So what the fuck happened then…….? One day I’m down a poky pub with a few people who have heard Editors on 6 music, the next I’m at a sold out academy gig, with the announcement that they are to play The Apollo in May. To put it in some perspective the other day I was sat on the train and I witnessed someone removing the plastic wrapping from a recently purchased James Blunt album (these people are everywhere). As if that wasn’t bad enough he then produced a copy of Editors, Back Room from his HMV bag that he’d bought in the sale….These people have no right purchasing good music, it ruins it for the rest of us….wankers…..

…..And there are some of them in tonight. I see someone with a Coldplay t-shirt and I have a horrible premonition of this bands future. They arrive; Edith Bowman is stood just a few meters away from me, beaming up at boyfriend Tom Smith whilst periodically looking around to see if anyone’s recognised her. They launch into ‘Lights’. The crowd go mental. Their set pretty much comprises of ‘The Back Room’ in its entirety, but there’s a new found confidence tonight, Munich, Sparks and Bullets sounding gigantic across the powerful academy’s sound system.

Tom, feels the electricity given off from his band and the audience alike and he hungrily feeds off it like a man who is starving. It’s a little worrying because I can already see a Chris Martin mentality creeping in, he has stadium reflected in his eyes as he teeters on the edge of the stage, hands behind his head surveying his people. I just know where he wants to take this now, this could be that last time we see Editors before they are lost to Q magazine forever.

I put these images temporarily to the back of my mind and manage to enjoy the rest of the show, marvelling at the wasted Munich b-side ‘Find yourself a safe place’ complete with racing guitars and crashing drums into ‘Open Your Arms’ the slow ballad that rises from the ashes in gathering emotional dramatics.

All in all Editors put on quite a show, but as people leave I snobbishly take in the cross section around me and pray, somewhat selfishly, that this is a big as it’s gonna get….I’m aware this is pure wishful thinking though. Ah well, it was nice whilst it lasted.

8/10

James Heward