ShareEditors performing their Black Gold Tour at The Arena Birmingham on Thursday 27th February 2020
Review by Kevin Cooper
English indie rock group, Editors, were at the Birmingham Arena last night to promote their greatest hits album, Black Gold, which includes songs from their six studio albums as well as showcasing some new songs.
When lead singer, Tom Smith, bassist Russell Leetch, drummer Edward Lay, guitarist Justin Lockey and keyboard player Elliott Williams entered the music scene with their debut album, The Back Room, in 2005, it was a low key affair with only 1,000 pressings on the little known Kitchenware label. But in no time at all The Back Room had attracted platinum quantity sales and a Mercury Prize nomination, and the rest as they say is history.
An End Has A Start kicked off a set list that contained twenty plus strong songs, and with its seductive lighting and brilliant musicianship, the crowd were immediately on side. There were other big tunes in the form of Bullets, Bones and Escape The Nest before Sugar had the crowd finding their voices.
With the added effect of phenomenal lighting, new song Frankenstein saw the band shrouded in an eerie emerald, and for Blood crimson lights just added to the moody atmosphere. With Smith’s unique and instantly recognisable voice there was a particularly powerful moment when the rest of the band left him on the stage and he delivered a solo version of the lovelorn emotive No Sound But The Wind.
Back on the stage for a pulsating Spiders, the band didn’t waste time with pleasantries or between song banter. For the eternally epic Papillon the whole Arena came alive with thousands of arms swaying in the air, before A Ton Of Love began the evening’s karaoke session. Everyone was on their feet for the simply breathtaking Formaldehyde and the ferocious Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool.
The anthemic Fingers In The Factories gave way to set closer You Are Fading before a four song encore that included Distance, The Racing Rats, a blistering Munich and a mass sing along to Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors, showed this Birmingham crowd that Editors are still as relevant as ever.