Elvis, is that really you.
Growing up I had the pleasure to see Elvis Costello on a few occasions.
Each one was different and memorable, the national stadium with just Elvis plus one and the crazy day in Macroom, Co Cork where the bottles flying through the air brought the end to a great festival that had lasted five years.
Year’s later, I was living in Indianapolis, Indiana, I had a call at work, “hey, Costello plays at Ohio State tonight, take the day off and meet me at the corner, we’re off to Columbus”. Room-mates sometimes know when a good idea needs to be shared and off we went to Columbus at 70 miles a hour in a 35 mile a hour pick-up truck.
A hairy ride was only the start of the adventure.
We arrived in fine form, I was mostly happy to still be alive, Rob went off to park, my job was to get the tickets, there wasn’t a lot of time. Within minutes someone handed me a ticket for free, I quickly turned around and sold it for a few dollars, this gave us a bigger budget for two good seats. We ended up in the eighth row, fairly pleased with the evening so far.
During the show a man dressed in a gorilla outfit appeared snatching members of the audience to go on stage.
Suddenly he was pointing at me and up I got on stage, I was standing face to face with Elvis Costello.
A wheel was spun, a sin was explained and I was told to choose the next song.
I few seconds passed, I blurted out “Tramp The Dirt Town”.
A few more seconds past, Elvis said “you’re from Dublin”, I said “Yes”.
He said then quietly “I can’t do that, they won’t understand”.
I said “I know, Alison it is, then”. He smiled and said “Yes”.