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Setlist History: Elvis Costello's First US Concert

• Setlist History
• Last updated: 15 Nov 2023, 17:26:13
• Published: 15 Nov 2023, 17:26:13
• Written by: Tony Pierce
• Photography by: Richard E. Aaron/Redferns
• Categories: Setlist History Tagged: Elvis Costello Elvis Costello & The Attractions Clover The Old Waldorf

Elvis Costello and the Attractions made their US debut on November 15, 1977 in San Francisco with an early and late show that was broadcast over the radio.

The buzz was smoking hot for the skinny Brit with the Buddy Holly glasses and knocked knees in '77. It started in July when he was signed to the fledgling UK indie label Stiff Records and heard there was going to be a fancy meeting of Columbia Record execs at the Hilton on London’s Park Lane.

Then just 23, Costello set up a small amp and serenaded the brass with four songs from his debut album My Aim Is True which, as groundbreaking as it was, was flopping in the UK.

"Less Than Zero" - clunk. "Alison" - dud. "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" - fizz.

"I remember it being very demoralising, feeling that my only contact with the world was those singles, and those people who I didn't know or I'd never met had to make or break of it," he said of that rocky beginning, "that was very depressing."

So when the skinny guy in the tight fitting suit busked in front of the Hilton that afternoon, he told the suits, clearly, concisely, directly, “I am Elvis Costello. Sign me.”

His reward: a speedy arrest and a night in jail.

Months later Columbia also listened to the album and signed him. His first shows in San Francisco's now-defunct Old Waldorf were sponsored by the label known for shepherding the careers of other brazen singer songwriters like Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Bruce Springsteen.

The set on that early show was one to grab your attention and never let go.

Kicking off with the energetic but shallow "Pump It Up" which wouldn't even make the cut on the debut, instead relegated to the '78 follow up This Years Model . It would, however be a perennial set closer for the man who was born Declan McManus. A tune to get the crowd on their feet so they can leave once the house lights are flicked on.

It was followed by the 1950s-era pop masterpiece "Welcome to the Working Week," which leads off My Aim Is True .

The pace doesn't let up until "Less Than Zero" into "Alison" and then kicks back in for the rest of the set.

He clearly didn't want anyone to turn their radio dial of the simulcast or leave the small venue. There would be hits, no fat, no extended solos, and if you were lucky when you weren't catching unmistakably clever lyrics you were being seduced by 19 year-old Steve Nieves mastery of the electric piano and organ.

"I'm not interested in becoming a... patron saint of losers," Costello would say in an interview that year in regards to his image. Was he angry? He denied it but it was obvious. The chip on his shoulder, was clear and present and delightful.

Saturday Night Live would see that rebel in December '77 when he live debuted the fiery unreleased "Radio Radio" - a critical diatribe about the state of rock radio. The performance would become legend and get him banned from the show.

He was a well-dressed punk with a thesaurus and in need of dentistry. He was everyone in the audience who loved the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Ramones, and all the others who were in the Class of '77 but who had to go to the office from 9-5.

Did Costello love punk? Of course. He admitted the Clash debut inspired "Watching the Detectives" and its Hitchcock-meets-Joe Friday narration.

"I think some of it is a little weak," he explained. "It's not so much that the cause or the complaint isn't that strong, it's more of a question of thrashing around in a kind of blind fury often doesn't make a point as clearly as a quiet threat.So I think sometimes it's a little vain. I think two of the Pistols' singles are really excellent."

Decades later we learned Elvis loved everything, musically. And gave us his renditions of so many styles, unlike anyone else.

Elvis returns to touring in January with a slightly rejiggered band, The Imposters with Charlie Sexton on lead guitar.

In March the outfit heads down to Australia. Get your tickets on Elvis' website .

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Most played songs.

• Alison ( 372 )
• Watching the Detectives ( 306 )
• (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding ( 305 )
• (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes ( 264 )
• Everyday I Write the Book ( 240 )

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Elvis Costello’s New York Soul

By Wendell Jamieson

• Sept. 28, 2016

Elvis Costello first saw Manhattan when he was 23. This was late 1977. He and his band, the Attractions, were coming down from New Haven on their first tour of the United States when the skyscrapers came into view.

“It was really like a jolt of adrenaline — it’s such a mythic skyline,” he said. “I’d only experienced that a few other times in my career. Another was when I first saw Shanghai: You feel like you’d been shot out of a rocket to another planet.”

Now he’s in his early 60s and sitting in a booth in the lobby of the Algonquin Hotel on West 44th Street, seeming quite at home. He knows a bit about the place, too. He laments that the Oak Room, the cabaret where his wife, Diana Krall, had once performed, is gone and jokingly wonders whether Dorothy Parker could have afforded one of the suites that now bear her name ($424 a night).

Mr. Costello was in New York for a few days after playing the Newport Folk Festival in July. He’ll be back for three shows this fall — one Oct. 1 at Town Hall featuring his solo DeTour show, in which he ranges around his catalog, and the others on Nov. 6 and 7 at the Beacon Theater with his band the Imposters, focusing on his 1982 album, “Imperial Bedroom.”

