How did you discover them?

I'm suprised by how many people discovered Elbow through their performance on Jonathan Ross.

So, what first bought the band to your attention? When did you fall in love?

Go.

I almost hate to say it, but...



I fell in love about 1.40! Actually, thats a lie. It was the gobblegobblegobbles

That is brilliant, Al!
I especially like that you can hear Guy trying not to laugh!

I discovered them in 2004 after Chris Martin saying Cast of Thousands was the best album ever.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_2_34/ai_113764212

I heard Newborn on radio 1 (of all places) back in 2001. I'd never heard anyhting like it before and fell head over heels. The rest, they say, is histroy

Ditto gazzmatazz

A friend gave me Leaders of the Free World for Christmas with a fervent "this is the BEST album of the year". Listened to the first track, got instantly transported back to being a student, getting off the train at Piccadilly and walking down to Piccadilly Gardens to get the bus home. Picked up the case to see the name of the track, did a double take and got hooked.

I heard Newborn on the Q magazine "Best of 2001" compilation CD, immediately got AITB which stayed in my CD player constantly for at least a year, and saw them for the first time in 2003 on the Cast of 1000s tour. In fact they were responsible for me getting back into going to gigs - I hadn't been to anything sizeable for years, but thought I'd nip in for my chance to see them before they got BIG. Ahem, well that only took about 5 years longer than I'd predicted...

A few years back a musician friend of mine turned me on to them. Probably around the time Cast of Thousands came out.

I became quite obsessed for a bit, listening to nothing else but Asleep in the Back and Cast of Thousands, over and over. Seriously, nothing else for months.

actually it was not until last years glastonbury performance i got really hooked.
I've heard about them before, not much though as sweden is crap when it comes to music..
anyway yeah the Glasto gig last year really made me love them.
I remember sitting in the back eating waffles with chocolate and ice cream, having a drink, the sun was going down, thousands of people being happy and that amazing music. It was magical, i remember myself saying "oooh this is good" i think that was the only thing i said during that gig.
So yeah, got really hooked and here i am. completely head over heel inlove with the music !

I think I heard of them on Steve Lamacq in 2000, however I didn't hear the session. It was one of the rare occasions that I went out and bought an album just because they were a Manchester band, I'd never heard their stuff and I've never done that before, or since, funnily enough.

The first time I listened to it was driving up the M6, I'll never forget hearing "Any Day Now" and thinking how great, how unusual, yet still familiar it sounded, very Floydian, I thought at the time.

I carried on liking them a lot, and buying every album, but I didn't see them live much. I saw them at the Move festival at Old Trafford after the first album, then didn't see them again until the CoT tour. I've been making up for that ever since, mainly by seeing them as much as possible, and setting up a forum!

Read the review of Asleep In The Back in Q, and was convinced that this was an album I should own. After a couple of listens, I found that this music resonated with me in a big way. It just worked its way into my head and stuck with me. In particular, Newborn knocked me on my ass, and Scattered Black and Whites melted me. The textures and moods on that album were extraordinary and it made everything else seem crap by comparison. I've followed them ever since! Never saw them live in all this time though, until last year (which was sublime), and I hope I get another chance someday...

I had bought the debut albums of Doves and Coldplay for Christmas presents in 2001, and Elbow I was aware of, but I was busy goIng to Doves and Coldplay gigs at the time.
I'd usually only gone to local concerts, but in May 2002 I took my first trip to Manchester to see Doves. At my gig friend's house was the album of 'Asleep in the Back' ...
I bought it as soon as I got home, listened to it far more than my other CDS and couldn't wait to go to see Elbow play. I got to see them first at V Chelmsford Festival 2002, and then what was called a secret gig in London in 2003, for promoting their first playing live of Cast of Thousands.
While waiting excitedly for COTH to come out, I had become a regular on the original Elbow fansite, Powderblue.

I'm one from the Genesis-Fans turning to Elbow.
Someone at the german genesisfanclub-forum wrote me in 2001 "if you are such a huge Peter Gabriel Fan you HAVE TO check out Elbow, you will LOVE them!" First I was sceptical because I heard often enough people saying about different singers that they sound "like Gabriel" and it never was that much. Especially the covebandsingers never really sounded "gabrielic".
But when I found those sound snippets I was convinced, that the forumfriend was absolutely right: "Red" made me sob at once and "Any day now" was like being hypnotised by a voice from the past. I missed so much the kind of voice Gabriel had on "Trespass", not that hoarse like today and sometimes high and fragile and the next moment dark and souly. And sudden there was a new, now exsisting voice having that feeling and still being new and he's not copying it, he just SOUNDS LIKE THAT from the heart.
And of course it wasn't only because of his voice, the whole sound was so much like my childhood favorites (Floyd) and at the same moment very modern and experimental, they did not try to imitate the old times, they even made me interested in that mysterious musicstyle "Triphop" and I'm still thinking if I should check out Potishead. I really loved the dark melancholic and sometimes even noisy mood in the old Elbow-records but I never had a problem when Elbow showed their funny side (see "1 thing"). At least as long it was a joke between the records. And I loved the british humor in their videos. Being on one hand melancholic, but never getting whiny.

