Posts Tagged ‘Elvis Costello’

POP LIFE ENCORE: an in-depth interview with icon ELVIS COSTELLO!

On this week’s encore episode of “Pop Life” we meet iconic musician and songwriter Elvis Costello. In an exclusive one-on-one Costello talks about life in lockdown, creativity in isolation and his 33rd album “Hey Clockface.”

Then, the “Pop Life” panel, solo artist and STYX keyboardist and vocalist Lawrence Gowan and Grammy and Academy Award-nominated composer, producer, pianist, arranger, conductor and recording artist Stephan Moccio, discuss staying creative in the pandemic and what good we can take away from this difficult time.

Watch the whole thing HERE!

Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.

Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Bob Geldof, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.

NEWSTALK 1010: SONG WRITER’S SPECIAL WITH STING, STEVE EARLE AND MANY MORE!

On the December 27, 2020 edition of the Richard Crouse Show we have a look at the art of song writing with an A-list group of artists: Gordon Lightfoot, Bob Geldof, Alice Cooper, Randy Bachman, Bob Ezrin, The Kings, Kevan Staples, Robbie Robertson, Damhnait Doyle, Elvis Costello, Steve Earle, Bernie Taupin and Sting.

Listen to the whole thing HERE!

Here’s some info on The Richard Crouse Show!:

Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Ethan Hawke, director Brad Bird, comedian Gilbert Gottfried, Eric Roberts, Brian Henson, Jonathan Goldsmith a.k.a. “The most interesting man in the world,” and best selling author Linwood Barclay.

Click HERE to catch up on shows you might have missed!

 

NEWSTALK 1010: AN IN-DEPTH CONVERSATION WITH ELVIS COSTELLO!

On the December 6, 2020 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we are joined by iconic musician and songwriter Elvis Costello. In an exclusive one-on-one Costello talks about life in lockdown, creativity in isolation and his 33rd album “Hey Clockface.”

“I started out to be a songwriter,” Elvis says in the interview, “not a singer. I was given the job of recording my first songs because nobody else either wanted to, or could sing them. They’re actually much trickier than they sound. They may sound like there isn’t much tune to many of them, but their words alone are a challenge. So I ended up with this job of fronting a band. And obviously over the years I’ve tried to renew that for myself so that it doesn’t become the same tired script.”

Listen to the whole thing HERE!

Here’s some info on The Richard Crouse Show!:

Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Ethan Hawke, director Brad Bird, comedian Gilbert Gottfried, Eric Roberts, Brian Henson, Jonathan Goldsmith a.k.a. “The most interesting man in the world,” and best selling author Linwood Barclay.

Click HERE to catch up on shows you might have missed!

Richard speaks at the The “eh” List Author Series November 18!

Screen Shot 2015-11-17 at 10.31.22 AMFrom torontopublliclibrary.com: “Come meet the writers everyone’s reading. Seven branches across the city offer you the chance to meet a great Canadian writer. All events followed by book signings.

Launched in 2009 with funding from Canada Council for the Arts, The eh List is a premiere destination for lovers of Canadian literature, hosting award-winning authors and exciting new voices including Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Will Ferguson, Governor General’s Award Winner Nino Ricci, Trillium Book Award winner Camilla Gibb and RBC Taylor Prize Winner Plum Johnson in 2015.”

Details:

Wed Nov 18, 2015

7:00 p.m.8:30 p.m.

90 mins

North York Central Library Auditorium

The eh List presents author Richard Crouse discussing his new biography, Elvis is King: Costello’s My Aim is True. Crouse delves into the story of the creation of the groundbreaking album, focusing on Costello’s musical upbringing, the recording of the legendary songs, and the marketing behind the music that would redefine youth culture. Book signing to follow.

Call to register; seating is limited: 416-395-5639

REVIEW OF RICHARD’S BOOK: “Elvis is King” at 2paragraphs.com

Screen Shot 2015-05-14 at 12.20.54 PMFrom 2paragraphs.com: “Author Richard Crouse, a Canadian film critic and culture vulture, smartly tells this tale of Costello’s beginnings — indeed he tells the tale of the invention of Elvis Costello the character. Another star of the book is Stiff Records, which was Dr. Frankenstein to Costello’s monster — and to his monster hits.”

“Elvis is King” according to “Be Stiff: The Stiff Records Story” author

Screen Shot 2015-04-29 at 9.39.23 AMBy Richard Balls (author of Be Stiff: The Stiff Records Story and Ian Dury: Sex & Drugs & Rock ‘N’ Roll)

My Aim Is True has the strongest single identity of any of the albums contained in the pantheon of Elvis Costello’s work. It is also the most iconic. So Richard Crouse’s look at both the record and the inchoate, pre-Attractions Costello is a welcome addition to any fan’s bookshelf.

Crouse followed his hero’s progress from afar – Liverpool, Nova Scotia, in fact – after identifying the bespectacled singer on the other side of the Atlantic as someone who was “making music that spoke to me”. Fortunately, his pocket-sized book (just 118 pages) is no hagiography and far more instructive than a song-by-song dissection of the record he got his older brother to bring home for him.

Costello’s early musical influences were as diverse as the records he would go on to make, from The Siamese Cat Song by Peggy Lee, which as a toddler he demanded that his mum play, through to The Beatles, The Supremes and Gram Parsons. He was only 16 when he got up to play in public for the first time in the crypt of a church in Richmond, and by all accounts it did not go well. However, a move from London to Liverpool saw him develop a taste for American country-flavoured rock and the kind of groups that were inspiring groups to venture out into pub back rooms. He and his friends followed suit.

This scene-setting is vital as it explains why, as punk was frothing at the mouth, an agitating young singer was recording a country-tinged album with a Californian bar band. At this point The Attractions hadn’t been hired, and it was with Clover that he recorded his debut at Pathway Studios.

There is, rightly, much emphasis on Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera’s maverick label Stiff Records, in whose scruffy offices the transformation from computer-operating geek to cool new waver began. It was Stiff’s keen understanding of promotion and marketing stunts that helped launch such a difficult-to-market artist. His arrest for busking outside the Hilton Hotel in London where CBS executives were holding a conference resulted to him being signed and MAIT being released in the US.

Fan or not, he doesn’t shy away from aspects of the Costello’s early career that some found off-putting. The labelling of some of Costello’s anti-romance songs as misogynist is, says Crouse, “a fair charge”, while the abrasiveness he cultivated on-stage and press interviews is chronicled in a chapter headed Prince Charmless. On stage he could be no less prickly. “I see we’ve got some cunts in the audience tonight,” he snarled during the Stiff tour of 1977 on which he deliberately played songs no one knew.

There are no original interviews with Costello or any of the musicians involved in MAIT, Crouse instead getting the thoughts of a host of other writers. Nor are there any images in this latest in the pop classics series. But fans will find plenty to feast on in a book that documents a seminal record and the arrival of one of the most gifted songwriters of his generation.