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30/06/2009 - Belfast Mandela Hall What an incredible night! 8 10 pm and the ‘doors’ finally opened! Both the excitement and the anticipation of a night to remember were tangible in and around the vicinity of Mandela Hall. From my excellent viewpoint of centre stage upper level, I could feel, see and hear the excitement rising - ‘It’s just like a Liverpool football match’ exclaimed the highly excited young student behind me as members of the audience began to chant in anticipation of the pleasures awaiting them. Finally, Mobius Band arrived on stage… their six ‘performances’ ensured that the audience was suitably ‘warmed’ ready for the highly awaited and longed for Editors! Was Russell really watching Mobius perform from amidst the thronging crowd… or was it his twin brother??? Finally E D I T OR S arrived to huge applause and a little liquid refreshment in the form of a few beers thrown at the stage - great dodging Chris! The sounds of the longed for Camera (Forum members knew that this was imminent) filled the air with an eerie expectation and the audience went wild with a mixture of excitement and pure unadulterated joy. Our lads rose to the challenge of performing on a small stage and seemed to be aware of and responded enthusiastically to the amusing and fanatical antics of a few members of their audience. Highlights of the evening included magnificent renditions of Bones, Munich and Smokers… Smokers was so incredible that I could not prevent the tears from streaming down my cheeks. E D I T OR S - one huge request - please, please continue to ‘perform’ in small venues like Mandela Hall because we love and need to be close enough to see the sweat dripping from your faces!!!! Mary F xx 
13/11/2008 - London 31/08/08 London…. Home to the Queen, The Millennium Dome, Big Ben and jellied eels, the host city to the next Olympics, the financial and governmental hub of the UK and of course, famous for red buses, beefeaters and the worlds first underground….. I hate this city. I don’t know what it is about London but I just can’t stand the place. Out of all the cities and towns I have been to there is something about this place that makes us not get on. So spending two days in the place was not an appealing prospect. Thankfully though there was an Editors gig to go to so it wasn’t all bad. Like the week before in Manchester it was as support for REM. This time is wasn’t at a cricket ground, it was at Twickenham, the home of English rugby. Thankfully though, there was no low swinging chariots, or green and pleasant lands to be heard, just the joyful noise of Editors and REM. Also, like the week before, it was sunny. Well I say sunny, it was more like flipping scorching!!! Fortunately we had brought the sun screen with us and short walk round to a nearby Tesco’s meant that my head didn’t suffer further sunburn thanks to the purchasing of a £1 baseball cap. Which was a blessing given that we started queuing from 9.45am. The time thankfully went by quite easily despite the suns best efforts to boil my internal organs. Why anyone pays to go abroad and spend prolonged periods of time in such heat in the name of enjoyable times is beyond me. A couple of conversations with multi-show goers proved a nice surprise in that they seemed to be enjoying seeing Editors. And there was even a few Editors t-shirts spotted further back down the line. Dinosaurtastic. Speaking of t-shirts, a visit to the merchandise stall brought another nice surprise. Out of the two t-shirts they had, one of them, I hadn’t seen before. It was plain black with the words ‘The Editors’ printed on it in white. Blasphemers… I here you cry. But fear not. Over the offend T word was a red cross. Now it was not quite pea and ham from the chicken, but it is very clever. So needless to say I bought one. I might add as well that they are not available in the official online store bizarrely. The best sight of the day though was that of the fabby Peter wandering down to join the queue. It was great to see a familiar face from Editors sides of things and to know that we would not be alone when it came to singing and cheering time. After a very stressful dash to the front barrier, we luckily managed to secure our usual spot on Russell’s side and settled in for the evening. Peter wandered up early on and had a natter before retiring to the sound desk until the band game on. It was also a joy to finally be out of the suns vicious glare and in the relative coolness of the shade, mercifully supplied by the stand to our right. The hoisting of the black banner brought an almighty cheer from us as the crew started to get the stage ready. A tap was felt on my shoulder and when I turned round there was Peter, beaming