A radio session from August of 2007 now, where Editors stopped by Radio 1's Live Lounge show to play 2 acoustic numbers and have a chat with Annie Mac. This is a notable occasion for the cover version of Calvin Harris' Acceptable in the 80s, and for anyone that believed Frankenstein was a drastic change of direction for the band, this will change your mind.
The irony here is that the album campaign they were on in 2007 was for An End Has a Start, which is arguably even more of a pure guitar record than The Back Room. It was all about anthemic, loud pop songs and was also 2 years before the much more synthetic In This Light and on This Evening was released. At that time, I think we all took the track Banging Heads as a possible sign of where their musical direction would be heading next. From what had come before, this absolutely sounded like an Editors song, and I think that's the very reason which probably led to the resulting stylistic right turn they took away from it.
As it was, Banging Heads was a little bit of misdirection, because it turns out that they were already flexing their electric muscles and doing it right out in the open. It would have been easy to write this off as a little bit of experimentation that they put together as a one-off for the radio session, but honestly I think this sounds like a precursor to Frankenstein a full 12 years before they released it. It only serves to reinforce the theory that life is a circle and everything comes around again eventually.
The fact that all four Editors were present for this recording means that if you listen close to the interviews, you'll dig out some real comedy gems in their interpersonal banter. Did Tom's short hair from the Back Room days really make him look like a Gangly Gay Soldier? What colour is the carpet at Maida Vale? And wonder to yourself how the alternative choice of cover version for this session would have sounded had they gone ahead with it. Enjoy the music ;)
The irony here is that the album campaign they were on in 2007 was for An End Has a Start, which is arguably even more of a pure guitar record than The Back Room. It was all about anthemic, loud pop songs and was also 2 years before the much more synthetic In This Light and on This Evening was released. At that time, I think we all took the track Banging Heads as a possible sign of where their musical direction would be heading next. From what had come before, this absolutely sounded like an Editors song, and I think that's the very reason which probably led to the resulting stylistic right turn they took away from it.
As it was, Banging Heads was a little bit of misdirection, because it turns out that they were already flexing their electric muscles and doing it right out in the open. It would have been easy to write this off as a little bit of experimentation that they put together as a one-off for the radio session, but honestly I think this sounds like a precursor to Frankenstein a full 12 years before they released it. It only serves to reinforce the theory that life is a circle and everything comes around again eventually.
The fact that all four Editors were present for this recording means that if you listen close to the interviews, you'll dig out some real comedy gems in their interpersonal banter. Did Tom's short hair from the Back Room days really make him look like a Gangly Gay Soldier? What colour is the carpet at Maida Vale? And wonder to yourself how the alternative choice of cover version for this session would have sounded had they gone ahead with it. Enjoy the music ;)
The Setlist
Intro
Interview 1
An End Has A Start
Interview 2
Acceptable in the 80's
Interview 3
stream it here
MP3s
An End Has A Start - download here
Acceptable in the 80's - download here
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x
