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**Updated 16th July 2024 - Video has been nuked by the festival organisers and the Archive has been given a copyright strike. If you still want a copy...go covert.
This is the abbreviated version of the original stream put out by the good folks at Montreux Jazz Festival, and what an amazing job they did. What you get here is Editors' show without any of the build up filler material that accompanied the official version. We're all about the brevity and focus, here at the Lemming Archive ;)
It would be no exaggeration to say that fans have wondered for many, many years what an Editors live film would look like. Far enough back for the rallying call to centre around a live DVD release, a necessity in the pre-digital takeover that's happened during their lifetime. Sure, we've had pro-shot recordings before, but for some reason they never really gave the same feel like an authentic concert film of a group playing their songs gives.
Editors live at Montreux 7th July 2024 may be the closest thing we'll ever get to a cinematic experience of our band on stage. This has instantly become one of my favourite shows by the second incarnation band, partly due (of course) to their performance, but also in greater measure thanks to the care and attention given to them by those who filmed it. There's a feeling of an assembly-line process that dictates all the camera shots and angles during something like Werchter or Pinkpop, for example. Everyone gets the same sort of standard treatment in the interest of putting out a decent live stream. The Montreux recording feels different, something I would expect from a festival with such an amazing history. It's almost like each member of the group had their own camera allocated exclusively for them. Because of that, you catch facial expressions and gestures that might have been missed in a more broad kind of coverage.
The only negative thing I have to say about it is that Ben didn't get a chance to be involved, to see some of the songs he helped create be immortalised in such a professional and meticulously curated way. I'd pair this with Rahi's "Ghosts" video in that he showed what it's like to be on stage as Editors, while this one demonstrates a stylised vision of what it is to watch them play as an audience member. I love it.
There's only 9 songs to enjoy, and they literally get in and get out without much delay. I think what we're looking at here is a band that are spending the summer winding down the EBM campaign, just having fun playing music and travelling. They deserve it. Enjoy the music ;)
Montreux Jazz Festival (Lemming Archive Cut)
(Nuked on YouTube by Montreux Jazz Festival)
MP3s
Strawberry Lemonade - download here
An End Has a Start - download here
Sugar - download here
Picturesque - download here
Karma Climb - download here
Munich - download here
Smokers - download here
Killer - download here
Papillon - download here
All in a zip - download here
Here's a very short but very, very interesting interview with Elliott and Ed that took place backstage at the Montreux Jazz Festival, July 2024. It was filmed and originally published by M Le Media on their website, and I "liberated it" after being made aware of it by Christelle. Many thanks to you for your kindness.
You may wonder how much we can learn in just under two and a half minutes, and you will be surprised if your initial assessment would be "not much, probably". Ed lets slip some very pertinent information, accidentally or possibly intentionally (you KNOW that he's aware that some of us are ghoulishly attentive, obsessing and speculating endlessly over these kinds of things!). When talk comes to the subject of musicians multi-tasking he indicates that Tom wants to do some solo work.
If that's true, it means that after 20 years of being an Editor and most recently producing an album in EBM that was seemingly the very definition of collaborative efforts, it could be that Mr Smith may finally be about to take the full burden of creativity onto himself. Granted, here's always a possibility they're just messing with the fans with this casually breaking news, but if it's real then what does that mean for the future of Editors? They joke about getting a new singer but as Tom has historically been the primary source of the band's songs, that would seem to be a dead-end of a notion.
Another situation that seems to provide you with answers, only to create more questions than you originally possessed.
Interview number 2
More tales from the backstage area of the Montreux Jazz Festival, featuring Elliott and Ed being interviewed by Blue Music (thanks again, Christelle). As with the other clip, the subject of Editors' future comes up again and there's further evidence that there are no immediate, concrete plans for the band once these last batch of tour dates are over. Of course they could be misdirecting us, they have done it before...
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love ;) x
