Such a perfect day – as confirmed by Elbow set

Jul 14 2009 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

THE Balado clouds cleared just in time for Mercury Album of the Year 2008 winners Elbow to go main stage on Sunday afternoon – a fact which did not go unnoticed by frontman Guy Garvey, declaring T in the Park as “the perfect festival”.

During the fast-passing hour-long performance, Garvey and fellow Manchurians seemed to be enjoying themselves, and the crowd certainly reciprocated.

The Elbow sound features beautifully constructed songs which the four-piece develop by bringing on board brass and strings. In fact Garvey was gracious enough to admit that the four-strong string ensemble on the T stage were far better musicians than Elbow themselves.

Elbow’s nine-song set opened with Starlings – the opener to Seldom Seen Kid, and indeed most of their set was from that superb album.

The crowd were happy to add beef to the choruses, perform a ‘reverse Mexican wave’ and generally soak up the sun and bonhomie of a sunny T set which closed with the Ivor Novello awarded for best song musically, One Day Like This.

Alison Anderson