Elbow Biography

Injecting a wider range of emotions into their music than most of their guitar-based peers, Elbow refer to themselves as "prog without the solos" without winking. The members of the band — vocalist Guy Garvey, drummer Richard Jupp, keyboardist Craig Potter, guitarist Mark Potter, and bassist Pete Turner — met in the early '90s at college in Bury. Moving a little south to Manchester proper, the band went through a couple of developmental stages before settling on its sound, playing gigs locally and attracting the interest of Island, which signed the band in 1998. Dropped within a year, Elbow then linked with EMI and were dumped by them in a couple months. However, Elbow landed on Manchester independent Uglyman, which released two of their EPs ('Newborn' and 'Any Day Now'). The acclaimed EPs gained the band a contract with V2, which released 2001's equally tipped 'Asleep In The Back'. The record was short-listed as a nominee for 2001's Mercury Prize and was issued in the States in early 2002. 'Cast Of Thousands', which appeared in 2004, was a strong follow-up. 'Leaders Of The Free World', inspired by political events and behavior in the media, was released in the autumn of 2005 while 'The Seldom Seen Kid' appeared in 2008 and was awarded the Mercury Prize later that year.