Elvis Costello resurrects ‘Spinning Songbook’ for ‘The Revolver Tour’ in May

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Elvis Costello’s Spinning Songbook will whirl once more. The singer and songwriter will trot out the device he used on tour in 1986 for a new round of shows that allows audience members to select the songs at each night’s performance.

The game show wheel will include the titles of 40 songs and a different audience member will be invited onstage to spin the wheel to determine each successive song. While their song is being played, fans will have a choice of sitting in the “Hostage to Fortune Go-Go Cage” or in the onstage “Society Lounge,” where they will be served light refreshments. His 1986 tour with the spinning wheel remains one of Costello’s most celebrated.

Costello’s tour, dubbed “The Revolver Tour,” will encompass 10 shows in eight cities, starting May 7 in Reno, Nev., stopping May 11 at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles and concluding with a pair of shows May 22-23 at New York’s Beacon Theatre.

Costello will be accompanied by the Imposters: his longtime keyboardist Steve Nieve, drummer Pete Thomas and guitarist Davey Faragher. Costello donated the original Spinning Songbook wheel to the Hartlepool (England) Museum of Showbusiness Machinery. The one he’ll use on the new tour has been reconstructed from the original blueprints.

Tickets for the Wiltern show go on sale Feb. 11; details are on Costello’s website.

--Randy Lewis