Sunday, 7 January 2024

The Archive Index

"Don't let it get lost..."

Welcome 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

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Sunday, 31 December 2023

Editors Instagram - December 2024 + AIO

 

Come out of the bunker, I think we made it. 

With Christmas 2024 over and done with, all returning rational thought and energy should now be devoted to making 2025 memorable. The major concern, certainly if you're an Editors fan, is just how are the band going to play into those plans?

We know Ed indicated in one interview last year, and it's a claim that hasn't been repeated anywhere else since, that Tom may be going to try some solo stuff in 2025. Coincidentally, we know that Tom has definitely been recording with Iain Archer, but not in what capacity. Elliott posted on his Instagram profile on the very first day of this year indicating that he is putting his energies back into his Elliott Lion alter-ego this year, and will be creating as well as doing Dj slots. In addition to running a record label, Justin is probably involved in approximately 200 other projects that we don't know about and regularly posting photographs of his adventures. Blanck Mass is still sound-tracking and putting out his own stuff.  

Taken in combination, this would all seem to indicate a very quiet year ahead for anyone expecting new material from Editors. 365 days is, of course, a long time and plans can change and evolve in rapid time. Remember, it was only 2 years ago that Russell claimed the band were heading back to Mexico in the very near future, only it never panned out. So it's a tricky thing to try and predict the future with Editors. Hanging over all of this is the fact that the majority of the musicians within that merry band have families, and as we know domesticity can be the undoing of rock and roll. Not always, but sometimes. 

The TL:DR version of the above is we just don't know what the impending calendar year will bring. 


Amid all the noise and uncertainty that the end of December brought, there was a brief adrenaline shot of happiness courtesy of an old friend posting randomly on X. He may not be an Editor any more, but it's still comforting to know he's out there somewhere. Happy New Year, Mr Urbanowicz. 

Below you'll find the complete collection of all Editors Instagram postings from 2024, as well as a single link for December. I hope that 2025 turns out to be something special for you all.

Editors Instagram - December 2024
download here

Editors Instagram - Complete 2024 Collection
download here
 
For all of Editors' previous Instagram posts, go here.
 
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x
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Roskilde Festival - 29th June 2006 (JTL recording)

 


What a great crowd they had for this show. A stunning example of what happens when what you're offering from the stage is wholeheartedly accepted,  and then enthusiastically thrown back at you with volume. It elevates the event. 

This is the second of two excellent audio recordings that were generously provided to the Archive by JTL. I really appreciate the kindness, thank you.

While the other taping at the Copenhagen Vega was a small club show, this one is all about the wide open stages of the festival circuit. A place that Editors have become very, very familiar with down the years. What you definitely won't be too familiar with, especially hearing it live, is the song at number 8 in the set list.  Release was a b-side that accompanied Munich when it dropped as a single in 2005. You are free to fact-check me on this but I think it's only been played live about 6 or 7 times in the total lifespan of the group. Compare that with a track like Munich which has got to be somewhere in the 1000 times played range, many more if you count rehearsals and radio sessions, and it puts the relevance of this run-through of Release into perspective. 

It's a great song, one of those Editors creations that last for over 5 minutes and where they just slowed everything down without sacrificing the song's power. It's the same trick they played with Fall. Quite why Release was put on the shelf so quickly is anyone's guess, as I don't think it was ever played again after 2007. There have been Editors songs that are not favourites of their composers, and as such they have been placed carefully on the shelf marked "retired from active duty". Like Treasure was dropped from sets because, according to Ed, the song didn't go over well when it was played live. Respectfully, and I really do mean that with sincerity, Ed is wrong. You only have to look at the version they did at Fabric to know it. For whatever reason, Release remains lost but you can bring it back again for one more listen by using the link below.

Enjoy the music ;)

The Setlist
01 Someone Says - download here
02 All Sparks - download here
03 Blood - download here
04 Bones - download here
05 Fall - download here
06 Bullets - download here
07 Find Yourself A Safe Place - download here
08 Release - download here
09 Lights - download here
10 Camera - download here
11 You Are Fading - download here
12 Munich - download here
13 Open Your Arms - download here
14 Road To Nowhere (Talking Heads cover) - download here
15 Fingers In The Factories - download here

Taper Details - download here
FFP File - download here

All in a Zip - download here

brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love ;) x
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Copenhagen Vega - February 19th 2006 Vega (JTL recording)

 


Brand new to the Archive, here's an audience recording of Editors when they were experiencing one of the peaks of their early touring adventures. It was graciously donated to the Archive, along with another show from around this time at Roskilde Festival, by JTL. Huge thank you for giving me the green light to share your excellent work here. I really appreciate it. 

It's hard to believe that this was almost 20 years ago...but it was. As you would expect, the set is constructed around the Back Room album and it should be viewed as an accurate presentation of who Editors were at that time. Having been there at an early marker of the band's existence, it's so strange to know that the group you hear on stage at the Vega doesn't exist any more. They evolved and changed both musically, and in the arrangement of their personnel. To me, this only makes these older recordings more vital. Anybody who caught the group in their later years needs to hear these shows to get a handle on the processes that led them to places like the Ziggo Dome, or Werchter in front of 80,000 people. It was all being constructed here. 

Everything that made them special in 2006 is in these two shows I'm sharing; from road testing new material with Bones and Weight of the World (which wouldn't gain official release for another year), to selecting the Editors Cover Version song on this tour cycle in Road to Nowhere (it was French Disko the year before and R.E.M.'s Orange Crush the year after). Then there's the inclusion of all those classic compositions that we just don't hear any more, including a legendary Elbow-associated b-side (when b-sides used to be a thing). 

