we have all grown up with.

Not too many people you can say that about.

Their work has stretched the boundaries of pop music in many ways, but the innovation has never gotten in the way of the songs always remaining heartfelt.

Yes, you're right.

It's Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello.

They've recently worked together on a whole album of original songs.

It's a kind of historic collaboration which, to me, seems completely natural.

They are going to be doing, of course, some of the songs from that record tonight, and they're going to do some of the songs that they're famous for.

Please welcome Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING, CHEERING) (PLAYING BABY IT'S YOU) (SINGING) ♪ It's not the way you look ♪ That touched my heart ♪ It's not the way the you kiss ♪ That tears me apart ♪ Oh-oh-oh ♪ Many, many, many nights I've tried ♪ I sit alone at home and I cry ♪ Over you ♪ What can I do ♪ I can't help myself ♪ 'Cause baby it's you ♪ Baby it's you ♪ Will you please welcome Mr. Burt Bacharach?

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) (INDISTINCT) (ORCHESTRA PLAYING WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE) (BACKUP SINGERS SINGING) ♪ What the world needs now ♪ Is love, sweet love ♪ It's the only thing ♪ That there's just too little of ♪ What the world needs now ♪ Is love, sweet love ♪ No, not just for some ♪ Oh, but just for ♪ Everyone ♪ (PLAYING PIANO) (SONG ENDS) (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) (BAND PLAYING TOLEDO) (SINGING) ♪ All through the night you telephoned ♪ I saw the light blinking red ♪ Beside the cradle ♪ But you don't know how far I've gone ♪ Now I must live with the lie ♪ That I made ♪ But if I call ♪ I know I won't have to say it ♪ You'll hear my voice ♪ Something is bound to betray it ♪ But do people living in Toledo ♪ Know that their name hasn't travelled very well?

♪ And does anybody in Ohio ♪ Dream of that Spanish citadel?

♪ But it's no use saying that I love you ♪ And how that girl ♪ Really didn't mean a thing to me ♪ For if anyone should look into your eyes ♪ It's not forgiveness that they're gonna see ♪ You hear her voice ♪ How could you do that?

♪ You hear her voice ♪ How could you do that?

(MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪ So I walked outside in the bright ♪ Sunshine and lovers pass by ♪ Smiling and joking ♪ But they don't know the fool I was ♪ Why should they care what was lost?

♪ What was broken?

♪ But if I call ♪ I know that you're bound to kiss it ♪ You'll hear my voice ♪ And I won't need to confess it ♪ But do people living in Toledo ♪ Know that their name hasn't travelled very well?

♪ And does anybody in Ohio ♪ Dream of that Spanish citadel?

♪ But it's no use saying that I love you ♪ And how that girl ♪ Really didn't mean a thing to me ♪ For if anyone should look into your eyes ♪ It's not forgiveness that they're gonna see ♪ But we still have Florence, Alabama ♪ We don't have Paris ♪ And we don't have Rome ♪ Or New York or even Amsterdam ♪ Nada, those lonely towns will be my home ♪ (PLAYING TUNE ON FLUTE) (SONG ENDS) (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) Both of you've worked in popular music, in a popular music form.

Both of you grew up listening to jazz.

Um, you might be...

Were listening to Ravel, Debussy... Henry... Henry Cowell here.

Yes, and Henry...

Exactly.

Why, then go, "I'm going to take some of that, "but I'm going to work in pop, yeah, I'm going to work in pop music"?

Why bother?

For me, you know, the choice of having started with Darius Milhaud, Henry Cowell, Bohuslav Martinu, and having this chance to go that road, you know, to become a serious classical composer...

Uh, whatever that means.

Uh, I guess I didn't want to do it enough.

It's also very hard to support yourself that way.

You either have to wait for a grant from a a symphony, from a, uh... You have to teach at a university to supplement.

I just like fresh orange juice in the morning too much, so, you know, it's...

So, I aspired to something... And it's hard, you know.

I can never regret what I've done.

Uh, say, "I could have written this great symphony or this great..." I can't talk that way at all because it was a choice.

I'm so glad I did what I did.

You're in the same boat.

(CHUCKLES) Well, I mean, the other way around, really, because I didn't study early on.

How I got exposed to all this music is mainly through my parents' background in music.

In the different ways they were.

My father, trumpet player and a singer.

My mother working just in retail in...

In record shops.

But at a time when you had to have a breadth of knowledge of repertoire that perhaps the modern record seller, with all due respect, doesn't have to have.

So, grew up in a household full of music, but no formal study until I was 35.

