Elvis Costello and the Imposters

Declan Patrick MacManus OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in 2020, and has twice been nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male Artist. In 2003, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked Costello number 80 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Costello began his career as part of London's pub rock scene in the early 1970s and later became associated with the first wave of the British punk and new wave movement that emerged in the mid-to-late 1970s. His critically acclaimed debut album ''My Aim Is True'' was released in 1977. Shortly after recording it, he formed the Attractions as his backing band. His second album ''This Year's Model'' was released in 1978, and was ranked number 11 by ''Rolling Stone'' on its list of the best albums from 1967 to 1987. His third album '' Armed Forces'' was released in 1979, and features his highest-charting single, "Oliver's Army" (number 2 in the UK). His first three albums all appeared on ''Rolling Stone''s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003.

Costello and the Attractions toured and recorded together for the better part of a decade, though differences between them caused a split by 1986. Much of Costello's work since has been as a solo artist, though reunions with members of the Attractions have been credited to the group over the years. Costello's lyrics employ a wide vocabulary and frequent wordplay. His music has drawn on many diverse genres; one critic described him as a "pop encyclopaedia", able to "reinvent the past in his own image". Since 2002, his touring band (featuring a rotating cast of musicians) has been known as the Imposters.

Costello has co-written several original songs for films, including "God Give Me Strength" from ''Grace of My Heart'' (1996, with Burt Bacharach) and " The Scarlet Tide" from '' Cold Mountain'' (2003, with T-Bone Burnett). For the latter, Elvis was nominated (along with Burnett) for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media.

Early life

Declan Patrick MacManus was born on 25 August 1954 at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, and is of Irish descent on his father's side. He is the son of Lilian Alda (''née'' Ablett; 1927–2021) and Ross MacManus (1927–2011), a jazz trumpeter and vocalist who performed with the Joe Loss Orchestra, and later as a solo cabaret act. MacManus senior had a hit in Australia (as Day Costello) with his cover version of the Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road" in 1970.

MacManus lived in Twickenham, attending both St. Edmund's Catholic Primary School in nearby Whitton, and then Archbishop Myers Secondary Modern R.C. School – which is now St Mark's Catholic School – in neighbouring Hounslow.

In 1971, the 16-year-old MacManus moved with his mother to Birkenhead – not far from her home city of Liverpool – where he formed his first band, a folk duo called "Rusty", with Allan Mayes. After completing his education at St. Francis Xavier's College in Liverpool, MacManus worked at a number of office jobs to support himself, most famously at Elizabeth Arden, where he was employed as a data entry clerk. This is immortalised in the lyrics of "I'm Not Angry" as the "vanity factory". He also worked for a short period as a computer operator at the Midland Bank computer centre in Bootle.

He moved back to London in 1974, where he formed Flip City, a pub rock band which was active from 1974 until early 1976. Costello's first broadcast recording was with his father in a television commercial for R. White's Lemonade ("I'm a Secret Lemonade Drinker") which aired in 1974. His father sang the song, and Costello sang backing vocals; the advertisement won a silver award at the 1974 International Advertising Festival. He continued to write songs and began looking for a solo recording contract. In 1976 he was signed to independent label Stiff Records on the basis of a demo tape. His manager at Stiff, Jake Riviera, suggested that the singer, then calling himself D.P. Costello, using Costello as his surname after his father’s stage name Day Costello, to start using the first name Elvis after Elvis Presley.

Career

1970s

On 25 March 1977, Stiff released Costello's first single, " Less Than Zero". Four months later his debut album, ''My Aim Is True'' (1977), was released to moderate commercial success (No. 14 in the UK and, later, Top 40 in the US), with Costello appearing on the cover in his trademark oversize eyeglasses, reminiscent of Buddy Holly. Costello failed to chart with his early singles, which included "Less Than Zero" and the ballad " Alison". Stiff's records were initially distributed only in the UK, which meant that Costello's first album and singles were only available in the US as expensive imports. Angered that no US record company had yet seen fit to release his records, Costello attempted to protest by giving a street performance outside a London convention of CBS Records executives, and was arrested for busking. Costello signed to Columbia Records, (CBS in the U.S.) a few months later.

The backing for Costello's debut album was provided by American West Coast band Clover, a country outfit living in England whose members would later go on to join Huey Lewis and the News and the Doobie Brothers. Costello released his first major hit single, " Watching the Detectives", which was recorded with Steve Nieve, Steve Goulding (drums) and Andrew Bodnar (bass)—the latter two being members of Graham Parker's backing band the Rumour. The song, added to the U.S. version of ''My Aim Is True'', contains scathing verses about the vicarious enjoyment of TV violence over a reggae beat. Later in 1977, Costello formed his own permanent backing band, the Attractions, consisting of Steve Nieve (piano), Bruce Thomas (bass guitar), and Pete Thomas (drums; no relation to Bruce Thomas).

