Song, by Toad

I bloody love Elbow. I don’t like all of their music, and I am not always a committed lover of their albums, but I love a bloody good chunk of it and as a band I reckon they genuinely are the dog’s bollocks. They emerged from Manchester at about the same time as the briefly phenomenal Doves, but their own brand of slightly more melancholy epic indie rock has decisively outlasted their contemporaries.

I struggled a little for the word epic, because it implies bombast and pomposity, of which Elbow seem to be entirely devoid, but I couldn’t think of a better way to describe the grand sweep of their music without making it seem pretentious, which it genuinely isn’t. In fact, as a band, using the word pretentious would seem like the greatest travesty known to man. I’m not sure if it’s possible to be an internationally famous indie rock band whilst remaining normal, down to earth nice blokes, but if it is possible to be such a band, that band is Elbow.

Having drunkenly accosted Guy Garvey in a club in Edinburgh a couple of years back and miraculously not having been told to fuck right off, despite eminently deserving it, I always suspected he might actually be a genuinely nice bloke. Anyone listening to his show on 6Music will probably confirm this. He’s a handsome devil too – a genuine rock star – albeit in his own slightly portly, dishevelled, disarming Manchester way. In other words, these guys honestly are the Real Deal.

Elbow write music that grabs the heartstrings more than pretty much any other group you can mention, but they do it in such an unassuming way that it only now starts to dawn on me the extent to which they will rightfully be remembered as one of this era’s great bands. Personal, political, grand or small, there’s something about their best songs which simply transport you, take hold of you, and pour every ounce of emotion in the song straight into the very core of your soul.

Now, again, I don’t claim to love every song they’ve ever writtten and I will go so far as to state that Cast of Thousands is a downright mediocre album, but listening to this performance, and the number of euphorically brilliant songs they are able to draw upon, it’s like a massive great big slap in the face reminding me how good this band really are. Sensitive, emotional, sad, and then when they need to crank it up a notch, all hell breaks loose.

And did I mention what nice blokes they seemed. Really, genuinely unaffected by all that ‘being famous’ bollocks. Great, great gig, and I was sober all the way through, believe it or not!

Elbow – Leaders of the Free World
Elbow – Newborn
Elbow – Fugitive Motel Perhaps one of the best songs in the universe. Really.