away. And he smile was justified, at having just scythed his way to the front through the throbbing sweaty masses. A feat of epic proportions, the likes of which has not been seen since the Red Sea was allegedly parted by some dodgy looking bearded bloke. This time though, the tattoos gave the miracle worker an airness of cool about him. The set, the same as the previous week in Manchester, flew past like you wouldn’t believe. It felt that no sooner had the first few chords of Bones boomed out from the speakers, that the looping guitar sound at the end of Fingers hummed to a fade, as the band left the stage. Needless to say the three of us jumped, sang and whooped like maniacs all the way through. Mrs GaryUK was particularly delighted when, as Fading started up and we all went totally ape, Tom looked at her and blew her a kiss. So a big hug of thanks from her for that Mr Smith. It really made her night. As well as getting to touch Mr Stipe of course lol. One of the many highlights was the now quiet frequent practice of Tom singing a few bars of another song as way of an intro to Rats. Was the first time we had witnessed it first hand and it really was wonderful. Kind of like how the Peter Gabriel ad-lib in Spiders just adds so much to the song in a live environment. A few sweaty hugs marked the departure of Peter as he made his way back to the sound desk to enjoy the rest of the night. REM, were of course, superb as always. A beautiful Country Feedback was the stand out moment for me. It really is the most gorgeous sounding song with an epic solo from Mr Buck. And there was a pleasant surprise during It’s The End Of The World As We Know It, as Tom came on stage to sing backing on the chorus. That was then this is now, a few days later. The onset of the post gig blues hasn’t been as quick to descend as it normally does. As there was still a slight hope of going to the bands last show for some time in Helsinki but alas, the costs are too high. So now it is in full swing and like Oliver, I so want some more. Editors live is something incredible, and something you just want to experience again and again, the more you see them. All the usual thanks to everyone and can’t wait to see you all again the next time. Gary
16/09/2008 - Manchester 24/08/08 Another gig and another road trip but thankfully not as long as the last one. But this time is wasn’t to somewhere new, like Frome (pronounced Froom in case you didn’t know); it was to a dry Manchester, as gobsmackingly it didn’t rain. The sun burn on top of my head is proof of that. While the drive and destination was familiar (not the venue though as it wasn’t the Apollo this time it was a cricket ground) the gig was slightly different from the norm, in that, they were playing as support for REM. I must confess to being a tad nervous at what kind of reception they would receive as the crowd was there to see REM. But such is the way with support acts at gigs. I know I have been less than enthused about support acts in the past and see them more as something you just have to endure to get to the main attraction. But obviously not this time. As the stage was getting set up for them, there was a lot of activity right at the back. Moments later a huge black backdrop was winched in to place with the word ‘Editors’ on it in big white letters. This of course brought an almighty cheer from us and lots of laughs as people looked at us as though we had horns on our heads lol. Taking to the stage, Tom with his now customary bug eye shades on, the band looked relaxed and fresh despite having just played the Leeds Festival earlier in the afternoon. So it would appear that helicopter trips agree with them, having been flown in from Leeds in such a rock and roll manner. Ed thankfully managed to find his kit which was no in its usual spot, centre stage but instead tucked slightly off centre, close to Chris’s amp. A polite applause greeted them but not from us as we were whooping and cheering like a couple of Looney’s. What is so great about Editors is that no matter how long they have on stage you always know that they will give it their all and fill their allotted slot to the maximum with next to no wastage. Tonight, or should I say evening, was no different, 13 songs in just over 56 minutes. That’s an average of a song every 4 minutes and 20 seconds taking in to account guitar changes and the odd talkie bit. As the blistering and fabby set progressed a weird self conscious feeling started to creep in as it was very obvious that we were the only ones where we were standing, and nearly in the whole crowd, that were jumping up and down, singing, clapping, hands in the air and whooping at ever song and as a result, we were drawing some odd looks. But the feeling lasted a