Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey — Thursday 18 June 2026

There are few stages in England with a backdrop quite like this one. Henry VIII’s Tudor courtyard, its red brick warmed by a long June evening, the gates thrown open beforehand so the crowd can wander the gardens with a glass in hand. Into Base Court, with its 3,000 seats packed tight against the old walls, walked Declan Patrick MacManus — better known these past five decades as Elvis Costello — to remind everyone exactly why the angry young man of 1977 became one of the most quietly indispensable songwriters this country has produced.

But the evening, as ever at Hampton Court, begins long before the music. The palace throws open its gates “after-hours,” and the smart move is to arrive early and let the place do its work. The Great Fountain Garden becomes a vast open-air picnic ground, with street-food stalls and bars laid out beneath the topiary and the long radiating avenues; you can pre-order a hamper, book one of the fountain-side pergolas with a welcome drink, or simply spread a blanket on the lawn as the low sun gilds the brickwork. Couples uncork wine — corkage-pass holders are welcome to bring their own, and many do. Picnics wrap up by eight so the crowd can drift through the palace itself and into Base Court, and there is something faintly magical about filing past Tudor windows into a courtyard that has stood for five hundred years to watch a rock concert. With capacity capped at just 3,000, it remains one of the most intimate big-name bookings in the country: no vast fields, no distant video screens, just ornate brick walls, summer air and a stage close enough to read the band’s setlist over their shoulders.

The clue was in the billing. This leg of the “Radio Soul!: The Early Songs of Elvis Costello” tour does what it says on the tin, drawing almost entirely on the furious, witty material Costello wrote between 1976 and 1987. He opened, fittingly, with “Mystery Dance,” a two-minute burst of nervous energy from his 1977 debut, before “Watching the Detectives” slunk in on that familiar reggae-tinged crawl and the courtyard, hitherto polite, began to lean forward.

He is 71 now, and there is no pretending otherwise, but the voice has lost remarkably little of its sneer or its sweetness. What has changed is the company he keeps. The Imposters remain the finest band he could ask for — Steve Nieve still conjuring entire weather systems out of his keyboards, Pete Thomas attacking the drums with the relish of a man half his age, Davey Faragher anchoring the low end he has held down since 2002. Added to the mix is the Texan guitarist Charlie Sexton, a touring fixture since 2021, whose playing gave “Less Than Zero” and “Lovers Walk” a swaggering, dirty edge.

The set was cannily paced. After the early salvo — “Hoover Factory,” a snarling “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea,” and a “Radio Radio” that still bristles with contempt for the airwaves nearly fifty years on — Costello eased back. “A Face in the Crowd” and a tender reading of Charlie Rich’s “Who Will the Next Fool Be” showed the crooner he has always half-wanted to be, and his version of George Jones’s “A Good Year for the Roses” was, for this reviewer, the evening’s most affecting moment: a roomful of people gone completely silent under the floodlit brickwork.

Then he opened the throttle. “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” and a gorgeous “Alison” reminded the crowd that beneath the spite there has always lived a hopeless romantic. By the time the band tore into “Pump It Up,” with its piston-pumping organ riff, even the seated grandstand had given up any pretence of sitting. “Oliver’s Army” — that deceptively jaunty meditation on cannon fodder — had the whole courtyard singing the chorus back, before the night closed, as so many Costello nights do, on a thunderous “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.” Nick Lowe’s old song, written for a more innocent decade, somehow lands harder every year.

It was a generous, unfussy, expertly played show from a man with nothing left to prove and a catalogue most writers would kill for. No greatest-hits autopilot, no maudlin nostalgia — just the early songs, played with bite, in a setting that flattered every one of them.

Hampton Court Palace Festival, has built a reputation for putting heritage acts in heritage surroundings, and on the strength of this it has rarely chosen better. The 2026 run, which opened with David Gray and continues through Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Palace Disco and a closing night of 80s Classical, will struggle to top it.

A word to the wise for next time: the train is the civilised way to come, with Hampton Court station a short, scenic walk through Home Park to the gates; on-site parking is limited, opens from 5pm and is best booked in advance. Bring a layer — those summer evenings turn cool once the sun drops behind the palace — and get there early. Half the pleasure of this festival is the hour you spend in the gardens before a note is played.

Setlist: Mystery Dance · Watching the Detectives · Less Than Zero · Hoover Factory · (I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea · Radio Radio · Lovers Walk · A Face in the Crowd · Who Will the Next Fool Be · A Good Year for the Roses · (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes · Lovable · Alison · Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind? · I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down · Pump It Up · Oliver’s Army · (What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding