Elvis Costello & the Sugarcanes, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Where to begin? There are many artists who reach a stage in their lives where they have a full repertoire (more than three decades) and find themselves in their fifties capable of making pots of money simply by touring and trotting out the old tunes the same old way, same old routine. Then there are artists like Elvis Costello, genre jumping experimenter and surely one of the best songwriters of his generation.

Last night EC was in excellent form. The Sugarcanes are six guys on acoustic guitar, fiddle, mandolin, accordion, double bass and slide. They backed Costello through various genre changes during more than two hours of top tunes, swaying from ragtime to rock and roll, country to pop.



Elvis himself was on top form, lots of anecdotes and patter between songs. He experiemented with old and new songs. He even split New Amsterdam in two and inserted the Beatles Hey! You've got to Hide Your Love Away before returning to the original song. And, near the end, a heart-rending version of Shipbuilding which (just) superseded a solo Oliver's Army as the highlight of the four encores. This was a really mature performance. The musicianship, the pace and the humour of his performance were just class.



All in all, a great show in a year of really good shows and certainly up there with Randy Newman's recent performance at the same venue. As I said, Costello is one of those artists (Lou Reed and John Cale are two others) who's not afraid to re-mix, re-do and generally experiment with his old standards. Last night he did it to great effect, a really enjoyable show.

PS Sorry about the picture quality but there y'go.



PS Amazing there were so few tickets sold last night that the GRCH closed the upper tier and moved us all downstairs. I only found out about the gig from a handbill seen at another gig last week. Was this because it was a Friday night in July? Bad planning? Poor marketing? Or did people not fancy the Sugarcanes, thinking it would be a C&W night? I couldn't get a ticket last time Elvis visited Glasgow with the Attractions, it sold out while I was out of town?

Or is this a Peter Lawwell-esque catastrophe of the sort that saw Celtic close the upper tier and sell fewer than 18,000 seats for an important cup game v. the minihuns last season? Why - because Mr Lawwell reneged on the "one free home cup game" rule for season ticket holders and opted to cash in on a Hearts visit instead of honouring season ticket convention. Anyway, I digress but last night's poor turn out was a mystery. The stay-aways missed a belter of a show.

Eat yer heart out Lester Bangs.



it made me wanna go.

I'd imagine you'll never be 100% sure what you'll get with Elvis Mo

You may be right, Jimmy but last night was genuinely top class. Reminded me of the Randy Newman show although the sound was better last night.

I found out the day after the Randy Newman show that there was such a problem with sound that people in one area of the GRCH were offered free tickets for a future event of their choice as well as letters of apology. It seemed OK where we were sitting, but last night was def better sound-wise.

I think the last concert I was at featured Spandau Ballet

Save that for Licker, Bewls. He gets a semi at the very thought of various naff 80s bands.