Guy Garvey has spoken to NME about the news that Elbow will be playing three hometown shows at Manchester Ritz for where they’ll be playing the whole of their debut album ‘Asleep In The Back’ to mark its 25th anniversary.
‘Asleep In The Back’ was a cult success on its release on the recently-relaunched V2 label in 2001. It reached Number 14 and earned the band their first Mercury Prize nomination. They lost out to PJ Harvey’s classic ‘Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea‘ but would later go on to win in 2008 for their breakthrough fourth album ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’.
In a 9/10 review at the time, NME hailed ‘Asleep In The Back‘ as “Manchester’s first great album of the millennium”, adding: “It seems that after all the pale imitators, Radiohead finally have a competitor worthy of healthy comparison.”
Now, they’ll be playing the album in full along with B-sides from the era at The Ritz across three nights from November 20-22.
“We had to mark the passage of 25 years. But we didn’t want to do an ‘Asleep In The Back’ tour because we wanted to make these shows more precious, so that the people who are there are likely to be taking a 25-year trip down memory lane,” Garvey told NME. “We wanted to do it for the people who were there in the first place, who never thought they’d hear the album in full.
“Originally, it was going to be just one show at the Ritz. But that felt churlish. So, fuck it, let’s do three. We want to make sure the shows are a really special thing, and they certainly will be for us.”
The five-piece – which comprised guitarist Mark Potter, bassist Pete Turner, keyboardist Craig Potter and since-departed drummer Richard Jupp – had experienced a lot of industry turmoil before releasing the album. They had two record deals cancelled at the last minute, then signed to Island, recording the original version of ‘Asleep In The Back’ with Happy Mondays producer Steve Osborne. That version got shelved when Elbow’s record contract was cancelled after Island were taken over by Universal Music, with the band eventually re-recording the album with Blur producer Ben Hillier.
Recalling the struggle to get the album made, Garvey said: “By the time we made the final version of the album, we were really fucked off with the industry. That manifests itself in things like the long organ intro of ‘Any Day Now’ at the beginning of the album. There’s a lot of: ‘Forget what anyone else is saying, we’re doing what we want.’ It gave us an extra bit of swagger, which is there in the songs’ patience, letting them unfold.”
Check out the rest of our interview with Garvey below where the frontman told us about plans for the shows, why the Ritz is so special, turning down the chance to meet his hero from Talk Talk, and how the new David Bowie Lightroom experience is inspiring the follow-up to 2024’s acclaimed ‘Audio Vertigo’.
He also shared his thoughts on Andy Burnham’s potential as Prime Minister, after the former Manchester Mayor used Elbow’s 2008 classic ‘One Day Like This’ in his successful campaign video to win the Makerfield constituency, which launched his bid to unseat Sir Keir Starmer as Labour leader.
NME: Hi, Guy. You released an acoustic album ‘Live At The Ritz’ in 2020. Why are you returning there for these ‘Asleep In The Back’ shows?
Guy Garvey: “The Ritz is such a beacon of Manchester’s musical nightlife. It’s been there forever, it’ll be there forever. At 16, just before I met the band, you could find me and various members of Elbow at the Ritz’s indie night. You’d hang out, wishing a goth girl would kiss you, while smoking cigarettes and bouncing around on the dancefloor. It was where you’d display your feathers, to make a statement that you were of the counterculture.
“When we were big enough to headline there under our own steam, which was on ‘Asleep In The Back’, it was a big moment. We’ve had an incredible career, meeting everyone we wanted to meet and being everywhere we wanted to go. But the Ritz is always special.”
When Elbow had so many issues with record companies before finally getting signed, did any of the band consider leaving?
“Lethargy never bumped against us for very long. You’d have a few minutes, then someone would rally. I’m very good at motivational speeches, but Mark Potter has unshakeable belief in what we do. He always has. He was a rock star long before he was a rock star.
“If I was feeling down, I could ride Mark’s 100 per cent unshakeable belief that everything would be OK. When we’re onstage and are having a proper ‘In the moment’ moment, where things look, sound and feel great, if I catch Pot’s eye, I’ll mouth: ‘Good idea’, and he knows I mean the band.”
Elbow outside The Lowry arts centre at Salford Quays, in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, 2001. (Photo by Simon King/Redferns/Getty Images)‘Asleep In The Back’ had more in common with Massive Attack and Talk Talk than many of Elbow’s post-Britpop contemporaries. Was that distinctive sound always in place?
“If we’d signed one of those early record contracts, I think the album would have been more commercial. By the time we did that final version of the record, we were more Spiritualized than Radiohead. It was: ‘Let’s let this song simmer before seeing what comes next.’
“When we decided to do these shows, we listened back to ‘Asleep In The Back’ – which I don’t think any of us had done in years. I was a little surprised, as that record is edgy, disgruntled, dark and bold. Pete said: ‘I’m really proud of what we did there. It’s a really brave debut.’
