The South Bank Show Elbow Sunday 15 November 2009 at 10.45pm

13 October 2009

The South Bank Show meets Elbow, looking at the 18 year career of a band who, until the mainstream success of their latest album The Seldom Seen Kid, were considered a well kept secret by music connoisseurs – musically peerless, critically acclaimed, hugely respected, but always in the shadows of the mainstream.

With a Mercury Music Prize, Two Ivor Novellos, an NME lifetime contribution to British music award, a Brit award and a 2009 South Bank Show Award for The Seldom Seen Kid, Elbow’s 18 year career has become the music story of 2009.

Melvyn Bragg interviews lead singer Guy Garvey who reveals how the band kept their self belief alive in the first decade of Elbow’s career when they struggled for a deal. He talks about the sixth form college where the band formed, coping with losing their first record deal, Elbow’s infamous tour of Cuba in 2004, and reveals the inspirations behind some of the great Elbow records like Starlings, Grace Under Pressure and Leaders of the Free World.

The South Bank Show gains access to Elbow’s tiny studio where they have mastered the high brow DIY recording ethic that has won them the respect of their peers. Keyboardist and Producer Craig Potter talks of the bands evolution musically, his role as the bands producer and Garvey invites cameras into his flat to open up the legendary notebook collection he has been keeping since he was 14.

The South Bank Show includes exclusive footage of Elbow at their MEN arena gig in Manchester, and archive of the band when they were teenagers in Bury 18 years ago.

The film is produced and directed by Irshad Ashraf, who directed the critically acclaimed South Bank Show on Peter Kosminsky. Irshad was in the same year at sixth form college, in Manchester with Elbow  (known then as Soft) and has always stayed in touch, making a documentary about their 2004 tour of Cuba – so it was a natural progression for him to make this insightful South Bank Show.