-Welcome back to the show, Elvis Costello.
You know how to do it. Welcome back.
-We're having quite a night already.
-We already have, right?
-I've been on stage all week,
and I haven't heard my name so much.
-Yeah. [ Laughs ] How about that?
Madonna learned how to play drums.
-I know, isn't that fantastic? -Did you ever hear that?
-Pete Thomas is backstage, and he said,
he's promised free lessons.
-Wow, there you go.
-And then we can have the stand-off here.
I think we need to do "Into the Groove"
and "Pump It Up."
I think that's what, yeah.
[ Cheering ]
-"Into the Groove," is that your Madonna...
-That's the one. That's the one for me.
I mean, there's so many good ones.
I mean, 50 number 1s? -That's insane.
-I mean, I've got 600 songs in my catalogue,
and none of them were number 1s.
[ Laughter ] -Wow.
That's another record in itself.
-Yeah, it's a record in itself there, yeah.
-It really is.
But have you guys ever hung out, you and Madonna?
-You know, we did, and here's --
Can I tell this?
-She's probably in her limousine at this point, yeah.
-No, actually, her brother-in-law, Joe Henry,
produced the record "The River in Reverse,"
that I made with Allen Toussaint,
a record very close to my heart.
And he said one evening, he said,
"We're gonna do a show at the Village Vanguard.
Do you want to come to the show?"
And we went to the Village Vanguard,
which is really close to where we live here in New York,
and the table was set up for Joe, his sister-in-law,
my wife Diana, and myself.
And we sat in the middle of the Village Vanguard
and just enjoyed the show.
It was a fantastic "Bright Mississippi" show.
And when the lights came up, people looked over at the table.
There's Madonna talking to my wife Diana and myself.
And then went -- "Nah, couldn't be."
[ Laughter ]
-"There's no way Elvis Costello..."
-And we had a lovely evening.
We had a lovely evening. Great music, yeah.
-That's so fun.
That's wild. I love the Village Vanguard.
I miss that. -It is. It's --
All the places, we've just got to give them lots of love.
And that's what we're saying, you know?
We're playing Pier 17 tomorrow night
here in New York City.
[ Cheering ]
-You actually have an announcement
that you'd like to announce tonight on the show.
-Yeah, oh. Can I tell them? -Please tell them.
-I'm gonna play a 10-night stand in New York City next February,
but here's the thing --
[ Cheering ]
I'm gonna print a list of 10 songs a night
that's gonna give you the clue
to what that night's gonna be like.
And the other 10 songs that I might play
are a secret.
So you'll never hear the same song twice.
It's gonna be 200 songs over 10 nights.
-So you can go every single night if you want to?
-You can come. We'll give you a special price.
You want to come 10 nights? You want to come 10 nights?
[ Cheering ]
One price, you can get a completely different price
if you don't want to come at all.
[ Laughter ]
-If you don't want to come at all,
I'll give you 20 bucks to not come.
-Second price.
-Where is it? Where are you performing?
-It's at the Gramercy Theater.
It's a beautiful theater. -Oh, I love that theater.
-Played there a few years ago with The Impostors,
The Impostors and Charlie Sexton will be with me
tomorrow night, but also,
we've got our mate, Nick Lowe.
That's pretty great, you know?
Nick Lowe and The Straitjackets.
We're on the road now.
But -- But --
you have a different exclusive here.
You see this here picture?
Can you see that at all?
-Yeah. -See that?
That's me at 17, on New Year's Day of 1972.
My friend Allan Mayes is here, my partner from Liverpool
who asked me to join his band.
And, you know, we've been going our different ways since then.
We played for about a year together.
And look at this.
This is his school exercise book he kept all these years.
It lists every show we ever played.
-Can I see it? -Yeah.
You can touch it. You can put the white gloves on.
-This is real. Look, "Rusty's Gigs."
This is your gigs.
-Yeah, gigs from 1971.
Optimistically, there's no other date.
[ Laughter ]
-Wow. -And we're here tonight!
-2022!
-Now, here, I'll tell you the story.
Allan rang me up and he said, "You know,
it would be 50 years since we started our partnership."
We would play everywhere in Liverpool
where they would let us,
and a few places where they wouldn't let us.
[ Laughter ]
Like, we played the Catholic girls' school,
Mary Help of Christians,
known locally as "Mary, Feed the Pigeons."
[ Laughter ]
And we were paid only in furtive glances
and unfulfilled promises.
[ Laughter ] -That's the contract you got?
-Actually, the ledger says we were paid absolutely nil,
and that was between two of us.
-Wow, yeah. You split nil.
-And actually, the gig that I played 50 years ago tonight
is in here, and I was late.
And I still got paid half.
-So this is all the gigs and all the songs?
-All the songs, and so there's
all the songs we did by other people.
We wrote a few of our own tunes.
"The Resurrection of Rust" is a record --
Allan rang me up and he said, "Do you want to get together?
It's been 50 years since we started playing together.
Do you want to make a cassette?"
[ Laughter ]
I said...
"No.
Let's make the record we would have made
if they'd let us when we were 17."
-Wow. -So I got The Impostors
and my pals, and we went in and we made this here record.
Brand new. 50th anniversary.
And we're gonna play a song by Nick Lowe in a little while.
-Yeah, I love "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere."
I love that.
But I love "Maureen & Sam."
It's one of my jams. -Oh!
-And "Surrender to the Rhythm" is my other big jam.
-That's the one we're gonna play tonight for you.
-You're gonna play that tonight?
-We're gonna play "Surrender to the Rhythm."
-For me? That's amazing.
[ Applause ] That's my jam, right there.
-In honor of Madonna, if nothing else.
-In honor of Madonna, Elvis Costello, everybody!
"The Resurrection of Rust" is out now.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Elvis and Allan Mayes perform after the break.
Stick around, everybody!