Taken from a show the band played in Manchester as part of MTVs "Spanking New Music Week", here's Editors performing Bullets. This came about just before Munich was released and they'd already extended their touring plans for the year. I wonder if there was a sense within the group that something was happening, that their trajectory was beginning to tilt skywards? After all, 2005 was really the year where they hit the road and stayed out for lengthy amounts of time, a tactic which would prove detrimental to the band's creative process when they came to record album number two. There were benefits, however, as the placed themselves in front of a greater number of eyes and ears in venues up and down the country and abroad. It's the old fashioned method of moving from town to town and convincing as many souls as you can to join the cause. Hard work, no doubt but also highly effective if your abilities, material and passion are in alignment.
As well as offering useful experience in presenting their music, I think this is what insulated Editors from the traps that other musicians of that era fell into. There have been countless cases of press darlings who never took the time to build the foundations of a solid fanbase, and ended up departing as swiftly as they arrived due to their lack of committed support. They bypassed that most important phase of making incremental gains from a starting position of absolutely nothing, which is so important. Perhaps a little demoralising at times, sure, but potentially thrilling too. Can I prove it? Well, I'm posting this video almost 16 years after it actually happened, and Editors are still around. Enjoy the history ;)
stream it here
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love ) x