second if that, as we couldn’t really give a stuff as we were having a wonderful time and that is all that mattered. Needless to say Fading was an epic experience as always. I have said in a blog before and will say it again now, if they every drop it from the setlist there will be serious trouble lol. It is simply the dogs dangly bits of a tune. Stupendous on sooo many levels. Surprisingly Munich didn’t get the crowd going as I thought it would, given how it would be one of the tunes most would have heard and know. We where the only ones whooping when Open Up started, which appears to have become a firm fixture in their sets since Frome, but as the song progressed it seemed to get the crowd going. So by the time Fingers reached its rousing crescendo the crowd was a lot more animated. Course it was their closing song but better late than never I guess lol. And that was it, 56 mins of bliss, over in the blink of an eye. Piano ballet was at a minimum but Russ hadn’t lost any of the spring in his step. Maybe the fact the Peter Buck would be doing something similar in the same spot later on inspired him to leap that bit extra. Later on Mr Stipe remarked how great it was to have Editors back on the road again with them and even cursed himself for using the, never to be mentioned T word, when thanking them. REM themselves were fab as well in case you are interested. Bring on next Saturday at Twickenham. Gary
10/07/2008 - Heineken Open’er Festival 04/07/08 Second time in Poland. I think that nobody expected that Editors would come to us so soon :) Nobody expected so everyone just went crazy to think that few months later we will hear guyes live again! X) I was counting. 3 months… 2 weeks… 5 hours…half hour… Gig was short. Short but very intensive. Intensive for us and for guyes, I’m sure ;) The guys ran to the stage and ran out the stage.(in the end Tom threw very impressively stand with microphone)
02/07/2008 - Frome 26/06/08 Edinburgh was grey and overcast as we set off on Wednesday morning for the latest of our road trips and of course Editors gig. This one was actually the following day in a wee town in the south-west corner of England called Frome, pronounced, Froom, not From, as most of the people in the queue, who has also travelled to the gig, had much fun debating about. The reason for leaving a day early was simple, so not to be completely frazzled by the 8hr drive that we would have had to do on the day if we had not decided to break it up with a stop-over in Birmingham. This also meant we could stock up on some yummy Krispy Kreme’s. Ever since the Frome gig was announced there had been a lot of speculation and excitement about it within the online fan community. Would they dust of some b-side rarities? Would there be new stuff? These were just some of the hopes and rumours that were being bandied about the board. For me, a long held dream of hearing one of my all time fav tracks played live felt like it may actually become a reality. The smallness of the venue, the Cheese & Grain, also added to the feeling that this was going to be a very special night that would become a mythical moment in the bands history that, those fortunate enough to be there, would recount to others with passion and glee at how Tom, Ed, Chris and Russ came to a sleepy town in the middle of nowhere and blew the roof off its local nightspot. This of course is exactly what they did. Navigating our way through the narrow streets of Frome (had to mount the pavement more than once just to get along them) to our hotel came as some relief for not only, marking the end of the long trek down, but also getting out of the congestion hell that was Bath. Unsurprisingly it was just as bad the next day as we headed back north. So here is a top tip for you, avoid Bath at all costs as it sucks big style. Having discovered very quickly that there was not much to see or do in Frome other than sit in the room, eat the remaining doughnuts and watch the tennis we decided to go down to the venue at about 3.30 and start queuing for the gig. As time went on it became clear as we chatted to others in the line, that they had also found it almost impossible to find some hot food to eat. Besides a nearby Greggs, there was next to nothing in the way of places to get something to warm and edible in the town centre. It wasn’t till the next morning as we went to fill up the car with fuel at a Sainsbury’s on the town outskirts that we came across signs of civilization in the form of a Pizza Hut, McDs and a KFC. We were stunned to say the least. As time passed, the clouds got greyer and the wind more brisk. Band members and crew were a regular sight as they heading to and from town, maybe with better luck at finding warm food. Light showers peppered the