It’s a neat conceit. In a cramped marketplace of ever diminishing record store shelves; in a world where established artists continually look to re-interpret their back catalogue, to breathe life into old songs, it can be hard to divine an original approach. Some artists strip their songs down to their naked nuts and bolts, some rebuild them as orchestral pieces. Some artists refuse to revisit old tracks, as though they were ex-girlfriends, turning up unannounced, causing no end of embarrassment.

Well, Costello’s approach is as inspired as one might expect from the man, on changing his first name from Declan, decided it was a toss up between the ever-so-slightly iconic names of Elvis… or Jesus. Part concert part cabaret, the Spectacular Spinning Songbook is an idea Costello first toured in 1986. The gig involves Elvis taking to the stage in front of a huge, quiz show rotating wheel, featuring classic cuts from the Costello repertoire. At set points during the live show (this one recorded at The Wiltern in Los Angeles in May 2011), audience members are invited up onto the stage, to give the wheel a good, hard spin. Wherever the wheel finally resides, that’s the track the band will play – Elvis, long term collaborate Steve Nieve on keys, and the solid backing band The Imposters.

It’s an album of two halves – a CD of the live set from two nights of LA gigs and a DVD of the second night, with a slightly different track listing. Elvis has beefed up – not physically to the extent of his hamburger-riddled, corpulent namesake, but in terms of the oomph to the music, with his tracks feeling chunkier by virtue of their live performance. There no ‘Oliver’s Army’, as Elvis seems reluctant to revisit perhaps his best known track, but there are classics like “Every Day I Write The Book”, “Watching The Detectives” and “Alison”, along with lesser known tracks like “Tear Off Your Own Head” and “Jimmie Standing In The Rain”, and a personal favourite, the gorgeous “God Give Me Strength” from the Burt Bacharach collaborative album, Painted From Memory, which is still regularly played in our house.

The CD is decent enough but the set really comes to life when you watch the DVD and see the burlesque blonde hosting proceedings, the cage in which she dances and the wheel itself. At one point a member of the audience gives it a spin. “Round and round it goes,” Elvis comments. “Where it stops, nobody knows.” Like the third track of the set it is, indeed a “Mystery Dance”. But if Elvis is asking, then I’m dancing…

Release Date 12/12/2011 (Commercial Marketing)

Post By Simon A. Morrison (59 Posts)

Simon is a writer, broadcaster and countercultural investigator. Over the last 15 years he has written for everyone from The Guardian to Loaded magazine, presented television for Rapture TV and hosted radio programs for the likes of Galaxy. He has also found time to earn a Masters Degree in Novel Writing and write three books (a collection of journalism, a guidebook to Ibiza and one on financial planning for young people – the most varied publishing career it’s possible to have) and establish and run a PR company, Pad Communications, looking after a range of leisure and lifestyle clients.He currently splits his time between researching his PhD at Leeds University, looking into various countercultural movements; consulting freelance for PR clients; writing for the likes of Marie Claire in Australia, The Big Issue and the Manchester Evening News, where he reviews concerts, theatre and is their Pub & Bar Editor. He is also broadcaster, appearing regularly on Tony Livesey’s late night 5Live show for the BBC, and also for BBC Radio Manchester Gourmet Night food and drink show.Simon’s main focus has been music and travel. His career has included editing Ministry of Sound’s magazine in Ibiza for two summers and also writing two long-running columns for DJmagazine – ”Around The World in 80 Clubs” (which took him everywhere from Beijing to Brazil, Moscow to Marrakech) and “Dispatches From The Wrong Side”. A collection of the latter was published in the UK and US as the book Discombobulated, including tales as varied as gatecrashing Kylie Minogue’s birthday party, getting deported from Russia, having a gun held to his head by celebrity gangster Dave Courtney and going raving in Ibiza with Judith Chalmers. He has recently written for the likes of Red magazine, Hotline, Clash, Tilllate, Shortlist and the Manchester Evening News. Pad Communications has recently consulted for clients as varied as Manchester nightclubs and New Zealand toy companies.On a personal note, Simon is a Londoner who left the capital at the age of 18 and never looked back. He sees himself as a citizen of the global dancefloor having lived in Sydney, Los Angeles, Ibiza and Amsterdam. However his life is now rather more sedentary. After all his adventures he bumped into and subsequently married his highschool sweetheart from their North London Grammar. They now live in Stockport with their four children and four chickens, trying to live the good life. Simon recently turned 40 and is steadfastly refusing to have a midlife crisis – as in, growing a ponytail and buying a shiny red sports car.OK, maybe he’ll buy the sports car…