Elvis Costello, with guest T Bone Burnett as the Coward Brothers
Colston Hall
Bristol, England
14 November 1984


01. Sweet Dreams
02. Men Called Uncle
03. The Only Flame In Town - slow version
04. Mouth Almighty
05. High Fidelity
06. Shot With His Own Gun
07. Accidents Will Happen
08. Almost Blue
09. Green Shirt
10. The World And His Wife - slow version
11. Luxembourg
12. New Amsterdam
13. Kid About It
14. I Hope You're Happy Now
15. Worthless Thing
16. Motel Matches
17. Love Field
18. End Of The Rainbow
19. Riot Act
20. Image Of Me
21. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
22. Suffering Face
23. Alison - including You Win Again and The Love You Save (May Be Your Own)
24. Ragged But Right - The Coward Brothers
25. Baby's In Black - The Coward Brothers
26. I Left My Heart In San Francisco - San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) - The Coward Brothers
27. She Thinks I Still Care - The Coward Brothers
28. Inch By Inch
29. I'll Make It All Up To You
30. A Smiling Shore
31. Shipbuilding
32. Withered And Died
33. Peace In Our Time - including The Bells


Elvis Costello
The Coward Brothers:
- Howard Coward (Elvis Costello)
- Henry Coward (T Bone Burnett)


Recorder: Unknown
Lineage: Unknown


Comments by area51GM:
---------------------
40 years on .....................................

I was in the lucky happenstance of being based in Bristol for both the Cardiff and the Bristol shows and on the day of the Bristol show I had an informal interview with the head of my Fellowship course about my prospects and future career plans so on the morning if the gig I took myself into college in a suit and went through the formal processes requires. The afternoon lecture were of little enticement so I instead returned to Bristol and made my way to the concert hall. I was able to walk through the venue unchallenged and found my way into a dark corridor leading to the main arena. I found a poster with the picture of Elvis playing the double bass (the Chalkie White photo) so I decided no-one would miss it now the show was about to take place so I helped myself – only to be asked by a roadie where Mr. ---- was - I guessed he had assumed I was a member of staff and mistook my Devon accent for a Bristolian (they are not at all similar but hey-ho!) and so I bluffed and pointed further down the corridor. With that another appeared and said could I lend a hand and so for 40 odd minutes I helped set up the stage. I had worked in my father’s music shop as a lad with a Saturday job so I knew about fitting piano pickups and setting up foldback speakers so I was fairly useful and no-one questioned me. After the end of the 40 minutes Elvis appeared and I managed a squeaky “Hullo” and then he picked up a guitar and tried out a few opening lines to several guitars. At one point he had the music book “A Singing Dictionary” open in front of him as he tried to recall some lines. I thought it was “Girls Talk” but he’d done that a lot previously so I may have been mistaken. After about 10 minutes of the soundcheck I was politely asked to leave so I crept out, picking up my suit jacket and the poster on the way out and returned to my hotel. I ended up only just getting into my seat in time to catch the end of “Sweet Dreams”, a stunning choice of opening song but the thrill of the previous night was somehow dissipated this time around. He mentioned playing at the Bristol Locarno and had a serious swipe at “Wham!” in the introduction to “Worthless Thing”. Even the normally joyous interlude of “The Coward Brothers” seemed more strained and less spontaneous to me but the audience lapped it up and I consoled myself with the memory of the afternoon and my treasured poster. If only I’d got it signed! I received the recording in trade soon after the 1986 Spectacular Singing Songbook tour but the cassette needed to be taken down 28 cents to get it in pitch.

Lineage: TDK normal cassette > Nakamichi DR3 (no Dolby) > Marantz DR6000 > EAC > Nero Platinum for track separation and pitch adjustment > TLH > FLAC


Update by JohnE on 18 Feb 2025:
Lineage: FLACs supplied by area51GM > Mp3tag (added tags).

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

Images for this show: