By the middle of the year, those issues had been resolved and we'd just made our way back from a trip to Southport when my attention was drawn to the fact that Elvis Costello was playing Brisbane in mid-October.The requisite bookings had been made and the tickets had arrived around the time a day or two before I discovered that Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe were also in Australian tour mode, and, predictably we were going to that show as well.
We'd just finished the logistical arrangements for that one when we learned the details of the concert that was going to open the Sound Shell that's a major feature of Bowen's Front Beach redevelopment, which was, predictably, two days after we'd booked to fly south to catch Ry.
So you can't have everything.
The trip to catch Costello produced a number of highlights apart from the concert itself, including the chance to catch up with people I hadn't seen for a long time, but the concert remained the key issue.
And thoroughly good it was.
Madam's not the biggest Elvis Costello fan, and while she enjoyed it she was also reminded that there are people who are far more obsessive than Hughesy when it comes to following their favourite artists. She'd had some experience of that from the Little Feat episode, of course, but Marcel and Tony were only chasing shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.
Web-master JohnE from the EC Wiki had made it to shows in Adelaide, Melbourne (twice), Hobart, Canberra, Sydney (twice) and was lining up for the eighth time. Meeting him before the show the significance of news that EC had played I Throw My Toys Around in Canberra flew straight over her head, but the opinion that the tour had been one for the long term fans promised an interesting set-list.
John also rated the opening act (Shelley Harland) very highly, and while I wasn't totally awe-struck by her performance she was fairly impressive.
But it was Elvis that we were there for, and from the time he hit the stage it was obvious that we were in for a treat. I've written about the show in more detail elsewhere and won't repeat myself here.
Likewise, while the Ry Cooder show in Brisbane about a month later was a sublime experience, anything more than a passing reference hereabouts is probably something that you could classify as a duplication of effort.
We are, in other words, at the end of the backlog when it comes to Hughesy's concert reminiscences. From here on it's a much simpler process of attending the concert, writing the review and posting it over there.