Um, and then only just enough to grasp the basics of notation, because I... Everything that came into my head, I seem to be able to communicate very well.

But I was aware of the fact very quick, early on, that the music that I started with was going to, kind of, define me in a rather... Rather, confine me, if I wasn't careful.

And I got curious about numerous other strains of music and tried to borrow from them sounds and instrumental colors and styles of composition.

And more recently, sort of found myself working with classical musicians and jazz musicians in order to satisfy those things.

Or they came to me and asked me to take part in things.

So, it never really occurred to me that there was any real difference.

Many of the songs you're going to hear this evening are from a new record called Painted From Memory, and these are songs that Burt and I have been writing over the last two years.

We were first introduced to write the song God Give Me Strength for a motion picture called Grace of My Heart.

And we liked writing together, even though it was a very unusual introduction, using the telephone and the fax machine as there was a deadline, and Burt lives in Los Angeles and I live in Dublin.

Now, we got the bug after writing that song, and we met up to record the tune, and one thing led to another.

And the next thing, we found ourselves sitting around a piano, squabbling over the black notes and the white notes and even the little spaces in between.

But eventually, we wrote 12 songs and made this record.

And we decided that most of the songs on the record would be songs of lost love, different kinds of romantics songs.

And this song is one of the sadder ones, I would say.

It's a man walking through deserted rooms in his house.

It's called This House Is Empty Now.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) (MOUTHING) One, two, three, four... (PLAYING THIS HOUSE IS EMPTY NOW) (SINGING) ♪ These rooms play tricks upon you ♪ Remember when they were always filled with laughter?

♪ But now they're quite deserted ♪ They seem to just echo voices raised in anger ♪ Maybe you will see my face ♪ Reflected there on the pane ♪ In the window of our poor ♪ Forlorn and broken home ♪ Still this house is empty now ♪ There's nothing I can do ♪ To make you want to stay ♪ So tell me how ♪ Am I supposed to live without you?

♪ These walls were lined with pictures ♪ Remember the glass we charged in celebration?

♪ But now I fill my life up ♪ With all that I can to deaden this sensation ♪ Do you recognize the face ♪ Fixed in that fine silver frame ♪ Were you really so unhappy then?

♪ You never said ♪ Still this house is empty now ♪ There's nothing I can do to make you want to stay ♪ So tell me how ♪ Am I supposed to live without you?

♪ Oh, if I could just become ♪ Forgetful ♪ When night seems endless ♪ Does the extinguished candle care ♪ About the darkness?

♪ It's funny how my memory ♪ Will bring you so close then make you disappear ♪ Meanwhile all our friends must choose ♪ Who they will favor who they will lose ♪ Hang the garland high or close the door ♪ And throw away the key ♪ This house is empty now ♪ There's no one living here You have to care about ♪ This house is empty now ♪ There's nothing I can do to make you want to stay ♪ So tell me how ♪ Am I supposed to live without you?

♪ This house is empty now ♪ There's nothing I can do to make you want to stay ♪ This house is empty now (MUSIC FADES) ♪ This house is empty now ♪ (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) (PLAYING TEARS AT THE BIRTHDAY PARTY) (SINGING) ♪ Think back now when we were young ♪ There were always tears at the birthday party ♪ You know how children can be so cruel ♪ That's how it starts ♪ But what if we never learn how to behave?

♪ I did something and you never forgave me ♪ I never thought that it would be like this ♪ But now I see ♪ I see you share your cake with him ♪ Unwrapping presents that I should have sent ♪ What can I do?

♪ Must I watch you?

♪ Close the door Dim the lights ♪ Blow out the candles ♪ So happy birthday again ♪ And it's the same every year ♪ Seems that I remember it as something more ♪ But you know how children can grow so strange ♪ I still adore you ♪ What if we never learn from our mistakes?

♪ But then you'll never know how my heart aches ♪ I never thought that it would be like this ♪ But now I see ♪ I see you share your cake with him ♪ Unwrapping presents that I should have sent ♪ What can I do?

♪ Must I watch you?

♪ Close the door Dim the lights ♪ Blow out the candles ♪ So happy birthday again (WOMEN SINGING) ♪ Close the door Dim the lights ♪ Blow out the candles ♪ So happy birthday again (ELVIS SINGING) ♪ One day I know he'll forget ♪ To pay you the compliments you're after ♪ You'll hang your sad, aching head ♪ Behind a brittle smile or a shrill of laughter ♪ What if we only get what we deserve?

