Smarter Than Your Average Fare

By Joe Kavanagh

As the saying goes, there is no substitute for hard work, because hard graft can overcome many obstacles in life, even in the asymmetric often-treacherous world of music.

While the odds of achieving a successful career in the music industry are prohibitive, there remain plenty of examples of individuals and groups who triumphed through what the media currently likes to refer to as 'sticktoittiveness'.

In fact, the beneficial effects of dedication and single-mindedness can sometimes be amplified in an industry where most musicians are not exactly known for their strong work ethics.

The bona fide stars are those that manage to marry unadulterated talent to this determination, although they sometimes are forced to wait until the world at large catches up to what they are doing.

UK act, Elbow, are a perfect example of such a confluence between endowment and devotion.

Fast-approaching the third decade of their existence as a band, perhaps no other UK act has ever garnered the type of high-praise that their music has received from critics, while still failing to make the anticipated breakthrough. Their latest album might finally put that notion to the sword.

Guy Garvey and Mark Potter met as 16-year-olds, in the town of Bury, which lies just outside of Manchester.

As a guitarist, Potter was starting a new band and asked Garvey if he would be interested in assuming singing duties, before recruiting his own kid brother Craig to play keys, and enlisting the help of close friends Peter Turner and Richard Jupp, who agreed to play bass and drums respectively.

The year was 1990, and the band initially went under the name Mr Soft, playing what they later recalled as "chilled funk", although they now readily admit that they were positively awful.

As time went on, the band dropped the 'Mr' suffix and, realizing the limitations of their hometown, they all moved in to Manchester and began working in a club called the Roadhouse. Although only a few miles from home, the renowned vibrancy of the UK's music capital (arguably Europe's music capital) saw the band opened up to a whole range of new musical influences but one act alone stood as a colossus: Radiohead.

Guy Garvey recently told an interviewer that "there'd be no Elbow without Radiohead", such was the profound influence that the Oxford outfit had - and still have - on Garvey and company.

While other bands were content to churn out tidy little pop and rock songs, Radiohead pushed the very parameters of their art, eschewing conventional song structures and mores, like a musical Frank Gehry.

Unlike Radiohead, who appear to shun crossover popularity, Elbow were determined to connect with as many people as possible, as Garvey recently recalled, saying: "Too many bands say, 'I make the music for myself, man. If anyone else likes it, that's a bonus.' Too many bands say it, and none of them are telling the truth. You make music because you want people to hear it, and you make music because you enjoy the process, but you want people to know you are capable of it. To show off, essentially."

With their stall finally laid out in full, Garvey and the others needed a new moniker, which was provided to them by an episode of Dennis Potter's renowned TV series, the Singing Detective, when one of the characters describes elbow as "the most sensuous word in the world".

Like Radiohead, Elbow would try to make music that was important, music that had soul and was utterly honest.

By the mid 90s, they had become local legends on the live circuit with a show known for its intensity and they were even the last band to ever play at Manchester's legendary Hacienda Club before it closed in the early 1992.

In 1998, the band released debut, The Noisebox EP, on their own label, Soft Records. Despite the fact that only 200 were printed up, a copy managed to make its way to the desk of the late John Peel, who immediately hailed them as one of the most talented acts on the British scene.

As word spread, it came as little surprise to those in the know when Island Records signed Elbow to multiple-album deal, before sending them off to record their debut in France only weeks later.

Appearances can be deceptive however, and as they put the final touches on the album and awaited a release date, news came in that Island had just been taken over by Universal Records, who immediately began a cull that resulted in Elbow being cut loose without ever getting to release the album.

After an emergency deal with EMI also fell through, the band signed with local label, UglyMan, and released two more critically acclaimed records in the form of The Newborn EP and Any Day Now EP.

Both releases only confirmed Elbow as one of the most exciting bands around and V2 records quickly stepped into the breach, allowing the band to finally release their debut, Asleep At The Back, in 2001.

The epic collection was celebrated by critics on both sides of the Atlantic as a work packed with both style and substance, with one famous - and relatively accurate - description referring to them as being like a band where OK Computer-era Radiohead made the music and Morrissey wrote the lyrics.

Intense, measured and often downright beautiful, the album was a huge hit with critics but failed to capture the public's imagination.

The next two years were spent touring the globe with such acts as Mercury Rev, Doves and South, and playing to stunned crowds at festivals throughout Europe.

Anxious to retain momentum, the band recorded on the road and - most memorably - recorded their live show at 2002's Glastonbury Festival, where they had the entire audience repeatedly chanting "We still believe in love, so f**k you", which was generally held up as the festival's most profound moment.

In 2003, the band returned with Cast Of Thousands, which was typical of the difficult second album, in that it offered flashes of greatness but failed to find purchase with the public.

Its follow-up, the self-produced Leaders Of The Free World (2005) saw the band return to form, with a collection that challenged ears and minds, by virtue of its music and the type of provocative lyrics that are so often sadly missing from modern music. Unlike most bands today, who view the lyrics as little more than another melody, Elbow place an absolute premium of having something to say and finding the correct way of saying it.

Although he has mellowed somewhat now, Garvey actually pushed the boundaries of his own life in order to try and discover new material as a writer.

He once recalled: "I've gone too far in the past. I got to the point, where I didn't know whether I was f**king up my life deliberately so I had something to write about, or the other way around."

As a wholly dedicated student of the craft of songwriting, Garvey could - and has - gladly discussed Fibonacci Sequence's relevance to composing and it has been said that his lyrics are torn from his own body still bleeding.

Despite this, he is renowned as one of the most amiable people in the music industry, intense but capable of laughing at himself and the absurdity of the world that surrounds him.

The band is also celebrated for its longstanding commitment to giving back to society and over the years they have given much of their time, effort and money to a range of charitable causes.

Three years in the making, The Seldom Seen Kid, has already lit a vibrant flash-fire under critics, utterly awed by its power and scope.

Inspired in part by the death of one of the band's closest friends, the album is dominated by themes of loss and how it can affect both positively and negatively.

The lyrics and music are created with a view towards symbiosis, where each reinforces and compliments the other, leading to an album that Garvey says : "every squeak, blip and word on it has been considered... and each track answers some real life questions and not just "should I go to the chippy?" or "she snogged my best mate".

Elbow have not only made one of the best albums so far this year, it's one of the smartest too. In the increasingly vacuous world of entertainment, such substance stands out like a beacon.