New records, remixes, live shows – it’s been a busy and enjoyable year for Elvis Costello fans. Here’s a look back at 2022.

January – The Boy Named If

Another new album? But I’ve not finished getting my head around Hey Clockface yet…

Elvis Costello comprehensively demolishes the law of diminishing returns, with his third album in a little over three years proving to be even better than its two predecessors.

There’s absolutely no taste of decay or scent of defeat here, as he turns in a remarkable set of songs, superbly delivered by the Imposters and beautifully produced by Costello and Sebastian Krys. Elvis is in tremendous voice and his guitar work is excellent.

There are highlights aplenty, most notably the title track, The Difference and the wonderful My Most Beautiful Mistake, while Mr Crescent makes the perfect album closer.

Deservedly taking Costello back into the UK top 10, The Boy Named If is an album that more than holds its own in the mighty EC canon.

 

June – Live at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

I couldn’t have been more excited for this. More than two years since the fantastic Just Trust gig at the Liverpool Olympia and navigating both personal grief and the halting return to normality after Covid, I was ready for a great night.

It didn’t quite go according to plan.

After Ian Prowse’s excellent opening set, Elvis, the Imposters and Charlie Sexton came out and were almost immediately plagued by sound issues, with Costello’s voice virtually inaudible on Green Shirt.

Members of the audience shouted out, Elvis cursed back and the mood soured. The technical issues were eventually fixed but more than a few people had walked out and the atmosphere never really recovered.

It was a real shame as the occasion clearly meant a huge amount to Elvis personally and he put together a brilliant setlist, pleasingly heavy on new material. Despite the complications, there were great performances, particularly Hetty O’Hara Confidential, The Comedians, Mr and Mrs Hush and Good Year For The Roses.

June – The Resurrection of Rust

A delightful trip down memory lane as Costello reunites with Rusty bandmate Allan Mayes to record six tracks from their early-‘70s repertoire.

The songs get the Krys/Imposters treatment and make for a breezy, enjoyable record.

Onstage at the Philharmonic, Costello described Nick Lowe’s Surrender To The Rhythm as the greatest song ever written – a retort to Ian McCulloch claiming the title for his own composition The Killing Moon onstage with Echo and the Bunnymen at Anfield the previous night.

Rusty do the song justice here, while I’m Ahead If I Can Quit While I’m Behind is marvellous.

Incidentally, a year or two back I happened to drive past the Widnes pub where Rusty had a residency in the early-1970s. Unless anyone tells me otherwise, I imagine I’m the only person to ever pull over and take a photo for this reason.

 

November – Alive at Memphis Magnetic

Well, this was an unexpected treat as the year drew to a close.

This companion to The Boy Named If finds Costello, the Imposters and Charlie Sexton in the Memphis Magnetic studio rehearsing for the then-upcoming tour.

They rip through a number of tracks from the new album and tackle numbers by Paul McCartney (this version of Let Me Roll It is ace), Nick Lowe, The Rolling Stones and The Byrds. The Macca birthday tribute rendition of Here, There and Everywhere – our wedding song – endears more and more with each listen.

I’d listened to this new arrangement of Every Day I Write The Book (EC: “a little Memphis magnificence”) dozens of times on YouTube, so its inclusion here is most welcome.

A pleasing addition to the catalogue.

 

Dangerous Amusements

Despite taking a break from the podcast at the start of the year for family reasons, I’ve still managed to bring you a dozen new episodes in 2022 with some superb guests.

It’s been an absolute pleasure to spend time in the company of Costello collaborators Sebastian Krys and Steve Mandel this year, hearing about their love of Elvis’s music and their experiences of working alongside the man himself. I put out two-parters with both and I think we were still only scratching the surface.

We know that Elvis Costello is a master with words, so it’s no surprise that so many authors and academics love his music. It was a thrill to welcome some of the best onto the podcast this year: huge thanks to Ian Winwood, Pam Thurschwell, Adam Roberts, Libby Cudmore and Remedy Robinson.

I enjoy the format of the podcast and I hope you do, too – asking guests to help build a playlist with their song choices means each episode covers the full span of Elvis’s career from the 1970s up to the present day.

However, I do like the idea of putting out the occasional bonus episode which departs from the usual format and I’ve done a couple of those this year: director, broadcaster and EC aficionado Theo Delaney joined me to discuss some of our favourite Costello cover versions, while TV presenter and author Richard Crouse kindly came on to mark the 45th anniversary of My Aim Is True.

I rounded off the year by welcoming a guest who’s long been on my Dangerous Amusements wishlist, the ace comedian and broadcaster, Mark Lamarr. I loved hearing Mark’s insight and I know from the huge number of listener comments that you all did, too.

This year, I also made my first guest appearance on another podcast, when Marv Quibell kindly invited me onto his Pods Like Us show. Marv is a wonderful champion of independent podcasts like mine and it was a real pleasure to chat to him about the show, working in radio and my love of music. Come for the Costello chat and stay for the irony of me talking about Zoom being a reliable platform on an extremely glitchy Zoom call…

A few of my other favourite things this year

Album

Dear Scott by Mick Head and the Red Elastic Band. A dozen beautifully produced songs set in locations from Los Angeles to Liverpool’s Newsham Park. The Ten, a lyric inspired by a Liverpool bus ride, is really quite moving. An understated, masterful record.

Gig

The Rolling Stones at Anfield, Liverpool. A terrific gig: an emotional tribute to Charlie, a nod to the Beatles, a moving You’ll Never Walk Alone from the crowd when the Stones went off stage and incredible showmanship from Jagger throughout. Paint It Black was an absolute showstopper.

TV show

Avenue 5. Has Armando Iannucci ever created a show that wasn’t brilliant? No. Add this to Veep, The Day Today, The Thick Of It, I’m Alan Partridge, Knowing Me Knowing You et al: the greatest CV in comedy.

Movie

Ghostbusters: Afterlife. It came out at the end of 2021 but I only watched it this year, so I’m saying it qualifies for my Best of 2022 list. The original Ghostbusters is my favourite film of all time, so I lapped up the callbacks and references here.

Podcast

I won’t list all of the many podcasts I’ve enjoyed this year for fear of unintentionally missing one out.

Instead, I’ll once again crown Quickly Kevin, Will He Score? as my favourite and doff my cap to Chris Shaw’s feat of creativity and sheer stamina in producing a month’s worth of I Am The Eggpod to celebrate The Beatles’ Get Back documentary. Mark it fab.

Book

Abyss by Max Hastings. Yes, I distracted myself from the threat of impending nuclear Armageddon by reading about, er, the Cuban Missile Crisis. A fascinating and terrifying account.

Theatre

White Christmas, Liverpool Empire. I was possibly the only person in the theatre who’d never seen the film (see above: too busy rewatching Ghostbusters), so I had no idea of the storyline but found it very warm and charming. You can have that for nothing, promoters: “warm and charming”.

Social media clip

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched the video of James Austin Johnson singing Jingle Bells as Bob Dylan through the decades. The voice, the phrasing, the mannerisms – just magnificent. If you don’t crack up when he does the Rolling Thunder Revue version, then I’m afraid we can never be friends.