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Elvis Costello gave shape to his own budding career with a rebellious move on Saturday Night Live, switching mid-song into a diatribe against corporate-controlled broadcasting -- and getting himself banned from the show for a dozen years. Thing is, Costello was never supposed to be there in the first place, and he's admitted he got the idea from a legendary classic rocker, not the punk scene. The Sex Pistols were actually booked for the Dec. 17, 1977, show, but couldn't make it. That opened the door for Costello, whose debut, My Aim Is True, had just come out in the...

Elvis Costello has announced he’ll no longer perform his 1979 hit song “Oliver’s Army” is concert. The rocker explained his decision during an interview with The Telegraph, noting that it stems from the lyric, “Only takes one itchy trigger / One more widow, one less white n_____." “If I wrote that song today, maybe I’d think twice about [the lyric],” Costello admitted, before noting that the slur was historically accurate. “That’s what my grandfather was called in the British army — it’s historically a fact — but people hear that word go off like a bell and accuse me of...

Singer Elvis Costello and Jack Reacher author Lee Child are among the stars honoured by Prince Charles at the Buckingham Palace investitures today. Mr Costello was made an OBE for services to music after a five decades-long career which has seen him inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and ranked by Rolling Stone as among the 100 greatest artists of all time. Mr Costello described being honoured as a 'curious and gracious' experience, having initially been reluctant to accept the establishment endorsement. He smiled as he told how he imagined his late father, who he described as...

'The artists of the country are the people you need to communicate with and make a relationship with and learn from and build upon. So I absolutely don't believe in the boycott, and here I am.' Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren said Wednesday she was a "believer" in Israel and rejected efforts to boycott it. Mirren showered Israeli artists with praise and said she opposed both the efforts by pro-Palestinian groups to boycott them and the decision of some international artists to shun Israel. "I think that art is an incredibly important way of communication," she said at a press event...

Elvis Costello composed “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” on a train traveling from London to Liverpool in 1976, before he became a recording artist. Sketched out in the final 10 minutes of the three-hour journey, “Red Shoes” is a surrealist tale about an imagined jilting and the appearance of earthbound angels offering the singer immortality—in exchange for his footwear. Months later, Mr. Costello recorded “Red Shoes” for his first album, “My Aim Is True,” which was released in 1977.

I really resent the presumption that I'm going there to play to right-wing Nazi jews [sic]. If Elvis-f-ing-Costello wants to pull out of a gig in Israel because he's suddenly got this compassion for Palestinians, then good on him. But I have absolutely one rule, right? Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won't understand how anyone can have a problem with how they're treated.

Dear Costello: Firstly, accept my sincere apologies for being unable to refer to you as “Elvis,” for the obvious reason that you aren’t really Elvis. Secondly, allow me to address your decision to cancel the show planned for Israel. I attempted to understand the reasons you referred to in your cancellation notice. You addressed the “humiliation of Palestinians civilians in the name of national security,” and I wonder what you meant. Perhaps you’re referring to the roadblocks and fence we built in order to prevent suicide bombers from exploding in our buses and coffee shops. The dramatic decline in Palestinian...

'Humiliation and intimidation' of Palestinians behind decision to scrap Caesarea concerts, British singer says. British singer-songwriter Elvis Costello this week became the latest in a list of stars to cancel performances in Israel as a political protest. Costello, who was due to play two shows in Caesarea on June 30 and 31, posted a message on his website in which he announced that he would scrap the concerts in protest at what he termed the intimidation and humiliation of Palestinians by Israel.

Only two weeks after British rock icon Elvis Costello told The Jerusalem Post that the only answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “dialogue and reconciliation,” he decided to take himself out of the equation by cancelling his two shows scheduled for June 30 and July 1 at the Caesaerea Amphitheater. Costello posted an announcement on his Web site over the weekend explaining his decision to join the boycott of Israel. “There are occasions when merely having your name added to a concert schedule may be interpreted as a political act that resonates more than anything that might be sung and...

Meet the Haters Tina Fey Told Off Those anonymous internet critics Tina Fey told to "suck it" in her Golden Globe acceptance speech tonight are actual posters on the LA Times' Envelope awards site. And mean! Some points of clarification, though. Two of the three commenters Fey called out in her speech (video above) are the same person — "dianefan" used to be "cougar-letter." And the third, "BabsonLacrosse," totally got caught in the crossfire. Dianefan has been kind of a d-bag, as Fey would put it. Since at least September, when she was slamming the choice of Fey to play...

I thought Elvis was cooler than this. Not only that, he cannot "croon" a la Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, or Mel Torme (someone needs to tell him that, and soon).

Songwriter Burt Bacharach is releasing an explicit version of his controversial song Who Are These People? The song slams US President George W Bush and his administration and features Elvis Costello wailing an expletive at the end...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Elvis Costello will take the stage in Copenhagen this weekend for the premiere of his opera The Secret Arias, which is based on Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen's impossible romance with a Swedish soprano. The opera tells of a three-way drama between Andersen, Jenny Lind — dubbed the "Swedish Nightingale" — and her American impresario, Phineas Taylor Barnum, who brought Lind to New York for her first American concert tour in 1850. Costello will play both Andersen and Barnum, while Swedish soprano Gisela Stille will sing Lind's part. Costello said his work was a traditional...

Costello fans walk out in disgust NAOMI CANTON 26 May 2005 13:04 Outraged fans walked out in disgust last night after Elvis Costello arrived on stage several hours late because he was watching the football. He then shouted abuse at the audience and deliberately played badly. The avid Liverpool fan had arrived on stage at the UEA at 9.40pm because he tried to catch the Champions League final on television. Many fans had been waiting for him since 7.30pm and so when he received a hostile reaction from fans, he proceeded to shout abuse at them and under perform. Andrew...

NEW YORK, Mar 11, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- A potential war with Iraq wasn't far from the minds of some musicians who turned out for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. "Tonight we're having a good time," singer Neil Young said at Monday's ceremony. "But we're going to kill a lot of people next week. Let's not forget about that ... We're making a huge mistake." Young, who wrote the anti-Vietnam War rocker, "Ohio," was speaking at the Waldorf Astoria ceremony to honor record executive Mo Ostin. Despite the presence of intently political musicians like...