MUSIC legend Elvis Costello has paid tribute to Wirral on a new song from his latest album.

Birkenhead Girl is taken from Costello's collaboration with T Bone Burnett under the guise of The Coward Brothers which came out this week.

In the song, Costello sings about "the  kind of girl you might chance to meet / If you go walking down Conway Street" and goes on to list a number of Wirral placenames including Meols, Eastham, West Kirby and Woodchurch. 

Costello's father, Ross MacManus, was a professional trumpet player and singer, born and raised in Birkenhead and Costello himself moved to Wirral at the age of 16 and lived here for a few years before returning to London

Costello and Burnett are no strangers to working together, with Burnett co-producing Costello’s 1986 album King Of America – which is about to get a deluxe reissue. Prior to that, they joined forces for the 1985 single The People’s Limousine, which they released as the Coward Brothers.

Now, 40 years later, they’ve announced the return of the Coward Brothers with a new scripted comedy podcast and album. The True Story of The Coward Brothers, a three-part Audible Original audio series, will recount the history of pop stars and brothers Henry and Howard Coward – played by Costello and T Bone – as they bitterly recall their experiences in the music industry, including being duped out of their royalties by a cutthroat manager and being persuaded to fake their own deaths.

In a press release, Costello said: “With regard to the ludicrous assertion that this person, Howard Coward, and I are one and the same, I have to say: this is the work of a bounder, a rounder and a charlatan, and I shall be examining my legal options forthwith.”

Meanwhile, T Bone added: “I have a vague recollection of buying a 45 of the song Pure Bubblegum by an act called The Coward Brothers many long years ago. I heard it on a Fort Worth radio station called KXOL, billed as ‘the new music.’ The disc jockey played it once and got such a bad response from listeners that they burned it the next morning in front of the station. What ever happened to those guys – are they still alive?”