Elbow at the O2

I'd been waiting for this night for a long time - ever since Elbow announced their tour and I had a chance to pre-order tickets. Given what I knew of their live reputation there was just no way that I was going to miss out when they came to London even if it did mean trekking out to the Dome and the wasteland that is the Greenwich peninsula. Actually as it turned out getting there was fine because we could jump on the O2 Express at the London Eye and get whisked down-river by catamaran; enjoying the sights of London by the water in the early evening. It was really a lot of fun although only an appetiser for the main meal:

Hot tickets!

Curiously this was my first ever visit to the O2 -I didn't even make it for the Millennium - so I was quite looking forward to seeing the big tent. The first thing that struck me is how far away it is (30 minutes by boat) while the second thing was its sheer size; they've stuck an arena big enough for 20,000 people in the middle of it and there's still acres of room all around the edge! So it took us a while to get to our seats but what great seats they were; dead-centre in front of the stage and just the right height. Okay we weren't in the mosh pit, where you'd be close enough to throw your knickers to Guy Garvey (literally), but that was probably for the best:

Guy Garvey in action

Anyway once the band arrived on stage and launched into The Birds (from Build A Rocket Boys) I knew that we were going to be in for a special evening. For such a big venue the sound was excellent with very clear vocals, essential for a band like Elbow with their delicate sonic palette, and Guy soon built a rapport with the crowd via some rambling monologues and self-effacing humour. This worked very well in bringing some of the new songs into context although I was pretty glad to have listened to their latest album a number of times before the concert; it always helps to know where you're being taken and when you can sing along! What I didn't expect though was to come away having a greater appreciation of those songs that I'd initially been lukewarm about (such as lippy kids and, especially, with love). Just goes to show I suppose.

The view from seat 204

A nice touch also was that in the middle of the concert most of the band exited the stage to leave Guy and Craig Potter - at the piano - marooned on a peninsula of their own in the middle of the audience. This gave them the chance to cover a couple of tunes that would otherwise get lost in the vastness of a stadium; Puncture Repair from Leaders of the Free World and Some Riot from The Seldom Seen Kid. These are two of my very favourite Elbow songs, both lyrically and musically, so I was happy to see them make an appearance. In fact the whole show was just great and I'm not alone in feeling that way. This was very much one of the best live shows that I've seen in a while; well worth the late night on a Monday!