elbow feat. John Grant - Kindling (Fickle Flame)

elbow are proud to make available a new version of album track ‘Kindling’ from today on streaming and download services. The closing track from the UK Number One album, ‘Little Fictions’, has been re-recorded, orchestrated and renamed ‘Kindling (Fickle Flame)’ to create a duet between Guy Garvey and long-time friend of elbow John Grant. The band also announce new arena tour dates for March of 2018.

‘Kindling’ was the first track to be written for ‘Little Fictions’ ‘around the fire in a frozen Scotland in January 2016’ as Guy has it and kickstarted the sessions that led to ‘as fine an album as elbow have ever made’ (The Guardian). Returning to it following a year that has seen the album reach the Top Ten across Europe and be certified gold in the UK, the band were keen to look for a way to bring their music to more people and offer new ideas to their existing fans as Guy explains:

‘We are always looking for ways to lead new ears to our records and the idea of duetting with John on the track came from a dressing room conversation in Cork. I felt that there was space in the song between the original vocals for a sympathetic voice and a romantic close harmony. John was the first person that came to mind for us when we thought about who could do that.

The last guest on an elbow record was Richard Hawley on ‘The Fix’ which is a Matthau / Lemmon style comedic caper. I felt I could write friendship into a romantic song and as John is both a good friend and a true romantic it worked perfectly. We like to think the listener can feel the beards nuzzling on either side of their neck.”

Once approached, John was keen to be involved and has a suitably self-deprecating view of his wonderful contribution:

"Singing with Guy is humiliating and disheartening because he is perfect and sounds like he's vomiting velvet out of his mouth, but maybe I'll learn something and besides, I like being around those guys."
‘Kindling (Fickle Flame)’ is available to download and stream from 4th September 2017.

The album, ‘Little Fictions', is available now.

John Grant will also be the special guest at all the UK dates on elbows newly announced March 2018 tour. All dates are listed overleaf:

UK ARENA TOUR MARCH 2018

Glasgow The SSE Hydro                   2 March 2018
Birmingham Genting Arena                3 March 2018
Manchester Arena                              4 March 2018
Leeds First Direct Arena                     6 March 2018
London The O2                                   7 March 2018

Recognised as one of the UK’s biggest and most important bands, elbow have a well-deserved reputation for delivering arena shows that combine scale with intimacy to devastating effect. The dates extend the ‘Little Fictions’ tour following a run of sold out theatre shows in March 2017 which included residencies in Manchester, London and Edinburgh, high profile festival appearances across Europe throughout the summer and a series of Forest shows, one of which was described as ‘the performance of a lifetime in a venue just as beautiful as their music’ by Contact Music. The band are about to embark on a full US tour and their first show in Mexico at the Corona Festival in November. Previous elbow arena shows have been acclaimed by reviewers, with The Guardian noting how ‘Guy Garvey radically shrinks the venue with his warmth’ and The Evening Standard declaring them ‘pop magicians, capable of sounding intimate and gigantic’.