Elbow take a bow

Hallé Orchestra and Manchester's sons bring the house down

09 July 2009 - Elbow left the stage to a standing ovation lasting almost 15 minutes after their unique performance with the Hallé orchestra at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester last night.

The band collaborated with composer and conductor Joe Duddell, Britain’s oldest professional symphony orchestra - the Manchester based Hallé - and the Hallé Youth Choir, to create a unique performance for the Manchester International Festival.

It was the first of two shows on consecutive nights, and such was the demand for tickets that tonight’s performance will be screened in the city centre, for the fans who failed to get tickets to watch outdoors.

Elbow played a set list of songs taken from their entire back catalogue, which had been completely reworked by Duddell to incorporate full orchestral backing.

With atmospheric lighting and between song chat from frontman Guy Garvey, this ambitious show in the illustrious 2000 capacity Bridgewater Hall was also an intimate and memorable occasion.

Speaking to 6 Music News before the show, Guy said he felt very proud to share the stage with such a legendary Manchester orchestra.

"I never thought anything like this would happen for us," he said. "The Hallé is something that everyone in Manchester is proud of so it’s a great honour to share the stage with them.

"It's one of the most flattering things in the world to hear your music being played by such amazing musicians."
Guy Garvey

"I’ve been going to see the Hallé since I was a kid. My grandad used to take me and my sister Becky used to take me as well. They were one of the things that all my family used to show-off about when they were talking about Manchester."

It’s not the first time Elbow have performed their work with accompaniment from a choir or an orchestra.

They played their Mercury Music Prize-winning record, The Seldom Seen Kid, in full at Abbey Road with the BBC Concert Orchestra back in January this year and last summer their show at the Meltdown Festival incorporated a full male voice choir.

Guy pondered on why Elbow’s music lends itself to this kind of backing: "I think one of the reasons is because there’s so much space in it. It’s been said that our stuff’s quite cinematic, so maybe that’s it."

However, whilst the choir at Meltdown and the orchestra at Abbey Road were very much accompanying the band, last night’s show saw Elbow’s songs - in some cases - completely transformed.

Tracks such as Scattered were given a much longer orchestral introduction while Weather to Fly and Newborn were expanded with brand new instrumental passages.

Grounds for Divorce saw the choir add their own harmonies and even the audience were asked to join in at certain points throughout the show.

The five members of the band were dispersed amongst the orchestra and instead of leading the performance they waited on the conductor for instruction as much as the rest of the Hallé.

As Guy explained, Joe Duddell had taken their music and made it his own: "It’s not just like having an orchestra behind you. We’re in the middle of them.

"Joe’s orchestrations sometimes don’t include the band at all. He’s taken melodies and themes but he’s taken them in a totally different direction."

At the end of the performance Guy joked with fans that there were far too many people on stage to go off and back on the stage for an encore and asked the audience to pretend that it was the end of the performance.

The whole room erupted into applause and a standing ovation ensued.

The band played One Day Like This which ended with the image of Manchester’s town hall projected onto the back of the stage and the clock tower chiming at ten o’clock on the dot.

Elbow then left to rapturous applause, which seemed never to end.

People had travelled from all around the country to be in the audience but this was the perfect home town gig with two of Manchester’s favourite musical institutions in one of the city’s best loved venue’s.

It’s certainly something the band will be proud of for years to come.

"It’s one of the most flattering things in the world to hear your music being played by such amazing musicians." Guy said. "We’re just so pleased to be part of it."

Elizabeth Alker