early evening but it wasn’t till about 15mins before the doors opened that the rain became steadier. At this point Ed, who we had bumped in to earlier and as ever was kind and gracious enough to natter for a few minutes, was seen walking back across the car park towards the tour bus carrying two cases of beer. Drummer and band ‘gofer’? Or just his turn to get them in? You decide lol Once at the front barrier on Russ’s side, time went by quickly. More chatting was done and Howling Bells provided a nice easy listen as support. The song before the band took the stage brought a lot of smiles and dancing amongst the slightly older members of the crowd (and some of the young ones as well). With the volume cranked up, an old dance classic boomed out, Ebeneezer Goode by The Shamen, proving that those old E’s are still good at delivering a great buzz, as many danced and sang along to its cheesy infectious beat. Glowsticktastic. Looking relaxed and happy the band took to the small stage to an almighty cheer. Tom briefly set out the plan for the evening’s proceedings, a run through of their 13 song Glastonbury set, a 5 min break before returning to the stage to play some tunes that they don’t play very often. Then it was full speed ahead as they rattled of song after song with great confidence and precision, barely giving them or us the chance to come up for air. The intense energy and passion with which they perform is something I have blogged about before. Hmmm that’s disconcerting, the spell check didn’t underline blogged as a miss spell so I guess it is now seen as a proper word in the eyes of the English dictionary. But yeh, live, simply incredible. As always the sing back during Rats was simply immense. It is such a glorious moment that even now, as I type; the hairs on the back of my neck are tingling just thinking about it. I am often asked by friends why I go to see them so often. It is because of moments like that. Moments of such pure joy and elation, that you just never want it to stop. A natural high, that keeps you coming back for more. The fifth song of the night, All Sparks, drew to a close, a looping guitar note carried on as Tom sat down to the piano. Then out of his mouth came five words that made our hearts race and our mouths drop in a state of gobsmackedness. The words… ‘this is a new song’. What followed was 4 minutes of lush sounding loveliness that left us drooling at the thought of the next album and wanting it to be out now. A song about being there for one another and facing whatever comes your way together. Hopeful and upbeat, proof yet again, that they are not the gloomy rockers that the media love to portray them as. No Sound But The Wind… soaring, gorgeous and fabby. The rest of the set flew past and before you knew it, Smokers was ending. As always Fading was just epic. I swear it just keeps getting better and better. With such a strong, tight set, Glastonbury was going to be rocked to its mud covered core the following night. The 5 minutes was never reached as they quickly came back out on stage. Tom said that the next bit was to make it value for money but to be honest, it already was. Heads In Bags quickly followed the encore opener of Banging Heads and then….. It happened… they went and played it. They only went and blooming played it!!!! Whoooooooo… Colours!!! Yesh, I am welling up just thinking about it lol. Those that know me will know how much and how long I have wanted to hear this track live, so when it started up, to say I was ecstatic is a gross understatement. Not even a swift kick to the nuts would have stopped me smiling or dampened the euphoric feeling of hearing it live. It was simply amazing. Even better than I ever dared to imagine. The gorgeous Open Up brought the gig to an uplifting and emotional end. A few of the boardies were almost moved to tears by its beauty. It had been that kind of night. Tom said it had been the best warm up ever but it may well be the best gig ever. I have just noticed how long this blog is so I best wrap it up. Piano surfing count on the night was one with an 8.2 for the clean and flowing landing. The highest vertical leap by Russ was about 2ft. With the half twist, foot slept and solid landing, it scores a high 9.4. And of course… Thanks to the band and crew for the best night ever and of course Colours. Thanks to all those involved that made it happen. A big shout out to the boardies and everyone we met and chatted with. Mrs GaryUK would like to send a special thanks to Mr U for the hug. As well as taking the time to chat with everyone after the gig. Yet again my car got us all the way there and back without any hassle. And as always a big thanks to my road trip partner, Susan aka Mrs GaryUK (to funny Mr U lol). It was a long one but, by god, it was so worth it. Love on the filthy streets is so….. sublime Gary
