Elbow room - New Elbow Live Package

Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid (with the BBC concert orchestra) Live at Abbey Road

Elbow are, it has to be said, getting bigger by the month. Their debut album barely sold and the band toured constantly to get it promoted. Since then, Elbow have released three studio albums, toured the world and won that Mercury Prize. That latter has seen them catapulted into the stratosphere here in the UK. Nearly every mum in the country owns a copy of their last album, 'The Seldom Seen Kid', and they recently sold out Wembley Stadium. As a proud fan, it's great to see the band get the recognition they always deserved. It also means exciting pieces of wonderment like this new offering from Elbow: the live package.

A while ago, Elbow were offered the chance to perform their biggest selling album in front of a very small audience, with the BBC concert orchestra and the BBC radio three choir of the year. Of course, the guys lept at the chance and the performance went out on BBC radio two and the red button. This performance took several hours of scoring for one man. His work on the score for this performance proved vital and the whole show sounded absolutely wonderful.

And then Elbow decided they must release it as a package for the fans. Well, I am very grateful for this as the gig was so beautiful from start to finish (much like the album itself). The live record that features in this package is stunning in every sense of the word. From the opening moments of 'Starlings' to the thunderous strings on 'Grounds For Divorce', this record gives that little something extra that Elbow couldn't quite achieve in the studio (with a three ladies and various sting instruments). The most wonderful performance here, surely, is 'Weather To Fly'. The goose bump inducing section of 'The Seldom Seen Kid' and the track that oozes more beauty than anything Coldplay have ever recorded. This is also true of the performances of 'Some Riot' (Craig Potter using that Grand Piano to great effect) and, the never before performed, 'Friend Of Ours'. The latter was so wonderful, I cried.

You can see on the faces that this show meant the world. I hope they conquor it. All of it. This is just another step towards domination, I can't wait to see where they go from here.

Well worth the pennies, just for the instrumentation alone.

Elbow performing 'Grounds For Divorce' live at Abbey Road.