remotely rocked to - it was interesting seeing a string quartet doing bluegrass! Holly (the real 10 yr old) fully enjoyed her first experience of live Elvis and Tina (not the 10 yr old and a so so elvis fan) thought it was fabulous. More later (maybe).
signed with love and vicious kisses
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Re: Elvis/Brodskys, Basingstoke April 22 '09

Post by bronxapostle »

the NARROW DAYLIGHT must have been beautiful with BQ!!! gotta hear that one ASAP!
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Re: Elvis/Brodskys, Basingstoke April 22 '09

Post by johnfoyle »

Holly/Tina - so sorry for , yet again, mixing up you names!

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 155793.ece

The Times, London.

April 24, 2009

Elvis Costello / Brodsky Quartet at Anvil, Basingstoke

David Sinclair


As Elvis Costello wryly observed, it is not every day that you go to see a recital by a string quartet and get treated to a pyrotechnic display. He was referring to a stage light that exploded rather dramatically above the musicians’ heads on the opening night of his British tour with the Brodsky Quartet. The distraction occurred, with appropriate timing, during I Thought I’d Write to Juliet, a lyric inspired by a letter written by a soldier in the field of battle, and was followed by Bedlam, in which Costello conjured even fiercer images of dread: “Easter saw a slaughtering, each wrapped in bloodstained fleeces.” It is not every day you see a string quartet accompanied by a superannuated rock star, for that matter.

But the collaboration, which began with the release of the album The Juliet Letters in 1993, has stood the test of time better than some of Costello’s other quixotic alliances. There was a distinct rapport to the performance that went beyond the obvious mutual respect between the two parties, and a sense of musical adventure was in the air as they opened with a radically revised version of Accidents Will Happen. The arrangement of just about any pop song for string quartet inevitably harks back to Eleanor Rigby, and this was no exception. And as they moved on to Rocking Horse Road, incorporating a brief, humorous quote from Wild Thing, there was a slight sense of old pop being tarted up with a coating of classical varnish.

But when they moved on to some of the numbers from The Juliet Letters, the music took on a deeper and more characterful tone. Costello was clearly at pains to sing and project to the absolute best of his ability and reached some impressive notes, particularly during Shipbuilding, an emotional performance that he ended with a sensational flourish. But there was still a certain incongruity between the finesse and technical exactitude that the classical players brought to the performance and the slovenly rock’n’roll method which remains embedded in Costello’s performing DNA.

An encore of the Johnny Mercer standard P. S. I Love You took the performance yet farther into intriguing realms. Costello remains one of the most restlessly enquiring performers — in any genre.

Birmingham Symphony Hall, tonight; Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Sun; Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, Mon; St George’s Hall, Bristol, Apr 29
johnfoyle
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Re: Elvis/Brodskys, Basingstoke April 22 '09

Post by johnfoyle »

http://www.flickr.com/photos/littletrig ... otostream/

Image

Image

Image

The 'programme'. The last line reads
'See more at http://www.elviscostello.com. Just don't subscribe.'
littletriggers
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Re: Elvis/Brodskys, Basingstoke April 22 '09

Post by littletriggers »

Thanks again John for posting links , Paul "So Lack " good to meet you and clan , and damn the rest of you at the Barbican for after gig chat , after we were all promised drinks at the bar !
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Re: Elvis/Brodskys, Basingstoke April 22 '09

Post by Man out of Time »

Review by editor Mark Jones in the Basingstoke Gazette on April 30, 2009:

"Costello discovers right combination

Elvis Costello with the Brodsky Quartet
The Anvil
Basingstoke

THEY are unlikely bedfellows but the musical marriage between rock singer-songwriter Elvis Costello and the classical Brodsky Quartet is clearly one that’s made in heaven.

So far, this successful partnership has endured for 17 years, and on the evidence of the latest performance at The Anvil, it’s still going very strong.

The combination of Costello the voice and a superb classical string quartet produces an end result to marvel at – one whose rhythm can’t even be rattled by the sound and shards of an exploding stage spotlight.

This unexpected interruption aside, The Anvil proved why it’s the perfect venue for performers, and performances, like this. The excellent acoustics demanded the best from a combo who let the words and music, rather than any stage effects, do the talking – and both Costello and the quartet more than rose to the challenge.

I’m a fan of Costello’s mainstream tracks – many of which were performed with The Attractions – so it was particularly interesting to hear a number like Accidents Will Happen, which opened the show, given a new and impressive classical dimension.

Not surprisingly, several numbers in the evening’s set were taken from the award-winning album The Juliet Letters that the singer and quartet collaborated on in 1993.

Costello, who is ageing gracefully and looked dapper in his smart suit and tie, packed a suitable vocal punch or lightweight touch depending on the song. He has been known as “The Man” but, if this performance is anything to go by, perhaps “The Voice” would be a more suitable soubriquet.

The Brodsky Quartet certainly looked and sounded the part too. Paul Cassidy on viola deserves particular praise for giving several of the tracks a new musical direction.

The main set ended with a powerful version of Costello’s classic Shipbuilding, which made the hairs stand up on the back of the neck. Two lengthy encores – one of which included a track borrowed from Costello’s wife, jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall – rounded off a memorable evening in style."

MOOT
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Re: Elvis/Brodskys, Basingstoke April 22 '09

Post by Man out of Time »

Chatting to Paul Cassidy last night, after a show by My Darling Clementine and Mark Billingham at St James Theatre, London, I mentioned that I had seen the Brodskys and Elvis in 2009 and mentioned a few of the venues, including Basingstoke. Paul leapt on the mention of Basingstoke. He still remembers the exploding stage light (mentioned in the review above) that blew up with a loud bang, mid-number showering broken glass onto the stage beneath.

As he tells it, he and Jacqueline were on the side of the stage under the light that blew and carried on rather nervously. Elvis was stage centre and (as Paul tells it) unflappable in the face of what happened.

Paul has some other stories from that tour as well, particularly the heckler in Glasgow.

MOOT
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