Elvis and New York. The two have shared a long and deepening history since that first skyline jolt. There have been famous concerts and a legendary television appearance and recordings that included a late-career masterpiece. He marked his 50th birthday with concerts at Lincoln Center; his 60th with a show at Carnegie Hall; and the release of his 2013 album with the Roots, “Wise up Ghost,” with a performance at Brooklyn Bowl . He was in the city just after Sept. 11 and remembers how kind everyone was toward one another in those days.

In all, he has made 278 appearances in New York City. I was at roughly 25 of his shows, mostly as a deeply obsessed teenager, but at quite a few as an adult, too, and now I was sitting in that booth in the Algonquin pestering him about a longstanding theory of mine: that there is something in his music — caustic, smart, fast-talking, but with moments of deep compassion and sublime beauty — that is quintessentially New York. He made a habit early in his career of being in-your-face, maybe a bit of a jerk, characteristics some might associate with New Yorkers as well.

Never mind that he grew up in Liverpool and London and has lived in Dublin and now Vancouver, British Columbia. How else but with shared attitudes could a 13-year-old from Brooklyn latch on to a singer-songwriter-performer who peppers his lyrics with Britishisms ( Vauxhall Viva , tuppenny ha’penny millionaire)?

The moment you meet a lifelong idol is transporting. Dressed in a blue suit jacket with small white polka dots, relaxed and enjoying the coolness of the lobby on a scorching hot day, Mr. Costello was game to knock around my theory, if at first not entirely convinced. We were both hard-pressed to come up with other examples of non-New Yorker musicians, artists or authors who conveyed the sense of the city without trying to, or even realizing they were.

As the conversation moved along, a rich stream of New Yorkiness did indeed reveal itself, both in Mr. Costello’s music and in his experiences, whether captured in song or his autobiography, “Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink” (Blue Rider Press, 2015; out Oct. 11 in paperback ). It even reached back to before he was born.

Mr. Costello made the first comparison to someone else famous — a transplanted New Yorker and a lifelong idol of his.

“John Lennon came to live here and volunteered the idea that he saw some equivalency between New York and Liverpool,” he said. “In a way, it was a heightened version, being a port. I felt at home the first time I came here.”

He was quickly on a roll.

“I didn’t drive a car until I was 38, so I liked any town you could walk around, and I never ever felt threatened. Maybe that was naïve of me, or maybe I didn’t venture far enough afield. People were generally not bothered by you. Why would they be bothered by you? It wasn’t as if I was wearing a gold suit.”

The young Mr. Costello had a firm handle on all the music scenes in the United States when he first arrived, and hungered to experience them. But he found many had faded; the only scene that really felt alive and happening was New York.

“I went to New Orleans, and there were little bits of music here and there, but I didn’t know enough to get to the right or wrong side of town,” he said, “whereas in New York you could actually walk into places, and it was actually happening.”

This was the age of Blondie and Talking Heads, bands he would get to know and with whom he would share bills. He played with Richard Hell and the Voidoids at CBGB and remembers wandering around Alphabet City, carrying a 1961 Fender Stratocaster he’d just bought on West 48th Street, looking for Mr. Hell’s apartment.

On the last day of that tour, Mr. Costello and the Attractions went to 30 Rockefeller Plaza to appear on “Saturday Night Live,” famously cutting off one song (“Less Than Zero”) to blast into another (“Radio Radio”). The change apparently messed up the show’s timing, and legend has it that Mr. Costello was told he’d never work in television again. Not quite. He made it back to “S.N.L.” for the show’s 25th and 40th anniversaries, at one point reprising the infamous song-switch with the Beastie Boys.

He toured furiously in the late ’70s and early ’80s, appearing at, among other places, the Bottom Line, Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, Radio City Music Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Pier 84 on the Hudson River and, perhaps most often, the Palladium on 14th Street, which he called “our regular address in those days.”

It was there during an epic show on New Year’s Eve 1981-82 that he debuted many songs on “Imperial Bedroom,” his lavish, at times abstract but often soaring album that would be released the following summer, and which will be the focus of this November’s shows.

I was up — way, way up — in the balcony that night. I will never forget the thrill of the Attractions’ drummer, Pete Thomas, opening the show with the machine-gun intro of “Lipstick Vogue” in complete darkness. The band played for nearly three hours. Six months later, I bought “Imperial Bedroom” the day it came out at Record Factory on West Eighth Street in Manhattan (it took an extra day or two for records to reach Brooklyn). Unable to stand the suspense, I opened the sleeve to stare at the disc while riding on the subway, as if the melodies would somehow reveal themselves to my eyes.

Mr. Costello, amused if mildly alarmed by my subway story, calls “Imperial Bedroom” the last “collaborative” record he made with the Attractions; from then on, either he or a producer called the shots. And indeed, he and the band slowed their frantic pace in the mid-’80s. This allowed for some real vacations and one memorable scene in “Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink” in which he and his father, Ross MacManus, himself a singer and trumpet player, took a long walk around Manhattan. You can feel the city coming into sharper focus.

“It was the first holiday we had taken together since I was 7,” he wrote. “We walked all over Manhattan during those five days, from Park Avenue to Hell’s Kitchen, where my papa had lodged in the 1920s.” That night, he and his dad went to see Peggy Lee in Chelsea.

