肘乐团

Elbow (stylized in lowercase as elbow) are an English rock band formed in Bury, Greater Manchester, in 1990. The band consists of Guy Garvey (lead vocals, guitar), Craig Potter (keyboard, piano, backing vocals), Mark Potter (guitar, backing vocals), Pete Turner (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Alex Reeves (drums). They have played together since 1990, adopting the name Elbow in 1997. Reeves replaced original drummer Richard Jupp in 2016 as a touring and session musician at first, before becoming a full member in 2024.

The band have released ten studio albums: Asleep in the Back (2001), Cast of Thousands (2003), Leaders of the Free World (2005), The Seldom Seen Kid (2008), Build a Rocket Boys! (2011), The Take Off and Landing of Everything (2014), Little Fictions (2017), Giants of All Sizes (2019), Flying Dream 1 (2021) and Audio Vertigo (2024). Their studio albums, as well as their B-sides compilation Dead in the Boot (2012), all reached the top 15 of the UK Albums Chart. Seven of their singles placed in the top 40 of the British singles chart. Their most recent album, Audio Vertigo, was released on 22 March 2024.

In 2008, Elbow won the Mercury Music Prize for their album The Seldom Seen Kid. In 2009, they won the Brit Award for Best British Group. The same year, the song "One Day Like This" won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. In October 2011 NME placed it at number 41 on its list of "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years". After featuring in the 2012 Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony, the single peaked at No. 4 in the UK Singles Chart. In 2012, they released "First Steps", the BBC theme for the 2012 London Olympics.

History

1990-2001: Formation and first EPs

After meeting each other in 1990 at the former Stand College in Whitefield near Bury, Greater Manchester, guitarist Mark Potter asked Guy Garvey to sing in a band he was in with drummer Richard Jupp and bassist Pete Turner. Together, the four formed the band Mr. Soft, named after the song by Cockney Rebel (the name was later shortened to Soft). Potter's brother Craig then joined the band on keyboards. That year the band played their first gig together at the Corner Pin pub in Ramsbottom.

They changed their name a second time to Elbow in 1997, inspired by a line in the BBC TV drama The Singing Detective in which the character Philip Marlow describes the word 'elbow' as the loveliest word in the English language. After winning a local Battle of the Bands, the band signed with Island Records and recorded their first album with producer Steve Osborne at Real World Studios. However, Island sold out to major label Universal. The band was dropped in a mass cull and the album was not released.

Elbow continued to record with independent label Ugly Man Records and released The Noisebox EP, The Newborn EP, and The Any Day Now EP. These releases garnered extensive airplay on BBC Radio 1.

2001–2004: Asleep in the Back and Cast of Thousands

Elbow's debut album Asleep in the Back was released in May 2001 on V2 Records. The album was written over the course of six years, and contains six rerecorded tracks from the Real World Studios sessions. Asleep in the Back was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize and earned the band a BRIT Award nomination for Best New British Band.

The band's second album Cast of Thousands was released in August 2003. The title of the album is a reference to their performance at the 2002 Glastonbury Festival, where they recorded the audience singing, "We still believe in love, so fuck you". The recording is featured on the song "Grace Under Pressure".

In 2004 Elbow toured Cuba, playing songs from Asleep in the Back and Cast of Thousands at venues in and around Havana. British documentary maker Irshad Ashraf filmed a large portion of the tour. The resulting short film was shown at film festivals in 2004, but remains commercially unavailable.

2004–2006: Leaders of the Free World

Their third album, Leaders of the Free World, was released in 2005. It was self-produced at Blueprint Studios in Salford, a studio the band hired for the sessions. They teamed up with video artists The Soup Collective to produce an integrated music and video DVD.

In mid-2006, Elbow headlined the Ukula Bright Lights Festival in Toronto's Distillery District.

2006–2009: The Seldom Seen Kid

In 2006, the band moved to Fiction Records and completed their fourth studio album The Seldom Seen Kid in late 2007, which was produced and mixed by Craig Potter. The album was released in March 2008 and sold over 1 million copies.

On 9 September 2008, they were awarded the Mercury Music Prize for The Seldom Seen Kid, and in May 2009 the band won two Ivor Novello Awards: "One Day Like This" won the main award for Best Song, and "Grounds for Divorce" was voted Best Contemporary Song. Elbow were also awarded Best International Band at the Meteor Awards in Dublin on 17 March 2009.