Overall, it's the sound of focused hunger, of a band knowing that the time they use on stage is nothing more than a facilitator of more time, if all goes well. As I've documented here at the Archive before, the Back Room tour ran them into the ground in the name of future opportunities. Only the four men involved  know the personal costs entailed in that, and what the  bill was like when it came due, but as a tactic it certainly worked. During most of the songs here, I visualise a band furiously beating the water beneath them to prevent the potential drowning moment that awaits all bands who carelessly relax and slip into irrelevancy. Noise and passion, a beautiful combination that took them far. Enjoy the music ;) 

The Setlist
01. Lights - download here
02. Blood - download here
03. Bones - download here
04. All Sparks - download here
05. Fall - download here
06. Bullets - download here
07. Let Your Good Heart Lead You Home - download here
08. Find Yourself - download here
09. Camera - download here
10. You Are Fading - download here
11. Munich - download here
12. Open Your Arms - download here
13. The Weight of the World - download here
14. Someone Says - download here
15. Fingers In The Factories - download here

Taper info file - download here
FFP file - download here

All in a zip - download here

brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love ;)
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Editors Instagram - November 2024

 

One more month of quiet, meditative calm here at the Archive. Although I did just receive a cheerful notice from YouTube telling me that my channel had been terminated and destroyed because of multiple copyright claims against me (about 17 at once). "Oh dear", I thought. Then I checked and...the channel is still operational. I looked into it a little further and these seemingly brand new copyright-breach notices all centre around Werchter 2016, which was a collection of videos I took off the site over a year ago. This was a very, very strange false alarm. Ominous, to say the least.

Most of the photographs this month came from Justin who was travelling in Italy, but right at the very end of November he shared some snaps of the band back together, including the occasional visiting Editor that is Mr Nic Willes. BJP wasn't present, but then he's currently in the throes of reactivating "Blanck Mass" and releasing new material. 

Can we determine anything from Justin's portraits featuring the ghosts of Editors past, present and future? Probably not. It may have been an official meeting, but then again it more likely to have been purely social. The music business equivalent of and office xmas party, only without the photocopying of genitalia and horrible, horrible recriminations for deeds done drunkenly that follow in the days afterwards. 

There was a second, brief video of Tom recording new material with Iain Archer, and you can view the footage here.   

Editors Instagram  - November 2024

For all of Editors' other Instagram posts, go here.

brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x 
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Editors Instagram - October 2024

 


Very little to download this month, but there's still something fairly weighty to consider. As usual, Justin and Elliott were the main contributors to the pool of digital memories during October. Yet with only three photographs posted, Tom has positioned himself as the focal point in Editors' universe. He appears to have been recording with Iain Archer, a man with whom he has previous musical history. What we don't know is the nature of the collaboration, but there is definitely something happening. If you want to hear a very brief sample of what the two have been working on you can listen here. Other than that, details are sketchy. More waiting, I'm afraid. We're used to it...

Editors Instagram  - October 2024

For all of Editors' other Instagram posts, go here.

brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x 
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Editors Instagram - September 2024

 



Initially, I believed that September would be a very quiet month indeed given that Editors are now officially on a pause of indeterminate length. I envisaged 30 days which would offer us photos from Elliott and Justin but not a lot else, and I was partially correct. What I hadn't accounted for was that Tom would drop by the Radio 2 studios on the 14th to help Dermot O'Leary celebrate 20 years in his post at that station. He brought his trusty acoustic guitar and performed Papillon, as well as giving a very brief interview, all of which you can check out here.

September saw Elliott was in a celebratory mood as his burgeoning noodle empire, New Wave Ramen, turned 1 year old. Congratulations, Sir. As predicted, Justin was busy but his actual level of activity means that any accusations of occupying a life of unfulfilled potential can never be levelled at him. There's a trend to viewing any band as being the sole, stabilising force to all the members who act as satellites around it. They are that group, it's bigger than them (for better or for worse) and aside from it they are civilians living more sedate lives. 

In 2005 I imagine that Editors was just that monolithic connection between  all four of its members. They worked, rehearsed and played in the service of advancing the group further and reaching their audience. All waking hours spent, and presumably some that should have been used for sleep but ended up being repurposed, were to a singular goal. Outside of that was "normality", light and shade/black and white. In 2024, however, Editors has really grown into an entity with a much more varied palette. It's become a collective of individuals, the majority of whom may now only view it as one of several ongoing projects. Justin Lockey is the embodiment of that ethos. 

As well as travelling, photographing, writing screenplays, playing music etc etc, Justin actually co-runs an independent record label and co-manages a band on said imprint. I reached out to Physical Education Records just to be sure that was the case and sure enough, Justin is still very much involved and particularly in the career of October Drift. For a human that struggles with anxiety his output is remarkable. A schedule that would finish off lesser men seems to be the very thing that keeps him closer to sanity. I remember reading an interview with Henry Rollins in which he was asked about his own aversion to standing still too long:-

"I'm always kind of doing something — there's never really any downtime," he said. "And I'm not trying to impress you with my workload."


Unfortunately, and yet unsurprisingly, there is no Editors news. Dermot did say he was trying to work with Edith to get Tom and Andy Burrows back together for a Christmas thing, a suggestion that was not dismissed by the man himself. We shall see. 
 
Editors Instagram - September 2024

For all of Editors' other Instagram posts, go here.

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