The band are from Manchester and have been active since the late 1990s. Acclaimed for their innovative sound and frontman Guy Garvey's candid, evocative lyrics, Elbow has received vast critical acclaim - The Velvet Underground's co-founder John Cale named Elbow's 'Switching Off' as one of his favourite tracks.

Lead singer Guy Garvey met guitarist Mark Potter at a Sixth Form College in 1990 at the age of 16. Potter asked Garvey to sing in a band he was in with drummer Richard Jupp and bassist Pete Turner. Together, the four men formed the band Mr Soft (later changed to Soft). Mark Potter's brother Craig Potter joined the band soon after on keyboards. By 1997, they had changed their name a third time to Elbow, signed a deal with Island Records, and recorded their debut album with producer Steve Osborne. However, when Island was bought out by major label Universal, the band was dropped in a mass cull and the album never released. Their debut album, 'Asleep in the Back', released on V2 in 2001, was hailed as a seminal album of the new millennium, gaining them a Mercury Music Prize nomination and a BRIT Award nomination.

Their second album, 'Cast of Thousands' - a reference to their performance at Glastonbury in 2002, when they recorded thousands of people singing, "We still believe in love, so fuck you" - sealed their reputation as innovators in UK music when released in 2003. In 2004, Elbow went on an unofficial tour of Cuba, becoming the first British band ever to play a concert outside Havana. The tour was made into a short film by British documentary maker Irshad Ashraf. Elbow's innovation in the studio has invited work with other bands, notably Editors and I Am Kloot, the latter whose debut album was produced by Guy Garvey. Their third album,' Leaders of the Free World', was entirely self-produced at Blueprint Studios in Salford, a space the band hired for the duration of their recording sessions. Garvey also returned to I Am Kloot as co-producer for their single 'Maybe I Should'. He continues to work closely with Manchester indie label Skinny Dog. The band completed their fourth studio album, 'The Seldom Seen Kid' in late 2007: self-produced, mixed and recorded without any outside help.

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