Saturday, June 06, 2009

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today

The summer of 1989 was a conflicted one. Traumatised, distressed & angered by Hillsborough little more than a month earlier, most of us were vainly attempting to make some sort of sense of what happened. The FA Cup final had its own drama on the pitch. Off it, in baking heat, Wembley stewards doused Liverpool & Everton fans with water. Emotions were as high as the temperature that day & a regrettably large number of idiots on both sides invaded the pitch during & after the game.
I recall that summer as one of unbroken, glorious weather on Merseyside also.
A few weeks after Hillsborough I saw Elvis Costello play two nights at the Royal Court. He donated all the takings from both evenings (about £25,000 at the time) to the Hillsborough Fund.
I write all this because a clip on YouTube has sparked those memories. Here is Costello performing an acoustic version of "Veronica" for Warner Brothers' staff in Los Angeles on this day 20 years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k4ZXzhwCkM

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