U.K. band Elbow on success and the long road it took to find it

The band Elbow has been together since 1990, but only in the past decade did they become one of the biggest bands in Britain. Their last two albums went straight to No. 1. 

"CBS This Morning: Saturday" co-host Anthony Mason sat down with two of the band's members, lead singer Guy Garvey and bassist Pete Turner, at The Rickey at Dream Midtown in New York City to discuss their long road to success.

The four members of Elbow -- Garvey, brothers Mark and Craig Potter and Turner -- have been playing together since the 1990s, but their connection goes back even further, to their childhood in Manchester, England.
 
"We've grown up with each other, went to primary school together, kindergarten," Turner said.

"I met the guys when I was 16, but they were already established," Garvey joked. "You never had a good band name. I mean, Elbow's a terrible band name, but you were called 'Miscellaneous Sails' at one point."

It was Garvey who gave them their new name. Elbow built a following slowly. Their breakout record, "The Seldom Seen Kid," came in 2008 and would sell over a million copies. 

"That was written over this two year period where we didn't have a deal," Turner said.

"The specter of real jobs was floating around," Garvey added. "And it really pushed us to make a good record. Images of yourself with a McDonald's hat on."

Which Turner had already done at one point.  

"Which station did you have? Did you make fries? What did you do?"  Mason asked.

"Did a bit of everything, yeah," he said.

"It was really humiliating for him because your dreadlocks wouldn't fit under your cap," Garvey said.

Their last album, "The Take Off and Landing of Everything," was their first to go to No. 1 in Britain. It included the song "New York Morning." The lyrics make reference to John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

"So the lyric went into the song, 'The modern Rome and folk are nice to Yoko,'" Garvey said. "And she heard it and she sent us a beautiful email about how much John loved New York and a photograph of them together in Central Park."

As Elbow were working on their new album, "Little Fictions," Garvey met his new bride, Rachael Stirling, at actor Benedict Cumberbatch's wedding. 

"Benedict invited me to his wedding, and there was only him that I knew there, but I bought a really nice suit thinking, 'I might meet somebody at the wedding,' and I did. I met Rachael," he said.

Their son was born in April. It has been a magnificent year for the band Elbow.
 
"We recently got an email from Paul McCartney, which was amazing and completely unexpected. And all it said was he was dropping off one of his kids at school, and he had to stay in his car to find out who the song on the radio was. And it was us. It was our song, 'Magnificent.' It doesn't get much better that that really," Garvey said.

f

We and our partners use cookies to understand how you use our site, improve your experience and serve you personalized content and advertising. Read about how we use cookies in our cookie policy and how you can control them by clicking Manage Settings. By continuing to use this site, you accept these cookies.