Reluctant Heroes: The Story of Elbow by Mick Middles

Author:Mick Middles [Middles, Mick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-85712-025-0
Publisher: Omnibus Press
Published: 2009-03-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

American Dreams and Manchester Scene

The relationship between the music of Elbow and the vast American rock audience has always been rather tentative – and remains so. There is no doubting that, seemingly in every city, the band’s prodigious touring has gained them a steady and growing audience. That stated, and despite vast radio play on the college circuit, the band have remained restricted to a cultish appeal, as if their Northern darkness is a peculiar delicacy lost on the average American kid schooled on Foo Fighters, Green Day and Nickelback. While acts such as Coldplay have skimmed the surface and gained massive mainstream radio acceptance, Elbow have remained one level below. This is something that Elbow’s various record companies have deliberated over at great length. The notion that their music is somehow too English, too insular and too intelligent for a mainstream American following still carries considerable weight.

Nevertheless, their touring presence in America has been fairly constant. A supporting role to Doves, for instance, built on the fascination with all things Mancunian that exists at college level in the States (The Smiths, Joy Division, New Order, The Stone Roses and Oasis adding the necessary gravitas) and intelligent choices of touring partners – such as the renowned Mercury Rev, Clem Snide and Lift to Experience – also served to intensify that cultish appeal and helped them gain a hardcore following that may last Elbow throughout their career. The band would be constantly surprised – and somewhat embarrassed – when faced with Stateside intensity. Such was the case following an impressive acoustic session in LA. A hefty fan approached them and whipped his shirt off to reveal a giant Asleep In The Back tattoo, an incident that caused the band to fall into a post-session debate about how their music could permeate a person’s life to such an extent. Surely this would be more suited to some black metal outfit?

There would never be any aloofness during these Stateside forays. Elbow cannot, it seems, fully enjoy an experience without finding themselves in some downbeat bar, drinking into the small hours, getting to know the other artists on the bill. It would become an Elbow tradition although, while alcohol is an important aspect of their muse, this barroom activity is not as hedonistic as it may seem. Garvey drinks, famously, but never to an excess that would border on the chaotic. True Lancashire lads; inebriated often, but understanding the limits and, importantly, learning how to use alcohol to fuel their work.

“I have done some of my best writing while mildly drunk,” Garvey told this writer in April 2009. The notion is that true gold exists in the flight between the second and the fourth glass of wine. After that, the wine starts to dominate. Many artists have stated similar, including Leonard Cohen’s assertion that, “In the beginning, man drinks wine, then wine drinks wine, then wine drinks man”. It’s the ‘wine drinks wine’ area that is the most intriguing to the artist and there’s no doubt that this is the area that produces a great deal of Elbow’s appeal.

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