So then, to the Nottingham Arena last night to watch Elbow. Not been there for a couple of years since I went to see a shirtless James Hetfield of Metallica stomping around the stage with a customised Flying V strapped on shouting "COME ON SING, NOTTING-HAM! LET'S MOTHERFUCKING TEAR THE MOTHERFUCKING ROOF OFF THIS MOTHERFUCKING PLACE!"
Last night couldn't have been more different. First things first though and the evening got off to bad start when I saw a Glaswegian I know who used the medium of Facebook last year to openly criticise me. Don't know what I'd done to upset her but the cheeky cow kissed me and addressed me as 'Big boy' last night. Ugh! So that put me in a bad mood.
Wasn't to last long though. Elbow are one of those bands that get grown men weeping. Don't know why. Look at leader Guy Garvey, a lump of a man in a three piece suit who wouldn't look out of place as a bouncer (also nice to see someone the same shape as me make it as a rock star). Thing is, he's immediately got everyone on side; women fancy him and men want to be his mate. In between songs his patter is that of a stand-up comic but when the music starts again his voice is like hot butter dripping off a biscuit. He could break a thousand hearts with one song. And he did with me, unlike a lot of the crowd who decided to film it via mobile phones, during Mirrorball (perhaps my favourite Elbow song) I shut my eyes and sang along. Bloody amazing.
I did have my doubts about how Elbow would cope in an arena; needn't have worried. A smaller stage had been set up on the floor with a runway between so that Garvey, and other band members at times, could go into the middle of the crowd. This stage came into its own when a piano doubled as a cocktail cabinet which the band took green drinks out of while a spare was handed to an audience member.
There was also another lovely moment - similar to the last time I saw them when Garvey directly addressed a couple in the audience the male half of whom was going to ask his girlfriend to marry him during a particular song - where he directly addressed a couple in a block right at the back of the arena. He announced that they were officially the farthest people from the stage and bought them up on a big screen. During the finale of One Day Like This he ran from the stage up to that couple and sang to them. Just lovely.
I'm not known as 'a crier' but I had a massive lump in my throat at the end. That's what you get with Elbow you see: loveliness. You come out feeling so good about yourself and every other human being on the planet. It's left me with a great feeling today. I love Elbow. I love my gig-going mate who always laughs at me throwing in Gregory's Girl quotes randomly. I love that shifty man who was standing a bit too close to my car when we got back to it. I even love that Glaswegian woman. And I love you.
Edit 19/03/11: Elbow once said "we still believe in love so fuck you". Sentiments which I whole-heartedly agree with. BUT I still don't want to go on holiday with you.
It's a beautiful day out there, go on, go outside and pat a random small child on the head. Or summat.
10 comments:
Have you abducted The Bright Ambassador? I put it to you, sir, whoever you are, that you're an imposter - an imposter, do you hear? Our BA is a man who calls a spade a shovel and uses the c word copiously. And then calls everything shit. Bring him back. If it's a ransom you want, as long as it's not more than ten bob we'll have a whip round and see what we can do. But please, no more of these 'fake' posts where everything is great and isn't the world great and aren't Elbow great. Enough.
Mr Medd beat me to it!
You do feel as if they've wrapped you in a warm blanket and given you a cup of hot chocolate, or a nice pint of real ale.
When I saw them at Delamere Forest they had us cooing at the moon. Left me with a real sense of bonhomie. Until the chavvy woman next to me decided to try piss in a bottle. Don't try that at home, kids.
Don't worry, it didn't last long - got fed up queueing to pay for a sandwich in M&S, could have shoved that busker's flute up his fundament outside, and nearly got run into by a BMW with same external dimensions as a Chieftain tank.
More power to your Elbow.
Re Elbow, I've just got to agree. They do kind of get me "right there" and I can't quite explain why. The new album's a corker; current faves are Lippy Kids and Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl.
Well, someone's been to Damascus, if only for an evening! Guy Garvey is well known for being able to charm the birds out of the trees and into his bed, but I'd never have predicted he could work his wiles on you.
Elbow were one of my 'finds' of the last ten years; they used to play small venues in Brighton quite often and we were lucky enough to see them several times before they went stellar. He always had that 'magisterial-man-of-the-people' quality, even on a tiny stage. That said, I never imagined they'd get quite this huge.
We often fall in love with people who physically resemble us, you know. Being in love is essentially a narcissistic state. So I put it to you that you love him even more because he looks a bit like you.
I saw him coming out of a portaloo at a festival once, pint in left hand, doing up his trousers with his right. Would you be caught dead doing that in public?
Oh.
Are you sure? I know you're into all that pshycology stuff, but really! I once fell in love with a girl who looked a bit like that Sophie Ellis Bextor (before anyone knew who Sophie Ellis Bextor was, of course. She was probably chief bully at Haberdasher's at the time). I look a bit like Rush's Alex Lifeson (pre hair transplant) looking in the back of a spoon (and that's a whole lot better than looking like Rush's Geddy Lee looking in the back of a spoon, let me tell yer) while Ellis Bextor lookalike clearly had a face shaped like a 50 pence piece. Explain that one with your new-fangled psychology.
The most Newark thing I ever saw was a bloke putting his pint down next to a urinal, getting his winkle out and peeing while sending a text at the same time. It's not very often I'm proud of my hometown but I was that night. In fact if it wasn't for the fact that I'd have had my head kicked off my shoulders I'd have slapped him on the back. I often wonder what the text said. Probably: "In da pub having piss, LOL. Warez u @?"
I have been known to check Facebook while having a wee. Sorry to leave that image in your head, my Facebook friend.
I was going to give you an insightful response to paragraph one's conundrum, but then you had to go and throw in paragraphs two and three, didn't you. Whatever I was going to say has gone right out of my head.
Happy to help *insert throaty chuckle here*
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