Thursday 8 March 2018

3FM Acoustic Broadcast 8th March 2018 (Complete Lemming Archive Collection)

Special events deserve special treatment.

From the confines of a military museum, this was Editors performing an acoustic set for a group of very lucky 3FM competition winners. The event has a bit of a history here at the Archive, and it's not a happy one. This video was a contributing factor to my Vimeo account getting nuked, when 3FM came after me with a breach of copyright notice within a week of it being posted there. It was my first strike on that platform, before Justin Timberlake and Drake's people chipped in with their own to make it 3. Not kidding.

For the past year it's been passed around among people who love Editors via emails and through private messages, but  it always bothered me hugely that it wasn't obtainable by a much, much wider audience. There are clips out there, but nothing complete and if you're a hardcore fan of any band you'll recognise that sting. So I decided to take one more shot.

Here's the reality as I type this; YouTube have passed every part of this post for sharing on their site. Not even Merlin have showed up to block me this time around. All I would ask of 3FM is that you allow the world to appreciate this wonderful event that you put together. You put on a great show in a fantastic location, and to me it's utterly criminal that nobody can appreciate it in its entirety.

Until now.

Having created this special occasion, my request is simply that you let me show off your hard work with fans of the band. If you disagree, contact me and I'll take it offline immediately. I'm a totally reasonable guy, in spite of my obsessive fan tendencies. There will be no arguments.

The broadcast started with a backstage interview between Sander, Tom and Elliott, although you can't actually see them. What you can see are the audience milling around and waiting to watch the band while you listen to them chatting over the top. If you were in the crowd, and I know some of "our people" were, you are now officially famous. Or infamous. Then there was an on-screen interview, before the action commenced.

The setlist was a mixture of previous glories, rather than concentrating purely on all new material. 3 tracks from Violence, 2 from TWOYL and one from each of their other albums. What's very impressive is that Tom chose to give The Phone Book another airing, and how long has it been since we've been able to enjoy that one? I always felt as though that was an overlooked song on The Weight of Your Love, but it's quietly impressive. It has that autobiographical feeling to it, almost as if Tom was partially documenting the slow disintegration of the relationships within the band a the time it was written. An assumption, I know. 

The promotional campaign at that time had been really interesting in the way they approached it all. A set of intimate acoustic gigs for an album that's much more full-on in terms of its sound was a brave move, and a nice change of pace. Nothing fancy, just going out there and playing your music for an audience. One thing I really enjoyed was seeing Justin and Elliott being brought to the forefront of this string of acoustic shows. It felt as though we're at a point in Editors' history where the full assimilation of those two gentlemen into the band is complete. They're not "the new guys" any more, and I also think that the VI OLENCE album sounds like a collaborative effort as a consequence.

There's MP3s, video and of course some bonus material from the show. Enjoy the music, and whatever storms may come my way as a result of this, many thanks to 3FM for making this piece of Editors magic ;)

stream it here

MP3s
Violence - download here
Papillon - download here
Magazine - download here
Cold - download here
Smokers - download here
A Ton of Love - download here
The Phone Book - download here
Blood - download here
Bonus Material - Interviews and Fluff Stuff
Here's a couple of interviews with the band just before they played on the night, one off-screen and the other in front of the cameras.

Interview 1 - stream it here
Interview 2 - stream it here


Tom's Ident Video for the show
stream it here


Soundcheck Clip
I think this was on3FM's Instagram page, or possibly their Facebook profile. It's 30 seconds of the band soundchecking on the night of the show, and it aired just before they hit the stage for real. 


Official 3FM Trailer for the event

3FM Trailer - Sander sells the show. 

3FM Official Aftermovie
stream it here

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