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10.05.2015

ELVIS COSTELLO’S NEW MEMOIR “UNFAITHFUL MUSIC & DISAPPEARING INK” WILL BE PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY 13TH OCTOBER

Elvis Costello’s new memoir “Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink” will be published on Tuesday 13th October via Blue Rider Press/Penguin Random House. – Pre-Order Now!

Now Read On….  

Born Declan Patrick MacManus, Elvis Costello was raised in London and Liverpool, grandson of a trumpet player on the White Star Line and son of a jazz musician who became a successful radio dance-band vocalist. Costello went into the family business and before he was twenty-four took the popular music world by storm.

Costello continues to add to one of the most intriguing and extensive songbooks of our day. His performances have taken him from strumming a cardboard guitar in his parents’ front room to fronting a rock and roll band on our television screens and performing in the world’s greatest concert halls in a wild variety of company. Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink describes how Costello’s career has endured for almost four decades through a combination of dumb luck and animal cunning, even managing the occasional absurd episode of pop stardom.

This memoir, written entirely by Costello, offers his unique view of his unlikely and sometimes comical rise to international success, with diversions through the previously undocumented emotional foundations of some of his best-known songs and the hits of tomorrow. It features many stories and observations about his renowned cowriters and co-conspirators, though Costello also pauses along the way for considerations of the less appealing side of fame.

Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink provides readers with a master’s catalogue of a lifetime of great music. Costello reveals the process behind writing and recording legendary albums like My Aim Is True, This Year’s Model, Armed Forces, Almost Blue, Imperial Bedroom, and King of America. He tells the detailed stories, experiences, and emotions behind such beloved songs as “Alison,” “Accidents Will Happen,” “Watching the Detectives,” “Oliver’s Army,” “Welcome to the Working Week,” “Radio Radio,” “Shipbuilding,” and “Veronica,” the last of which is one of a number of songs revealed to connect to the lives of the previous generations of his family.

Costello recounts his collaborations with George Jones, Chet Baker, and T Bone Burnett, and writes about Allen Toussaint’s inspiring return to work after the disasters following Hurricane Katrina. He describes writing songs with Paul McCartney, the Brodsky Quartet, Burt Bacharach, and The Roots during moments of intense personal crisis and profound sorrow. He shares curious experiences in the company of The Clash, Tony Bennett, The Specials, Van Morrison, and Aretha Franklin; writing songs for Solomon Burke and Johnny Cash; and touring with Bob Dylan; along with his appreciation of the records of Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, David Ackles, and almost everything on the Tamla Motown label.

Costello chronicles his musical apprenticeship, a child’s view of his father Ross MacManus’ career on radio and in the dancehall; his own initial almost comical steps in folk clubs and cellar dive before his first sessions for Stiff Record, the formation of the Attractions, and his frenetic and ultimately notorious third U.S. tour. He takes readers behind the scenes of Top of the Pops and Saturday Night Live, and his own show, Spectacle, on which he hosted artists such as Lou Reed, Elton John, Levon Helm, Jesse Winchester, Bruce Springsteen, and President Bill Clinton.

The idiosyncratic memoir of a singular man, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink is destined to be a classic.

Available to Pre-Order Now

Elvis Costello In Conversation with… & Signings

October 2015

USA


Tuesday 13th New York, NY – Barnes & Noble, Union Square – Elvis Costello Book Signing

Wednesday 14th Brooklyn, NY – Book Court, Elvis Costello Book Signing

Thursday 15th Washington, D.C – Sixth & I, Elvis Costello In Conversation with Dan Kois

Friday 16th New York, NY – New York Public Library “Live!” Series, Elvis Costello In Conversation with Paul Holdengraber

Saturday 17th Boston, MA – Berklee College Of Music/Brookline Booksmith, Elvis Costello In Conversation with Peter Guralnick

Monday 19th Atlanta, GA – The Variety Playhouse/A Cappella Books, Elvis Costello In Conversation with Chuck Reece

Tuesday 20th Austin, TX – Book People, Elvis Costello In Conversation with Evan Smith

Wednesday 21st Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltshire Ebell Theater/Book Soup,  Elvis Costello In Conversation with Chris Connelly

Thursday 22nd San Francisco, CA – City Arts & Lectures with Radio Silence/Books Inc, Elvis Costello In Conversation with Dan Stone

Friday 23rd Yountville, CA – The Lincoln Theater/Copperfields Books, Elvis Costello In Conversation with Michael Krasny

UK

Monday 26th Liverpool – Royal Court, Elvis Costello In Conversation with Mark Billingham

Thursday 29th London – Royal Festival Hall, Elvis Costello In Conversation with…

November 2015

Tuesday 3rd Chicago, IL – Chicago Humanities Festival/Unabridged Books, Elvis Costello In Conversation with Alison Cuddy

Tuesday 10th Brooklyn, NY – BAM-Howard Gilman Opera House/Greenlight Books, Elvis Costello In Conversation with Rosanne Cash

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