The Elbow Story, Absolute Radio

More documentary goodness, this time on Absolute Radio this Sunday 22nd Nov at 7pm. Followed by some coverage from the MEN gig.

The newsletter sent out today also states that there will be a series of podcasts filled with 3+ hours of conversation with band. I think this is the most I've seen the Elboys covered after an album. Normally, they slip into obscurity when they start working on the new album and you don't hear anything about them for months. The Mercury Prize and the new record label has done wonders for them.

Two hours of MEN gig coverage, would that be the entire set?

ukkonen wrote:

I think this is the most I've seen the Elboys covered after an album. Normally, they slip into obscurity when they start working on the new album and you don't hear anything about them for months. The Mercury Prize and the new record label has done wonders for them.

The Seldom Seen Kid campaign certainly has been relentless.
From mid/late 2006 and all of 2007 was when it was ominously quiet.
Together with all the awards and a much higher television/radio profile this time, they, themselves have also worked very hard and are in a happy place with grown confidence with the mainstream success.

For the new record label; I will come out and say that I have been slightly disappointed from a consumer's point of view by the 'packaging' of the album releases by them so far.
More costly TSSK special edition was no different to TSSK regular, apart from the booklet having a couple more pages; with V2 the special edition both times included a brilliant DVD at hardly, if any, extra cost.
The AITB re-release, 'with expanded artwork' and the live material and exclusive footage it promised in the marketing, was also not quite there.

The podcasts sound good, if they are not exclusively Itunes.
Documentary title: "The Elbow Story: In Their Own Words"

Quote :

The podcasts sound good, if they are not exclusively Itunes.

They're not.

You can listen to the first five parts here, along with some other podcastery.

It may take some jiggery-pokery, but you should be able to get the mp3 files out of your browser cache to keep them, in case you don't use iTunes.

Was grateful Absolute linked it from their site too.
You say you can listen to the first five parts, does that mean there are more parts after part 5 on iTunes?
as I don't use it, I have no way of finding out. Has anyone downloaded them from iTunes?

Some funny stories in there that there wasn't room to include on the hour or so broadcast last sunday night.

lucky with disease wrote:

Was grateful Absolute linked it from their site too.
You say you can listen to the first five parts, does that mean there are more parts after part 5 on iTunes? as I don't use it, I have no way of finding out. Has anyone downloaded them from iTunes?

iTunes only has the five parts, and the fifth went online yesterday. So I don't know, from there, if there's more or not, except that ukkonen's post upthread says "a series of podcasts filled with 3+ hours of conversation with band" and the five parts only comprises an hour forty, give or take. Thus, I'm expecting more in the next few days.

And because I'm occasionally a tech nerd, this is the podcast feed for Absolute Radio's Elbow podcast. You don't need iTunes, just an RSS feed reader.

There's also a Snow Patrol podcast. An Oasis podcast. A Keane podcast.

And, naturally, a Doctor Who podcast.

I've only listened to part 1 so far. Had it on while I was doing the ironing. I laughed so much my husband came upstairs wondering what on earth was going on!! Think I'll save each one up for the weekly ironing then it'll make it easier to bare!

I know I am awfully late, but there is a question on my mind since I listened to the Absolute Radio interview. At some point, they say they are proud of all albums they have released, and of all songs on them -- except for one. Does anyone have a clue of what song they are not proud of?

Most times I think about it I end up thinking it is one from Leaders of the Free World, just because it is my least favourite album. But maybe it is something from Asleep in the Back, as it was their first album. However, all preconceptions apart, my strongest vote goes to a song from Cast of Thousands, despite being my favourite album.

Here is one idea of how to find it: say we have a database with their gig setlists. Then we could check the frequency with which songs have been played, and how long after the release of an album they were still being played. Perhaps there is clue in there.

Well, the rumour is that it's a b-side...

A B-side, that is indeed a good clue. Does it have anything to do with cats? From this interview, however, I had the impression they were not talking about a B-side at all.

It has to be a track off of Cast of Thousands or a b-side from one of the singles, because I can't seem to recall Guy ever really talking favorably about the album as a whole once Leaders & TSSK released.

Quote :

And you're front and center. You're the face of the band.

I suppose that after the first record I was worried that my mates would look at me differently. And maybe the rest of the band was going to say, "Why is he getting all the attention." But they were like, "No, what are you talking about? That's what happens."

So yeah, our first one, we didn't know what to expect. On our second one it was just so bewildered. I think we wrote some of our most romantic songs on that record.

It definitely took me longer to get into that record. I listened to it a few times and couldn't get into it, but came back to it a year or two later and was like "Wow, this is brilliant."

I think really, myself, I cherry pick on that record. I get hung up on "Switching Off" and "Fugitive Motel" really. Although "Grace Under Pressure" is a good one for different reasons. It's got some wonderful memories connected to it. [2008]

Quote :

That mutual respect they have for each other helped make the recording process for Leaders Of The Free World easy - a welcome change from the tense atmosphere surrounding sessions for the problematic second album, Cast Of Thousands. Garvey is pissed that Elbow fell victim to the dreaded "second album" syndrome. "The thing that annoyed me is that we went along with the cliché."

Thanks, ukkonen, for those quotes! I think it must be from Cast of Thounsands, then. I have listened to it again last week and taken some notes (as if I needed a reason). To my ears, those are the likelikoods the following songs are "the one" (0 = not likely, up to 4 = very likely). Of course I also based these on some prior knowledge:

3 - Ribcage [although I think they have a soft spot for this one, esp. Pete]
1 - Fallen Angel [it was a single, so not likely]
0 - Fugitive Motel [from quote above]
1 - Snooks (Progress Report) [homage to Snooks Eaglin, so it is unlikely]
0 - Switching Off [from quote above]
3 - Not a Job
2 - I've Got Your Number [ref. to Hendrix? not sure]
4 - Buttons and Zips
2 - Crawling with Idiot
0 - Grace Under Pressure [from quote above]
2 - Flying Dream 143 [how can this sweet song be the one? but no other evidence]