Sunday 7 January 2024

The Archive Index

"Don't forget where your vibe comes from..."

Weclome to the Lemming Archive.

What you'll find here is everything that I have ferociously, and often indiscriminately collected by the UK band Editors since I first became a fan in 2006. There's no officially released material here as it's not my intention to take money out of anybody's pocket. What it does contain are live shows, interviews, television appearances and some other memorabilia that isn't quite as easy to categorise (Editors condom tin, anyone?). The whole idea in setting this blog up was to assemble everything in one place so that other Editors fans would be able to delve into the band's history, as well as catching up with their current activities. The links below will help you do that.

Whether you've been an Editors fan for a while or you've only just discovered them, I'm really glad you're here. Have a look around and take whatever you want, support the band and most importantly of all enjoy the music ;)

The Lemming Archive - Table of Contents
For hidden extras, scroll down to "Covert Shares"

Editors in 2003 (as Snowfield)

 
 

 
 

 

The Lemming Archive (main blog)
 

The Archive on Twitter (for updates and news)
 

The Archive on YouTube (for all hosted videos)

 

Editors' online message board

 

The Lemming Archive's email address
 

brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x

Sunday 31 December 2023

Justin and Felicity Hall on the Mental Health Podcast 6th March 2024

 


I'm sharing this to increase its reach, in the hope that it starts a conversation somewhere.

A lot of the bands I love, and probably that you do too, have had personnel undergoing some serious mental health problems at one time or another. It's often a fact that the parts of your favourite artiste's personality which produce transcendent moments of artistic joy for both you and them (you hope), can occasionally be accompanied by those which have the capacity for causing immeasurable personal damage. Often, you just can't have one without the other. The popular idyllic myth, and it's something I confess that I bought into for years, is that all touring bands are the absolute best of friends who are having the time of their lives while travelling the world playing music. If you're of a similar mindset, this podcast will help to dispel that myth. 

On the 6th March 2024, and in mid-tour, Justin appeared on the Mental Health Podcast NL along with Editors' tour manager and professional life-arranging ninja, Felicty Hall. If you know your Editors history, then you'll be aware that Justin has always been candid about his struggles with touring, but this extended chat really gets into the finer details of what it's like. It's a fascinating podcast, because not only do we get to better understand the realities of what a professional musician is expected to contend with day to day, we learn exactly what a tour manager does (I had no idea it was this involved!). The degree of honesty here results in an extremely illuminating conversation. It's like hearing the answers to a series of question you may have had, but felt would be tactless to raise. Well done to everyone involved, and thank you for the insight.

Enjoy the education ;)


brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love ;) x 

Tuesday 12 December 2023

Editors - Our Shadows Fuse - Antwerp 8th March 2024

  


First things first. What you're listening to here is a compilation of audio taken from various fan footage videos posted for the show.  I initially assembled it purely to quell my own addictions because, as I'm sure you've worked out, I absolutely love this band. I'm also acutely aware that there are Editors fans who live a long, long way from where these concerts are taking place but would still love to hear how it went. With that in mind, this is also for you.

From the cavernous Sportpaleis in Antwerp, this is Editors performing as part of their first quarter of 2024 mini-tour. Even though the band is officially a six-piece outfit at present,  Blanck Mass is not here and has been absent for the entire string of dates during the last month.  So you can imagine that Elliott was working overtime in the engine room of the band tonight! Lots of buttons to push and synth-drums to bother. 

Given Ben's  role is shaping and creating the EBM album, I feel wholly sorry for him right now because he earned his place as a part of this celebratory event. They all did. This night was something to be proud of, and reflect upon down the line somewhere. Even though the circumstances surrounding him being away are none of my business,  I hope that he's OK.  

As I've said here before, Editors are able to enjoy the success they have because of evolution and a reputation acquired through the hard work they put in to build a solid foundation of fans. EBM is a year and a half old, there are currently no singles in the charts, the promotion for this tour has been pretty minimalist and yet they can fill a venue that's 20,000 + in capacity. People are there because they are assured of a good time.  Plus...you know...Belgium loves them some Editors.  Or so it's been said.

If you're a repeated listener to the material, you'll spot the differences here and there. One that I picked up was during The Phone Book, where it sounds like Ed is playing it with sticks rather than brushes. It transforms the song from a being a more gentle, soft composition to something akin to a chugging train. It makes it feel less like the quiet, author-read diary entry by Mr Smith of a very dark time in his life (if indeed that was what it's about) than the studio version does. Then again, that's exactly what live takes are for isn't it? Evolution again. Yes, these are total nerd details but hey, that's just me. 

Enjoy the music everyone ;)

Full show (audio) - Stream it Here

MP3s
Two Hearted Spider - download here
Sugar - download here
Karma Climb - download here
A Ton of Love - download here
Bullets - download here
Heart Attack - download here
Blood - download here
All Sparks - download here
Strange Intimacy - download here
Picturesque - download here
Killer - download here
No Harm - download here
Lights  - download here
The Racing Rats - download here
Bones - download here
Munich - download here
An End Has a Start - download here
Strawberry Lemonade - download here
Papillon - download here
No Sound but the Wind - download here
The Phone Book - download here
Nothing - download here
Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors - download here

All in a Zip - download here

brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love ;) x

Editors Instagram - February 2024

 

Ed has broken the Editors No Tattoo Code that all original members used to abide by...by having a tattoo! Heresy!
 