♪ Somehow I couldn't quite summon the nerve ♪ Upon each anniversary ♪ Then do you ever think of me?

♪ Unwrapping presents that I should have sent ♪ What can I do?

♪ Must I watch you?

♪ Close the door Dim the lights ♪ Blow out the candles ♪ So happy birthday again (WOMEN SINGING) ♪ Close the door Dim the lights ♪ Blow out the candles (ALL SINGING) ♪ So happy birthday again ♪ Close the door Dim the lights ♪ Blow out the candles ♪ So happy birthday again ♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) (SONG ENDS) (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) Thank you.

About 21 years ago, before many of you were born... (AUDIENCE TITTERS) Uh, this gentleman here...

This is Steve Nieve on the keyboard here.

Steve Nieve.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) Steve Nieve and I were playing in a band called The Attractions, and we would occasionally... (AUDIENCE CHEERING) Steve and I were playing in a group called The Attractions, and occasionally, we used to deviate from the script, and we would do a torch song or two, and one particular Bacharach and David song we were very fond of.

And we would like to perform it for you now.

Uh, with all of the correct changes.

(AUDIENCE CHUCKLING) (BURT PLAYING I JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF) ♪ I just don't know what to do with myself ♪ I don't know just what to do with myself ♪ I'm so used to doing everything with you ♪ Planning everything for two ♪ And now that we're through ♪ I just don't know what to do with my time ♪ I'm so lonesome for you It's a crime ♪ Going to a movie ♪ Only makes me sad ♪ Parties make me feel as bad ♪ When I'm not with you ♪ I just don't know what to do ♪ Like a summer rose ♪ Needs the sun and rain ♪ I need your sweet love ♪ To beat all the pain ♪ I just don't know what to do with myself ♪ Don't know just what to do with myself ♪ Baby, if your new love ♪ Ever turns you down ♪ Come back I will be around ♪ Just waiting for you ♪ I just don't know what to do ♪ I just don't know what to do ♪ (PLAYING TUNE) (SONG ENDS) (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) The whole structure on both of your writing, uh, musical writing, I'm mainly talking about now.

BURT: Mmm-hmm.

The arrangements are, I would say, part of the... Part of the composing, part of the writing.

Always been this way for me.

Once, I was given permission to kind of protect my material, and go and make my own records whether I produce them, or was brought in as an orchestrator, whether it was to do Blue On Blue with Bobby Vinton, or going to do Tommy Hunt or The Shirelles or Chuck Jackson.

Once I was given that green light, then, you know, what I always heard as I wrote these songs, there was a...

There was an orchestration for them.

There was a rhythm pattern where the bass would play, where the drums... Where the strings come in on the second eighth, where they... Where you'd hold them out.

So, by the time the composition was done, 80% of that orchestration was in my head.

If somebody else went in and did it as... What happened before I got that green light, I started producing records out of self-defense.

(CHUCKLES) I mean, a lot... A lot of...

They were pretty good songs that kind of went right down, um, right down the drain, because somebody else didn't want a three-bar phrase.

They wanted a four bar, so they added a bar.

Uh, you know, and the tempo...

So, sometimes the producer, also an artist, in a sense?

BURT: Oh, yeah.

Very often now.

Well, I mean, I've been very lucky, and I've worked with excellent producers.

I mean, I worked with Nick Lowe early on, but the strange thing is that...

I don't want to give the impression when I say about learning to write music down has allowed me to kind of communicate and work with people, and I think it made our communication a lot easier than it would have been if I had been stumbling around on the piano with my limited technique.

Changing it every time I played it.

That would've been frustrating.

That would've been frustrating.

But that's not to suggest that the records that I started out with weren't orchestrated.

Even they were just orchestrated for four instruments, you know.

Like, the point is often missed, and I know that lots of records I've worked on early on have very definite ideas about what these sounds were supposed to represent.

Sometimes they're an imitation of classical instrumentation.

We just didn't have access to it.

We didn't have the ability to write it down... Uh-huh.

...and it just develops in time.

You gather more skills and then you get... You can be more precise in your direction.

This song is about a man who is looking, seeing the photograph that he carries in his wallet, and he cherishes it as if it were the finest painting.

It's of a woman who's gone away, and he's trying to imagine life as it used to be.

It's called Painted From Memory.

(PLAYING PAINTED FROM MEMORY) ♪ Such a picture of loveliness ♪ Didn't you notice the resemblance?

♪ Doesn't it look like ♪ She could speak?

