Elbow

21^st Century Appearances: 2011 Main Stage, 2005 Main Stage, 2003 NME Stage, 2001 NME Evening Session Stage, 2000 Carling Premier Stage

The Defining Reading Moment: The 2005 Main Stage set, the first sign that this scruffy little Manchester band might be destined for bigger and better things.

It’s funny how times change, that’s not the first time I’ve written those words while compiling this list, and I suspect it will not be the last. Before their sub-headline set at Reading 2011 people were asking the question (Strictly included): Are Elbow really a Reading band? Don’t they fit in better at Glastonbury these days?

It’s a crazy thought, because up until 2006, Elbow were Reading through and through, you practically couldn’t get them to leave the place. Before “One Day Like This” and “Grounds For Divorce” were radio friendly stadium fillers, Elbow were the arty outsiders with the awkward name and the underappreciated albums.

The mainstream saw fit to ignore the gorgeous grit and scope of Asleep In The Black and Cast Of Thousands, but at Reading their myth only grew with each release culminating in a gorgeous set in 2005. In front of a softly retreating sun, and with a chilled but attentive audience in tow, Elbow unleashed the catchiest tunes of their career to date. Tracks like “Leaders Of The Free World” which suggested that the next time Elbow appeared they might just have conquered the world.

(Fun fact: the reverse Mexican wave and the random pointing games that Guy Garvey invoked at Reading would be used in the official music video for that very track)

Unfortunately, Reading wouldn’t see Elbow until 2011! We missed all the excitement and celebration that greeted The Selfdom Seen Kid, and awaited the arrival of the arena juggernaut Build A Rocket Boys. But you know what? It didn’t matter. While the world was catching up on the band they’d missed out on for the best part of a decade, we’d already been there. We’d done the reverse Mexican wave, we’d held our arms aloft, and we’d heard all Guy Garvey’s jokes because Reading had been on board from the world go.

2011 was merely a celebration, a chance for everyone to have fun, and for Elbow to finish the festival season on a high, uniting the crowd in song with new favourites “Lippy Kids”, “Neat Little Rows”, “Mirrorball”, “Grounds For Divorce” and “One Day Like This”. David Hayter