Expecting Rain

Maybe a little off-topic, but if you enjoy Theme Time Radio Hour, I recommend you try out Elvis Costello's new "talk" television show, which premiered December 3 on the Sundance Channel. "Talk" is in quotes, because it's as much a music as talk show.

On Wednesday's show, the guest was Elton John, who by the way, is a producer of Spectacle. Now, I'm not that big a fan of Mr. John, as the NY Times would call him, and the fact that he was the first guest on a show he's backing financially made me wonder whether we we were going to get a millennium update of Sammy Davis & Company, with Costello and guest spending the show telling each other, "You're beautiful, man," "No, you're beautiful, man."

But Costello's interview with John was fascinating. Who woulda thunk that Laura Nyro and Leon Russell were major influences on Elton John? Well, maybe Russell, but Laura Nyro? But Laura Nyro, yes, as Elton John demonstrates the Nyro-ish chord changes of Burn Down the Mission.

As I said, the whole show reminded me of TTRH, two people talking who you can tell love music in all shapes and forms, and who you can tell spend a lot of their life thinking about music even when they're not performing it. Upcoming shows have Lou Reed (next week), Smokey Robinson, and Jakob Dylan among others. If you can pick up the Sundance Channel, I'd give the show a shot.

you can watch some clips on the sundance channnel web site:

http://www.sundancechannel.com/spectacle/

Thanks for the tip!

Anybody with COMCAST can find this episode, and the second (featuring Lou Reed) on the COMCAST ON DEMAND option (usually click Channel One.) The Elton John episode was great, and the Lou Reed one is equally interesting. You don't have to be a fan of either Elton or Lou to appreciate this show. Elvis is intelligent, informed, but (perhaps most important) humble when it comes to just sitting down with people and talking about music. The duet of Elvis and Lou at the end of that episode on a song called "It was a perfect day" (I think that's the title) is amazing. A list of upcoming guests can be found on the Sundance website. I can only hope Tom Waits eventually makes his way onto this show.

Boo hoo. I get 'not available in your area'. Wouldn't it be nice if some of it found its way onto Youtube?

The first episode aired on Channel 4 here in the UK with very little fanfare and an awful post-midnight Monday timeslot.

For us it was the Police on the night before their 'final' gig, due to air in the US early next year. The show was divided into four segments - one for each member and one with all of them on the stage together talking plus a couple of songs.

Worth watching if you have 4OD on your set-top.

The episode with Mr. Dylan will be broadcast in March.

http://www.bumpershine.com/wp-images/po ... _dylan.jpg

Wish I got Sundance. Spectacle has been getting good press. Mr. Costello is such an interesting guy himself.

Plus, Tony is like the house bassist for that show haha

For realz

Yeah, he seems to be appearing pretty damn frequently

^^Cool!

That's better than the green smiley, don't you think?

A mushroom? Sure, why not haha

Its gotta be shot somewhere in NY, wish I knew how to get tix haha

Are you too young to remember the 1-up mushrooms from Super NES?! Probably so.

To get us back on topic, that would be cool to get tickets, anybody have the details? I read the review of the show in the New Yorker and the writer's only complaint was that the audience was too white and middle-aged. Wanted to see some piercing and purple hair, I think.

Haha I didnt play video games, I went outside and played baseball

THAT'S how you got so tall!
OK, I'm banning myself, or logging off at least.
'Night, Zimmy. Sorry for derailing, Fred.

I dont think we're too off topic, we're looking for tickets haha
In all seriousness, to any of you who get the channel, is it possible to attend a live taping a la Letterman or something?

Most of the shows were shot at the Apollo in Harlem, and I think the audience is by invite-only. A few of the earlier shows were shot at another studio, which, as I remember, they had to vacate because it was booked by one of the networks for coverage of the U.S. presidential elections.

Season One was comprised of 13 episodes, all of which have already been shot. No word yet about whether they're filming a Season 2.

I see, thanks for the info. You are a wealth of knowledge

Is there a list of interviewees?? And will bob be one of them??? Fat chance, I know.

I don't believe you, Spirit!! That photo represents time way past or zillions and zillions of dollars of plastic surgery and make-up for both elvis and bob.

Well, even if he hasn't landed Bob, I see Jakob is scheduled for Feb 4th with She & Him and Jenny Lewis! I wanna post this over on Jakob's thread, too.

14 Jan -- Rufus Wainwright
21 Jan -- Kris Kristofferson, Roseanne Cash, Norah Jones, John Mellancamp
28 Jan -- Renee Fleming
4 Feb -- Herbie Hancock
11 Feb -- She & Him, Jenny Lewis, Jakob Dylan
18 Feb -- Diana Krall (keeping it in the family!)
25 Feb -- Smokey Robinson

My pleasure. All good researchers have more than a touch of OCD. It bothered me that I couldn't remember where the earlier shows had been taped, so I went back and looked, and found it was the famous Studio 8H, home of "Saturday Night Live." Personally, I think the Apollo Theater a better venue.

Fans of the show might be interested in this NY Times article from Nov. `08 which details its genesis (Costello had talked about doing a talk show for years but nothing came of it until he guest-hosted a "Late Show" when David Letterman was out with shingles); its format (Sundance wanted guests along the lines of Beyonce); and its future...

And tickets...

You might be interested in this first-hand account of winning tickets to the Police taping...

http://trueconfessions.wordpress.com/20 ... ce-report/



The best bet seems to be to monitor the official Elvis Costello web site. See...

http://www.elviscostello.com/news/news.php?uid=21. There's a link to a sign-up page for the free email newsletter. And I guess if you really want to go to a Spectacle show - given that there's a Season 2 - your best bet would be to lay out $35 and become a "Gold Member" of elviscostello.com, where among other things you'll be given...

"Access to pre-sale ticketing before the general public" and "Access to special contests and giveaways" See...

https://signup.elviscostello.com/

Hope that helps. If you go, I expect a full report for Dreamtime.

Last night's episode was the one featuring (among others) Jakob Dylan. Haven't watched it yet, but there's a review here...

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/70359 ... dylan-epi/

... and there's a TTRH connection. Tennessee Thomas helps her father back Elvis on his opening number. Tennessee made a call-in appearance on the "Something" episode. Wonder if she did the recording while she was in NYC for the gig.

A good day for Jenny Lewis yesterday. Bob plays her on TTRH in the morning and she shows up with Jacob on Elvis's show at night.