Sunday 19 March 2017

Elbow - Doncaster Dome 15/03/17

This is an Elbow review. Trust me.

July 1989 and I'm living with one of my best mate's, Nidge, in his sister's flat in Golders Green. (His sister was in America learning all kinds of zoo stuff, or something).We were just off the back of Glastonbury 1989. Now people may tell you that 1995 was THE year of Glastonbury. They're wrong. 1989 was truly iconic. It was still small enough to be intimate, big enough to feel like you were part of something special and had a line up to die for. Plus I paid for my ticket by cheque a month before the festival and it cost me £26 for the weekend. This was way before estate agents from London thinking they were having it large, spoilt kids getting a weekend ticket from Daddy so he can have a weekend's peace to spend with Mummy or the chav influx. The NME review of the weekend started 'The bastard sun shone and shone and shone. At night the moon was orange. Another big smiley'. It was scorching. Acid house had just kicked in and The Stone Roses were just around the corner. You could feel it in the air with every shout of hash for cash. You were part of something happening. That weekend made me realise I needed to be somewhere other than Donny, hence Golders Green. What a time to be alive.

Sundays at this time fill me with the fondest memories. I'd wake up with the sun streaming through the window. One of us, usually Nidge, would nip out for the Sunday papers and we'd pass the morning with sun, coffee, quality press and cigarettes. The cigarettes were just my vice and the quality press is long gone. In the afternoon we'd either pick up Nidge's guitar and bongos and head to Leicester Square to busk Elvis' songs to American tourists or, if one of us had any cash, grab a couple of bottles of wine, some fine cheese and head up to the heath for a payless busk and a picnic. Sunday night was spent watching covers band Speedway at The Castle in Golders Green. Nowt special but immense fun.

If I were to relive those days 28 years later Elbow would be the soundtrack. It was after all a perfect waste of time.

Now I realise I'm looking at this through nearly 30 years of rose-tinted clouded memories and we probably spent more time sat around wondering how we could afford sausages. (We lived on sausages. I went radical once and bought some crispy pancakes. It didn't end well). My point, I think, is this: Many of those days were perfect. I never realised it at the time obviously. I'm writing all this to remind me in years to come just how perfect Elbow were last night.

Elbow seem to have got massive without anyone noticing. Their live show is far more suited to a festival headline slot than most of the acts currently on the 'festival headline roundabout'. 7th studio album Little Fictions was released with minimal fuss in February this year and promptly parked itself at Number One. Yes there have been BRIT Awards and a Mercury Music Prize but when you compare it to the frankly ludicrous media storm surrounding Ed Sheeran's latest release it really was 'minimal fuss'.

What Elbow have are frankly gorgeous songs played with the consummate ease and professionalism of a band fully aware of what they have. Even with the loss of drummer Richard Jupp they, ahem, never miss a beat. Almost to prove this they open with the 2nd single off Little Fictions, the drum driven Gentle Storm. In Guy Garvey they have a man with a velvet voice and a laid back, nonchalant charisma on stage. I've seen comedians at the Dome less funny than Garvey. Similar to Springsteen he makes any gig feel intimate.

A 15 song setlist sees naturally a third coming from Little Fictions but a healthy dose of back catalogue too. As with with everything Elbow do it is immaculately thought out. Mirrorball and New York Morning are particular jaw dropping. I go from goosebumps, to tears to an inane grin throughout the gig, sometimes in the same song. Scattered Black And Whites is dedicated  to Guy's sister who's in the crowd that night. The Birds reaches new heights, floating across a Dome crowd loving every single second. Magnificent (She Says) is just, well, magnificent. Released in December 2016 it was the single of the year. No argument.

Set closer One Day Like This has Guy urging the crowd to sing the 'Throw those curtains wide' coda with at first no band, then no clapping, then quieter, quieter, quieter, just hum it, now as loud as you can. He gets the desired response every time.

The encores come with Lippy Kids and an almost brutal Grounds For Divorce. As with everything that has gone before they are flawless. Any band that strives for perfection MUST see Elbow live. A word I heard many times on the night and since is majestic.

It all promised to be magnificent. It was.

Setlist


Gentle Storm
The Bones of You
Fly Boy Blue / Lunette
All Disco
Mirrorball
New York Morning
Scattered Black and Whites
Little Fictions
Kindling
My Sad Captains
The Birds
Magnificent (She Says)
One Day Like This

Encore:
Lippy Kids
Grounds for DivorcePlay Video