Your Magical Elbow Song Moment?

The end of Newborn with the Halle.

'nuff said.

Any day now, Bristol, Al knew it was coming i had no idea, it was like... Meeting an old friend you had no idea was invited to the party!

Driving round Coryton roundabout/J 32 on the M4 and listening to SSK for about the third time. Up until then I'd enjoyed the album immensely, but I wouldn't have said I was an Elbow fan per se. Mirrorball was on and I suddenly 'got it' - it was like a dagger to the brain. I found it so beautiful and moving, it made me cry and I've been obsessed ever since.

Picky Bugger at the acoustic show in Amsterdam on 26th May '09.
It's probably my favorite song off 'Leaders' and I knew they never play it live.
When those first couple of opening notes started my heart just stopped!
Absolutely awesome!

I loved the Leaders Album sooooooo much when i first got it.
I remember listening all the way through the first time, and by the time I got to the end I just couldn't believe how great it all sounded. Then Puncture Repair kicked in and I just absolutley loved the lyric - " I leaned on you today, I regularly hurt but never say" must have been an emotional time for me or something but it just connected me with the whole album, the totally amazing lyrics in all the songs and I played it to death.

Switching Off i think is one of the most beautiful songs. Every time I play that song it gets me.

Jones wrote:

Picky Bugger at the acoustic show in Amsterdam on 26th May '09.
It's probably my favorite song off 'Leaders' and I knew they never play it live.
When those first couple of opening notes started my heart just stopped!
Absolutely awesome!

Jones, thats like the feeling when they played 'Presuming Ed...Rest Easy' at the Royal Festival Hall in June of 2008, as they don't play that live either, not even with the Halle orchestra. The whole of that 'Meltdown' gig had a magical feel, not knowing what was going to come next- and then when Craig left the stage and appeared high up playing the huge organ in 'Newborn', was amazing.

Other magical song moments for me were 'George lassoes the Moon' at Shepherds Bush, London in 2004, 'I've got your number' in Liverpool in 2004 and hearing songs from 'cast of Thousands for the first time at the Scala in 2003 and hearing songs from 'LOTFW' for the first time in Blueprint Studios in may 2005. Now I'd better stop there. That's more than one!

When Guy kissed my hand during "One day like this" in Cologne 2008...

And when I heard "Any day now" the first time and knew that my internetfriend was right when he wrote, I should listen to Elbow...

Without a shadow of doubt it was the first Halle night last July when they played Friend Of Ours.........it is impossible to describe how I felt, just that the surroundings, the orchestra, my favourite band and the lyrics all merged into a few minutes of magic. Had to hold back the tears.

Stunning.

Back in 2006, driving around the back roads of Kent at 5am on a Sunday morning with a grumpy baby in tow listening to nothing but LOTFW. I think it was the third play of My Very Best that finally did it for me.

First time I saw Elbow live, in 2008 at the Park West in Chicago. So many moments were magical for me that night, but the one that still gives me goosebumps when I think of it was when we all sang along to Grace Under Pressure. My absolute favorite line from that (or any other) song..."We still believe in love, so f**k you"...being sung by a crowd who loved Elbow's music as much as I did...let me tell ya folks, that moment was a loooong time coming for me and it felt fantastic. I'd been a very lonesome Elbow fan here in the States for years by that point, and it was just all kinds of gorgeous to be there sharing that line and that song with people who got it.

So many amazing Elbow moments, but probably most emotional one was hearing them play Weather to Fly (maybe my fifth time to see them live) 6 months after my dad died, very emotional..

The first time I watched Great Expectations in the Leaders of the Free World film.I'd never really heard the song before but had just read about Guy's relationship with Edith Bowman.When I played Great Expectations,my heart melted and my eyes were almost welling up with tears.The video was very simple but at the same time very beautiful.I later got to know that Great Expectations was not really about him and Edith Bowman,but to me it's always the most special and the most touching song by them.

jessieron wrote:

The first time I watched Great Expectations in the Leaders of the Free World film.I'd never really heard the song before but had just read about Guy's relationship with Edith Bowman.When I played Great Expectations,my heart melted and my eyes were almost welling up with tears.The video was very simple but at the same time very beautiful.I later got to know that Great Expectations was not really about him and Edith Bowman,but to me it's always the most special and the most touching song by them.

Welcome jessieron! I agree with you about Great Expectations. It's my favorite Elbow song, and probably one of my top 3 songs by anyone ever. It's pure awesomeness.

Thanks for the welcome Chrissie!
Sorry for going off-topic here but seeing your avatar,I'm curious as to who your fav Elbow member is...Craig?Also I noticed that the Craig appreciation thread was started by you....I must say I like Craig very much,too!!!He's my favourite member of the band.

jessieron wrote:

Thanks for the welcome Chrissie!
Sorry for going off-topic here but seeing your avatar,I'm curious as to who your fav Elbow member is...Craig?Also I noticed that the Craig appreciation thread was started by you....I must say I like Craig very much,too!!!He's my favourite member of the band.