18/04/2008 - Le Bataclan Paris The final night of the latest tour … I was one of the lucky ones who managed to get a ticket and travel successfully form London Heathrow, Terminal 5 … albeit one day later than scheduled due to 3cm of snow at Heathrow! My friend was not so lucky as her rescheduled flight did not arrive until after the concert had finished! So I found myself in snowy Paris – unexpectedly on my own with little knowledge of the French language - and as tears of fear streamed down my face, I wondered … is it worth it??? What a waste of a thought … of course it was! After I had been turned away from my hotel … too early … I set out to find the venue, which was absolutely stunning, and who should I meet but the lovely Russell! Apologetically, I asked if I could take his photograph and of course he obliged, even though he was ‘just out of bed’. What gorgeous blue eyes he has and how beautiful the photograph turned out! At around 7pm, I took my seat – first row the ‘circle’ – I’m too short to risk the pit! I was surprised to see two people close to me engrossed in reading their books and another perusing some paper work which he extracted from his briefcase … it was my first French concert, what did I know??? Mobius band, for the fifth time of hearing, was good … there seemed to be less of the exaggerated keyboard playing that was evident in Dublin and Belfast. With the sounds of Camera piercing the air, it was a pleasant surprise not to have to avoid the shower of fluid that normally accompanies this!!! The band, as usual was outstanding. An E D IT O R S gig has become more than a music gig, but more of a unique experience, never to be forgotten. Two outstanding performances were ‘Push’ and ‘Banging Heads’ … tears rolled down my cheeks as Russ left the stage towards the end of ‘Push’ leaving Tom to complete the performance on his own … pure, utter, unadulterated genius. At the end of a very long tour, this truly was an exceptional performance. I did not think that Belfast (February 2008) could be bettered … but I was wrong. I would like to repeat my request following the Belfast gig … ‘E D I T OR S – one huge request – please, please continue to ‘perform’ in small venues like Mandela Hall/Le Bataclan because we love and need to be close enough to see the sweat dripping from your faces!!!!’ Thank you for 5 nights that I will never forget. Mary F (AKA Mazzapops) XX
18/04/2008 - Lisbon and Oporto Portugal - 2and3/04/08 1000 miles of road; 2 beautiful cities; hundreds of people; Coliseu and Campo Pequeno; 18 songs; 4 guys playing in 2 amazing, exciting, memorable and high musical days… Teresa Domingues
18/04/2008 - Clermont Ferrand Dear Editors, Procured a decent-priced Eurostar ticket from London to Clermont Ferrand with the familiar hint of irrationality in my head…. Noticed on my arrival in Clermont Ferrand that it is twinned with Salford, I’d keep that one quiet people. One tip for the ladies here is: don’t wear a short skirt, even if it is chic and worn with opaque tights, as you’ll get far too much attention. Think I forget sometimes that I’m used to London, where people wouldn’t blink an eye if you went out in nothing but a hat at a jaunty angle…but hey, I’m digressing as per usual. On arrival at the venue, was surprised to see it was immense – not what I was expecting - but once we got inside realised it was just part of a large complex and was actually quite a small place, could only fit a few hundred I guess and I don’t think it was full… The sound was fantastic but unfortunately the place was lacking in atmosphere for the most part which was a shame, it’s sometimes easy to forget about how the audience response affects the whole experience, of course for the band also…but they still throw themselves into it and look like they are enjoying it. But I can’t remember the last time I was at the front at a gig and not getting jostled about (or more often the case absolutely squashed half to death!)…very strange…and a little sad I always think. They played Banging Heads, which was incredible, especially as I’d not heard it live before. You are Fading again was a high point tonight, just beautiful, and Lights, which just comes alive on stage. So what a band…they are incredible live and you can see the chemistry they have with eachother…and still only with two albums behind them and so young…. with one fantastic drummer, a seemingly unshakable bassist, a stunning enigmatic frontman and the best rock star called Chris to hail from Nottingham since my friend Chris Davis (of Six by Seven..now working on other projects..hello Chris!) Met the guys after the show and what lovely gentlemen they are, and as is often the case in these scenarios, I had ‘a million things to say’ but pretty much all I managed was to give Chris a hug, well it was offered the other week in Darmstadt! So then I sauntered off, with a smile to last the journey home… Thank you so much again and enjoy getting some well deserved rest now boys before the summer festivals-we’ll see you at the beer-mud-nastystuff-fest that is Reading…where incidentally WHY are you not further up the bill??? Sam xxx
