Elbow (band)

Elbow

Elbow are an English band from Manchester, who have been active from the late 1990s.

Acclaimed for their innovative sound and frontman Guy Garvey's candid, evocative lyrics, Elbow has received vast critical acclaim and been endorsed by major artists Blur, R.E.M. and U2. The Velvet Underground's co-founder John Cale selected Elbow's "Switching Off" as one of his eight chosen records on the BBC's "Desert Island Discs" radio programme. Commercial success, however, has yet to match Elbow's critical acclaim and status among fans.

History

Lead singer Guy Garvey met guitarist Mark Potter at a Sixth Form College in 1990 at the age of 16. Potter asked Garvey to sing in a band he was in with drummer Richard Jupp and bassist Pete Turner. Together, the four men formed the band Mr Soft. (The name was later changed to Soft.) Mark Potter's brother Craig Potter joined the band soon after on keyboards. By 1997, they had changed their name a third time to Elbow, signed a deal with Island Records, and recorded their debut album with producer Steve Osborne. However, when Island was bought out by major label Universal, the band was dropped in a mass cull and the album never released.

They continued to record on the iconic independent label Uglyman, and released The Noisebox EP, The Newborn EP, and The Any Day Now EP, which were given extensive airplay by BBC Radio 1 .

Their debut album, Asleep in the Back, released on V2 in 2001, was hailed as a seminal album of the new millennium, gaining them a Mercury Music Prize nomination and a BRIT Award nomination. Their second album, Cast of Thousands - a reference to their performance at Glastonbury in 2002, when they recorded thousands of people singing, "We still believe in love, so fuck you" - sealed their reputation as innovators in UK music when released in 2003.

In 2004, Elbow went on an unofficial tour of Cuba, becoming the first British band ever to play a concert outside Havana. The tour was made into a short film by British documentary maker Irshad Ashraf. In the same year, their song Fallen Angel appeared in the film 9 Songs, notable as being regarded as the most sexually explicit film ever to be awarded an 18 Certificate by the British Board of Film Classification.

Elbow's innovation in the studio has invited work with other bands, notably Editors and I Am Kloot, the latter whose debut album was produced by Guy Garvey. Their third album, Leaders of the Free World, was entirely self-produced at Blueprint Studios in Salford, a space the band hired for the duration of their recording sessions. They teamed up with video artists The Soup Collective to produce an integrated music and video DVD. However, despite furthur critical acclaim, the album faltered commercially, and soon the band were dropped from V2 in 2006. They have since signed to Fiction Records.

The band contributed the song "Snowball" to the 2005 War Child benefit album Help: a Day in the Life. In addition, an unreleased track titled "Beats For Two" was used in the closing titles of the 2004 film Inside I'm Dancing. Garvey also returned to I Am Kloot as co-producer for their single "Maybe I Should." He continues to work closely with Manchester indie label Skinny Dog.

Their album Leaders of the Free World has been mentioned a couple of times in the final two Inspector Rebus-novels.

The band completed their fourth studio album, The Seldom Seen Kid in late 2007. The band self-produced, mixed and recorded the album themselves without other outside help.

Their acoustic cover of Destiny's Child's "Independent Women", recorded exclusively for a BBC Radio 1 session, was turned into a popular web animation by Rathergood.com's Joel Veitch. The animation features a band of flat-capped kittens "performing" the song.

The band is named after a line in the BBC TV mini-series The Singing Detective which says that the word "elbow" is the most sensuous word in the English language, not for its definition, but for how it feels to say it.

Live appearances

In summer 2006, Elbow headlined the Ukula Bright Lights Festival in Toronto's Distillery District. Asked before the show about what he thought about his Manchester-influenced imagery in his songs, Guy Garvey said, "I think lyrics are one of the tools of the box in order to try and get the feeling across. I don’t think it matters if you use local imagery as long as it’s part of the bigger picture."

At the beginning of March, Guy Garvey stated in a radio interview that Elbow would be performing at the Reading and Leeds festivals on the August Bank Holiday weekend 2008.

Elbow have confirmed that they will be performing at Delamere Forest in Cheshire on the 14th June 2008 as part of the Forestry Commision's 2008 music tours. The band commented 'We always love playing gigs in unusual places. We've never done a gig in a forest before so we're really looking forward to it.'

Band members

• Guy Garvey: lead vocals, guitar, lyrics
• Mark Potter: guitar, backing vocals
• Craig Potter: keyboards, organ, backing vocals
• Pete Turner: bass guitar
• Richard Jupp: drums

Discography

Studio albums

• Asleep in the Back (May 7, 2001, #14 UK)
• Cast of Thousands (August 18, 2003, #7 UK)
• Leaders of the Free World (September 12, 2005, #12 UK)
• The Seldom Seen Kid (March 17, 2008, #5 UK April 22, 2008 - US Release)

UK singles & EPs

All positions are from the UK Singles Chart.

Early releases:

• "The Noisebox EP" (January 1, 1998)
• "The Newborn EP" (August 7, 2000)
• "The Any Day Now EP" (January 23, 2001)

From Asleep In The Back:

• "Red" (April 23, 2001) #36
• "Powder Blue" (July 9, 2001) #41
• "Newborn" (October 8, 2001) #42
• "Asleep in the Back" / "Coming Second" (February 4, 2002) #19

From Cast Of Thousands:

• "Ribcage" (download only single) (May 2003)
• "Fallen Angel" (August 4, 2003) #19
• "Fugitive Motel" (October 27, 2003) #44
  • "Ribcage" / "Fugitive Motel" (limited edition 7") (2003)
• "Not a Job" (February 23, 2004) #26
• "Grace Under Pressure" / "Switching Off" (EP) (July 12, 2004)

From Leaders Of The Free World:

• "Forget Myself" (August 29, 2005) #22
• "Leaders of the Free World" (November 7, 2005) #53

From The Seldom Seen Kid:

• "Grounds for Divorce" (March 10, 2008) UK #19
• "One Day Like This" (June 2, 2008) UK #39

External links

• [1] Sentimentalist Magazine
• [2] Sentimentalist Magazine
• Elbow's official website
• Elbow's official myspace
• Elbow interview with musicOMH.com
• Video-interview with Pete Turner and Guy Garvey on revu.nl
• Irshad Ashraf's website
• Overview of the unofficial tour of Cuba
• Liberation Frequency - April 2008 Interview
• single review at daily music guide