Elbow - London, UK, Spring 2004
By: Thomas Hannan
Rest easy. All's well in the world of Elbow.
It's a simple question, the one about career-highlights - but you expect an answer like 'the first time I ever signed a record' or 'headlining our first show' in reply. You can tell Elbow still love this job. When they're faced with that very confrontation, guitarist Mark Potter's answer is a much more up-to-date one.
'On the beach at Cuba last week...'
Colleague on bass, and - more relevantly - you're certain a very good friend of Potter's, Pete Turner, was equally enthused.
'Yeah, that was great - just thinking that our music had taken us to somewhere like that... I mean touring is always something, if you're touring with a band that you like - just watching backstage is great, but, I mean, going out there... it's f**king great fun really.'
As you'll have gathered, we catch an Elbow who have just returned from a certain, little island not particularly friendly with the US, and after days of being only the second western band to ever play gigs in the country, those being a few British Consul-funded outdoor shows in glorious sunshine, they still sound as surprised to tell us about it as we are to hear it. Pete turns all misty-eyed just at the sheer thought of it all.
'It was a really cool venue surrounded by trees. There was a Sunday afternoon Salsa gig, and hundreds of people came out of nowhere dressed in amazing colours and all started drinking salsa and rum. And this was before we soundchecked; it was really bizarre.'
Mark echoes the sentiment. As will become apparent, these are two remarkably similar people - full of shameless humour and an entirely calm demeanour, one so relaxing it makes you think that fights in the Elbow camp either don't happen, or don't last very long (the wusses).
'We were jet-lagged as well which made it really f**king confusing.'
Back up a bit; the whole charade is now sounding a little puzzling. Elbow playing to a Cuban salsa audience? Quite how did that go down?
Mark: 'It was soul-destroying. We just about got through the day...'
Pete: 'They're either into Salsa over there, or the local bands, who seemed to be just really bad metal.'
Mark: 'I think we won people over. They've never really had Western bands over there; the only other was the Manics. We did a gig in a town that had literally never had a gig before, so that was pretty cool: the whole town turned out."
This is Elbow, the unlikely lads who spread the good word of rock to uncharted areas of South America. But perhaps we're missing out somewhere on the Cuban metal-scene, as it's apparently everywhere...
'The support band was this really f**king heavy metal band; there was a pile of headbanging going on before we went onstage. I was just like, 'Hello! We're melancholy Manchester rock!'
They're brave souls. Always trying to mellow out a pit full of young rock 'n roll whippersnappers, with their crazy coloured hair and mandatory dose of teenage angst. Other examples, you ask? Well, the support slot on the recent, sell-out Muse tour for one.
Mark: 'That was a bit good.'
Manchester-isms - they're everywhere. You play to a sell-out crowd at Wembley Arena, and it was 'a bit good.' Excellent.
'Their audience is a lot younger than ours, they have a lot of fifteen-year-olds at their gigs. We've seen people with Muse t-shirts at Elbow gigs before, so it went down really well in the end. Better than I thought it would anyway.'
Pete: 'The only place I could understand it was Manchester Arena, 'cos it's local to us, there were a lot of kids. Guy (Elbow frontman) got hit by a fruit pastille in the face.'
Mark: 'A blackcurrant one as well. If you're going to throw one, throw a green one.'
We don't tell them that the green ones are our favourites, we just giggle along and try to get round to asking some of the questions we actually meant to ask - the pair are rather good at throwing us off-course with bizarre little stories or fits of wry laughter.
So we take it back to the dawn of Elbow Time, before the mess surrounding the release of the album, before trying to siege Cuba, there were a couple of EPs. If you've got one, the drinks are on you, as 'Newborn' and 'Any Day Now' go for tidy sums on a number of internet auction sites. So sought after in fact, that the band themselves wonder as to their whereabouts...
Pete: 'I'd like a copy! I haven't got either of them! 'Newborn' is a really good one as well, it's got a tune we call 'Kisses' on it... it's really good.'
