CityLife

Elbow

Elbow left the audience in raptures last night at their homecoming gig in Manchester Cathedral.

The superstar group were given a fantastic welcome in front of a capacity crowd of around 1,000 at the 15th-century Gothic church.

Backed by the Halle Youth Choir – who performed on tracks on their latest album – the band mixed old favourites such as Weather to Fly and One Day Like This with newer material from Build A Rocket Boys! 

The former Mercury Prize winners  also gave a nod to the home crowd with soulful renditions of Lippy Kids, inspired by songwriter Guy Garvey’s time growing up in Bury and studying at Stand College in Whitefield in the 90s.

The band seemed completely relaxed in the unusual setting, with Garvey telling the crowd that cathedrals were ‘designed to make music in, and to sing in’.

At one point he improvised a song about the greatness of the city of Manchester, getting the audience to join in – only to joke with them it went down better in Liverpool.

The cathedral was beautifully lit, and the acoustics incredible.  The level of intimacy was quite unusual for a gig by a band of Elbow’s status, with Garvey chatting to the crowd just a few feet from where he stood.

Five hundred tickets for the exclusive concert were given away on BBC Radio 2 as part of the station’s In Concert series. Seventy-five per cent went to fans in Greater Manchester.

The gig, compered by DJ Jo Whiley, was also broadcast live on Radio 2, on digital television and live on the big screen in Exchange Square – where hundreds gathered to watch.

But inside the cathedral was definitely the place to be.  Some 40,000 people had applied for tickets – and with good reason. 

Celebrity faces in the crowd included Katherine Kelly and Antony Cotton from Coronation Street – and High Peak MP Andrew Bingham, who had apparently turned up to support his nephew, a member of the Halle Youth Choir.

The cathedral has been the backdrop for a number of classical music and theatre shows, but only recently branched out into the world of pop with performances by bands such as Cherry Ghost and I Am Kloot.

Elbow are the latest – and, on this evidence, the best.

At one point, an adrenalin-fuelled Garvey told the audience: “Cathedral gigs rule!”

Last night, at least, it was impossible to disagree.

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