“My papa” was his grandfather, Pat MacManus, who makes a brief appearance on Mr. Costello’s 1986 album “King of America” — Mr. Costello sings how “my grandfather before me walked the streets of New York.”

Pat MacManus was a trumpet player aboard trans-Atlantic ocean liners. He used to regale his family with tales of rough New York. Not too long ago, after his father died, Mr. Costello examined an old photo album kept by his grandfather.

“It was a tiny little photo album with tiny little pictures,” said Mr. Costello, who was born Declan MacManus. “I had them scanned and blew them up, and they were a travelogue of New York. Pictures of Times Square — just over here — a guy crossing the road, cars going by. He just snapped it. And there are pictures of him lying in the grass in Central Park. And in Coney Island.”

Throughout the 1990s, Mr. Costello came to New York almost as regularly as his grandfather before him, often stopping to perform on “Late Show With David Letterman” at the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway. But when, in 2001, he came to record horns for “When I Was Cruel,” a guitar-driven return to his youthful, aggressive past, he landed in a different city. It was mid-September: New York was still stunned by Sept. 11. “I flew in over the city and was here to experience something of that odd mood — nobody was angry with anybody, and there was just this heaviness of it all.”

In late 2002, he began to compose a ballad called “I’m in the Mood Again.” Now New York was more than just a single line; it was the whole song.

Hail to the taxis They go where I go Farewell the newspapers that know more than I know Flung under a streetlamp still burning at dawn I’m in the mood again

The song closes “North,” which came out in 2003, and which to me is Mr. Costello’s New York Album. He creased his forehead and nodded. “Yeah, I suppose it is.”

And it’s not just that song. Spare and sung in a register set so deliberately low that it forces Mr. Costello to nearly speak the lines, “North” paints images in my mind of autumnal city streets, mottled leaves on the pavement, lit only by the amber windows of a corner bar with an empty stool or two.

It was recorded at Avatar Studios on West 53rd Street and chronicles the dissolution of Mr. Costello’s second marriage (to the former Pogues member Cait O’Riordan), and the beginning of his romance with Ms. Krall — we imagine she’s the “marvelous girl covered up in my coat” in the song “Still.” The somber tone of much of the album contrasts with what sounds like a pretty joyful — and glitteringly Manhattan — experience making it.

“We were living in this kind of Fred-and-Ginger fantasy in the Carlyle Hotel,” he said of himself and Ms. Krall, by now married. “My wife and I were living in the most fantastic suite.”

Mr. Costello becomes somber himself when he discusses the current state of the music industry, and how he’s gotten off “the machine” of recording an album every year or two followed by tours. Now he focuses on shows, though he’s still prolific — he is currently writing songs for a musical of the 1957 Elia Kazan film, “A Face in the Crowd.”

Now he’s turning his attention to the shows focused on “Imperial Bedroom.” At the time, it was a departure: He and the Attractions stretched out in all directions, adding layers of instrumentation and even orchestral parts. Geoff Emerick, who had engineered numerous Beatles recordings, helped Mr. Costello take the songs apart in the studio and put them back together; a few have never been played live.

The Imposters are two-thirds of the Attractions — Mr. Thomas and the keyboardist Steve Nieve — and Davey Faragher, who replaced Bruce Thomas (no relation to Pete) on bass. Yet for all intents and purposes, they are a different band — more groove-based and, like all of us, a bit older. Mr. Costello says the record won’t be played in order, but beyond that he is still working out what the audience will hear.

“Do we return it to the raw version of the song, where we just blasted through it for the first time?” he asked. “Do we want the refinement of the record arrangement? Do we want to rewrite? What else did I leave out of the songs that I maybe need to say now?”

He finished a cappuccino. “Like that — we will take this music and just make it happen.”

A cover article this weekend about Elvis Costello’s long history with New York misspells the given name of the jazz pianist and singer to whom Mr. Costello is married. She is Diana Krall, not Dianna. The article also misidentifies the festival that Mr. Costello played in July. He was at the Newport Folk Festival, not at the Newport Jazz Festival. In addition, the article misidentifies the location of the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan. It is on West 44th Street, not West 43rd Street. And the article misspells the surname of the bass player for Mr. Costello’s band, the Imposters. He is Davey Faragher, not Farragher.

How we handle corrections

Wendell Jamieson is the Metro editor of The New York Times.

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Elvis Costello concert reviews and tour history

• reviews: 21
• rating: 93% (25)

Fans' concert reviews Read all

Colston hall in bristol, uk on sun, 21 jun 2015.

Elvis Rocked Bristol Last Night and had Really Great Stage Set i will be going to see him again Next time Hes in Bristol i would Highly Recommend Seeing him to anyone who Likes Good Music

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool, UK on Mon, 15 Jun 2015

Damn good show and good to see him in 'top form' and his voice delivered all evening. Love seeing a 'natural showman' and 'on his tod' knocking em out.

