– Elbow – In Concert At Pinkpop 2015 – June 12, 2015 – VPRO/3VOOR12
Elbow to get Tuesday running in an orderly and optimistic fashion. From the prestigious and long-running Pinkpop Festival in The Netherlands, recorded on June 12, 2015 by Radio Nederland.
Heading up the bill for that Friday installment was Elbow, who became perennial favorites since then. Taking big advantage of their latest album at the time, The Take Off And Landing Of Everything, which came out in April 2015, debuting at Number One on the UK charts, as well as the release of a new single, What Time Do You Call This? from the new film, Man Up by Simon Pegg. They were on a roll that Summer and were widely considered one of the “must see” bands, an assessment that has stayed intact the last 10 years.
Elbow’s musical style has been described as alternative rock, indie rock, indie pop, Britpop, art rock, progressive rock, dream pop, post-rock, and post-Britpop (did I leave anything out?). Elbow have cited a number of influences on their music, including Genesis (in particular the progressive rock years featuring Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett), Talk Talk and Radiohead. Guy Garvey has said: “I grew up listening to every Genesis record. I learned to write harmonies by listening to Peter Gabriel.”
The song “Newborn” from Elbow’s debut album was directly influenced by “Entangled” from the Genesis album A Trick of the Tail. Garvey has also said “there’d be no Elbow without Radiohead”. He credits the band’s sense of dynamics to the influence of Talk Talk and has said: “Volume dynamics are an essential part of classical music, but a lost art with guitar music. I think it’s incredibly boring and shortsighted if a band sticks with just one sound song for song. An album should take people on a journey.”
What they’ve been up to lately (thanks Wikipedia):
On 25 January 2024, Elbow released single “Lover’s Leap” and announced their tenth studio album Audio Vertigo, released on 22 March 2024. Touring and session drummer Alex Reeves contributed to the writing of the album, which led to him becoming a full member of the band. Following delays in the opening of the new Co-op Live arena in Manchester, causing the cancellation of several performances by other artists, Elbow gave the first performance at the venue on the evening of the 14th May, following their support act The Waeve.
On 7 November 2024, Elbow released single “Adriana Again” as the first track of an upcoming EP for release in 2025, along with a music video featuring a mystery band. The band wanted to give the sound from Audio Vertigo “another crack”, as Garvey put it.
On 24 February 2025 they announced a US/Canada tour. This marks the first North America shows since 2020 and the first proper North America tour since 2017.
On 9 May 2025 the band announced AUDIO VERTIGO ECHO elbow EP 5. Along with new single “Sober”. The 4 track EP released on 6 June 2025 as a standalone EP as well as an extension to Audio Vertigo as its deluxe edition.
And they continue to be one of the great bands to see live.
Play loud, sing along at the appropriate bits and write down in your calendar the next time they hit your area for a concert.
