The big top player whose aim is true

by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Echo, Jul 23 2002

AS a demonstration of power this was a blistering home town gig from the adopted Scouser.

A mere four-piece of Elvis, former Attractions Steve Nieve on keyboards/melodica and Pete Thomas on drums, plus bass player Davey Farragher, surely didn't have the fire power to fill the Big Top.

But they did, and just like a mighty gas burner turned up full blast inside a hot air balloon, they rose to the occasion with Nieve pumping out a full catechism of soundtrack aromatics more akin to the John Barry Orchestra.

It was worthy backing for a man possessed, who can still snarl with the intensity of someone to keep a wide berth from on the last drunks' train home from Central station.

With an astute eye he balanced the old crowdpleasers - Watching the Detectives, I Don't Wanna Go To Chelsea - with the new, Dust and Spooky Girlfriend from the latest album When I Was Cruel being especially noteworthy additions to the mammoth Costello canon.

Never have songs about guilt, blame, betrayal and emotional obsession sounded so good, delivered in that stylised but so very individual yearning voice that stayed pitch perfect through two hours-plus of non-stop heavy exercise.

He even made time for some good natured song introductions spliced with cutting remarks about Tony Blair and George Bush. The most ironic cheer, however, came when this most fanatical of Reds fans claimed he was tempted to play Todd Rundgren's I Saw The Light in tribute to Gerard Houllier's decision to give Lee Bowyer the bum's rush.

He didn't, but other classics did follow and when he returned for the first of a clutch of encores including a spine-tingling Almost Blue and a beautifully extended Alison there surely wasn't a dry eye in the house, sorry, tent.

This was thoughtful, contemporary pop music at its very best and if the Liverpool manager had witnessed it he would have deemed that this was indeed a player at the very height of his game.

Thanks to John Foyle