The Right Spectacle DVD Collection Showcases Elvis Costello from '78 to '94

The post punk music period of the late 1970s produced a group of “angry young rockers" such as Joe Jackson and Graham Parker. But the most prolific artist of this group has been Elvis Costello. Costello’s video history is highlighted in a new Rhino/DemonVision DVD, The Right Spectacle.

Watching the DVD offers a nice glimpse into how promo music videos evolved style-wise from the late '70s to the mid '90s. “(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea, ” from 1978, opens the set with Costello and his band, The Attractions, performing against a stark white background. Viewing Costello for the first time that year via the “Pump It Up” video, pop music fans saw a much different looking artist compared to the other top selling musicians of the day. 

The Bee Gees ruled the charts then with the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. The Grease soundtrack was the big seller in the summer, and it was a year before the “Disco Sucks” disaster at Chicago’s Comiskey Park.

Here you had a skinny Costello wearing a dark suit with his large oversized black rimmed glasses, gap between his front teeth, and rubbery legs, lip synching to “Pump It Up”.

The promos change a bit with 1979’s Armed Forces album. The “Oliver’s Army” video finds Costello and the Attractions miming the song in front of palm trees on a tropical beach. Costello’s still dressed in a suit and tie in the promo. “Accidents Will Happen” is all animated. The mood is appropriately bouncy for the 1980 Get Happy album videos, with the Atttractions performing pseudo Motown dance moves while Costello sings the lead vocal. 

The Attractions are nowhere to be seen in the video for “New Amsterdam.”  Costello is alone playing his acoustic guitar on the riverside, with a shot of the Statue of Liberty seen at the end of the video. Actors play a prominent role in the darkly lit “Clubland” promo, which features a disco dancing couple, bouncers, and even a poster of another bespectacled rocker, Buddy Holly.