♪ Those eyes ♪ I tried to capture ♪ They are lost ♪ To me now forever ♪ They smile for someone else ♪ Funny how looks can be ♪ Deceiving ♪ But she's not easily ♪ Painted from memory ♪ You'd think that ♪ I would know by now ♪ Those eyes ♪ I tried to capture ♪ They are lost ♪ To me now ♪ Forever ♪ They smile ♪ For someone else ♪ And so this had to be ♪ Painted from memory ♪ She is gone ♪ And I must accept it ♪ She is lost ♪ To me now ♪ But I can't ♪ Look away ♪ Just yet though ♪ She smiles ♪ For someone else (WOMEN SINGING) ♪ And so this had to be ♪ Painted from memory (ELVIS SINGING) ♪ Funny, now ♪ I can see ♪ How looks can be deceiving (WOMEN SINGING) ♪ And so this had to be ♪ Painted from memory (ELVIS SINGING) ♪ Funny, now ♪ I can see ♪ How looks can be deceiving (DONNA TAYLOR SINGING) ♪ And so this had to be ♪ Painted from memory ♪ (PIANO CONTINUES) (SONG ENDS) (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) Donna Taylor.

Donna Taylor.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING) Song we'd like to do for you now is... Comes from a while ago, and we're going to do it in a brand new arrangement, uh, written by Mr. Steve Nieve.

It's... (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) Maybe I should amend that to Steve Nieve Love God.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) Um... (AUDIENCE CHUCKLING) This is actually based on the very first performance of this song, which was in 1978 at Hollywood High School.

Take it, Steve.

(ORCHESTRA PLAYING ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN) ♪ Oh, I just don't know where to begin (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) ♪ Though he says he'll wait forever ♪ It's now or never ♪ But they keep him hangin' on ♪ The silly champion ♪ She says she can't go home without a chaperone ♪ Accidents will happen ♪ We only hit and run ♪ You used to be a victim Now you're not the only one ♪ Accidents will happen ♪ We only hit and run ♪ I don't want to hear it 'cause I know what I've done ♪ There is so many fish in the sea ♪ That only rise up in the sweat ♪ And smoke like mercury ♪ But they keep you hangin' on ♪ They say you're so young ♪ Your mind is made up ♪ Your mouth is undone ♪ Accidents will happen ♪ We only hit and run ♪ You used to be a victim Now you're not the only one ♪ Accidents will happen ♪ We only hit and run ♪ I don't want to hear it 'cause I know what I've done ♪ And it's the damage that we do we never know ♪ It's the words that we don't say ♪ That scare me so ♪ There's so many people to see ♪ So many people you can check up on ♪ And add to your collection ♪ But they keep you hangin' on ♪ Until you're well hung ♪ Your mind is made up ♪ Your mouth is undone ♪ Accidents will happen ♪ We only hit and run ♪ You used to be a victim Now you're not the only one ♪ Accidents will happen ♪ We only hit and run ♪ I don't want to hear it 'cause I know what I... ♪ I know what I... ♪ I know what I've done (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) (PLAYING PIANO SOLO) ♪ I know ♪ I know ♪ I know ♪ I know ♪ Dearest, darling ♪ I have to write to say that ♪ I won't be home anymore ♪ Because something happened ♪ To me ♪ As I was driving home ♪ And I'm not the same anymore ♪ I know ♪ I know ♪ I know ♪ (SONG ENDS) (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) The arranger, Mr. Steve Nieve.

Take a bow, Steve.

Do you think about, uh, people's relationships...

When I was listening to the record, I... One thing that came to mind was I started thinking about people's relationships.

I started thinking about, "Are we merely prisoners "of our genetic propensities?

"Do men always do this?

"Do women always do this or want this?"

Uh... Well, I think the songs propose lots of different circumstances.

There's hope, too.

I mean, it's not like it's over.

I mean, you listen to it, and there... Maybe you can learn for the next time, you know?

And you can benefit by what these beautiful words I was saying, you know?

Well, I made that mistake, but, you know, the next time around, I ain't going to make that mistake because I recognize it.

I think it's a lot of key audience identification, um, that can be taken from this.

Yeah, it's possible that the people will see themselves in it, I think, in different ways, and as Burt said, it's not without hope, that even the first song In The Darkest Place, which has an ominous sounding title, is actually about somebody longing for there to be that that little chink of light in the corner of an otherwise dark room.

And it's the place that you're sort of, like, you're quite comfortable in there, quite enjoying the melancholy for a little while.

And then...

But you hope to revive from it.

And the song My Thief talks about somebody having a dream of a lost lover, which they would rather have that haunting dream than no dream at all.

