Robert Smith called Guy Garvey directly and asked Elbow to be part of the Teenage Cancer Trust gigs, the singer said on the red carpet at the Ivor Novellos on Thursday May 21. Garvey said he did not need much convincing. “If Robert Smith gives you a call, you better get there,” he said, adding that Smith is “a wonderful man.”
Garvey said the invitation came straight from Smith, who took over curation of the 2026 Teenage Cancer Trust gigs after Roger Daltrey stepped down. Elbow played the series alongside Mogwai, Manic Street Preachers, My Bloody Valentine, Garbage, Placebo and Wolf Alice, putting the Manchester band into one of the year’s highest-profile charity lineups.
The appearance also fed into a wider sense of momentum around Elbow. Garvey said the band are already writing their 11th album, after releasing Audio Vertigo in 2024 and the Audio Vertigo Echo elbow EP 5 in 2025. He said it is too early to pin down the sound, but described the new record as “sonically ambitious,” a phrase that fits a group now 35 years into its run and still looking for new ground.
That future sits beside a past Elbow are revisiting this year. Asleep In The Back, the band’s debut, turns 25, and Garvey said the group have been looking back through the material from that period. He said the record feels rougher now than he remembered, with “the disgruntlement” of the time coming through more clearly in hindsight. He also said there will be something to mark the 25th anniversary, though he would not say what. “Watch this space. There will be something,” he said.
The conversation was not only about records and bills. Garvey also talked about Elbow’s work with the Co-Op Live arena in Manchester on donating sound equipment to grassroots venues, part of an effort tied to 30 UK grassroots venues. He said small rooms are “the soul” of a city and have to be looked after, pointing to the Night and Day Cafe in Manchester as a place that gave a platform to musicians, artists and authors alike. The venue, he said, mattered far beyond live music. It helped shape a wider creative community.
That is the pressure point in the story around Elbow now: a veteran band is balancing a new album, an anniversary and a high-profile charity role while also arguing that the smallest stages matter most. Garvey’s praise for Smith was personal, but the invitation he described also underlined how much of the band’s present still depends on relationships forged in the same live-music ecosystem Elbow are trying to protect.