On 17 December 1977, Costello and the Attractions, as a replacement act for the Sex Pistols, were scheduled to play "Less Than Zero" on ''Saturday Night Live''; however, in imitation of a rebellious act by Jimi Hendrix on a BBC show, Costello stopped the song mid-intro, yelling "Stop! Stop!" to his band, and played "Radio Radio" instead – a song that criticises the commercialisation of the airwaves, which NBC and Lorne Michaels had forbidden them to play. Costello was subsequently banned from the show (the ban was lifted in 1989) and he received considerable attention as an angry young man. His insistence on performing "Radio Radio" on ''SNL'' proved a boon to his debut album, and its popularity exploded in the U.S. after the performance."Week in Rock History: Elvis Costello Defies 'Saturday Night Live'"
. ''Rolling Stone''. Retrieved 18 September 2014

Following a tour with other Stiff artists – captured on the ''Live Stiffs Live'' album, which includes Costello's version of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David standard " I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" – the band recorded ''This Year's Model'' (1978). Some of the more popular tracks include the British hit " (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" and " Pump It Up". His U.S. record company saw Costello as such a priority that his last name replaced the word Columbia on the label of the disc's original pressing. The Attractions' first tour of Australia in December 1978 was notable for a controversial performance at Sydney's Regent Theatre when, angered by the group's failure to perform an encore after their brief 35-minute set, audience members destroyed some of the seating. By the end of the 1970s Costello was firmly established as both performer and songwriter, with Linda Ronstadt and Dave Edmunds having success with his compositions.

A tour of the U.S. and Canada also saw the release of the much- bootlegged Canadian promo-only '' Live at the El Mocambo'', recorded at a Toronto rock club, which finally saw an official release as part of the '' 2½ Years'' box set in 1993.

In 1979, he released his third album '' Armed Forces'' (originally to have been titled ''Emotional Fascism'', a phrase that appeared on the album's inner sleeve). American editions included a 45rpm EP recorded live at the Hollywood High School Gymnasium in Hollywood in 1978. Both the album and the single "Oliver's Army" went to No. 2 in the UK, and the opening track "Accidents Will Happen" gained wide television exposure thanks to its innovative animated music video, directed by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton. Costello also found time in 1979 to produce the debut album of the 2 Tone ska revival band the Specials and worked as a backing vocalist on ''This Is Your Life'', an album by new wave band Twist.

Costello's standing in the U.S. was bruised for a time when in March 1979, during a drunken argument with Stephen Stills and Bonnie Bramlett at a Holiday Inn bar in Columbus, Ohio, the singer referred to James Brown as a "jive-ass nigger", then upped the ante by pronouncing Ray Charles a "blind, ignorant nigger". Costello addressed the controversy at a New York City press conference a few days later, stating that he had been drunk and had been attempting to be obnoxious to bring the conversation to a swift conclusion, not anticipating that Bramlett would bring his comments to the press. According to Costello, "it became necessary for me to outrage these people with about the most obnoxious and offensive remarks that I could muster." In his liner notes for the expanded version of '' Get Happy!!'' Costello writes that some time after the incident he had declined an offer to meet Charles out of guilt and embarrassment, though Charles himself had forgiven Costello, saying "Drunken talk isn't meant to be printed in the paper." Costello worked extensively in Britain's Rock Against Racism campaign both before and after the incident. In an interview with Questlove (drummer for the Roots, whom Costello collaborated with in 2013), he stated: "It's upsetting because I can't explain how I even got to think you could be funny about something like that", and further elaborating with, "I'm sorry. You know? It's about time I said it out loud."

Costello is also an avid country music fan and has cited George Jones as his favourite country singer. In 1977, he appeared on Jones' duet album ''My Very Special Guests'', contributing " Stranger in the House", which they later performed together on an HBO special dedicated to Jones.

1980s

The soul-infused ''Get Happy!!'' was the first of Costello's many experiments with genres beyond those with which he is ordinarily associated. It also marked a distinct change in mood from the angry, frustrated tone of his first three albums to a more upbeat, happy manner. The single, " I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down" was an old Sam and Dave song (though Costello increased the tempo considerably). Lyrically, the songs are full of Costello's signature word play, to the point that he later felt he had become something of a self-parody and toned it down on later releases; he has mockingly described himself in interviews as "rock and roll's Scrabble champion". His only 1980 appearance in North America was at the Heatwave festival in August near Toronto.

In January 1981, Costello released ''Trust'' amidst growing tensions within the Attractions, particularly between Bruce and Pete Thomas. In the U.S., the single "Watch Your Step" was released and played live on Tom Snyder's ''Tomorrow'' show, and received airplay on FM rock radio. In the UK, the single " Clubland" scraped the lower reaches of the charts; follow-up single " From a Whisper to a Scream" (a duet with Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze) became the first Costello single in over four years to completely miss the charts. Costello also co-produced Squeeze's popular 1981 album '' East Side Story'' (with Roger Bechirian) and performed backing vocals on the group's hit "Tempted".