Mark: 'We put that EP together like we'd put together a little album; we really considered running-order as we would have an album.'
What has happened to those songs now; are they widely available or holy grails for Elbow completists?
Mark: 'Well, 'Kisses' is, 'Newborn' is, what else is on it? Was 'Numb' on it?
Pete: 'Yeah.'
Mark: ''Numb', and something else. It's nice not to re-record in a way; it means that EP is worth less, if you can just get hold of it on whatever album. It's important to have b-sides; each song is part of something.'
Pete: 'In fact, when I was growing up, I used to buy singles, you know 7-inches; the b-sides were quite often just another album track; which is a bit crap really, I think it should be something new. I think that when people are paying a pound or two pounds or whatever... they should get their two pounds' worth - but no more than that.'
Mark: 'I think I like the fact that they're exclusive to whoever got their hands on those EPs in the beginning... the true fans.'
It's well-documented that the situations surrounding the release of Elbow's much-admired first record - the Mercury Music Prize-nominated 'Asleep In The Back' - were, shall we say, less than ideal. Apart from the amount of wrangling it took for the thing to eventually get released, some excessive touring must have also adjusted how the band prepared to write its follow-up?
Mark: 'It actually took a lot less time to write the second album. We toured 'Asleep In The Back' for almost two years, and suddenly people were like 'OK, we need another one out of you, so, right: go!' So we went up to Scotland and did a lot of writing up there. But, I think we should have written on-the-road, which is what we're doing now for the third album, in dressing-rooms...'
Elated at the reception for the first record and the eagerness of the masses to hear its sophomore effort is a fair description of the pre-'Cast Of Thousands' Elbow, but one that betrays quite the amount of strain the five-piece were experiencing in trying to deliver the goods.
Mark: 'Guy got pretty ill from lack of sleep, worrying about finishing lyrics. There was a lot of pressure actually. We all tried to be a little bit happier, but I don't think we really managed.'
Pete: 'Cast Of Thousands' documents what we did from 'Asleep In the Back' onwards, the next year and a half or whatever it was. It was a really good time, and we were doing what we've always wanted to do, so we wanted it to be a happy album because of the period that it documented. It did start off like that, but when we got in the studio... it got quite hard, didn't it?'
There's a look at Mark, not expecting an answer to his rhetorical inquisition.
Mark: 'I think the first album was about frustration, wanting to get out... to escape this small town we're from, get out of Manchester and see the world. The second record was about doing that. And wanting to get back home.'
Their thoughts on the record might sound a little morose, but let us assure you their company is anything but. However, no matter how many triumphant sets culminating in balloons raining down from the ceiling and mass communal sing-along moments Elbow provoke (tonight's sell-out show at London's Brixton Academy featuring both to dazzling effect), there will always be some who won't hesitate at throwing the 'miserable' tag at the band. Of course, whilst it doesn't anger them, they hardly agree...
Mark: 'It's not miserable, it's just melancholy. That's just the kind of music we like, music that fits where you're sitting late at night, or early morning; that's just the kind of stuff that we all agree on.'
Do you ever want to throw it off by recording, say, a novelty single?
Pete interjects.
'Throwing out a Christmas record? Yeah! I think just doing the Destiny's Child cover was enough really.'
Mark is quick to play down that certain infamous moment in the band's history.
'That got far too much exposure.'
Pete: 'It was really cool playing it; we were all there with big grins on our faces. It was just funny to think that we were getting away with it.'
Mark: 'It was on Radio One!'
At this point, the two touch hands accidentally, and both recoil with horrified looks on their faces. We wonder whether to question them about homophobia or the state of masculine identity in the Elbow camp, but again, just laugh heartily with everyone else, and try and get back on-track.
The despondent moniker may not sit too kindly with them, but the other oft-levelled claim that Elbow are, at heart, a prog-rock band (even when we remind them that dinosaurs of journalism like 'Classic Rock' magazine labelled them as something as fashionable as 'the new early Genesis') seems to go down much more comfortably.
