03.14.2020
NEITHER CANCER NOR CORONAVIRUS CAN HOLD BACK POP’S ANGRIEST MAN
The Telegraph: Neil McCormick: 14th March 2020
“How you doing?” Elvis Costello asked a packed Hammersmith Apollo, adding, “I know I say that every night but it seems more poignant than ever, now that you’ve all risked life and limb to come out.” Coming towards the close of a rapturously received British tour, the 65-year-old singer-songwriter expressed genuine surprise and pleasure that the show had been allowed to go on in the midst of the coronavirus emergency. With just a smattering of empty seats indicating the impact of self-isolation nervousness in the sold out 3,500-capacity venue, Costello promised an evening of “post-Brexit, pre-virus blues.” With a gap-toothed grin, he defiantly declared “When we started this tour, little did we know we were on the edge of doom, so let’s just play before they shut us down!” He and his long serving band delivered an absolutely riotous blast of splenetic songcraft and furiously exuberant musicianship…..