Elvis Costello at The Anvil

I saw the great man perform at The Anvil in Basingstoke. Nice little venue. I have had the pleasure of seeing him live 6 times before at the Hammersmith Odeon (Punch The Clock tour),The Dominion (Goodbye Cruel World tour),The Royalty Theatre (Spinning Songbook tour), The Royal Albert Hall (Spinning Songbook tour), The Hammersmith Apollo (The Delivery Man tour) and The Anvil (Spinning Songbook tour). I may have been to the Odeon twice but not certain. I'm sure I saw him after King of America or Blood & Chocolate came out or maybe one or both were combined with the Songbook tour in 1986/87. I also went another time to the Royal Albert Hall to see him but left before the concert started due to illness. Anyway, enough of this 'I saw him X many times before' childishness. For the record, at least 6 times !

As always, Elvis Costello gave a perfect show, playing almost every song you want him to play. "Almost" because he has written so many great songs,he would have to perform 2 or 3 nights to get them all in. The only song missing for me was 'Shipbuilding' but its absence did not diminish the show.

I saw the spinning wheel show twice before in the 1980s at the Royal Albert Hall (with my college chums & good mate) and a few months earlier at the Royalty Theatre. This time Elvis Costello was joined by a dancer in a cage, who danced to many of his songs; fortunately I didn't get too excited by this and was not distracted from the main attraction.

The highlights of the night were 'Tramp The Dirt Down' - not exactly a "love" song to Thatcher, 'Alison' and 'I Want You'. Costello's voice gets better and better. He has never really been appreciated for the quality of his voice but his singing is as good as it gets. His singing on 'Alison' and 'I Want You' is perfect for those two songs about lost love. His guitar playing on 'I Want You' is outstanding. The Imposters were also on fine form as usual.

Elvis surprised the audience by coming off stage and singing amongst the crowd while the band were playing on stage. He came up to where the sound engineers were near the circle. I took a photo (below) and he can just about be seen if you alter the size of the photo. Sorry to the woman in the row in front of me to the right who appeared a little annoyed.

In my view, Elvis Costello is the most important singer/songwriter/indoor live performer over the last 35 years. I'm a fan of Paul Weller (who runs him close) and Bruce Springsteen (great outdoor live performer) but Elvis Costello is the best in the business. Going to see Paul Weller for the first time in October, so looking forward to seeing how he performs live.

Photos to be added.