Once upon a time in the ‘70s, a young gentleman was flipping through a magazine and stumbled upon an advertisement for “a rocking pop combo on Stiff Records” that was – what luck! – looking for a keyboardist. That young gentleman was Steve Nason – soon to be rechristened by Ian Dury as Steve Nieve - while the combo in question would eventually come to be called Elvis Costello and the Attractions, and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.
That history – specifically, the bit between Costello and Nieve – is still ongoing, and it continues in earnest in September 2024 as the twosome embark on a tour of the UK and Ireland, one which kicks off at the Theater Royal Glasgow on September 5 and wraps up with a four-night stint at Dublin’s Vicar Street that concludes on October 1.
The official concert poster for the upcoming Elvis Costello / Steve Nieve tour
As a result of doing a ten-night stint at New York City's Gramercy Theatre earlier this year, Costello has pointedly taken an in-depth look at the material he's performing in his shows...or to quote the man directly from his press release, “I want to uncover, rediscover, dismantle and re-assemble songs, 'Before your very eyes,' as stage magicians used to announce before their next trick.”
Given that Costello performed 230+ songs during the course of those ten nights, it would be fair to say that he's done a lot of uncovering, dismantling, and re-assembling, especially when you also take into consideration the additional 22 cities in which he and Nieve performed between late August and early October of this year.
There's no point in trying to predict what the twosome will break out once they kick off this new tour in September, but below you can get an idea of how they sounded during the aforementioned Gramercy dates, and below that you'll see the full list of UK and Ireland tour dates.
September 2024
Thu 5 Glasgow, Theatre Royal Glasgow Sat 7 Gateshead, The Glasshouse International Centre for Music Sun 8 Manchester, Opera House Manchester Wed 11 Liverpool, Liverpool Olympia Sat 14 Cardiff, New Theatre, Cardiff Sun 15 Oxford, New Theatre Oxford Tue 17 Bristol, Bristol Beacon Wed 18 Poole, Lighthouse Sat 21 London, The London Palladium Tue 24 Ipswich, Regent Theatre Wed 25 Wolverhampton, The Civic at The Halls Wolverhampton Fri 27 Dublin, Vicar Street Sat 28 Dublin, Vicar Street Mon 30 Dublin, Vicar Street October
Tue 1 Dublin, Vicar Street
Nieve is hardly the only old friend in Costello's orbit these days: Costello's most recent release, The Resurrection of Rust, reunited the singer with his early collaborator Allan Mayes, with whom Costello had performed as a duo prior to the launch of his solo career in the 1970s. (The two had not previously released any music.) Costello's most recent solo release, with backing band the Imposters, was 2022's critically acclaimed A Boy Named If, which was nominated for Best Rock Album at last year's Grammy Awards.