Hey, if there's anyone worth going off-topic for, it's Craig! Yes, he's my favorite Elboy, I just think he's amazing and getting a quick chance to meet him this past spring was a huge treat. Glad to see you have some love for The Craig as well - great minds think alike, obviously!

Craig is a genius...and thus creates many magical elbow song moments...

*struggles to stay on topic*

The minutes before the concert the first time I've seen them. Holy crap was I nervous. All those fanatic Take That fans... Forget them. :-)
You can ask the friend that went with me. She was like: "take a deeep breath". That never happened to me before or after this Elbow concert. Not even at the U2 concert. And then Guy shakes my hand. *Squeee* :-)

We'll see how I react when I see them the second time in November! Yay!!!!! :-D

ChrissieInFL wrote:

Hey, if there's anyone worth going off-topic for, it's Craig! Yes, he's my favorite Elboy, I just think he's amazing and getting a quick chance to meet him this past spring was a huge treat. Glad to see you have some love for The Craig as well - great minds think alike, obviously!

Have you listened to their b-sides?I only recently got around to listening to a few of their b-sides and was totally blown away.I simply can't describe how much I love those keyboard parts.Songs like None One and the acoustic version of About Time do show you what a genius Craig is.I've been listening to them on repeat for a week...I'm considering buying those singles off the internet now.The only headache I'm having right now is that most of the sellers that have Elbow CD singles for sale are in the UK and the shipping rates they offer are all so high.......The postage for one CD is higher than the CD itself........

jessieron wrote:

Have you listened to their b-sides?I only recently got around to listening to a few of their b-sides and was totally blown away.I simply can't describe how much I love those keyboard parts.Songs like None One and the acoustic version of About Time do show you what a genius Craig is.I've been listening to them on repeat for a week...I'm considering buying those singles off the internet now.The only headache I'm having right now is that most of the sellers that have Elbow CD singles for sale are in the UK and the shipping rates they offer are all so high.......The postage for one CD is higher than the CD itself........

I feel your pain; it's tough to get hold of some of the cooler stuff, if you're not in the UK. Definitely kinda frustrating!

*back on topic*

I am expecting at least one or two magical Elbow moments at the Atlanta show. It'll be the first time Mr Chrissie's seen them live, and I know he has a couple of songs in particular he's really hoping to hear, so if those come around I'll be happy to see his reactions! And after he has enabled my Elbow habit for so long, and done so much to get me to their shows over the past few years, I will really appreciate having the chance to share this show with him.

When sat in the car after being re-united with my dad.
Listening to newborn with my dad singing along at the top of his lungs banging his hands on the steering wheel, Beautiful moment.


There has been many more elbow song moments since because every time i listen to there music, its sends goose bumps all over !

pretty much everytime i listen to newborn... after all these years its still like listening to it for the first time...

there's a set of traffic lights on the coast road in newcastle... whenever i pass by there i always without fail think back to hearing newborn on the mark & lard for the very first time all those years ago too... bliss

The entirety of The Night Will Always Win.

When I walk to work I often listen to an album on my iPod, often finish one from there and back.

On New Year's Eve I decided to listen to Asleep in the Back.

Recently our small town had a pretty massive extra couple of streets with clothes shops and cafes, plonked right in the middle. It's like having London in the middle of a small town, very strange. You can see the buildings from quite a way away. I was looking at them from a park that I use to walk to work and Red was playing.
The word's
"You burn too bright
You live too fast
This can't go on too long
You're a tragedy starting to happen"
Suddenly meant something different to me, it wasn't about a person, maybe it was about we as humans.
Maybe we should just slow down and appreciate what we have, rather than building on what we have so much, soon to maybe even destroy the world.
It was a pretty magical moment, filled me with a sense of "I should make the most of this".

Anyway, I had a pretty awful day at work, won't go into why.
I had a headache the whole time, and could have gone to bed at anytime.

As I walked from home, I was nearly home, maybe half a mile away, Newborn came on.
I turned it up, but I forgot how much it amplifies at the end. It epic bit where Guy starts screaming "YEAH YEAH YEAH!" began, and I suddenly gained this rush of energy, and just started walking like a mad man. It was like walking on air, I couldn't feel my legs they were so tired, but suddenly I could almost run. I covered
Then Rest Easy came on (only just realised the irony of the name) and I lost all the energy again and crashed at home.
I told my brother about what had happened and he wouldn't stop laughing.

Went to bed and woke up to 2012. Still makes me laugh when I think about how epic it felt, great way to end 2011.

@Puncture Repair - Loved reading your New Year's Eve story...I get what you're expressing very clearly. I've had so many of those types of situations happen to me, not just with Elbow's music, but with music from a few other bands as well. I'm in the middle of some mundane activity or other, and a song happens to come around, and it's as if everything changes. Elbow, in particular, really does do that for me on a regular basis. Cool to hear about your experience w/ Asleep in the Back. Thanks for sharing!