Elbow’s stagger home.. RETURN TO ROOTS
VETERAN rockers Elbow returned to their roots by turning their new album into an extended stag do.
The Manchester band shared a flat in Brighton while recording Flying Dream 1 in lockdown, having become an official Covid bubble.
Singer Guy Garvey told me: “We stayed in what could only be described as a stag-do flat while making our album.
“It was a four-bedroom, wipe-clean property.
“We recorded the album at Brighton Theatre Royal and had to finish work at 10pm each night.
“After curfew, we’d drink wine at the flat and make plans for the following day.”
The kind-hearted, four-piece are helping the widow of their late friend Richard Swift by crediting the singer on their new song Red Sky Radio.
Richard died of hepatitis in 2018, having toured with Elbow several years earlier.
Guy explained: “The music of Red Sky Radio reminded me of Richard.
“We talked big ideas and he wrote some beautiful music.
“We directly lifted the end of Red Sky Radio’s chorus from Richard’s song Looking Back I Should Have
Been Home More. Richard’s widow, Shealynn, gave us permission to use it.
“Hopefully, she’ll get a bit of money from Richard’s songwriting credit, as Richard’s death left her some medical bill debts.
“Mostly, our song is a homage to a very brilliant man.”
Elbow’s last three albums have reached No 1, but they’re likely to lose out to Adele’s 30, which is also out tomorrow.
Guy admitted: “Obviously, we’d rather have avoided the clash.
“But if you’re going to be – fingers crossed – No.2 to anybody, why not the most brilliant songwriter of her time? Adele writes from the heart and she’s wonderful.
“I absolutely love Easy On Me. “I’ve not heard that sentiment in a song before and Adele has given so many people the words they need for a common experience.”
After recording Flying Dream 1, Elbow belatedly toured previous album Giants Of All Sizes recently.
Guy revealed: “There was such enthusiasm for those songs.
“If we’d been able to tour Giants earlier, we might have made more rockier songs which kick off live.
“Finally seeing the crowd react to them, it’s stoked the boiler for ideas.