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Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Roundhouse April 15th 1978 (1978)

Track listing:
  1. Big Boys 3:34
  2. Chemistry Class 3:22
  3. Waiting for the End of the World 3:53
  4. No Action 2:03
  5. This Year’s Girl 3:21
  6. Lip Service 2:38
  7. Less Than Zero 3:13
  8. Big Tears 3:37
  9. Hand in Hand 2:24
  10. The Beat 3:37
  11. Red Shoes 2:26
  12. Alison 2:56
  13. Miracle Man 3:31
  14. (I Don’t Want to go to) Chelsea 4:05
  15. Pump it Up 3:33
  16. Watching the Detectives 6:37
  17. You Belong to Me 3:00
  18. Mystery Dance 4:31
  19. Heart of the City 3:27

Notes

This was the first of a two-night run at the Roundhouse in Camden Town, London. The second show, the following night, was bootlegged as the double vinyl album “Accidents”, on The Impossible Recordworks label. This one sounds kind of the same, except it’s in stereo. It was recorded from the front of the balcony dead center and sounds okay.

The Roundhouse was one of the best venues ever for atmosphere, but it was bloody awful for acoustics and all our tapes from there came out a little, well, like this. It ain’t bad at all, but if you’re a stickler for quality, forget it. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, so please, no f***ing moaning this time around please.

Elvis came on and performed the first two songs solo, before bringing on the band. I can’t remember exactly what went on that week, but Bruce Thomas had hurt his hand somehow and was missing for both nights, and was replaced by the band's producer, the great Nick Lowe, on bass.

So, tracks 3-18 are by Elvis on guitar, Pete Thomas on drums, Steve Nieve on keyboards and Nick Lowe on bass. On track 19, Nick Lowe switches to second guitar and the bass is played by Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy. You’ll have to take my word for that, because Elvis doesn’t make an announcement about Phil or anything.