Elvis Costello & the Imposters have announced a 2023 tour, “We’re All Going on a Summer Holiday,” with Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets as the opening act. The North American dates, produced by Live Nation, span from June 7 to July 14. Charlie Sexton joins the Imposters on the tour as a special guest.
The “We’re All Going On A Summer Holiday” dates will follow two headlining appearances at the Byron Bay Bluesfest in Australia, three nights at the Sydney Opera House and a show at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne. In May, Costello and Steve Nieve will return to the concert hall stage together for the first time in twenty years, in Reykjavik, Iceland. Further dates are planned for later in the year and will be announced shortly.
Costello and Lowe have a long collaborative history. Declan MacManus (Costello’s given name) and Lowe first met in a public house, opposite The Cavern in Liverpool in 1972. Lowe went on to produce Costello’s largely ignored Stiff Records debut single, “Less Than Zero,” and the subsequent failed singles releases, “Alison” and “Red Shoes,” although the same songs received more attention upon the release of his debut album, My Aim Is True in July 1977 in the U.K. and in a Columbia Records release later that year.
Between late 1977 and 1980, Lowe produced the Elvis Costello and the Attractions’ acclaimed albums, This Year’s Model, Armed Forces, Get Happy and Trust. In the Spring of 1979, Elvis Costello and the Attractions and Mink Deville were joined by Rockpile – featuring both Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds – and undertook a three-month package tour of the U.S. At this time, Costello’s version of a song from the last Brinsley Schwarz album, “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love & Understanding,” saw its first release as the B-Side of the Radar Records single, “American Squirm,” credited to Nick Lowe and His Sound, with the producer seen on the picture sleeve seated at the mixing board of Eden Studios in tinted horn-rims, cradling a Jazzmaster guitar with a newly inlaid fretboard reading, “Costello.” The track was subsequently added to the U.S. edition of Armed Forces.
Related: Our review of the second night of this 2023 tour
In 1984, Costello took the producer’s chair for the first and only time at a Nick Lowe session for the single, “L.A.F.S.,” which was also included on the album, Nick Lowe & His Cowboy Outfit. In the same year, the duo recorded the Bacharach/Mack David/Barney Williams song, “Baby It’s You,” at Lowe’s Am-Pro Studios in Shepherd’s Bush, London, also the location for a Boxing Day (1979) recording session with Lowe’s then father-in-law, Johnny Cash which yielded the hit release, “Without Love” and the Cash/Costello duet, “We Ought To Be Ashamed.” In 1986, Nick Lowe produced the Attractions’ last complete album, Blood & Chocolate, before returning for a bass-playing cameo on “Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs Are Taking Over)” for the 1990 album, Mighty Like a Rose. In 1993 Nick Lowe (or Costello himself) played bass on nine of the songs on the album, Brutal Youth, which some mistook for a full Attractions reunion. They recently performed together in summer 2022 on “The Boy Named If & Other Favourites” tour.
Watch them perform together; “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout)” begins at the 7:30 mark
“We’re All Going On A Summer Holiday” Tour (Tickets will be available here and here)
Wed Jun 07 – Vancouver, BC – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Fri Jun 09 – Woodinville, WA – Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery
Sat Jun 10 – Bend, OR – Hayden Homes Amphitheater
Sun Jun 11 – Reno, NV – Silver Legacy Casino Reno
Tue Jun 13 – San Francisco, CA – Golden Gate Theatre
Wed Jun 14 – Ventura, CA – Ventura Theatre
Fri Jun 16 – Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theatre
Sat Jun 17 – Las Vegas, NV – Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort
Sun Jun 18 – Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Theatre
Tue Jun 20 – Oklahoma City, OK – The Criterion
Wed Jun 21 – Omaha, NE – Steelhouse Omaha
Fri Jun 23 – Hammond, IN – The Venue at Horseshoe Casino
Sat Jun 24 – Milwaukee, WI – Summerfest*
Sun Jun 25 – Nashville, IN – Brown County Music Center
Wed Jun 28 – Rochester Hills, MI – Meadow Brook Amphitheatre
Sat Jul 01 – Lenox, MA – Tanglewood*
Sun Jul 02 – Hampton Beach, NH – Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
Wed Jul 05 – Bridgeport, CT – Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater
Thu Jul 06 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway
Sat Jul 08 – Syracuse, NY – Landmark Theatre
Sun Jul 09 – Baltimore, MD – The Lyric
Wed Jul 12 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre
Fri Jul 14 – Philadelphia, PA – The Met Philadelphia
*Not A Live Nation Show
Related: Links for 100s of classic rock tours
From the March 28 announcement: Since returning to the road in the summer of 2021, in the guise of “Elvis Costello & The Layabouts,” E.C. and The Imposters—Steve Nieve, Pete Thomas, Davey Faragher and augmented by Texas guitarist Sexton—have undertaken three tours in the U.S. and one in the U.K. and northern Europe. Most recently Costello played the acclaimed “100 Songs and More,” a ten-night engagement at New York’s Gramercy Theater, at which he played more than 230 original songs, repeating only three titles. The shows that began in solo performance went on to spring nightly surprises, involving everything from an ensemble including musical saw, fiddle and Uillean pipes to an eight-person Broadway vocal chorus led by M.D. Rob Mathes, duets with jazz bassist, Endea Owens and, from the halfway point, performing with Steve Nieve at the piano before adding two different horn sections, led by trumpet player and arranger, Michael Leonhart.
Since 2018, Costello has issued ten albums; the most recent being, The Songs of Bacharach & Costello, a 4-CD, 2-LP box-set celebrating his nearly 30-year songwriting collaboration with Burt Bacharach. The span also included 2018’s Grammy Award-winning Look Now and the album, Hey Clockface. Together with co-producer, Sebastian Krys, Costello also completed work on Spanish Model, an adaptation of 1978’s This Year’s Model with new vocals recorded in lyrical adaptation and translation with a cast of Latin music performers. In 2022, the latest Elvis Costello and the Imposters release arrived, The Boy Named If.
1 Comment
What, no Southeast US appearances? What are we, chopped liverpool?