Symphony Hall in Birmingham, UK on Sun, 31 May 2015

Mr Costello hasn't disappointed me once in all all the times I've seen him live and last night was no exception. The man is incredible. He is so laid back, funny, confident, talented, witty, loveable, the list goes on. I particularly loved the part when MacManus Senior was singing on screen and then Elvis and Ronan walked on together clapping to the music, smiling before performing together. having lost my own father and brother some years ago this moment was even more special to me. I could talk all night about what a fantastic night I had. I've rated this concert 'perfection' because it was

Boulder Theater in Boulder, US on Sun, 01 Mar 2015

Great evening, really entertaining. Bet i was the only person who had rode on the donkeys on Blackpool beach that elvis mentioned while talking about his growing up years.

Royal Albert Hall in London, UK on Wed, 29 Oct 2014

Having just seen him in Linz, was really pleased he had changed some of the set. London's Brilliant Parade and Everybody's Crying Mercy were outstanding - but generally brilliant and fantastic to see Steve Naive

Great gig, great setlist which changed as the set progressed ,also great to see Steve Nieve too

Koninklijk Theater Carré in Amsterdam, Netherlands on Wed, 22 Oct 2014

I have seen Elvis perform many times. But this one is in my personal top 3. He was witty, entertaining and fantastic. His vocal range still amazes me and his guitar playing AWESOME

Royal Circus (Cirque Royal/Koninklijk Circus) in Brussels, Belgium on Tue, 21 Oct 2014

concert was not in Botanique but in Cirque Royal...Great concert!

Usher Hall in Edinburgh, UK on Sat, 18 Oct 2014

Excellent concert, he is an amazing talent. Perhaps he could have played more of his better known tracks but this is a minor criticism.

Værket in Randers, Denmark on Sat, 27 Sep 2014

Fantastic performance by E.C. Great entertainer, great voice - still - and and engaged perfomer. Torsten

Rated concerts View all

• Capitol Center for the Arts - NH in Concord, US Sat, 28 Jun 2014 100% from 2 ratings
• Royal Albert Hall in London, UK Wed, 29 Oct 2014 100% from 2 ratings
• The O'Shaughnessy in St. Paul, US Mon, 09 Jun 2014 100% from 1 rating
• Koninklijk Theater Carré in Amsterdam, Netherlands Wed, 22 Oct 2014 100% from 1 rating
• Værket in Randers, Denmark Sat, 27 Sep 2014 100% from 1 rating
• Symphony Hall in Birmingham, UK Sun, 31 May 2015 100% from 1 rating
• Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, US Mon, 08 Sep 2014 100% from 1 rating
• De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-On-Sea, UK Thu, 17 Jul 2014 100% from 1 rating
• Colston Hall in Bristol, UK Sun, 21 Jun 2015 100% from 1 rating
• Carnegie Hall in New York, US Wed, 25 Jun 2014 100% from 1 rating

Ratings View all

• one of the best: 13 54%
• fantastic: 11 46%
• great: 0 0%
• disappointing: 0 0%
• should've stayed at home: 0 0%

Biggest fans

Elvis costello 2024 tour dates view all, elvis costello tour history, about elvis costello.

Elvis Costello was born 69 years ago, on Wednesday, 25 August 1954.

Based on our research data, it appears, that the first Elvis Costello concert happened 53 years ago on Fri, 21 Jan 1972 in The Lamplight - Wallasey, UK and that the last Elvis Costello concert was 24 days ago on Fri, 12 Apr 2024 in Tokyo - Tokyo, Japan.

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The early Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello has had such a long and varied career, it’s interesting to remember where it all began for him.

In the mid 1970s, Elvis Costello—born Declan MacManus—was working as a computer operator at the cosmetics company Elizabeth Arden in West London. He was described by The Guardian in 1977 as a “bespectacled 22-year-old computer operator from Hounslow who looks like a cross between Buddy Holly and Woody Allen.” He said that in his day job, he was “just an operator, sticking computer tapes on and taking print-outs off.” Looking after a 1970s mainframe computer gave him a lot of downtime to jot down song lyrics, so it was the perfect job for an aspiring songwriter.

In 1973 and 1974, Declan was a big fan and an occasional roadie for Brinsley Schwarz, the band which featured Nick Lowe as singer and bass player. The band is perhaps best-known for their 1974 track “ (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding ,” written by Lowe and later covered by Costello. During this time, Costello and some other Brinsley Schwarz afficionados formed their own band which they dubbed Flip City.

The band recorded some demos, committing to tape both cover songs as well as originals. Most of the guys in the group weren’t as musically ambitious as Declan was, and he left the group in late 1975. In 1976, Elvis submitted some song demos to newly-founded label Stiff Records, and the label tried to interest Dave Edmunds in recording some of the songs.

When Edmunds declined, the label put Elvis in a recording studio to make better-sounding demos with Nick Lowe as producer and the American band Clover backing him. The San Francisco band, which included Sean Hopper (later of Huey Lewis & The News) and John McFee (later of The Doobie Brothers), was working in London at the time. Nick Lowe was the first artist signed to Stiff and was working with Edmunds as a member of Rockpile, so he was a natural choice to shape Elvis’ music into a form that could change Edmunds’ mind. However, after the music was recorded, the record label realized that these “demos” were good enough to release on their own.

In 1977, Stiff issued Elvis’ debut single “ Less Than Zero ” in the U.K. on March 25, although it failed to gain any traction. The label tried again with “ Alison ” on May 21 and again with “ (The Angels Want to Wear My) Red Shoes ” on July 7. None charted, but Costello was gaining fans and starting to pack London pubs (although he didn’t quit his computer operator day job until July 9).

His debut album My Aim is True came out on July 22, and the LP-buying public responded to him better, landing him at #14 on the U.K. album charts.

On July 26, Elvis attempted a little publicity stunt to draw some attention to his fledgling career. Stiff Records didn’t distribute their releases in the U.S., but the major label Columbia Records was holding their annual convention in London. Part business meetings and part drink-fueled party, the event drew all of the bigwigs from the label together in one place. Elvis turned up outside the convention hotel with a small amp slung from his shoulder and began playing . Syndicated U.S. rock writer Lisa Robinson was there and wrote, “Stiff Records’ Elvis Costello (who sounds like Bruce Springsteen and Graham Parker but has no U.S. recording deal yet) gave an impromptu performance outside the Hilton Hotel and was dragged away by police—but not before [Columbia Records president Walter] Yetnikoff had a chance to catch two numbers.”

In fact, Robinson was the one who buttonholed Yetnikoff, late for a meeting, and insisted that he listen to Costello. According to the label president, he was going to leave without listening and Robinson implored him, “You’re making a mistake. He has hits. You must sign him.” Yetnikoff responded, “Fine, I’ll tell my [artists & repertoire] man to sign him.” The incident, however offhandedly, led to Columbia distributing his album for U.S. release. Costello later told the media that “It’s not every day you get a few feet from the president of a multi-million dollar record company and sing Lip Service Is All You’ll Get From Me” (from the as-yet unrecorded song “Lip Service”).

One wonders if Elvis Costello’s name and appearance slowed down U.S. record labels from wanting to distribute his music stateside. The stage name was a big deal to some, especially after Elvis Presley died on Aug. 16, 1977—one review later that year called it an “ill-timed stage name.” In a feature that summer in The Guardian, the writer said that he “found it hard to address this serious, fast-talking and apparently humourless young man as Elvis.” One September newspaper review of My Aim Is True used an epithet offensive to those with mental disabilities in describing Costello’s stage name. Some writers lumped him in with other strange-sounding emerging punk artists like Richard Hell, Johnny Rotten, and the Dead Boys. Other music critics threw up the white flag. “Enough gags about this guy’s name,” implored one in the Arizona Republic. The former Declan MacManus said of his stage name in 1977, “It’s great, because there are only two of us and I’m so anti-sexy while Presley is such a sex star. It’s not a spoof—quite the opposite.” And his appearance spawned comments, if not as many on the name. “With his short hair, dumbo clothes, bookworm glasses,” wrote the Miami Times, Costello “may look like a real dinky wimpoid.”

By November, Elvis’ debut was already being described as the best-selling British import of the year in the U.S., and Columbia Records was finally getting out a domestic release of My Aim Is True. Columbia decided to release “Alison” as a single and made a special version with added strings and additional backing vocals. The label touted the new mix to radio outlets in trade magazine Billboard: “The Columbia ‘Alison’ is already selling at a premium price in Greenwich Village record shops. It’s a different mix from the album track and people gladly pay $1.25 for it.” Costello apparently wasn’t a fan of the single version as it only appeared on the 7-inch (and on a later complete singles box set). The song was not a hit in the U.S.—at least, not until L inda Ronstadt’s 1978 cover version .

That month, Costello also began his debut American tour along with his new backing band, The Attractions, and performed a couple of dozen shows across the U.S., frequently doing radio interviews or live concert broadcasts to maximize his visibility.

This blitz hit its memorable apex on Dec. 17, 1977 when they caught a break. The Sex Pistols pulled out as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live, and Costello was tapped to replace the notorious punkers. He and The Attractions began with a gritty version of “Watching the Detectives,” but the organ wasn’t plugged in. Almost a minute into the song, a stagehand ran out behind the band and plugged in the keyboard amp.

Some backstage antics by the show’s cast led Elvis and the band to feel like they were being treated like last-minute replacements. After drinking a good deal of vodka before their second song—planned to be “Less Than Zero”—they hatched a plan to change the song mid-performance. While live on national TV, Elvis cried out “Stop!” to his band barely 10 seconds into the number.

“I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen, there’s no reason to do this song here.” Turning back to the band, he called out “Radio Radio!” and gave a furious count-in. Fueled by vodka and adrenaline, they launch into a blistering version of “Radio Radio”—a song not yet released on either side of the Atlantic. Elvis later told Rolling Stone, “We came off the stage and they were very definitely pissed off at us. We just went back to the dressing room and laughed ourselves stupid, drank the rest of the vodka and left, pursued by people making dire threats.” Legend has it that SNL producer Lorne Michael spent a portion of the performance standing behind the camera making a rude gesture in Costello’s direction. The effort got him banned from Saturday Night Live for a little more than 16 years.

