'BOW SELECTOR
Elbow fans! I'm sure you may have heard about this already - what with the radio ads going off like car alarms all over the place - but if not, Saturday week (January 31) brings a special Elbow set recorded last weekend at London's Abbey Road studios.
Having been at the recording, it's not hard to see why they've been dubbed 'the people's band'. They look like a darts team. But at the same time they're suave enough on stage to be wine tasters. There is a little bit of the "all things to all men" about them. They are gregarious but humble.
In front of a small, naturally reverential audience - who follow, to the letter, singer Guy Garvey's instructions to remain silent until the end of each song for editing purposes - Elbow are spellbinding here. The jangling of the nerves actually lends what could have been quite a staid affair a new level of tension and seems to heighten the emotion of the performance.
Backed by the BBC Concert Orchestra and Radio 3's Choir Of the Year, they deliver the Mercury winning album Seldom Seen Kid in full and with a flourish. You can hear the set on Radio 2, or watch highlights online or on BBC Digital Telly on that Red Button thing. You may even catch me nearly walking into a camera while trying to introduce them.
There was no filming at White Heat a couple of days later, mind you. Having been to see Bleech again in north London - the east end grunge-pop trio who are improving with each gig - I dashed down to Soho to see a group called Favours For Sailors.
White Heat is the sort of club night where the capital's young hipsters go if there isn't a party that night in Hoxton. But its booking policy has been really pretty impressive over the past two years, which makes me all the more embarrassed that I hadn't been there in months. (Is it because it's based at Madame JoJo's, one of these establishments that insist on having a man who sits in the gents' toilet all night, offering you soap and reading The Sun?)
Favours For Sailors, on the other hand, don't look like hipsters. Two of them remind me of suburban Ed O'Briens while the other two wear big-check shirts - a subtle pointer to the Americanisms in some of their songs (not least a tune called Erode My Empire which kicks in like a jolly version of Pavement).
The reason I'm here is that FFS's forthcoming mini-album really is the sort of record it's easy to fall for. It is one part 80s indie, one part American lo-fi jangle: a record which sounds surprisingly out of time. Produced by one of the former members of the Test Icicles, it's a bright sounding, unpretentious six-tracker full of pretty hooks and colourful dreams. It speaks for itself really, so I'll leave it there.
Although on the way to see the man with the soap I bump into John Andrew - former drummer with Kingmaker who is with a band called The Neat who played earlier (I presume Andrew has been producing their demos). On cue, one of the group hands me a CD. "Are you sure? It's not the last one is it?"
"No. I've got some more," he says, lifting up his T-shirt to reveal a stash of demos, tucked down the front of his trousers. I bet that raised a few eyebrows in the gents.
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Elbow are just a bunch of blokes who have been growing for years,and are still growing.They are organic that's why they are so good.All can play what the others are thinking a solid unit of energy fantastic.I am looking forward to seeing them on the red button.Favours For Sailors sound dodgy with a name like that but no doubt will be worth a listen on the radio cheers Lamo see ya next week
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I am really looking forward to hearing the Elbow performance tomorrow afternoon. missed them when they were in town last owing to flu - hopefully they will return for an intimate show here yet again. based on his radio interviews and his own show, Guy Garvey seems a really down-to-earth fellow and hasn't let success go to his head. finally a band that deserves all the accolades bestowed upon them.
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i was lucky to get two tickets for this performance and was standing against the red tape. you can see me on the image.
The show was sensational but still can not wait for tommorow night. Every one will love it they are the best original band currently any were.
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god blesses Elbow's new album,
by the way, just happened to listen to a band called The Cellophane Flowers and can't get that voice out of my head,
something different from anything I've heard before!
Yes I have followed up Bleech too, good songs but they need a bit of creativity with the arrangements, otherwise they I will get bored too quickly..vashti
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