Music Maps

An hour and a bit down the Hope Valley Line from Coles Corner is Manchester Piccadilly station, the road up to which provided the inspiration for Elbow’s Station Approach, the opening track to their 2005 album Leaders Of The Free World.

Recorded at Blueprint Studios in nearby Salford, Elbow’s Guy Garvey told the NME (see Powderblue) about the pretty literal meaning of Station Approach and its lyrics, and working closer to home:

That’s the road that leads to Piccadilly Station on Manchester. It’s about being home making you feel good. I can’t tell you what a difference it’s made being to be able to work in Manchester. Everyone’s relationships are thriving, and not just outside the band, between the five of us. I didn’t think it was possible to get on better than we already did, but it’s just been bizarre.

The aforementioned Blueprint Studios were also the location of the first live airing of Station Approach in a pair of gigs over a weekend at the end of May in 2005 - the first to friends and the media, the second to fans - to showcase material from Leaders Of The Free World, which then had the working title of The Stops.

As well as hosting the gigs, The Big Room (a ‘loft style live space’, according to Blueprint’s website) was where Elbow chose to record the album, despite Blueprint housing a pair of purpose built studios.

Joining them were video artists Soup Collective, who worked in the same space to create the animations which accompany the songs on the limited edition DVD of the album (see below for Station Approach). Other inhabitants of Blueprint in recent years have included Kylie, 50 Cent, The Streets and Justin Timberlake, while Elbow used the studios once more to record their forthcoming album The Seldom Seen Kid.

And back to Station Approach - if you visit (which is pretty inevitable if you ever travel to Manchester by train), just take my word for it and don’t be tempted by Antonio’s Cafe, no matter how good a write up it gets on eggbaconchipsandbeans. I think I’ve just found My New Favourite Blog.

Leaders Of The Free World, containing Station Approach, is available to buy on CD from Amazon.