Steve Nieve Plays Elvis Costello

“There’s a case to be made for Steve Nieve as rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest keyboardist.”

The Hollywood Reporter

Steve Nieve plays

Elvis Costello “Nieve’s conversational pitch and virtuosic technique

drew laughs, gasps and a standing ovation...But as befits a loyal accompanist, the astoundingly elaborate likes of Long Honeymoon and Shot With His Own Gun were as remarkable for Costello’s composition as his own boundless perspectives.”

The Sydney Morning Herald

contact: muriel teodori unlikely productions paris, france e/ expediteur@aol.com w/ stevenieve.com

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teve Nieve is the longtime keyboardist/ pianist/organist for Elvis Costello. Nieve studied composition with Philip Cannon at The Royal College of Music in London and in 1977 at age nineteen joined Elvis Costello & The Attractions. His debut with Elvis Costello was on the hit single “Watching the Detectives,” His keyboard playing became a crucial component of The Attractions sound on the albums ‘This Year’s Model’, ‘Armed Forces’, ‘Get Happy’, ‘Trust’, ‘Almost Blue’, ‘Imperial Bedroom’, ‘Punch the Clock’, ‘Goodbye Cruel World’, ‘King of America’, and ‘Blood and Chocolate’, in the years 1977-86.

Critics and pundits alike hailed Nieve as one of the most accomplished musicians to emerge from the Punk/New Wave scene of the late 70’s. Nieve’s creative relationship forged with Elvis Costello has continued through subsequent albums and tours with The Attractions, The Imposters and EC’s solo endeavors, North and National Ransom and the Burt Bacharach collaboration, Painted From Memory. In 2003, Nieve was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Elvis Costello & The Attractions.

Steve’s studio session work has been featured on albums by artists as varied as Tim Finn, Robert Wyatt, Francoise Hardy, the Damned, Morrissey, Nick Heyward, David Bowie, the Neville Brothers, Kirsty MacColl, Madness, Graham Parker and Little Richard. He’s also worked with a panapoly of stars, the likes of Sting, Paul McCartney, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Jane Birkin, Mick Jagger, Smokey Robinson, Paul Weller & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

At the end of 2014, Nieve took his ‘Plays Elvis Costello’ show on tour across Australia & the USA. With just an upright piano, telling anecdotes about his life long companion of the road, and playing surprising new arrangements of familiar melodies, he gathered the audience up on a journey through the songbook of one of pop’s most iconic of iconoclasts, which, nightly, ultimately ended in rapturous applause. contact: muriel teodori unlikely productions paris, france e/ expediteur@aol.com w/ stevenieve.com

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