Before we begin, shout-out of the month goes to Mr Nic Willes,  who took to the drum stool mid-tour for Slowdive after Simon had a loss in the family. You look up "versatility" in the dictionary, there's a link to Nic's Instagram profile. What a guy.  Sadly, it put an end to any speculation that Editors were going to be moving closer to becoming a 7-piece goth version of Earth Wind and Fire on this tour with him on guitar again. On the plus side, he did fulfil my long held dream of an Editors/Slowdive crossover.  

When you're addressing a band's current era of development the word "established" can often be used in a pejorative way, as if somehow all the hard work to achieve success is done and only the certainty of future irrelevance is now assured. They made it! There is, however,  another kind of "established" that has far more positive inferences, a kind that Editors are experiencing as they make their way across the country.

Their UK mini-tour began on the 26th of February in Newcastle, and as all you amateur historians will remember, this was the city where their first label Kitchenware was based. There are only 6 nights on this run of engagements, and a number of them are sold out. Considering how long they've been doing this, you would think that's going to be a given, but it's actually happened in spite of a drought of publicity surrounding these dates. If you knew where to look, then you knew they were coming. Instead of billboards and posters on the underground, this latest success has been through fan-loyalty, word of mouth and most importantly the one thing you can't buy but have to earn; reputation.  It's taken 20 years of very hard work to craft it, but we are now in a time where they can announce a tour in their home country, albeit quietly, and people will still show up to see them play. 

I remember Elliott saying in a 2022 interview that Editors are a band with a identity crisis, and the way different countries react when they tour only seems to reinforce that assessment. In the UK they appear to have been allocated the status of "cult band", carving out their own piece of longevity contrary to the fleeting nature of music business attention.  Move across the North Sea to mainland Europe, however, and Editors are a band that sell out large venues and have fostered a ferociously dedicated fan base. They seem to become a different group depending on the location they're in at any given time, suggesting that their identity is in fact a fluid, changeable commodity.  

"Every little piece of your life, it means something to someone..."

One thing I've noticed from various footage and photos posted is that Blanck Mass isn't present. There's been no official announcement that he's left so I guess we can assume for now that he's still an Editor? There was also an curious quote from Russell in an interview with Stereoboard published last month:-

I don’t know where we’ll go next, though, because we haven’t started writing or anything, so next year is the time to do that. Once you get the desire, once you get the hunger for it, then things start rolling. 

This illustrates the malleable nature of being in Editors in 2024. I say that because as recently as 2022, Russell mentioned impending plans to return to Mexico and that the band already had some demos floating around. The current published tour schedule (which you can always view at the band's reliably excellent online forum run by Hannah), coupled with the above statement from Stereoboard, seems to indicate that neither of those things are in play any more. On face value, it would also seem to imply that 2024 is going to be about winding down the EBM promotional cycle in preparation for album 8?

For now, get on out there and see the band play as they continue to make their way towards the festival season 2024.  


Editors Instagram - February 2024

For all of Editors' previous Instagram posts, go here.
 
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x

Tuesday 5 December 2023

Editors Instagram - January 2024

 

 
As we eagerly inhabit the space where the band quietly build towards their live return in February, we got an announcement on the 16th of January about a booking at Warm Up festival in May. The conventions of music business best-practices would usually dictate that the early part of 2024 would be the time that Editors disappear into creative hibernation, given that their most recent album  EBM has been public domain for almost a year and a half. Yet it feels like there's something else going on. I keep coming back to this but it may be simply due to their much more structured way of operating their civilian lives adjacent to Editors' promotional commitments?
 
There are twin demands in play here, and not necessarily possessing equal strength, of fulfilling the needs of those you love and care about at home, and  meeting the demands of people who admire what you do creatively and want to experience it live. It is, of course, obvious that in most cases one of those obligations is always going to outweigh the other, but in a world where creativity allows you to earn a living I imagine the ratio changes. Even if it's only slightly. The reality is that the dominant area of focus will always takes away from the one less pursued, and a lean too hard in one direction can have an adverse effect on the other.  
 
Spending extended amounts of time at home and away from the road, could result in you being publicly forgotten. A reverse scenario of prolonged stays out in the world hitting cities too quickly to be able to fully appreciate your surroundings, all the while unintentionally nurturing the seeds of darkness caused by extended separation, could cause problems in your civilian life. If there is a middle ground between the poles, of following their muse to invent while simultaneously enjoying life away from the band, it could be that after 20 years of trial and error, Editors are finding it. Not necessarily a merger, but an alliance between opposing ideals. I suppose it will be evident when they come back. 2024 may be about revelations, or it could just be a protracted farewell to EBM

As well as his usual photography, I was really excited to see Justin release three short films in January with what appears to be original music on his Instagram profile. I have assembled them all into one clip that runs at about 6 minutes long, and you can watch it on the Archive's YouTube channel. It's a collection of different footage but all with a single unified theme. In terms of sound it's got a really smooth ambient kind of mood going on, and I really liked it. Check it out.


