ELBOW @ THE O2 ARENA- 28TH MARCH

ELBOW @ THE O2 LONDON 28TH MARCH

As with most people I know I only really got into Elbow with the Mercury Award winning ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ album which when you consider the band have been around for 20 years makes me feel a bit…well, slack?
One of the Pro’s of being a latecomer to any band is that you’ve got a ready made stack of catalogue at your disposal and after a a brief delve you realise you actually knew loads of their stuff already which kind of legitimises your claim on the band in the first place!

Last nights gig at the O2 arena was a little bit of a dream. Despite feeling a bit young and scruffy in the predominantly posh 35+ crowed we had an incredible night. We had 4 of the best seats in the house thanks to a very lovely Paul Newman and even with me being practically blind without my glasses I could still make out the beads of sweat of Guy Garvey’s face!

The sound was absolutely perfect, which isn’t easy to achieve in such a large venue. The setlist flowed from the wonderfully delicate such as ‘Some Riot’ and ‘Weather to Fly’ through to belters like ‘Neat Little Rows’ and ‘Grounds For Divorce’ which take on a whole new life is that environment. It was as if they were written for a stadium gig!
The crowed fizzed with excitement as a giant mirrorball descended from the ceiling and the opening notes of ‘Mirrorball’ echoed out across the arena accompanied by all the sparkly sparkles that the actual mirrorball sprinkled upon us. Beautiful.

They finished up with the epic ‘One a day like this’ to which the entire audience stood up and sang along word for word. It was pretty cheesy, and you were definitely a million miles away from feeling in any way ‘cool’, but fuck it… It was a night to remember.

My only gripe is that they didn’t play ‘Fugitive Motel’

Roll on Glastonbury where i’m considering making a banner that reads ‘Not till Guy sings me my song am I going anywhere’