By Roland Gent
Elbow are ten albums into their career now and with four number one sellers under their belt, they are comfortably in ‘national treasure’ status.
Remarkable really for such an unassuming bunch who most people wouldn’t recognise if they walked past in the street.
Even the most ardent Manchester music lover would be hard pressed to name each member of the band, knowing them only as ‘Guy Garvey and some other blokes’.
The ‘AUDIO VERTIGO’ album hit the top spot and a rapturously received return to arenas during their May tour meant they then arranged another string of dates.
The tour sees the band return to Castlefield Bowl in their hometown of Manchester to kick off the Sounds of the City series of gigs. As part of the tour, the band are playing in a series of unusual venues including a Royal palace, a Norman castle and one of the UK’s best loved nature reserves.
Elbow lead singer, Guy Garvey, said: “There’s nothing like settling in for the evening with old friends.“ And that’s how he plays the gig like a returning hero and some sort of evangelical preacher telling a few old tales and leading the crowd in singalongs.
Being in a full Castlefield arena feels like being in part of a fervent religious cult determined to sing the great leader’s songs of praise at maximum zealous volume.
You just know they have Grounds for Divorce and, of course, One Day Like This in their back pocket for the big finale. It’s a good thing they do too, as for the first 20 minutes or so the highlight of their set seems to be Garvey getting people to wave at trains that pass by the Castlefield venue.
Sadly, the gig starts off as a bit of a snooze fest. They are lacking a bit of oomph. The show only kicks into any sort of life with the introduction of an all-female group of multi-talented backing singers and instrumentalists, who frankly give Elbow a kick up the backside musically.
Some bands are defined by one song and the show ends – as it has to – with One Day Like This, a song so joyful of the small beauties of life that it becomes one the great pleasures only live music can bring; a huge anthem, it’s that moment of one-ness that every band needs.
Elbow set list
Station Approach Lovers’ Leap Adriana Again Kindling Switching Off Her to the Earth Balu Good Blood Mexico City Puncture Repair The Seldom Seen Kid Things I’ve Been Telling Myself for Years The Birds Lippy Kids Mirrorball Magnificent (She Says) Sober Grounds for Divorce
My Sad Captains One Day Like This