So, it's not without hope.

It's just, it's...

It's gone, you know, the world has gone a little paler for them, you know, at times when they feel strongly, you know?

Just acapella, just not singing.

Just recite the last lines in My Thief, because...

The ones that Lisa sings?

Yeah.

That's the cute one.

So, at the end of the song, My Thief concludes with the female voice singing, Lisa Taylor sings it on the record, on stage.

And it's the voice in the man's head where he's had this haunting dream and she sings, "I didn't lead you on.

"But there will always be a little larceny in everyone.

"So hush, and don't you cry.

"I'm trying to be kind because I have the perfect alibi."

(BURT LAUGHS) So, she says... She has become like the agent of his torture, you know, in each sleepless or dreaming night.

That's the lines that Burt referred.

(ORCHESTRA PLAYING MY THIEF) ♪ When I go to sleep ♪ You become my thief ♪ Why don't you steal what you can keep?

♪ But you won't let me be ♪ You break into my dreams ♪ And every day seems different ♪ Sometimes I pretend ♪ You'll come back again ♪ And you'll console ♪ The heart you stole ♪ Have pity on the man ♪ Who knows that you have gone ♪ And has begun to break down ♪ I feel almost possessed ♪ So long as I don't lose ♪ This glorious distress then ♪ You can take all I have left ♪ I know it's over ♪ If you can't be my lover ♪ Be my thief (MOUTHING) ♪ I'm so drowsy now ♪ I'll unlock the door ♪ What fades in time ♪ Will hurt much more ♪ So here's that happy scene ♪ Where you come back to me ♪ It's only found in fiction ♪ I feel almost possessed ♪ So long as I don't lose ♪ This glorious distress then ♪ You can take all I have left ♪ I know it's over ♪ If you can't be my lover ♪ Be my thief (SINGING) ♪ I didn't lead you on ♪ But there will always be ♪ A little larceny in everyone ♪ So hush and don't you cry ♪ I'm trying to be kind ♪ Because I have a perfect alibi ♪ (SONG ENDS) (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) Lisa Taylor.

Lisa Taylor.

(PLAYING I STILL HAVE THAT OTHER GIRL) ♪ I have to say ♪ That we should finish it now ♪ Before we weaken ♪ 'Cause we already know this is wrong ♪ I could give in ♪ Sometimes I think that I will ♪ Despite the temptation I try to be very strong ♪ In my reluctance seems a surprise ♪ It's not that I don't want you ♪ But I just ♪ Know I must ♪ Hesitate ♪ Because I still have that other girl ♪ In my head ♪ I still have that other girl in my head ♪ There may be ugly rumors that ♪ I have been lying ♪ There may be angry tears ♪ But they're never worth ♪ The crying ♪ That is why ♪ Sometimes I ♪ Hesitate ♪ Because I still have that other girl ♪ In my head ♪ I still have that other girl in my head ♪ I still have that other girl ♪ In my head ♪ (SONG ENDS) (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) (ORCHESTRA PLAYING GOD GIVE ME STRENGTH) ♪ Now I have nothing ♪ So God give me strength ♪ 'Cause I'm weak anyway ♪ And if I'm strong ♪ I might still break ♪ And I don't have anything to share ♪ That I won't throw away into the air ♪ That song is sung out ♪ This bell is rung out ♪ She was the light that I'd bless ♪ She took my last chance of happiness ♪ So God give me strength ♪ God give me strength ♪ I can't hold on to ♪ God give me strength ♪ When the phone doesn't ring ♪ And I'm lost in imagining ♪ Everything that kind of love is worth ♪ As I tumble back down to the Earth ♪ That song is sung out ♪ This bell is rung out ♪ She was the light that I'd bless ♪ She took my last chance of happiness ♪ So God give me strength ♪ God if she'd grant me ♪ Her indulgence and decline ♪ I might as well ♪ Wipe her from my memory ♪ Fracture the spell ♪ As she becomes my enemy ♪ And maybe I was washed out ♪ Like a lip-print on his shirt ♪ See, I'm only human ♪ I want him to hurt ♪ I want him ♪ I want him to hurt (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪ Since I lost the power to pretend ♪ That there could ever be a happy ending ♪ That song is sung out ♪ This bell is rung out ♪ She was the light that I'd bless ♪ She took my last chance of happiness ♪ So God give me strength ♪ God give me strength ♪ Wipe her from my memory ♪ I might as well ♪ (HOLDING NOTE) (SONG ENDS) (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪♪♪