Elvis Costello
Royal Albert Hall
London, UK
December 27, 1982
(Solo, w/Attractions, w/Attractions & The Imperial Horns)

Transfer: 1980�s Tape Trade > CDR > xACT 2.39 (secure rip) > Peak Pro 6 (pitch adjusted) > iZotope RX / Ozone 5 (mastered) > Peak Pro 6 (post production) > xACT 2.39 > FLAC

01 New Amsterdam (solo)
02 The Comedians (solo)
03 The World And His Wife (solo)
04 Pidgin English
05 Hand In Hand
06 Green Shirt
07 Shabby Doll
08 Back Stabbers / King Horse
09 �And In Every Home
10 Watching The Detectives > Help Me
11 Kid About It
12 Temptation
13 From Head To Tow
14 Mouth Almighty
15 The Long Honeymoon
16 Everyday I Write The Book
17 You Belong To Me
18 New Lace Sleeves
19 Good For The Roses
20 Almost Blue
21 Alison
22 Beyond Belief
23 Clubland
24 Imperial Bedroom
25 Just A Memory w/Steve Nieve
26 Baby Pictures w/Steve Nieve
27 Shot With His Own Gun w/Steve Nieve
28 Big Tears
29 Big Sister�s Clothes
30 Shipbuilding
31 Oliver�s Army
32 Possession
33 Secondary Modern
34 High Fidelity
35 Town Cryer
36 Watch Your Step
37 Man Out Of Time
38 Clowntime Is Over
39 I Can�t Stand Up For Falling Down
40 Pump It Up

Known Faults:
-New Amsterdam: first few seconds cut
-Head To Toe: first few seconds cut

Elvis Costello played two nights at the Royal Albert Hall at the end of 1982 to wrap up the Imperial Bedroom Tour. It has long been rumored based on a Hip-O records press release in 2009 that a Royal Albert Hall performance would be released as part of the Hip-O records reissue program, to date this has never materialized and there is no clue which show over which years would be considered, Elvis has played the Albert Hall 17 times from 1982-1999. With eight years passing since the press release I question if any Albert Hall show will ever be released.

The show previous to this one on December 24th was professionally recorded as two tracks, �Everyday I Writhe The Book� and �The World And His Wife�, were released as part of Rhino records reissue program (by the way, these two tracks on the reissue are not at the correct pitch and run slow).

Elvis, in the liner notes of the Rhino release, describes these two tracks as �lo-fi� which I find a bit perplexing, other than the pitch being off they sound excellent to me. But with Elvis discounting them it�s doubtful that show would be considered for release. The Albert Hall show from January 7th with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was also professionally recorded with tracks being released and a partial SB in circulation. This would be an interesting, unique and welcome show to get a full release.
No tracks from the 27th have been released commercially or surfaced via soundboard.

The three UK shows in December 1982 were more or less one-offs falling between the �Bedrooms Of Britain Tour� ending in Leeds on October 6th and the �June �83 UK Tour� opening in Belfast on June 3rd. Of all the times Elvis has played the Royal Albert Hall, the show offered here from, the 27th, would be my pick for an official release. For the last three and a half decades, it has ranked as one of my all-time favorite Elvis shows. Clocking in at 40 songs and 134 minutes, it is the longest show of the tour (career?) and covers all bases. It can be broken up into three distinct parts, solo, with the Attractions and with the Attractions & The Imperial Horns.

Elvis opens with three solo songs kicking off the proceedings with an beautiful solo version of the Get Happy track �New Amsterdam� followed by two songs unreleased at the time, the live debut of �The Comedians� which wouldn�t be released for close to two years and �The World And His Wife� eight months before it�s �Punch The Clock� release. The Attractions hit the stage and we�re off and running with a cross section of Elvis�s first seven albums. The proceedings close with the Imperial Horns (pre-TKO Horns) featured on the last nine songs.

I did not see this show on the tracker and don�t know what versions are out there, this version comes from my tape copy traded for in the mid-1980�s. It�s a solid very good to excellent capture that ran fast which I have corrected.

Samples provided and artwork included...

mjk5510



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