Mark: 'I can see why people put that label on us. We do like some early Genesis, we like some Pink Floyd stuff... I mean, we're not the same, in the sense that we don't have solos that last 10 minutes, in fact we don't have any solos, do we?'
Pete: 'I think that's a thing we have in common with prog-rock, you know, just like experimenting with sounds."
Well, after all, in the last rockfeedback piece on your lot, Guy did admit to his plans to work you guys back in to being a 'stoner funk band'... any progress on that front, and any such tie-ins of the genre for the next impending long-player?
Pete: 'I think he means shit funk! When we were playing that, we liked, you know, the Beastie Boys' 'Check Your Head', Sly & The Family Stone, early Santana - we liked all these great people, took all these great influences, and just turned them to shit! It's quite incredible; we should win a medal for that.'
So where did the change come?
'The way we played our instruments, we were all playing as much as we could, and then when we realised that less is more and started exercising restraint, generally just played what we needed to play.'
Blast, and it could have been such a good record. So no 'stoner funk', but prey tell, what exactly are we likely to see on album number three?
Mark: 'Guy was talking about getting a famous person just to say the name 'Elbow' before the first song; if they played it on the radio, people would automatically know who you are... someone like Sean Connery (of course, followed by the entirely bizarre sound of Mark's Manchester accent impersonating Connery's inimitable Scots croon saying 'Elbow'), and then this song would start. A taxi-driver just told us this great story - he had Sean Connery in his cab, and he cut someone up at the traffic lights, and the guy jumps out and says: 'Who the f**k do you think you are? James Bond?' and he went, 'No, but he is!''
Come on lads, is that true?
Mark: 'Well..... (Laughs all round) I don't know. I like chatting to cab drivers, and he was a nice chap - you know - I don't like a chatty c**t...'
We'll keep the gibberish to a minimum in that case. So, back to the topic at hand - that enticing new album...
Mark: 'We're already well underway with writing it; did a lot of writing when we were touring 'Cast of Thousands'; every day in the dressing-rooms we set up a little portable studio and tried to do a tune a day. I believe that songwriting is about just writing and writing and writing, getting all the rubbish out of your system - and then you start coming to the good stuff.'
Is this the first time you've written on tour?
Mark: 'Yeah, it is actually, it's quite hard to get in that frame of mind we were in before - but it's good because it passes the time - days are so boring on tour. You know, unless you've got promo to do - you're just sat around doing nothing, getting stoned - so we thought you may as well be writing.'
Pete: 'While we're getting stoned.'
Any big changes in your sound?
Mark: 'We're going to try to be happier, again...'
What, come out like The Polyphonic Spree?
Mark: 'No, not that much. There'll definitely be more upbeat grooves in there... There already is in some of the stuff we've been doing.'
And in retrospect, has 'Cast Of Thousands' met your expectations?
Mark: 'Oh, I'm really proud of it, yeah.'
Pete: 'We liked it didn't we? We were worried about what the reviews were gonna say..."
To our knowledge, there wasn't one bad thing written about it.
Pete: 'No, that's it - it was good. It was quite difficult actually with the whole recording thing, we just didn't know which way it was going to go and how people would see it, but... I can't help just feeling that we got away with it. After 'Asleep In The Back', I thought that people are just not going to like this - I don't mean 'getting away with it' like we did something shit and everyone said it was good - I just mean that we managed it: we managed to do it and get the music out as we wanted it to be. The second album's always weird. The first one you're not writing it for anyone but yourself, but the second one you're thinking; 'people already love (the previous) record' so it's sort of already in the back of your mind when you're doing the next one.'
Mark: 'Well, I'm pretty relaxed - it's going really well at the moment; we're writing well, and there's lots of tunes coming together - I think we'll have a lot more songs to choose from.'