The incident capped off the roller-coaster of 1977 for Elvis Costello. He began the year uncertain whether he was destined as a recording artist or to be primarily a songwriter. He ended the year with his debut album out, a tour and a national TV appearance in the U.S., and his inaugural hit single. “Watching the Detectives,” his first single recorded with The Attractions, got him onto the British singles chart for the first time on November 5 and it eventually peaked at #15 on December 24. (He would not have a hit single in the U.S. until 1983 with “Everyday I Write the Book.”)

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Elvis Costello & The Imposters Announce Summer 2022 Tour

By Evan Minsker

Elvis Costello & The Imposters have announced a tour this summer behind their just-released album A Boy Named If . The tour features dates across North America this summer, and at the majority of those shows, Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets will open. Find those dates below.

Read Pitchfork’s 5-10-15-20 interview “ Elvis Costello on the Music of His Life .”

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Elvis Costello & The Imposters:

08-06 Huber Heights, OH - Rose Music Center at The Heights ^ 08-08 Toronto, Ontario - Massey Hall * 08-09 Buffalo, NY - Artpark Amphitheater ^ 08-11 New York, NY - The Rooftop at Pier 17 * 08-12 Bensalem, PA - Xcite Center at Parx Casino 08-13 Ledyard, CT - Foxwoods Resort Casino 08-15 Boston, MA - Leader Bank Pavilion * 08-16 Northampton, MA - The Pines Theater * 08-18 Vienna, VA - Wolf Trap * 08-23 Denver, CO - Levitt Pavilion * 08-25 Salt Lake City, UT - Sandy Amphitheater * 08-28 Thousand Oaks, CA - Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza * 08-30 Anaheim, CA - City National Grove of Anaheim * 09-02 Paso Robles, CA - Vina Robles Amphitheatre * 09-03 Las Vegas, NV - The Theater at Virgin Hotels *

^ with Nicole Atkins  * with Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets

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Elvis Costello Announces 2024 US Tour

 Elvis Costello has announced a run of U.S. tour dates for the beginning of 2024.

The 7-0-7 tour will begin Jan. 10 in Tallahassee, Florida, and last until Feb. 2 with a final date scheduled in Wilmington, North Carolina. Tickets for all shows will be available starting Sept. 29.

You can see a complete list of tour dates below.

Elvis Costello's Band

In addition to Costello's usual Imposters bandmates — Steve Nieve, Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher — he'll be joined again by guitarist Charlie Sexton, who's also a longtime  Bob Dylan  collaborator.

"Remember that this is not just a concert," reads Costello's press release. "It is a communion of amorous spirits, an odyssey of pure, unadulterated elation."

READ MORE:  Top 10 Elvis Costello Songs

Earlier this year, Costello played a 10-night New York residency in which he performed new sets every night. In total, he covered more than 200 different songs throughout his career.

Elvis Costello, 7-0-7 Tour 2024 Jan. 10 - Tallahassee, FL @ FSU Opening Nights at Ruby Diamond Concert Hall Jan. 11 - Clearwater, FL @ Ruth Eckerd Hall Jan. 12 - Miami Beach, FL @ The Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theatre Jan. 14 - Miramar Beach, FL @ 30A Songwriters Festival Grand Boulevard Outdoor Stage Jan. 16 - New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum Theater Jan. 17 - Houston, TX @ House of Blues Houston Jan. 19 - Dallas, TX @ Majestic Theatre Jan. 20 - Austin, TX @ ACL Live at the Moody Theatre Jan. 22 - San Antonio, TX @ Majestic Theatre Jan. 25 - Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theatre Jan. 26 - St. Louis, MO @ The Factory at the District Jan. 29 - Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium Jan. 30 - Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy Jan. 31 - Durham, NC 2 DPAC Feb. 2 - Wilmington, NC @ Wilson Center at Cape Fear Community College

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DARYL HALL AND ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS ANNOUNCE CO-HEADLINING SUMMER TOUR

Tickets Available Starting Monday, March 11 with Artist Presales

General Onsale Begins on Friday, March 15 at 10 AM Local on DarylHall.com & ElvisCostello.com

Today, Daryl Hall and Elvis Costello & The Imposters with Charlie Sexton have announced a co-headlining summer run across North America. The 22-city tour kicks off on June 2 at McMenamins Edgefield in Troutdale, OR making stops at Los Angeles’ The Greek Theatre, Las Vegas’ Fontainebleau Las Vegas, Toronto’s Budweiser Stage, Boston’s MGM Music Hall at Fenway, New York’s Radio City Music Hall and many more before wrapping up in Vienna, VA at Wolf Trap Filene Center on July 25. 

Regarding the tour with Elvis, Daryl says “It’s fantastic to be able to rekindle a musical relationship.  Get ready for lots of great music.”

“We are looking forward to kicking off the show in style in the certainty that Daryl will deliver a slam-bang finish.” says Costello. 

Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Daryl Hall had an exciting 2023 on a solo tour with longtime friend and fellow Hall of Fame inductee support act, Todd Rundgren. Daryl also recently performed in front of 65,000 people at the historic American Express BST Hyde Park. And, a new season of his award-winning “Live from Daryl’s House” returned on November 1 on Hall’s dedicated YouTube channel.

