The Top 20 Show – Elbow

This quintet from Bury, Lancashire – vocalist Guy Garvey, drummer Richard Jupp, keyboardist Craig Potter, guitarist Mark Potter, and bassist Pete Turner – came together in 1990, and spent the following few years developing and refining their sound. Moving to Manchester, they were signed to Island in 1998, but dropped within a year, only to be picked up by EMI. However, this was a short-lived relationship, and after just a couple of months they were dropped again.

Independent label Uglyman saw their true potential though, and released two of their EPs (‘Newborn’ and ‘Any Day Now’), which helped them sign to V2, which released 2001′s Mercury nominated ‘Asleep In The Back’. ‘Cast Of Thousands’, followed in 2004, ‘Leaders Of The Free World’, a more politically inspired album, was released in the autumn of 2005, whilst fourth album ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ appeared in 2008 and was awarded the Mercury Music Prize later that year, bringing the band to a much wider audience. ‘Build A Rocket Boys’ was released March 2011, reaching no. 2 in the album charts, their highest position so far…

I had a great time playing out 2 hours of my favourite band – what DJ could ask for more??

The result of the voting was:

1 Scattered Black And Whites
2 Fugitive Motel
3 Grounds For Divorce
4 Newborn
5 Great Expectations
6 Mirrorball
7 The Birds
8 Station Approach
9 One Day Like This
10 Powder Blue
11 The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver
12 Switching Off
13 Lippy Kids
14 Leaders Of The Free World
15 Forget Myself
16 Any Day Now
17 Weather To Fly
18 Asleep In The Back
19 Red
20 The Bones Of You

Thanks to everyone that voted, and all those that joined me in the chatroom and listened on FM and online. Hope you enjoyed it as much as me!

I mentioned two web addresses, the first was the Elbow forum ‘Elbow Room Only’, which can be found at https://elbow.heavenforum.org/, and I’d like to extend my thanks to all on there who voted and joined in with the discussions we had about our favourite tunes.

I also referred to Allyn Gibson’s blog, the post relating to this show can be read at https://www.allyngibson.net/?p=5679. It’s definitely worth a look, as he talks us through his choices and what they mean to him.

Thanks,
Dan