18/04/2008 - Barcelona Seeing Editors live show for first time is something that impacts, and impossible to forget. This is the reason why, since November ‘07, I dreamed with repeat this experience. And this dream became true the last 31.03 in Sala Razzmatazz of Barcelona. The first in appear were Mobius Band, after 30 minutes of show and a brief rest, was the turn of Editors. The hall was in a low light, and they appeared, starting with “Camera”. And then going on with an energic “An End Has A Start”, from this moment I couldn’t stop jumping during all the show!! After songs as Blood, Bullets, Lights, When Anger Shows (...) they surprised us with a great version of Llullaby. The show continued with indispensable songs like All sparks and Munich that we sang and enjoyed very much. An special moment for me was when Tom sang Push Your Head Towards The Air, only with his voice and acoustic guitar and Russell in the piano. After 15 songs, arrived the bis, starting with the amazing Racing Rats, continued by Your Are Fading, and finishing with THE SONG: SMOKERS The show finished, and you feel really happy for what you’ve lived, but also sad because you don’t know when you’ll see them again. I hope it will be soon. I’ll never forget this day. You’re great musicians, but still better persons. Please, don’t change and continue making us so happy with your music. Barcelona loves Editors!!! Please come back soon!!! I lend you here a photo of my ‘little-big treasure’ of that night, thank you guys!! ;-) Sorry for my bad english :-P
04/04/2008 - Italy The wait is finally over, Editors are back in Italy! I saw them in 2006 in Rimini and now, they’re back, same place, same town. I really believe that they’re one of the best bands of the last decades even if it’s really hard to describe with words the visceral beauty of their songs which make you dance, shout and cry at the same time. Their performances have always been powerful, a balanced mix of sweat, acrobatics, adrenalin and delicacy but this time it’s really special, even more perfect than in the past. When they come on stage at the Velvet Club, the crowd is really on fire, Tom says hello and they start playing the beautiful “Camera”. They are amazing and the performance turns out to be an unforgettable explosion of feelings. Chris, Ed, Tom and Russell are simply flawless and there’s a tangible and strong chemistry between them. Tom’s voice is beautiful, warm and deep, melancholic and touching. During the gig, once again I realise why I love them so much: because they’re extremely talented and they’re able to communicate through their music: their drums, bass, guitars speak to us; their lyrics openly hit our hearts. They always play with such intensity, strength and passion, that I always feel thankful for all the emotions they give us. Their performances are always a gift because you really understand that they give all they have in their music. Tom is tireless, he sings, runs, jumps and I love when he clutches at the microphone with both hands and hides his face, but I also love when he stretches out his arms to the crowds, we really feel that there’s a connection with him. I’m at the same time possessed and hypnotized by their music, their charm, their energy. It seems to me that they are having fun too. The setlist is simply perfect, they also perform a cover of Lullaby by the Cure. I stand in rapt silence during Push Your Head Towards the Air, and I admit it, I almost cry when Tom rests his head on Russell’s back, that moment is pure magic. After Fingers In The Factories, there’s a break and then the grand finale with The Racing Rats and You’re Fading. The gig ends with the hit song, Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors, an explosion of lights, shouts and music. The performance is technically and humanly perfect, what else can I say? Words are superfluous, their music need no explanations. I was so happy to see that success hasn’t change them. And it’s over, again, and I’m not ready to say goodbye, not yet, everything was so perfect that I already feel sad. I feel quite empty on my long way back home, but I’m also glad cause I had the chance to be there, and witnessed the power and perfection of this great band. THANK YOU!!! Lisa
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