Elvis Costello & The Imposters with Charlie Sexton toured recently to rave reviews. The Nashville Scene wrote that  “Costello is proving he’s an indefatigable force of nature, and one of the greatest showmen in the history of rock ’n’ roll. (1/30/24)” while in St. Louis the Riverfront Times concluded that “Elvis Costello showed St. Louis Friday that he’s earned his legend status (1/30/24).” The Imposters are: Steve Nieve, Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher. They will once again be joined on the road by guitarist Charlie Sexton.

TICKETS: Tickets will be available starting with an artist presale beginning on Monday, March 11. Additional presales will run throughout the week ahead of the general onsale beginning on Friday, March 15 at 10 AM local time at DarylHall.com and ElvisCostello.com. 

DARYL HALL AND ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS WITH CHARLIE SEXTON TOUR DATES: 

Sun Jun 02 – Troutdale, OR – McMenamins Edgefield   Tue Jun 04 – Airway Heights, WA – BECU Live at Northern Quest   Thu Jun 06 – Seattle,WA – Remlinger Farms   Sat Jun 08 – Bend, OR – Hayden Homes Amphitheater   Mon Jun 10 – Saratoga, CA – Mountain Winery   Wed Jun 12 – Lincoln, CA – Thunder Valley Casino   Fri Jun 14 – Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl   Sun Jun 16 – San Diego, CA – Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre at SDSU   Tue Jun 18 – Los Angeles, CA – The Greek Theatre   Fri Jun 21 – Rancho Mirage, CA – Agua Caliente Casino   Sun Jun 23 – Las Vegas, NV – Fontainebleau Las Vegas   Thu Jul 04 – Toronto,ON – Budweiser Stage   Sat Jul 06 – Highland Park, IL – Ravine Festival   Mon Jul 8 – Detroit, MI – Masonic Temple Theatre   Wed Jul 10 – Philadelphia, PA – TD Pavilion at the Mann   Fri Jul 12 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena   Sun Jul 14 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway   Tue Jul 16 – New York, NY – Radio City Music Hall   Thu Jul 18 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center   Sat Jul 20 – Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts   Mon Jul 22 – Gilford, NH – BankNH Pavilion   Thu Jul 25 – Vienna, VA – Wolf Trap Filene Center  

ABOUT DARYL HALL Daryl Hall is a modern-day renaissance man, an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the star of his very own award-winning web series, Live from Daryl’s House, as well as a successful venue owner with “Daryl’s House,” a restored venue and live music space in Pawling, N.Y.

The Philadelphia soul man is still achieving career milestones more than four decades later, continuing to perform with his band to sold out venues everywhere.

It’s been quite a decade for Hall, including the opening of “Daryl’s House,” a combination world-class restaurant and performance venue, which he kicked off on October 31, 2014. The popular venue also serves as home base for his multi award-winning Live from Daryl’s House. The show, which began as a “light bulb” moment for Hall when he launched it in 2007 as a free webcast, has set the standard for artist-initiated projects. The groundbreaking series provides a mix of legends and the next generation of superstars. “Live From Daryl’s House” streams on Daryl Hall’s YouTube channel.

Previous episodes of Live From Daryl’s House have featured a diverse mix of veteran and new performers from rock, soul, country and R&B including rock legends Sammy Hagar, Joe Walsh, Cheap Trick, Tommy Shaw, Kenny Loggins, Todd Rundgren, Nick Lowe, Dave Stewart and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top; soul and R&B artists The O’Jays, Aaron Neville, Aloe Blacc, Kandace Springs, Elle King, Wyclef Jean, Smokey Robinson, Cee Lo Green, Booker T & The MGs, and Sharon Jones; big-league singer/songwriters such as Ben Folds, Rob Thomas, Jason Mraz, Gavin DeGraw, Goo Goo Dolls’ John Rzeznik and Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump; country artists such as Shelby Lynne; and has helped break new acts like Fitz & The Tantrums, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Neon Trees, Johnnyswim, Parachute and Anderson East. The latest episodes of the show feature Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook, Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr, Andy Grammer, Lisa Loeb, Robert Fripp, and Howard Jones.

Daryl Hall has come a long way, and he’s still got plenty of mileage left in a career that’staken him from the streets of Philadelphia to the halls of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. The best is yet to come.

ABOUT ELVIS COSTELLO  Elvis Costello is a writer and part-time musician who made a number of records in the 20th Century, some of which are still remembered today.

He was born in London and raised there and in Liverpool.

Costello is the composer or lyricist of over six hundred published titles, including fifteen songs co-written with Paul McCartney and renowned collaborations with Allen Toussaint, the Brodsky Quartet and T Bone Burnett.

Costello’s songwriting alliance with Burt Bacharach, began in 1995 with the song, “God Give Me Strength”, which led to the 1998 album, “Painted From Memory”, before their work was collected in 2023, on the four-album set, “The Songs Of Bacharach & Costello”.

Elvis Costello songs have been recorded by Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Chet Baker, Dusty Springfield, Solomon Burke, George Jones, Linda Ronstadt and Bjork, while among the artists with whom he has written songs are Loretta Lynn, Carole King, Rosanne Cash and Kris Kristofferson and his wife, Diana Krall.