“The communal experience of our live show changed the way we wrote, to a degree. When I realised the reach we had, a dramatic romance topped the bill for a few years. There’s always been darkness in there, I’ve never been afraid to tackle dark subjects. But pretty much the whole of ‘Asleep In The Back’ is a statement of: ‘That’s enough of that, let’s get the fuck out of here.’”
Are there any songs on the album you’re really looking forward to playing live again? And any you’re not?
“I’m really looking forward to ‘Little Beast’, as I don’t recall ever doing that one live at all. And I’m not looking forward to ‘Powder Blue’, as it’s really high and there are a lot of really long notes. ’Powder Blue’ was painful to sing in the first place, and I was a much younger man then. We could change the key, but that’s cheating. I’ve just got to get in training for that one.”
There are 11 different songs that are exclusively B-sides on the ‘Asleep In The Back’ era. How many of those will you play at the shows?
“We’ve had a look around the B-sides, but we won’t do too many, because… Let’s just say that there’s going to be a couple of era-adjacent surprises. I miss doing B-sides. Around ‘Audio Vertigo’, we compromised by doing the ‘Echo’ EP, which were the equivalent of B-sides: less foot on the gas. I can’t now listen to ‘Audio Vertigo’ without hearing ‘Echo’ too. The two together is the complete album, for me.
“I love B-sides. My second favourite Talk Talk song, ‘It’s Getting Late In The Evening’, was the B-side of ‘Life’s What You Make It’. It’s got that rarest of rare things for Talk Talk, a tiny bit of reportage. Before the great big synth solo starts, you hear a fire door close and somebody snigger. It’s very unlike those very controlling men to let something like that go. It’s fascinating to wonder who it is and why it happened.”
Talk Talk singer Mark Hollis was famously elusive. Did you ever met him?
“No. But, when I won a Radio Academy award in 2014, the Academy asked our manager if there was anyone I’d love to have present it to me.
“I wouldn’t have sanctioned it, as I knew how private Mark was, but the Academy wrote to Mark Hollis. Mark sent a letter back, saying: ‘I respect very much the music Elbow make’ – which is on its way to him liking it – ‘But I don’t do that kind of thing. If Guy ever wants to go for a pint in London…’ And he left me his phone number. And I never called it [Hollis died in 2019].
“Talk Talk’s work is so burned into my bones, I couldn’t risk the place in my heart it has. It’s part of who I am, and I couldn’t fuck with that. There’s no way Mark could live up to the music he made. Last year, I made a 20-minute idiot’s guide to ‘Spirit Of Eden’ for Radio 4. I got messages from Mark’s widow and from his son, saying how much they loved the programme. That’s the high-five I wanted, that was great.”
Andy Burnham is such an Elbow fan that he used ‘One Day Like This’ in his Makerfield campaign video. How do you think he’ll fare as Prime Minister?
“I’m over the moon that he’s PM and I think he’ll do a great job. But no politician is 100 per cent bulletproof every day. He’s bound to disappoint some people at some points. That’s the nature of politics, but I believe in where he’s coming from and his intentions.
“I’m proud to have had anything to do with Makerfield. We’d never normally ally ourselves with a politician, but extraordinary circumstances demand extraordinary action. It’s not just about what Andy can do, but about what he has to do, in shutting down the far right. The Trumpian polarisation of America is at our doorstep, and here’s a man who stands to defeat it.”
Elbow, 2024. CREDIT: PressWhat’s next for Elbow?
“I recently saw the new David Bowie immersive exhibition at the Lightroom in King’s Cross. What a treat! I came out of it and phoned Elbow on our group chat. I said: ‘I love the way we work. But, for the past 15 years, there’s been a lot of passing files between us. I don’t think you can write ‘Life On Mars?’ at either end of the M6. You’ve got to be in the same room. Furthermore, I don’t think you can do it with five opinions in the same room.’
“I asked how they’d feel about me writing in a room on my own with Craig for a couple of days and with Mark for a couple of days. Because everybody loves and trusts each other, it was: ‘Go for it. We’ll bandalise it afterwards.’
“So yesterday, I was in Mark’s garden, on the wrong side of too much caffeine and a spliff, and we wrote two songs. Me and him haven’t done that since we were 16. It was magic.”
How are those new songs sounding?
“If you can keep your verve and energy up, combining it with wisdom and experience, then you stand to get something completely new. Does Tom Waits get older and better at the same time? Yeah. Does David Byrne? Did Johnny Cash? Being in a band for us is not just a young man’s game. For us, it’s: ‘Are we still allowed to do this? Brilliant!’”
Elbow will play ‘Asleep In The Back’ in full at Manchester Ritz on November 20, 21 and 22. Tickets are available via a fan presale from 10am on Wednesday September 2 by signing up to Elbow’s official mailing list here before they go on general sale on Friday September 4 here.
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