Interview: Editors [Part IV: Band Origins]

by Mick Lewis
5 September 2006

[Continued from Part III]

JACK RABID: There was a previous incarnation of this band, before he [Ed] joined.

MICK LEWIS: SNOWFIELD...

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: Yeah, there were a few different band names before…

ML: What were the other names?

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: It was originally Pilot, then we found out there was a band [Scottish trio produced by ALAN PARSONS] in the ‘70s called PILOT.

JR: Oh yeah! Didn’t they do [one hit wonder 1975 U.S. #5 “Magic”] “Oh oh ho it’s magic, you know/Never believe it’s not so…?”

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: And there was THE PRIDE – I don’t know where that came from! Had nothing to do with me—and Snowfield.

ML: It’s like THE BRAVERY.

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: Yeah, awful.

JR: ELBOW had a different name before that, too.

ED LAY: What were they called, something hilarious, weren’t they?

RUSSELL LEETCH: They were some funk band as well, weren’t they? [correct]

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: They were called SOFT, weren’t they? [correct]

TOM SMITH: Isn’t “elbow” supposed to be the softest word to say in the English language?

JR: Unless you get one in the face… happened in a hockey game last night! [DARIUS KASPARAITIS of the New York Rangers was thrown out of the game for an elbow to the head of his opponent.]

JR: So what were they called before you joined, Ed?

ED LAY: It was Snowfield.

JR: How bad were they?

ED LAY: They were brilliant! (laughter) When I was at college with them, I was hanging out with them all the time, because we all lived together. But I was their number one fan I guess. I went to every gig. I have no other friends, so if they were going out I had to go with them.

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: None of us had any other friends.

JR: (kids) So, they were big on the Stafford night scene?!

ED LAY: Huge on the Stafford scene live!

ML: Were there any other bands…?

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: There wasn’t a scene.

ML: It was just you?

JR: You’re looking at it!

ED LAY: There were some student bands around.

RUSSELL LEETCH: Mostly funk rock.

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: Loads of bands that tried to sound like JAMIROQUAI.

RUSSELL LEETCH: I think that’s what happens when a lot of people go to university, they think that funk is in, because they’re at university, and they form funk bands.

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: They like rock ‘n’ roll, but they like dance music.

TOM SMITH: Our first ever gig at Stafford , the little venue in town, we rammed it, because we had advertised and all our friends came. But the second gig about three-four weeks later no one came. Three or four people.

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: No one there—not even our friends.

TOM SMITH: (pointing to Ed) You must have been there, he was always around!

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: Front row!

JR: You don’t get to be number one fan without working hard.

ML: So how long was it until you started to see more than no one coming to your shows, where the numbers started to grow exponentially?

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: We basically sent demos out. Stafford is just a little grey town.

ML: What year is this that you’re sending out demos?

RUSSELL LEETCH: 2003, summer.

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: We basically played this venue in Birmingham; it was run by our managers now.

ML: You played this place where you found your management and sent out demos…

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: We were just playing in Birmingham quite a lot and as soon as we finished our course, we moved and started doing the crappy day jobs so we could write songs and get to the point where we could put a record out. So just writing over the course of a year.

ML: What was the first song that you all worked on together?

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: We had “Bullets” when we were at university.

TOM SMITH: That was the first point that we all thought it sounded good.

ML: “Bullets” was the one that caught me right away.

JR: Yeah me too.

ML: I heard a little bit of a U2 sound on it. Is that an influence?

TOM SMITH: Not really an influence, but we’re not scared to make big music. We’re not scared of big choruses or melody. People have mentioned U2 a bit.

ML: Well, it’s just that that riff sounds like the riff from “Beautiful Day.”

TOM SMITH: Right. (laughs)

ML: That’s what struck me when I heard it, like “This is good and the song is different but it has…

TOM SMITH: Rhythmically, I think definitely.

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: (surprised) Yeah it does, doesn’t it? God…!

ML: I guess you never heard that comparison before.

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: I think we wrote that before “Beautiful Day.”

ML: I think that came out in 2001.

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: Oh, f*** it.

TOM SMITH: We just stole it!

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: We ripped it off!

ML: That’s… great. Well early on, they ripped off from JOY DIVISION!

JR: U2 did the biggest rip off of THE SKIDS on their first single in 1979 [later on 1980’s Boy, they stole “Out of Control” from The Skids’ “Of One Skin” [from 1978’s Wide Open EP and 1979 debut LP Scared to Dance and they admitted it when I asked THE EDGE and BONO about it the next year! They said they were huge fans. U2 totally stole that Skids song, hook, line and sinker – The Edge said, “Yeah, [Skids guitarist, later BIG COUNTRY leader] STUART ADAMSON is a [guitar] hero of mine.” It just goes to show, it’s an endless go-around.

[Parts V and VI to follow—honest!!]

Filed under britpop post-punk