October saw the release of '' Almost Blue'', an album of country music cover songs written by the likes of Hank Williams ("Why Don't You Love Me (Like You Used to Do?)"), Merle Haggard ("Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down") and Gram Parsons ("How Much I Lied"). The album, which received mixed reviews, was a tribute to the country music that Costello had grown up listening to, especially George Jones. The first pressings of the record in the UK bore a sticker with the message: "WARNING: This album contains country & western music and may cause a radical reaction in narrow minded listeners." ''Almost Blue'' did spawn a surprise UK hit single in a version of George Jones' "Good Year for the Roses" (written by Jerry Chesnut), which reached No. 6.

''Imperial Bedroom'' (1982) had a much darker sound, due in part to the lavish production of Geoff Emerick, famed for engineering several Beatles records. It remains one of his most critically acclaimed records, but again it failed to produce any hit singles—"You Little Fool" and the critically acclaimed "Man Out of Time" both failed to reach the Top 40 in the UK. Costello has said he disliked the marketing pitch for the album. ''Imperial Bedroom'' also features Costello's song " Almost Blue", inspired by the music of jazz singer and trumpeter Chet Baker, who would later perform and record a version of the song (on ''Chet Baker in Tokyo'').

In 1983, he released '' Punch the Clock'', featuring female backing vocal duo ( Afrodiziak) and a four-piece horn section (the TKO Horns), alongside the Attractions. Clive Langer (who co-produced with Alan Winstanley), provided Costello with a melody which eventually became "Shipbuilding", which featured a trumpet solo by Baker. Prior to the release of Costello's own version, a version of the song was a minor UK hit for former Soft Machine founder Robert Wyatt.

Under the pseudonym The Imposter, Costello released "Pills and Soap", an attack on the changes in British society brought on by Thatcherism, released to coincide with the run-up to the 1983 UK general election. ''Punch the Clock'' also generated an international hit in the single "Everyday I Write the Book", aided by a music video featuring lookalikes of the Prince Charles and Princess Diana undergoing domestic strife in a suburban home. The song became Costello's first Top 40 hit single in the U.S. Also in the same year, Costello provided vocals on a version of the Madness song "Tomorrow's Just Another Day" released as a B-side.

Tensions within the band – notably between Costello and bassist Bruce Thomas – were beginning to tell, and Costello announced his retirement and the break-up of the group shortly before they were to record '' Goodbye Cruel World'' (1984). Costello would later say of this record that they had "got it as wrong as you can in terms of the execution". The record was poorly received upon its initial release; the liner notes to the 1995 Rykodisc re-release, penned by Costello, begin with the words "Congratulations! You've just purchased our worst album". Costello's retirement, although short-lived, was accompanied by two compilations, ''Elvis Costello: The Man'' in the UK, Europe and Australia, and '' The Best of Elvis Costello & The Attractions'' in the U.S.

In 1985, he appeared in the Live Aid benefit concert in England, singing the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" as a solo artist. (The event was overrunning and Costello was asked to "ditch the band".) Costello introduced the song as an "old northern English folk song", and the audience was invited to sing the chorus. In the same year Costello teamed up with friend T-Bone Burnett for the single "The People's Limousine" under the moniker of The Coward Brothers. That year, Costello also produced '' Rum Sodomy & the Lash'' for the Irish punk/folk band the Pogues.

1985 also saw Costello appear in the Alan Bleasdale film ''No Surrender'', playing a small role as a very bad stage magician hired to perform at a seedy Liverpool night club on a bleak New Year's Eve.

Growing antipathy between Costello and Bruce Thomas contributed to the Attractions' first split in 1986 when Costello was preparing to make a comeback. Working in the U.S. with Burnett, a band containing a number of Elvis Presley's sidemen (including James Burton and Jerry Scheff), and minor input from the Attractions, he produced '' King of America'', an acoustic guitar-driven album with a country sound. It was billed as performed by "The Costello Show featuring the Attractions and Confederates" in the UK and Europe and "The Costello Show featuring Elvis Costello" in North America. Around this time he legally changed his name back to Declan MacManus, adding Aloysius as an extra middle name. Costello retooled his upcoming tour to allow for multiple nights in each city, playing one night with the Confederates, one night with the Attractions, and one night solo acoustic. In May 1986, he performed at Self Aid, a benefit concert held in Dublin that focused on the chronic unemployment which was widespread in Ireland at that time.

Later that year, Costello returned to the studio with the Attractions and recorded ''Blood & Chocolate'', which was lauded for a post-punk fervour not heard since 1978's ''This Year's Model''. It also marked the return of producer Nick Lowe

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