06.18.2019
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS AND BLONDIE EMBARK ON CO-HEADLINING SUMMER TOUR
It’s Blondie & The Beastly E.C.!!!
Elvis Costello & The Imposters and Blondie will co-headline a
coast-to-coast tour this summer. Produced by Live Nation, the 13-city
tour will kick off July 20th in Bethel, NY at the Bethel Woods Center
for the Arts and make stops in Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and more,
before wrapping August 10th in Seattle, WA.
Elvis Costello and Blondie shared spots near the top of the UK Singles
Chart 40 years ago when Blondie’s “Heart Of Glass” sat neck-and-neck
alongside Elvis Costello & The Attraction’s “Oliver’s Army” in the
company of The Bee Gees, Gloria Gaynor and ABBA. The same week,
Blondie’s seminal album Parallel Lines reached #1 on the Album Chart
while Costello’s Armed Forces landed at #3.
Elvis Costello & The Imposters’ last tour in late 2018 found the combo
reaching new live performance peaks. The band “came out swinging” (Star
Tribune) in Minneapolis, were “unstoppable” in Anaheim (OC Register) and
played an “epic and euphoric” (Variety) show in LA that even at nearly
three hours “[left] ‘em wanting more.” The Imposters are: Steve Nieve
(keyboards), Davey Faragher (bass) and Pete Thomas (drums) with Aisha
“Kitten” Kuroi and Briana Lee on vocals.
In 2017, Blondie hit the road in support of their most collaborative
album yet, Pollinator (BMG). Their spectacular live shows drew acclaim
for their “flair and precision” (Rolling Stone), while being called
“formidable” (LA Weekly) and “artful, rocking” (City Pages).
Pollinator was praised by the likes of New York Times, Rolling Stone,
NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork and many more for its dynamic blend
of Blondie’s trailblazing sound and new influences from some of modern
music’s greatest innovators including Sia, Dev Hynes, Charli XCX, Dave
Sitek, Joan Jett, and more. It features the euphoric disco-infused
single “Fun,” the propulsive 80s-esque anthem “Long Time,” and the
irreverent “Doom or Destiny.”
Elvis Costello’s wide-ranging recording career began in 1977 with the
release of My Aim Is True in a catalogue that includes such diverse
highlights as This Year’s Model, Get Happy, Imperial Bedroom, King Of
America, Blood & Chocolate, The Juliet Letters with the Brodsky
Quartet, The River In Reverse with Allen Toussaint and Wise Up
Ghost with The Roots.
The 1998 release, Painted From Memory contained the first of more than
thirty songs composed with Burt Bacharach, while the 2017 box-set
re-issue of Paul McCartney’s Flowers In The Dirt includes 15 demo duet
recordings made by McCartney and Costello prior to the release of the
albums Spike and Flowers In The Dirt on which co-written
hit singles, “Veronica” and “My Brave Face” were first released.
Costello previously appeared alongside Deborah Harry with composer/poet
Roy Nathanson and the Jazz Passengers both in concert and on the
recordings “Fire At Keaton’s Bar and Grill” and “Individually Twisted”
in the 90s.
Elvis Costello & The Imposters widely renowned Look Now was released by
Concord Records in 2018 and of which Variety said, “It’s so funny to be
seeing him, after all this time, making a great cake of an album that
doesn’t really sound that much like any of the 30 before
it.” The catalogue will soon include the E.P., Purse, containing
songwriting collaborations with Burt Bacharach and Paul McCartney and
musical settings of lyrics by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan.
Since the release of their self-titled debut album in 1976, Blondie has
brought the worlds of rock, punk, disco and ska together and racked up
four indelible Billboard Hot 100 #1 hits – “Heart of Glass,” “Call Me,”
“The Tide Is High” and “Rapture ” – as well as six #1s on the UK Singles
Chart including “Maria,” “Sunday Girl,” and “Atomic.” Debbie Harry –
genre-spanning visionary, complex songstress, incandescent front woman
and style icon – and the band’s boundary-pushing pop have shaped the
look and sound of many chart-topping female artists who have followed
and have made Blondie widely recognized as one of the most influential
bands of our time. Debbie will reflect on this and more in her highly
anticipated memoir out later this year. Blondie’s Chris Stein recently
released a photo book of his own entitled ‘Point of View: Me, New York
City, and The Punk Scene’, following his successful first photo
book, ‘Negative: Me, Blondie, and the Advent of Punk.’ Selected as one
of Amazon’s best photo books of 2018, Point of View showcases Chris’
brilliance as a photographer and documentarian, chronicling his life
among his punk and new-wave peers and the downtown New York City scene
in the 1970s through his insider lens.
Elvis Costello, Pete Thomas and Steve Nieve are all members of the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame. Elvis Costello is an Oscar-nominated and BAFTA
and Grammy award-winning composer and member of the Songwriters Hall Of
Fame. Costello has received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from both the
University of Liverpool and the New England Conservatory.
Costello’s unconventional memoir, Unfaithful Music and Disappearing
Ink, was published by Blue Rider/Penguin in 2015. The New York Times
review began, “Songs can be many things,” Elvis Costello writes in his
new autobiography: “an education, a seduction, some solace in heartache,
a valve for anger, a passport, your undoing, or even a lottery
ticket. Mr. Costello’s book, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink,
manages to be all these things, and a pint of Guinness and a bag of
chips. It’s streaked with some of the best writing – funny, strange,
spiteful, anguished – we’ve ever had from an important musician.” The
book went on to spend several weeks on the NY Times Best Seller List.
Ever the bona fide international ambassadors of New York cool, Blondie –
vocalist-songwriter Debbie Harry, guitarist and co-writer Chris Stein,
powerhouse drummer Clem Burke, and long-time band members bassist Leigh
Foxx, guitarist Tommy Kessler and keyboardist Matt Katz-Bohen – has
become and still remains a true national treasure; one whose influence
both shaped and continues to inform the worlds of music, fashion, art
and pop culture. Blondie’s chart-topping success, fearless spirit and
rare longevity led to an induction into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of
Fame in 2006, a NME Godlike Genius Award in 2014, a Q Award for
Outstanding Contribution to Music in 2016, and more than 50 million
albums sold worldwide to date.
Elvis Costello & The Imposters and Blondie Co-Headlining 2019 Tour
Dates:
7/20 – Bethel, NY @ Bethel Woods Center for the Arts
7/21 – Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
7/23 – Boston, MA @ Rockland Trust Bank Pavilion
7/24 – Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium
7/26 – Washington DC @ The Anthem
7/27 – Camden, NJ @ BB&T Pavilion
8/1 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Pearl Theater At The Palms
8/2 – Temecula, CA @ Pechanga Summit
8/4 – Irvine, CA @ FivePoint Amphitheatre
8/5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre
8/7 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl
8/8 – San Francisco, CA @ Concord Pavilion
8/10 – Seattle, WA @ Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery – SOLD OUT