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Report from someone who was there:

"What an evening with the Radio 2 luvvies! Café de Paris is a swanky little niteclub, on Coventry Street (nowhere near Covent Garden as the Radio 2 website would have it). The guest list ran to several pages, far outnumbering the 50 lucky competition winners and their guests.

Missed out on the first round of champagne being offered, so we raced to one of the few unreserved tables on the ground floor. We were swiftly joined by Janice Long and friends who kindly included us in their conversation for the evening. Janice was star spotting for her mum; Phil Jupitus, Mark Lamarr, Jeremy Vine, Richard Allinson, (all Radio 2), Sue McGregor (Radio 4), Alan Yentob ("he knows loads about art") and many more BBC Radio managers and tecchies. David Puttnam (Film producer) and Steve Levine (Record producer) were also present. There were also a couple of minor acting celebs; including one lady who Janice wasn't sure if she was, "a nurse in 'Casualty' or the psycho from 'Hollyoaks'" ...

Free canapes, champagne and beer were server up until showtime and in the interval.

EC's set started at around 7:30pm and went on until the interval at 8:45pm. After the interval the show ran from 9:00pm to ~10:15pm. Husky voiced Mariella Frostrup acted as compere and interviewer and popped up frequently between songs. She seemed to have done her homework and got on well with a very talkative EC.

For all songs, except those with the Brodskys and those marked, EC played his Gibson semi-acoustic (with the now rather tatty yellow "Elvis" label). Steve played piano except with the Brodskys (I think!) and for the final two encore numbers.

1. Accidents
2. 45
Conversation with Mariella
3. Shot With His Own Gun (no guitar)
Conversation with Mariella
4. Someone Took The Words Away (no guitar)
5. Fallen (no guitar)
Conversation with Mariella
6. In The Darkest Place
7. Indoor Fireworks
Conversation with Mariella
8. Shipbuilding
Interval
9. Pills & Soap (w/ Brodskys)
10. My Mood Swings (w/ Brodskys)
Conversation with Mariella
11. Real Emotional Girl [Randy Newman] (w/ Brodskys)
Conversation with Mariella
12. Still (w/ Brodskys) ["first performance w/ Brodskys" as they recorded their contribution in London whilst North was being made]
13. The Birds Will Still Be Singing (w/ Brodskys)
Conversation with Mariella
14. Either Side Of Town [co-written with Jerry Ragavoy for Howard Tate]
Conversation with Mariella
15. Man Out Of Time
16. Deep Dark Truthful Mirror / You Really Got A Hold On Me

Encore #1
Milo hides Mariellas mic.
17. Peace Love & Understanding
18. Almost Blue [for the coda EC moves onto the piano whilst SN plays a little plastic piano-harmonica to Parisian effect]

Encore #2
19.I Still Miss Someone [Johnny Cash] (EC solo on piano)
20. I'm In The Mood Again (EC solo on piano)

And that's it. "Fantastic" as Janice would say!

A free "promo" CD was handed out to punters as they left; Card sleeve, with the "North" cover on the front and a Radio 2 style rear cover including details of "Sold On Song" producers and the Café de Paris event. "This CD is one of a special edition of 500 produced to mark the launch of Radio 2's Sold On Song, celebrating great songs & great songwriters on air, on line & on the road". The CD itself looks like a CD-R with a simple "Elvis Costello 4 track promotional CD" printed in black lettering on the label side.

Tracklist;
1. Still
2. Fallen
3. Someone Took The Words Away
4. When It Sings

The whole evening was well worth the TV Licence payers money!

(Submitted by John Martin on behalf of Richard Arthur)