From the moment Elbow walked on stage at the Lloyds Amphitheatre in Bristol Harbourside, they had the huge crowd eating out of their hands. After three years away from Bristol, the Mancunian band clearly wanted to make up for lost time and they were genuinely pleased to see their fans again.
Under grey skies and drizzle on a blustery Friday night on the waterfront, Elbow indulged their loyal fans with 90 minutes of magnificent music that lifted the spirits and tugged on heartstrings. Grey-haired and bearded, burly frontman Guy Garvey is still the unstarriest of pop stars but he has that rare knack of getting massive crowds to sing with him as soon as he appears on stage.
With his grey short-sleeved shirt and saggy jeans, Garvey may dress like most middle-aged dads popping to the corner shop for a pint of milk, but he is a commanding presence on stage and a sensitive soul. After the second song, Fly Boy Blue/Lunette, he spotted a seagull swoop across the sea of faces in front of him and warned fans to keep an eye on their chips.
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Throughout the performance, he asked fans if they were OK like a worried parent making sure their child’s party was going to plan. Garvey is simply the nicest man in pop and it’s impossible not to fall for his avuncular charms.
This was a set that explored every corner of Elbow’s long career and although they didn’t dust off any songs from their 21-year-old debut album, there were plenty of old favourites in the sprawling 14-song set. Fourteen songs over 90 minutes might not sound like a decent hourly rate but many of these songs are emotional marathons rather than meaningless sprints.
By the second song, old favourite Mirrorball, Garvey was coaxing the crowd to hold their hands in the air by waving his arm from side to side. His semicircular action might resemble that of a window cleaner but it works.
The sight of thousands of waving hands illuminated by huge on-stage disco mirror balls as night fell was unforgettable. As was the moment Garvey spotted a young fan at the front and asked his name and whether it was his first ever gig.
Suddenly, gig debutant Harry was being serenaded by Garvey who then instigated a mass singalong of ‘Harry, Harry, Harry’ that echoed around the amphitheatre. Young Harry will hopefully never forget that.
The big crowdpleasers kept on coming with Kindling, My Sad Captains, Magnificent (She Says) and a fantastic version of The Bones of You, Pete Turner’s throbbing bass so loud that the quayside cobbles shook beneath our feet. Before Grounds For Divorce, Garvey reminisced about one of the band's earliest Bristol gigs ‘at that venue with the pillars in front of the stage’.
He asked the audience which venue that was, adjusting his earpiece to hear shouts of ‘The Fleece’. As somebody who was at that that gig 21 years ago, it’s amazing how far Elbow have come since those early tours in sweaty little venues.
A lot of people have always described Elbow songs as ‘melancholic’ or ‘depressing’ but their live shows are anything but. This was an uplifting, life-affirming performance and the musical equivalent of a reassuring bear hug.
And, of course, the band kept the best to last. A well deserved encore started with Lippy Kids before the song everybody was waiting for.
Since it first appeared on the 2008 album The Seldom Seen Kid, the song One Day Like This has become something of a classic. As well as a popular choice at weddings, it was also the song they were asked to perform at The Queen’s Jubilee Concert last month.
Their closing song generated the biggest mass singalong of the night and even beat the one for Noel Gallagher’s encore of Oasis classic Don’t Look Back In Anger on the opening night of Bristol Sounds 2022. The amphitheatre was suddenly lit up by hundreds of phone torches swaying in the dark.
At the end, Garvey stepped out to the front of the stage and shouted ‘cheers Bristol’ with his pint raised high. It was a fitting finale to a magnificent return for Elbow, who now head to Glastonbury to perform straight after Diana Ross on The Pyramid Stage this Sunday.
As fans made their way out of the gig, they were still singing the line ‘it’s looking like a beautiful day’. And it certainly had been.
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