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1997-01-01 · Bury, England, UK · Other

8 series in the catalog

Elbow (stylized in lowercase as elbow) are an English rock band formed in Bury, Greater Manchester, in 1990. The band consists of Guy Garvey (lead vocals, guitar), Craig Potter (keyboard, piano, backing vocals), Mark Potter (guitar, backing vocals), Pete Turner (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Alex Reeves (drums). They have played together since 1990, adopting the name Elbow in 1997. Reeves replaced original drummer Richard Jupp in 2016 as a touring and session musician at first, before becoming a full member in 2024.

The band have released ten studio albums: Asleep in the Back (2001), Cast of Thousands (2003), Leaders of the Free World (2005), The Seldom Seen Kid (2008), Build a Rocket Boys! (2011), The Take Off and Landing of Everything (2014), Little Fictions (2017), Giants of All Sizes (2019), Flying Dream 1 (2021) and Audio Vertigo (2024). Their studio albums, as well as their B-sides compilation Dead in the Boot (2012), all reached the top 15 of the UK Albums Chart. Seven of their singles placed in the top 40 of the British singles chart. Their most recent album, Audio Vertigo, was released on 22 March 2024.

In 2008, Elbow won the Mercury Music Prize for their album The Seldom Seen Kid. In 2009, they won the Brit Award for Best British Group. The same year, the song "One Day Like This" won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. In October 2011 NME placed it at number 41 on its list of "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years". After featuring in the 2012 Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony, the single peaked at No. 4 in the UK Singles Chart. In 2012, they released "First Steps", the BBC theme for the 2012 London Olympics.

History

1990-2001: Formation and first EPs

After meeting each other in 1990 at the former Stand College in Whitefield near Bury, Greater Manchester, guitarist Mark Potter asked Guy Garvey to sing in a band he was in with drummer Richard Jupp and bassist Pete Turner. Together, the four formed the band Mr. Soft, named after the song by Cockney Rebel (the name was later shortened to Soft). Potter's brother Craig then joined the band on keyboards. That year the band played their first gig together at the Corner Pin pub in Ramsbottom.

They changed their name a second time to Elbow in 1997, inspired by a line in the BBC TV drama The Singing Detective in which the character Philip Marlow describes the word 'elbow' as the loveliest word in the English language. After winning a local Battle of the Bands, the band signed with Island Records and recorded their first album with producer Steve Osborne at Real World Studios. However, Island sold out to major label Universal. The band was dropped in a mass cull and the album was not released.

Elbow continued to record with independent label Ugly Man Records and released The Noisebox EP, The Newborn EP, and The Any Day Now EP. These releases garnered extensive airplay on BBC Radio 1.

2001–2004: Asleep in the Back and Cast of Thousands

Elbow's debut album Asleep in the Back was released in May 2001 on V2 Records. The album was written over the course of six years, and contains six rerecorded tracks from the Real World Studios sessions. Asleep in the Back was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize and earned the band a BRIT Award nomination for Best New British Band.

The band's second album Cast of Thousands was released in August 2003. The title of the album is a reference to their performance at the 2002 Glastonbury Festival, where they recorded the audience singing, "We still believe in love, so fuck you". The recording is featured on the song "Grace Under Pressure".

In 2004 Elbow toured Cuba, playing songs from Asleep in the Back and Cast of Thousands at venues in and around Havana. British documentary maker Irshad Ashraf filmed a large portion of the tour. The resulting short film was shown at film festivals in 2004, but remains commercially unavailable.

2004–2006: Leaders of the Free World

Their third album, Leaders of the Free World, was released in 2005. It was self-produced at Blueprint Studios in Salford, a studio the band hired for the sessions. They teamed up with video artists The Soup Collective to produce an integrated music and video DVD.

In mid-2006, Elbow headlined the Ukula Bright Lights Festival in Toronto's Distillery District.

2006–2009: The Seldom Seen Kid

In 2006, the band moved to Fiction Records and completed their fourth studio album The Seldom Seen Kid in late 2007, which was produced and mixed by Craig Potter. The album was released in March 2008 and sold over 1 million copies.

On 9 September 2008, they were awarded the Mercury Music Prize for The Seldom Seen Kid, and in May 2009 the band won two Ivor Novello Awards: "One Day Like This" won the main award for Best Song, and "Grounds for Divorce" was voted Best Contemporary Song. Elbow were also awarded Best International Band at the Meteor Awards in Dublin on 17 March 2009.

Elbow and Bournemouth-based band Air Traffic embarked on an extensive North American tour in May 2008, which was very well received by the media including Blender and Spin magazine. Elbow performed at Delamere Forest in Cheshire on 14 June 2008 as part of the Forestry Commission's 2008 music tours, 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 appeared on the Other Stage at the Glastonbury Festival on 28 June 2008, joined on stage by violinists and cellists. They performed in the Obelisk Arena at the Latitude Festival on 19 July 2008, and in August played at the Electric Picnic festival. On 9 September, they performed at the National Movie Awards broadcast on ITV, and appeared on BBC2's "Later Live" show hosted by Jools Holland on 23 September.

On 17 January 2009, Elbow gave an exclusive performance of their album The Seldom Seen Kid for BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music together with the BBC Concert Orchestra and London-based chamber choir Chantage at Abbey Road Studios (first broadcast on 31 January 2009). On 14 March 2009, they played Wembley Arena. On 3 July 2009, Elbow played to an audience of 80,000 at Rock Werchter. The next day, Elbow played for approximately 15,000 at Roskilde Festival, Denmark; on stage, Garvey remarked that "last time we played in Denmark, 7 people came." They performed with The Hallé Orchestra and Youth Choir at the Bridgewater Hall as part of the Manchester International Festival on 8 and 9 July 2009. These concerts featured specially-commissioned orchestral and choral arrangements of material spanning all 4 albums. The Hallé musicians and Garvey singers were positioned just to the right of conductor and arranger Joe Duddell.

On 11 July 2009, Elbow played the Main Stage at Oxegen 2009 at Punchestown Racecourse, County Kildare. The band performed on the Main Stage at T in the Park in Balado, Kinross, Scotland, on 12 July 2009. They played the "Escenario Verde" at FIB 2009 in Benicassim, Spain on 18 July. They opened for Coldplay at several stops on the Viva la Vida Tour's 2009 North American leg. They performed at All Points West Music & Arts Festival in Jersey City and the Osheaga Festival in Montreal. On 4 August 2009, Elbow headlined their second show at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC and on 8 August 2009, they performed at the Center Stage Theatre in Atlanta. They opened for U2 during their August 2009 UK shows at Wembley Stadium in London and the Sheffield Don Valley Stadium.

2009–2011: Build a Rocket Boys!

In November 2009, Britain's long-running arts series The South Bank Show aired a 60-minute documentary about Elbow on ITV. Combining live footage of Elbow's September 2009 live performance at Manchester Evening News Arena with an interview between Guy Garvey and presenter Melvyn Bragg, the first half of the documentary focused on Elbow's early career and attempts to get a record deal. The second half discussed songs from…