Maybe because of that I was a bit disappointed from "Seldom seen kid" because there they sometimes sound a bit oldfashioned jazzy or a bit too close to the "former-indie-now-mainstream"-Folks and a bit too "happy" without being ironic (especially because they were saying before they would be darker and heavier) but I hope that the success gives them the strenth to be experimental again.
And by now I also like "Starlings" and "Audience with the pope" because the irony leaked through still. I still have a slight problem with "one day like this" but after Guy kissed my hand in Cologne during that song it is at least "pimped" with a lovely memory.
And maybe I will like the Abbey Road Concert a bit more if I try to compare it with ol' Floyd's Atom Heart Mother. The soprano in "Some riot" reminds me a bit on "Father's Shout" which had a very lovely soprano too.
I still love Elbow very much, I might miss a bit the mood of their earlier records, but I am sure, they will keep on making lovely music that is still different than the stuff you have to hear in normal radio...

Heard (and loved) Fugitive Motel a few times can't remember where exaclty and thought "Who are they?"
went on to discover Cast of Thousands, bought Leaders not really knowing if the quality would be as good and was completley blown away by that Album.

Then went back to Asleep In the Back, which had passed me by (had two kids 2000/2002 so had other things to focus on!)

Heard Newborn on Mark and Lards BBC Radio 1 show. Liked it. The drummer who I was in a band with gave me a copy of Asleep in the Back but I couldn't get into it (????!!!!WTF!!!????). Whist flicking through MTV (2002?) I came accross an interview with band and the video for their new single Fallen Angel. It was brilliant. I thought the band were really interesting. The song, interview and video showed an unusual, intelligent band with a good sense of humour who are obviously not afraid to experiment. Then I won a competition to watch them do a warchild gig in the Masque in Liverpool. Awsome. I was totally hooked after that.

A poorly edited version of Newborn was on a compilation called the Album, it totally defined my 6th form experience as the first CD that i own and none of my friends did! I brought asleep in the back in 2001, but didn't like it, instead i was busy listening to Turin Breaks. About 6 months later when i had no money and no music i pulled it out and listened again... I think you know the rest of the story!

I lie! I just pulled the CD out of my rack's again, and it was Red, the shit version of Newborn was the OTHER "album" i have!

I hear 'Red' on some compilation CD in 2002/3. Shortly after I heard 'Fugitive Motel' and have been hooked ever since.

Couldn't have wished for a better place tbh, I discovered them at last year's glastonbury, I have to admit I didn't know much about them and my mate just said we should go check them out and of course from the opening of Starlings to the ending, the amazing singalong to ODLT with the beautiful, clear evening sky, I had discovered a new favouite band, they really made the year for me

I loved to watch MTV Spin with Markus Kavka and they showed the Fallen Angel video. I was hooked since the very first time. The video was and still is amacing. Must have been around 2001. Then I bought Cast of thousands. I bought Asleep only a few months ago and realised that I always listened to Red on a ME-Combilation. Coinsedence!

Was sent the fix, and then searched them, and was amaaaaaaaaazed! Then i went to see them live in October, and it was ammaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing, and they're now, most definitely, my favourite band now!

(Band's in italics, as i like lots of solo folks as much as i like elbow, and it's hard to figure out who i like more )

I used to be absolutely obsessed with Coldplay and I seem to remember that Elbow supported them a number of years ago so I was aware of the name but had no idea of any of their music. I also went through a phase of buying CDs from charity shops to explore new music and to try new stuff. It was either in 2005 or 2006 but I was in an charity shop in Windsor and I spotted Elbow - Asleep In The Back and I thought hmmm if Coldplay like them then maybe I will. I stuck it on my Mum's car CD player on the way home and the rest is history...I bought all their albums and I am now in the process of collecting their singles and EPs etc. Seen them 3 times and they are one of my favourite current bands probably only surpassed by Radiohead. Awww how romantic...the best £3 I ever spent. Was it fate that made me go into that charity shop?

As an old muso type, Mr W's always been spot-on for finding new good stuff and Elbow were one of his favourite must-have discoveries. I remember first hearing Asleep in the Back in the front of his knackered old Fiesta one Saturday 8 years ago, then it was on heavy rotation for months.

No doubt like many people here, I couldn't get over how "this bloke's voice is amazing..." or how beautiful and striking the arrangements were. Even though we both know plenty of serious music fans, for ages I only ever met one bloke who was 'in on the secret' and appreciated what the band were doing. Heh, it's a bit different now!

A musical contact who knew my tastes in music started raving about "Asleep in the Back" - so I bought it.
Not the most exciting story but musically it was one of the best moves I ever made

I've pre-ordered the other albums - but I've only just seen them live for the second time.
Now wishing I'd got in touch live a long time ago - both sets were amazing

We bought a compilation double album in 2001. 39 (mostly brilliant) songs and the last one on CD2 was RED.