Working purely as a lyricist, Costello has provided words for the music of Billy Strayhorn, Oscar Peterson and for twelve Charles Mingus compositions and as a composer, set twelve unpublished lyrics by Bob Dylan.

2024 will see the opening of “A Face In The Crowd”, Sarah Ruhl’s stage adaptation of the Budd Schulberg story for which Elvis Costello composed the songs.

“A Face In The Crowd” will open at the Young Vic in London on 10th September 2024, directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah and produced by Adam Kenwright.

Elvis Costello is the author of “Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink”, a more than six-hundred page memoir which has been translated into six languages. He has received a range of awards over his 45 year old career of which the induction into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame is probably the most significant. 


Although he holds two honorary doctorates in music – one from the University of Liverpool and another from the New England Conservatory- Elvis Costello is known for playing the guitar with almost no regard for common sense. 


Costello currently performs with The Imposters; his long time companions, drummer, Pete Thomas and pianist, Steve Nieve, bassist of twenty-three years standing, Davey Faragher and their special guest, Texas guitarist, Charlie Sexton.

Daryl Hall Talks New Solo Album, Elvis Costello Tour, and Confirms Hall & Oates Are Officially Over (EXCLUSIVE)

By Roy Trakin

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“Say It Isn’t So” isn’t just the name of a classic Hall & Oates song — it’s the much-headlined reaction to the news that the duo that practically defines duos had a nasty and seemingly final split last year. The two, who began singing and performing together more than 50 years ago over a mutual love of soul and doo-wop music, were almost impossible to imagine without each other — even more than Simon without Garfunkel or George Michael without Andrew Ridgeley, this was more like a final split between peanut butter and jelly. It’s actually hard to imagine.

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He continues, “I haven’t had a creative relationship with John for at least 25 years. We didn’t write songs together, we didn’t do anything together except perform live shows. We had an arrangement that I couldn’t play my solo songs onstage with Hall & Oates — and now I get to.”

And that’s exactly what Hall, who was always the primary songwriter in the duo, plans to do with his forthcoming sixth solo album, which reunites him with longtime collaborator and fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Dave Stewart, who produced Hall’s second solo album, “Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine,” in 1986.

Out on June 21, “D” is a reminder that Hall is one of the most talented singer-songwriters of the past half century. The first single, “Can’t Say No to You” (out today) epitomizes the sweet, street-corner Philly soul that has characterized Daryl Hall ’s music from the start of his career. Other influences appear on the album, like the Beatlesque “The Whole World’s Better,” which starts with a live audience cheering like at the start of “Sgt. Pepper,” and itself echoes that abum’s song “Getting Better.”

“I wasn’t thinking about that when I wrote it, but I totally agree with you — those clanging chords in the intro,” he says. “It was Dave’s idea to put in the crowd noise. Whatever comes out of my brain are these licks that I’ve learned in my childhood. It’s the basis of my style, my musical DNA.”

And while it might be tempting to think titles like “Rather Be a Fool,” “Not the Way I Thought It Was” and the Sly-styled Philly funk of “Why You Want to Do That to My Head” refer to the split with his former partner, Hall insists it was the furthest thing from his mind.

“These songs couldn’t be less about that,” he insisted. “I had a particularly rocky time over the past 10 years, especially over the last five with romantic relationships, and it’s also about my reactions to all the fucked-up things that are going on around me. But,” he stresses, “I never emotionally cared about Hall & Oates enough to write songs like this.”

A famously private person, Hall was divorced in 2015 from his British wife Armanda Aspinall, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 61. In “Rather Be a Fool,” he sings, “How could something be so right/ And go so wrong overnight?”

“I wrote that song in the midst of my divorce, and it was about exactly what was happening to me and my wife at the time,” he explains. “It’s very dramatic because I was writing in the middle of all this turmoil. At the end of the song, when I sang that line, it was just to see if the lyrics worked, but we kept the first take. Most of the vocals on the album were like that.”

Hall’s career renaissance began in the ‘00s, not coincidentally after he and Oates began working with Jonathan Wolfson, who took over managing the duo in 2009 after serving as their publicist for the five years before that. Hall’s ongoing web series, “Live from Daryl’s House,” which bowed in November 2007 and returned after a five-year absence last year with episodes featuring Robert Fripp, Andy Grammer, Lisa Loeb and Howard Jones.

Speaking of unexpected collaborations, Hall embarks on another solo tour, this one with Elvis Costello — with whom he duetted some 40 years ago on Costello’s “The Only Flame in Town” — starting June 2 in Troutdale, Oregon, with dates scheduled for the Greek Theater in Los Angeles on June 18, the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas on June 23 and New York’s Radio City Music Hall on July 16.

A new album, an exciting tour with an old friend, a relaunch of his beloved web series — it all would seem to add up to a fresh start for Daryl Hall. But maybe not.

“I wish I could say yes, but no, nothing’s really been resolved,” he sighs. “There’s always a weight on my mind. Every good thing that happens to me, something bad happens. I’ve accepted that. All I can say is, I’m very proud of this album. I got things off my chest, and I’m ready to get out there and sing for people.”

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