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Elbow and the Halle
There is a time in every great band's career when everything comes together.
For Elbow and the 2,500 fans lucky enough to get a ticket for the first night of their ground-breaking collaboration with the Halle Orchestra, that moment has come.
After 17 years in the music industry wilderness, the Bury five-piece have had an amazing year winning the Mercury Music Prize and being named Best Band at the Brits thanks to their fourth album, The Seldom Seen Kid.
This week, they proved any doubters wrong with an amazing and ambitious show at the stunning Bridgewater Hall, in Manchester.
The pairing of Britain's oldest orchestra and purveyors of ethereal indie-rock isn't the most obvious, but from the hypnotic opening violins to the rousing hand-waving sing-a-long that was the finale, it was evident throughout that it was a masterstroke of creativity.
It's not the first time the band have played with an orchestra. They played the whole of The Seldom Seen Kid with the BBC Concert Orchestra earlier this year.
This time, however, the band had the help of another local musical legend - Salford's Joe Duddell - who has spent months orchestrating work from across the band's expansive back catalogue.
The result was nothing short of amazing and their two-and-a-half hour show is certainly the highlight so far of the second Manchester International Festival.
'Starlings', a 10-minute epic of swooping violins and bolshy brash interludes, was a standout, as was the hypnotic 'Mirrorball,' which was helped along by the wonderful Halle Youth Choir.
The dramatic 'The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver' benefited from full orchestra while debut single 'Newborn' left many with tears in their eyes.
In the end, the rousing violin laden encore got everyone on their feet waving their hands and singing along to the exultant 'One Day Like This.'
Every panoramic track, re-arranged for this special show, mesmerised the crowd, who couldn't quite decide if they were at a rock gig or a classical concert.
The musicians were rewarded with numerous standing ovations throughout the show - it's no wonder they all beamed pride.
In the not so distant future, this gig will be talked about in the same breath as other legendary Manchester gigs, like the Sex Pistols in 1976 and the 'Judas' controversy at Bob Dylan's gig in 1966.
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Weather for Leyland
Saturday 11 February 2012
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