ELVIS COSTELLO - EVERY YEAR'S MODEL

Is it really 30 years ago that Elvis Costello's incendiary masterpiece of a second album, This Year's Model, was released? Oh yes it is!

I can still fondly remember getting mine at The Oldest Record Shop In The World, Cardiff's Spiller's Records, no Saturday morning was complete with a visit there of the latest vinyl and then off to The Sasparilla Bar in Morgan's Arcade to knock back a glass of the stuff whilst poring over the sleeve notes - which included a bizarre pic of multi-coloured dummies in a launderette - and looking at the mighty vinyl of course and seeing if there was any obscure note in it core.

Costello was doing punk and new wave his way and I loved it. His debut, My Aim Is True, is outstanding in its own right with tracks like Red Shoes, Mystery Dance, Alison, Less Than Zero and Watching The Detectives but that was recorded with Clover, an American mid-west group, some of whom went on to become Huey Lewis and the News.

This Year's Model saw the debut of the mighty skills and craft of Pete Thomas on drums, Bruce Thomas on
bass and Steve Nieve on keyboards and Elvis hit the ground hard and fast with his follow up. Even today, it is 35 minutes of raw power and breathless musical heaven. Many of its tracks still rank amongst my favourites and still sound fantastic - songs like No Action, This Year's Girl, Pump It Up, You Belong To Me, I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea, Lip Service and Lipstick Vogue - all showcase EC & The Attractions at their heady best.

To celebrate its anniversary, another Deluxe edition comes out next week - 2 cd's, 40 tracks, lyrics, rare pictures and notes. The additional tracks are Costello demos while cd 2 is a live 1978 show, 16 of its 17 songs never previously released. The album is as fresh now as it was then, Elvis at his biting, snarling, cynical best.

That's a must for me - if you got any sense, you'll try and get a listen too.