London, UK · new wave · rock

Elvis Costello & The Imposters

1 upcoming festival

The angry young man of '77, now the canon itself — pump it up one more time, with a songbook that runs from spite to Bacharach.

Elvis Costello, born Declan MacManus, emerged from the British new wave of 1977 with a sound that mixed pub rock, punk urgency and unusually dense, barbed lyric writing. Over the decades that followed he moved through country, chamber pop, classical and collaborative work, including an album written with Burt Bacharach.

The Imposters, formed in the early 2000s, carry over two members of his original backing band The Attractions — keyboardist Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas — with Davey Faragher on bass. The group draws on the full breadth of Costello's catalogue, from the early angular singles to later material, played with the same organ-driven attack that defined his first records.

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