'Throw those curtains wide. One day like this a year'd see me right'
If someone had asked me, 'Sam, which album of 2008 would you most like to hear performed with an orchestra, live in Abbey Road Studio One?' I would definitely have said The Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow.
Luckily someone from the BBC had the same idea, so on January 16th Elbow and The BBC Concert Orchestra came together at Abbey Road to rehearse and perform an orchestral version of their Mercury Prize-winning album The Seldom Seen Kid.
For some people, the idea of combining a band and orchestra brings to mind the over-blown bombastic experiments of 70s rock groups. But few could accuse Elbow of bombast. From the huge blocks of sound that punctuate the emotive lyrics of 'Starlings', through the muted trumpet of Gershwin's 'Summertime' that close 'Bones Of You', to the rolling anthemic chorus that builds through 'One Day Like This', Elbow are a band that draw upon a subtle and varied palette of sounds, and the orchestral arrangements of Nick Ingman only served to augment that palette.
During the first rehearsal it was obvious from the grins on the faces of the band how much they were enjoying themselves.
Speaking to the The Music Week programme on 6 Music after the show, frontman Guy Garvey said:
'If you'd given me an acoustic guitar and asked me to bash out an Elbow tune I would have been very proud, but to have such an amazing orchestra and a choir backing you on your songs: it was all the band could do not to blub all the way through.
"It was just the most amazing thing that's ever happened. I think I said that about the Mercury so it's the other most amazing thing that's ever happened to us.'
The live show was recorded in front of a small invited audience and will be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Saturday 31st January. It'll also be broadcast via the Red Button on BBC television from 10pm that day and will available to watch all week.
A CD & DVD will be available exclusively from www.elbow.co.uk in early March.
