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Elbow is a Mercury Prize winning English alternative rock band. The band formed in Bury, Greater Manchester, in 1990, and retains its original line-up of lead vocalist, guitarist and lyricist Guy Garvey, guitarist and back up vocalist Mark Potter, keyboardist and back up vocalist Craig Potter, bassist Pete Turner and drummer Richard Jupp.
Over the band's 18 year career they have released four studio albums, four EPs and ten top fifty singles in the UK.
The band is named after a line in the BBC TV mini-series The Singing Detective; a character (Philip Marlow) 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.
Acclaimed for their innovative sound and front-man Guy Garvey's candid, evocative lyrics, Elbow have received vast critical acclaim and been endorsed by major artists Radiohead, Blur, R.E.M
. and U2 despite minor commercial success during much of their career. 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. In September 2008, alternative rock band Snow Patrol declared their appreciation for the band by covering Elbow's track "One Day Like This" on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.
Commercial success is finally beginning to match Elbow's critical acclaim and status among fans.
HistoryLead singer Guy Garvey met guitarist Mark Potter at Bury 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 début 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, playing songs from Asleep in the Back and Cast of Thousands at venues in and around Havana. British documentary maker Irshad Ashraf was present on the tour and filmed a large portion of it. The resulting short film was shown at festivals in 2004, but remains commercially unavailable. 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 northern kittens "performing" the song. In the same year, their song "Fallen Angel" appeared in the film 9 Songs.
Elbow's innovation in the studio has invited work with other bands, notably Editors and I Am Kloot, the latter whose début 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 further 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.
The band completed their fourth studio album, The Seldom Seen Kid in late 2007. The band self-produced, mixed and recorded the album without outside help. The song "Grounds for Divorce" from this album is featured on the trailer for the Coen Brothers' film Burn After Reading starring Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and John Malkovich. The song is also featured in the 30 second TV Spot for Valve's zombie apocalypse game Left 4 Dead and as the trailer song for the twelfth series of Top Gear. Since the June 2008 release of the song "One Day Like This" it has been used in sport coverage for both ITV and BBC including the Beijing Olympics 2008. The song was also used during the final of Big Brother 9. The track moved from 113 to 35 in the UK singles chart.
On September 9, 2008, Elbow won the Mercury Music Prize for The Seldom Seen Kid. The award was presented to them by Jools Holland. The band plan to follow this success, by starting work on a fifth studio album, before their European tour in autumn 2008. They are also planning a side-project album of children's songs, to accompany an animated film.
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 to 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 performed at Delamere Forest in Cheshire on June 14, 2008 as part of the Forestry Commission's 2008 music tours. They were supported by I Am Kloot. The band commented before the show, "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."
Elbow and Bournemouth-based Air Traffic embarked on an extensive North American tour in May 2008, which was greatly received by the media including Blender and Spin magazine.
On June 23rd 2008 they announced that they would be playing a five-date tour in October 2008, with gigs in Leicester, Leeds, Gateshead, Liverpool and Manchester.
The Band did a gig in Paradiso, Amsterdam, on June 25th 2008, which was recorded and can be watched online [3]
Elbow appeared on the Other Stage at the Glastonbury Festival on June 28th 2008, joined on stage by many violinists and cellists. They also performed in the Obelisk Arena at the Latitude Festival on July 19th 2008.
They are scheduled to play at the 2008 Electric Picnic festival.
Elbow performed at the National Movie Awards broadcast on ITV on Tuesday 9th September 2008.
Elbow appeared on BBC2's "Later Live" show hosted by Jools Holland on 23rd September 2008
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
DiscographyStudio albums- Asleep in the Back (May 7, 2001, #14 UK)
- Cast of Thousands (August 18, 2003, #7 UK, #196 US
[Billboard, Allmusic]) - Leaders of the Free World (September 12, 2005, #12 UK)
- The Seldom Seen Kid (March 17, 2008, #5 UK April 22, 2008 - US Release; #109 US
[)]
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 #35
- "The Bones of You" (download only single) (September 29, 2008)
Trivia - The song "Grounds for Divorce" was used in commercials for the game Left 4 Dead, the Channel 4 drama series The Devil's Whore, the trailer for the Coen Brothers' film Burn After Reading, a rally driving segment on Top Gear, trails for Rallysport on Dave, and on Channel 5 for the broadcasting of the film S.W.A.T.
Copyright Citations
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