Fooled by a trick of the light, are you there? - Nothingness
A curiously appropriate lyric to soundtrack this month.
As we all know, Editors are not a publicly viewable concern right now. During November Smith and Burrows played a show in Stroud and are up to... something in the studio, while Tom appeared as a guest vocalist on a song called This Life which was released on the 24th. You can take a look at that using this link, and there's also a verse and chorus from the track as played by Tom on the acoustic guitar available to see here. Justin is travelling, Elliott is continuing to build his dining empire and so things are happening involving Editors' personnel, but it's all satellite projects.
One of the perceived perils of the music industry, more generally applied to bands in their musical nascence, is that after you gain any notable attention, taking any time away means your audience will abandon you. If you subscribe to the proposal that music buyers are predominantly fickle and easily distracted, then perpetual motion could be the prescribed antidote to cure the ill of fan-apathy. Sometimes that's probably true, but there's a caution to be issued about underestimating the loyalty of those with whom your creative labours have connected.
As mentioned above, Editors are now on standby. They last played a show at the beginning of September, a stat that comes courtesy of Hannah's excellent forum which you can and definitely should make a regular stop on your cyber travels. EBM is now over a year old, and you could deduce that this tour cycle is winding down in preparation for the conception and birthing of album 8, whenever that may happen. Yet on the 23rd of November there was an announcement that the band would be playing a solitary date at AFAS Live on the 6th of March next year. It posed a question; given the sporadic nature of Editors touring lately and the lack of new material to actively promote, would anybody be interested in attending?
Within a very small amount of time, twelve thousand people had replied in the affirmative.
They sold out the first date in under 15 minutes, then repeated the process when a second one was put together to meet the demand. Forget the disaster that was Brexit, and all the ongoing negativity that it continues to generate, Editors are European sons. Here is your proof.
I'd originally thought that March was going to be the official end of the EBM campaign, and it may be that this will still be the case, but the act of making new bookings creates possibilities. Does it mean they just fancy a few more nights out before they get serious about crafting E8? Is this a way of turning what would have been a singular party at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp on the 8th into a more prolonged send off? Or are they using the time off between now and then to rehearse and prepare novel material, with these March gigs serving as a jumping off point for something new?
Tom and Andy sold out a gig at a small pub in Stroud during November, then Editors managed to shift 12,000 tickets over two nights themselves during the same month. I would imagine that xmas has been given a considerable boost for everyone involved. Just as well, when you remember how terribly consumed by sorrow they are all the time. Until December...
Editors Instagram - November 2023
For all of Editors' previous Instagram posts, go here.
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x