ELVIS Costello likes to shuffle his considerable pack.
In May 2013, at York Barbican, he wheeled out his gigantic vaudevillian contraption for his Spectacular Singing Book show, where The Imposters’ three-hour set list was decided by the spinning of a wheel with myriad song titles displayed on it.
In September 2024, he teamed up with his regular keyboards compadre, Paris-based Steve Nieve, for a two-day residency at Leeds City Varieties, playing two 75-minute concerts each night under the title of 15 Songs From 50 Years, each with a unique set list with no repetition, 60 songs in total.
What’s more, each concert concluded with a Ken Dodd cover version, in a nod to the City Varieties being renamed the Sir Ken Dodd Auditorium in honour of the Knotty Ash comedy legend. Costello had even written the tour announcement himself in the magniloquent style of Good Old Days host Leonard Sachs.
On Wednesday, Elvis was back in the Barbican building in a late addition to his Radio Soul! tour with its focus on revisiting, re-examining and reactivating “the Early Songs of Elvis Costello”. For “early”, it would not be controversial to say the “best songs”, the hit years of 1977’s My Aim Is True to 1986’s Blood & Chocolate.
The songwriting partnerships with Paul McCartney, Burt Bacharach and Allen Toussaint were still to come, and now 71, Costello has graduated to “national treasure” status, but you suspect he would prefer to be considered ‘ornery’ rather than ‘honorary’.
He arrives on stage at 8.45pm in dapper blue jacket, golden winklepickers, waistcoat, trademark glasses (blue-tinted) and a pork pie hat that he immediately discards, restless to crack on with bringing the past into the present with thrills, not frills, restless too to keep moving his players and himself around the stage.
He is playing to a seated audience, but the guitars are loud, Pete Thomas’s drums are punchy, and the sound mix is muddy and thudding, recalling his first Barbican appearance with The Attractions in November 1994, spoiled by the oppressive sound levels that night.
It is not a problem blighting only his York Barbican shows: national newspaper reports of his June 15 show at the Royal Albert Hall commented on the same scenario with its impact on being able to decipher Costello’s familiar lyrics.
Costello has added Texan guitarist Charlie Sexton to the mix – looking the spitting image of David Bowie in Station To Station guise – but at first it was difficult to hear his electricity crackle with clarity. This Year’s Girl and Mystery Dance were murky, but an extended Watching The Detectives found Costello and band – all in black – hitting their stride.
Without being as extreme as Bob Dylan, Costello now has a habit of playing around with his vocal delivery and rhythm, Shabby Doll taking a while to become recognisable. Motel Matches, from 1980’s Get Happy!, reasserted itself as a country song precursor to 1981’s covers album Almost Blue; Just A Memory, the B-side to the sadly absent New Amsterdam, made a rare appearance, as did No Dancing from My Aim Is True.
Lover’s Walk, from 1981’s Trust, had a strutting bounce to it, but (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes was too ragged. The sound fared better whenever Costello took to the piano, where his characterful voice brought the blues to a slower, still soulful Everyday I Write The Book.
There was the unexpected as well as the expected, typified by A Face In The Crowd, the title track from his stage musical, but the absence of his political trilogy, Shipbuilding, Pills And Soap and Peace In Our Time, was both surprising and disappointing.
Charlie Rich’s Who Will The Next Fool Be and Heathen Town followed, the latter finding room for snippet of A Good Year For The Roses, a segue surpassed by Clubland accommodating Ghost Town, its state-of-the-nocturnal-nation marrow by The Specials.
Costello’s humour was in fine form, from saying he only came up with Early Songs concept because he could not tour as “the late Elvis Costello”, or later introducing his skiffle pastiche Lovable as a tribute to The Beverley Sisters. Correction, “the Everly Brothers,” he quipped.
Alison was rough at the edges, but Less Than Zero set in motion the irresistible pumped-up home run of (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea, Pump It Up, (What ‘s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding and Oliver’s Army, riding the old New Wave with breathless exhilaration. No need for encores, Elvis left the building.
Elvis Costello & The Imposters’ set list at York Barbican, 17/6/2026
THIS Year’s Girl; Mystery Dance; Watching The Detectives/Help Me; Shabby Doll; Motel Matches; Just A Memory; No Dancing; Lover’s Walk; (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes; Everyday I Write The Book; A Face In The Crowd; Who Will The Next Fool Be; Heathen Town/Good Year For The Roses; Lovable; Honey, Are You Straight Or Are You Blind?; Clubland/Ghost Town; Alison; High Fidelity; Less Than Zero; (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea; Pump It Up; (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding and Oliver’s Army.
Sharing a Moment: Elvis Costello and Emily Moment on the cover of Cruel Smile
Did you know?
ELVIS Costello’s support act at York Barbican, singer-songwriter Emily Moment, appeared alongside Elvis on the cover of Cruel Smile, his 2002 compilation album of B-sides and leftover material from his When I was Cruel sessions. “I used to go into the Virgin Megastore in New York and rearrange his albums with Cruel Smile at the front,” she told Wednesday’s audience.