Almost exactly 3 years to the day since their last run of engagements in front of UK audiences began, Editors once again took their show on their road a little bit closer to home. They'd done a string of dates in 2016 with the Manics, but not a sustained series of dates in their own right. This facilitated not only a re-connection with their UK fans, but also a chance to refresh the memories of the sometimes indifferent media in this country, which are often more absorbed with the prestige that comes from claiming discovery rights over bands that are just starting out. 15 years since they appeared on the Lamacq live show as Snowfield, Editors were once again out gloomily increasing the volume at local venues and as Mr Smith would have us believe, smelling the crowds. Things were looking pretty good.
Then on the 12th October came an announcement that I'm sure sent a chill through the fanbase; Editors were cancelling their gig in Aberdeen. The reason this was that Tom was in the grip of a viral infection and the feeling was that if they couldn't put on the type of show that they're capable of as a result, then they would pull the plug and reschedule. This is entirely reasonable, of course. We've all been ill at one time or another, and the idea of dragging yourself from a bed in that state and onto a stage to play in front of a room full of people would be less than appealing.
The more worrying wrinkle to this story is that in the past when Editors cancel shows it means that it's serious, because their work ethic has always made them able to power through these situations. Remember, this is a group that were all collectively so unwell during a show that they spent the time pre-encore behind Ed's drums throwing up together. As the saying goes, a band that hurls together...
It was something that evoked memories from a couple of years ago when it was announced that the American tour was cancelled due to illness. I wondered, as a lot of you probably did if this was a return to those times and if the spectre of ill health would return to cause promotional chaos once more. It becomes a balancing act between fulfilling your present commitments and protecting those in the future. If they had gone onstage at Aberdeen and exacerbated whatever was bothering Tom, then this could have resulted in more dates being nuked later. Sure, they would have played the show and kept the fans happy like they promised but more than likely you would now have the same problem down the line only worse. And believe me I do understand the frustration that comes with getting so close to the prize only to watch it disappear. In August 2007 I was at an Interpol gig in Newcastle when the show was cancelled as the support band went onstage. I get it.
But do you really want to be entertained by a person who feels obliged yet wishing they were somewhere else throughout the performance? Wouldn't it be better for them to be fully present and ready to connect with the audience as authentically as possible? Sometimes it's OK to allow our favourite performers to be human, wish them well and take this minor inconvenience on the chin for the greater good.
As it turned out, after a short respite from the promotional treadmill Tom was indeed able to return to their gig at Glasgow Barrowlands.To be fair, if you were going to stage a recuperative comeback anywhere then the Barrowlands is a great place to do it. Scottish fans like to get crazy and they love live music, so a partisan crowd was virtually a certainty, as was the warm welcome back that the band received.
It was something that evoked memories from a couple of years ago when it was announced that the American tour was cancelled due to illness. I wondered, as a lot of you probably did if this was a return to those times and if the spectre of ill health would return to cause promotional chaos once more. It becomes a balancing act between fulfilling your present commitments and protecting those in the future. If they had gone onstage at Aberdeen and exacerbated whatever was bothering Tom, then this could have resulted in more dates being nuked later. Sure, they would have played the show and kept the fans happy like they promised but more than likely you would now have the same problem down the line only worse. And believe me I do understand the frustration that comes with getting so close to the prize only to watch it disappear. In August 2007 I was at an Interpol gig in Newcastle when the show was cancelled as the support band went onstage. I get it.
But do you really want to be entertained by a person who feels obliged yet wishing they were somewhere else throughout the performance? Wouldn't it be better for them to be fully present and ready to connect with the audience as authentically as possible? Sometimes it's OK to allow our favourite performers to be human, wish them well and take this minor inconvenience on the chin for the greater good.
As it turned out, after a short respite from the promotional treadmill Tom was indeed able to return to their gig at Glasgow Barrowlands.To be fair, if you were going to stage a recuperative comeback anywhere then the Barrowlands is a great place to do it. Scottish fans like to get crazy and they love live music, so a partisan crowd was virtually a certainty, as was the warm welcome back that the band received.
As you would expect, most of what's on offer for October is centred around the tour. It includes a selection of snaps from the band themselves and from various related sources. There's also the 18 short Instagram Story videos that were shared on the night of their gig at the Brixton Academy.
In other news, the video for Cold went public and it proved to be another showcase for Mr Rezvani's ability to interpret Editors visually and demonstrate his precision in spotting and capturing beauty in human movement. Filmed on location in Reykjavik, it features Mr Smith and dancer Drew Jacoby out and about in the landscape of Iceland. It's the same reaction every time I watch one of Rahi's films for Editors; what would he have done with the really early stuff? I've said this before, I don't mean to in any way disparage the folks that came up with the videos for songs like Munich, Smokers and All Sparks etc. Not at all. I just wonder how they would have looked having been shone through Rahi's creative filter?
The recurring topic of Smith and Burrows came back around, with a short Instagram story video of Tom in his trucker cap playing in a rehearsal room or studio setup. What was he playing? Impending tunes or just fan-trolling to pass the time? We'll see.
Finally, another small but personally significant incident happened on the 2nd October 2018 when the Archive on Vimeo was shut down forever due to copyright problems. This meant a return to YouTube, just under another name. You'd imagine that I'm still bitter about it but the truth is I wake up every morning smiling and unafraid of the Archive's future, because everything is running super-smoothly.
(cough)
Here's Editors' Instagram collection for October 2018 ;)
For all of Editors' previous Instagram posts, go here.
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x