Editors Instagram - January 2024

For all of Editors' previous Instagram posts, go here.
 
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x

Editors Instagram - December 2023 + AIO

 

So you managed to survive the prolonged, unprovoked assault on the psyche that was xmas, eh? Well done, glad you're still there, we have some things to discuss.

Right up until last month, it was looking as though March 2024 was going to end up being a final cut-off point on the EBM tour cycle. It was an assumption made on both the evidence before us and from previous touring habits. On the11th of December, however, new plans were made public as Editors announced a UK Mini Tour. The dates all fall in February, and therefore still way ahead of that potential March finish line, so the theory of imminent closure on Editors' latest studio album promotion remained intact. That was until they shared details of a French festival show in August.
 
It means that there is now a five month gap between them ending the EBM campaign, if indeed that is what's taking place, and returning to the stage again. So what's going to be happening in that intermission? A return to civilian life, recording new material, rehearsing...a combination featuring all of the above? The sporadic nature of their activities lately means you can never say conclusively what they are up to at any given time. This could mean this, or indeed that could also mean that, if you get my drift? It's frustrating and exciting all at once. Plus, as has always been the case throughout my time as a fan, I have never interacted with a member of the group so I can never confirm or receive denial for any of these spurious mental concoctions.
 
What we do know is that, according to Russell in an interview he gave last year, there were plans to go to Mexico and play some shows but as of the time of writing they haven't come to fruition. He also intimated that there were some demos floating around and, assuming these aren't tracks left over from previous album sessions, this could be an indication of new material on the way. All things to consider.
 
It was intriguing to see photographs being shared of a band night out in December. They included 7 Editors in one room, as skinny-legged guitar slinger and man who first broke the "no tattoos" rule in the band Nicholas Willes reappeared. A friendly reunion or a professional engagement (rehearsal)? 

Below is the single zip file for December 2023 and then an all in one zip containing every month from this year.

Editors Instagram - December 2023

Editors Instagram - Complete 2023 Collection
 
For all of Editors' previous Instagram posts, go here.
 
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x

Editors Instagram - November 2023


 Fooled by a trick of the light, are you there? - Nothingness

A curiously appropriate lyric to soundtrack this month. 
 
As we all know, Editors are not a publicly viewable concern right now. During November Smith and Burrows played a show in Stroud and are up to... something in the studio, while Tom appeared as a guest vocalist on a song called This Life which was released on the 24th. You can take a look at that using this link, and there's also a verse and chorus from the track as played by Tom on the acoustic guitar available to see here. Justin is travelling, Elliott is continuing to build his dining empire and so things are happening involving Editors' personnel, but it's all satellite projects.

One of the perceived perils of the music industry, more generally applied to bands in their musical nascence, is that after you gain any notable attention, taking any time away means your audience will abandon you. If you subscribe to the proposal that music buyers are predominantly fickle and easily distracted, then perpetual motion could be the prescribed antidote to cure the ill of fan-apathy. Sometimes that's probably true, but there's a caution to be issued about underestimating the loyalty of those with whom your creative labours have connected. 

As mentioned above, Editors are now on standby. They last played a show at the beginning of September, a stat that comes courtesy of Hannah's excellent forum which you can and definitely should make a regular stop on your cyber travels.  EBM is now over a year old, and you could deduce that this tour cycle is winding down in preparation for the conception and birthing of album 8, whenever that may happen. Yet on the 23rd of November there was an announcement that the band would be playing a solitary date at AFAS Live on the 6th of March next year. It posed a question; given the sporadic nature of Editors touring lately and the lack of new material to actively promote, would anybody be interested in attending?

Within a very small amount of time, twelve thousand people had replied in the affirmative.


They sold out the first date in under 15 minutes, then repeated the process when a second one was put together to meet the demand. Forget the disaster that was Brexit, and all the ongoing negativity that it continues to generate, Editors are European sons. Here is your proof.

I'd originally thought that March was going to be the official end of the EBM campaign, and it may be that this will still be the case, but the act of making new bookings creates possibilities. Does it mean they just fancy a few more nights out before they get serious about crafting E8? Is this a way of turning what would have been a singular party at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp on the 8th into a more prolonged send off? Or are they using the time off between now and then to rehearse and prepare novel material, with these March gigs serving as a jumping off point for something new?  
 
Tom and Andy sold out a gig at a small pub in Stroud during November, then Editors managed to shift 12,000 tickets over two nights themselves during the same month. I would imagine that xmas has been given a considerable boost for everyone involved. Just as well, when you remember how terribly consumed by sorrow they are all the time. Until December...

Editors Instagram - November 2023

For all of Editors' previous Instagram posts, go here.
 
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x