Will it still be the case that Guy will be responsible for the majority of the lyrics, or have either of you, or - indeed - the rest of the troops, felt tempted to chip in?
Mark: 'Yeah, Guy'll write the lyrics.'
Pete: 'But it's like anything in a band, you're not restricted to your own instrument, but I don't know, I'm not comfy enough really.'
Has he ever presented themes that have prompted the nagging thought: 'Hang on: just what is this guy (no pun intended) on about?'
Mark: 'Oh yeah, we edit his stuff, I guess in the same way that we edit each other musically.'
Do you think of yourselves as having a frontman in Guy? Does he act like a typical frontman any of the time?
Mark sounds as if the concept has crossed his mind for the first time.
Mark: 'I don't know! He doesn't consider himself better...'
Pete: '... Well, we certainly don't!'
Mark: 'I think the way he speaks to crowds at gigs is really good...'
Pete: 'You always focus on the person that's singing, I mean - who gives a shit about the bass player!?'
There follows some self-depreciating laugh, probably made more so by the rest of us joining in.
Mark: 'Well, or lead guitar?'
Pete: 'Come on - lead-guitar's second...'
Well, I don't know, people like Rainbow - definitely Ritchie Blackmore's band...
Mark: 'That's what I'm angling for, you see.'
Really? Going for the man in black style? Wearing a darkened cowboy hat?
Mark: 'Maybe! Ohhh, if they'd let me...'
Pete: 'He used to have hair like that.'
Mark: 'Let's not go there.'
So Pete makes some ridiculous motions to indicate the length of Mark's hair, much to his mock annoyance.
Mark: 'Alright! This was at school...'
Guy Garvey's ability to interact with crowds at gigs is something the band have already marked out as one of his special abilities, probably the most famous use of which was the now-legendary piece of audience participation that took place one Glastonbury festival where the thousands-strong cast (see where they got the album-title from yet?) were recorded singing the defiant ode of 'we believe in love, so f**k you' for use on the band's then upcoming record. So lads, how did that come about? Was it carefully mapped out before or was it a case of just stumbling across a tape of the gig and seeing a potential angle?
Mark: 'It wasn't planned really. Guy just saw everybody and thought, 'I'd like to hear them sing, how can I get them to sing - do you want to be on the next album?' Luckily they said yeah. Then he just made it up - he said, 'Right - sing this...'
Pete: 'None of us knew about it. When he said it, I thought, 'Shit, say something good. You know, really mate, make this a good one, otherwise we're gonna look like dicks.' And it worked out, and the cool thing about it was, that song 'Grace Under Pressure' was nearly at the end, and all these people had come and sang on it and played on it... we realised that it's in pretty much the same key as the 'still need love' bit, then we got the DAT from the BBC, got the strings to introduce it, and just placed it in - it worked really well. It just rounds the album off...'
Mark's less proud.
'Well no, it doesn't work really well...'
The two big statues you took to Glastonbury and the other festivals, Elle and Bo, what's happened to them now? Sat in one of your back gardens?
Mark: 'No, actually; they're sat in front of V2 Records on Holland Park Road.'
You weren't tempted to take them home?
'Not really, I think we're gonna auction them off for charity. It was just a promotion thing really. We wanted to get seen before the album was out... a teaser campaign I believe they call it...'
There comes a time in an interview where you feel comfortable enough to just crack out the classics just to round things off, especially when the atmosphere is quite this contented. Forgive us, but we were right, it was a laugh - as you'll see. So come on, Elbow, for a band of such diverse influences and directions, why such a lame body part? After all, it's hardly even the most functional joint, even shoulders are more, shall we say, multifarious...
Pete: 'No mate, Elbows are good.'
Their answer when prompted to name themselves after another body part is nothing short of apt, and a sumptuous parting-note.
Mark: 'Breasts.'
And why?
'Simple. I've been asked to sign too many elbows.'
Q's: Kevin Molloy
Artists in this article: Elbow