My First Memories Volume 1 - Elbow

First sighted performing 'Grounds for Divorce' on The Jonathan Ross Show in 2008.

This track is one of the pillars of Elbow's mega-selling, mega-celebrated album, The Seldom Seen Kid. A mighty fine album it is too. However, in February 2008, Elbow was the given name of some band that I was only vaguely aware of - I thought they were a 'new Coldplay' or something like. Since that time, the band have gone on to achieve the kind of success you feel they deserve, and I have become a fan - realising that they have very little in common with Coldplay, or just about any other band.

To find such a gem on a TV chat show is something of a minor miracle. I expect to discover something worthy of follow-up on music driven shows such as Jools Holland's long running series, or on Sky Arts. However, it is a rare thing these days that I will be genuinely impressed by 'tonight's musical guest'. It's not even very Rock 'n' Roll to admit to watching chat shows at all, I suppose! If I go back to my youth I'd have to say TV was a very important medium for shelling out new talent. Though sometimes the talent wasn't that apparent, or maybe the talent wasn't even that new. It turns out that Elbow wasn't a very new phenomenon to the initiated, either. I'm just glad to have seen these seemingly working class heroes deliver something so well-crafted at a live TV performance. I'm not sure if this hit the screen just before the band's popularity went into overdrive, but it felt like it for me. Perhaps their invitation to the show was inspired by an evident sense that something special was happening for these Manchester men. That was neither here nor there for me - the main thing was that I wanted to hear more. I bought all their albums in the following weeks and was rewarded with music that was heavy on emotion, and richly arranged to boot.

I finally got my first glimpse of the live version of the band at last year's Electric Picnic, and they did not disappoint. Once again, when that riff kicked in, I was reminded of the beautifully controlled power that exists in all of the band's work - and especially in this song.