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Editors are an English rock band, formed in 2002 in Birmingham. Previously known as Pilot, The Pride and Snowfield, the band currently consists of Tom Smith (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Russell Leetch (bass guitar, synthesizer, backing vocals), Ed Lay (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Justin Lockey (lead guitar), and Elliott Williams (keys, synthesizers, guitars, and backing vocals). Editors have so far released two platinum studio albums, and six in total, with several million combined sales. Their debut album

The band met while studying Music Technology at Staffordshire University, but living in Birmingham and playing at venues such as the Jug of Ale and the Flapper & Firkin, the former of which bands such as Oasis and Blur played in during their primitive years, helped the band obtain a record deal. Tom Smith Interview in 2015 "Birmingham is very important" he explains. "Looking back further it was where we all lived together in the early years, played all those flapper and jug of ale shows, and then got our record deal". "We've always said although only one of us was brought up there, Birmingham was the band's home". The band was initially known as Pilot and played its first show under this name in 2002. While in college, the band constructed a marketing strategy which involved placing hundreds of promotional stickers across the walls of Stafford asking "Who's the Pilot?". However, they realised the name was already taken by a 1970s Scottish pop group, so they changed their name to The Pride. They made a promo under this name with the tracks "Come Share the View" and "Forest Fire" and then uploaded them onto the internet, making the songs available to listen to on BBC Radio 1's Onemusic Unsigned. A review of the songs reads "The Pride keep things subliminally lo-fi. Refreshingly simple and restrained, "Come Share The View" is a lesson in welding hypnotic soundscapes with white noise while showing allegiance to the school of slo-mo on "Forest Fire"". The band then took its music offline to create mystery and anxiousness and ensure that more "A&R" representatives came to see them perform. They then changed the line-up with Ed Lay replacing Geraint Owen on drums as he began to focus on his Welsh band The Heights. Under this lineup they became known as Snowfield. They played their debut gig under this name at the request of Fused Magazine in March 2003. The following summer the band self-released a demo six-track EP, all of which went on to become future Editors songs. Then, as it was the home of their management and the nearest big city, the band relocated to Birmingham after graduation in the autumn of 2003. For the next year, the different band members then worked part-time jobs along with the rest of their work with the band. After continuous gigging around the Midlands, it wasn't long until word of mouth helped them become a popular unsigned band. The band then sent out a one track demo cd of Bullets, earning them the interest of several British labels, with thirty A&R reps coming to see them play at Birmingham. In October 2004, the group signed to Newcastle based indie label Kitchenware Records. Upon signing to the record label they changed their band name to Editors. After supporting bands such as Puressence and Oceansize, Editors released debut single "Bullets" recorded with producer Gavin Monaghan as a limited edition of 1000 copies on Kitchenware Records on 24 January 2005. The song had previously been played by BBC Radio 1 disc jockey Zane Lowe, where it earned the honour of 'Single of the Week'. The limited run then sold out on the day of its release, with copies famously then sold later in the week for more than PS30 on eBay. The release of "Munich" followed in April of that year and gave the band their first Top 25 hit, another sold out UK tour and a place on MTV's Spanking New Music show in Manchester. At this point, due to the band's increasing popularity, Editors and Kitchenware signed an exclusive distribution deal with Sony BMG. "Blood" was released two months later, reaching number 18 in the UK Singles Chart in its first week, selling 5,286 copies. With these releases their fanbase continued to grow and on 25 July 2005 their debut album The Back Room was released to critical acclaim and commercial success. In its first week, the album entered the charts at number 13, selling 17,627 copies. After re-issuing "Bullets" and achieving another Top 30 hit, Editors gained a high-profile support slot, supporting Franz Ferdinand in arenas across the UK and Europe. Editors then re-issued "Munich" in January 2006, selling one and half thousand more copies than the last time it was released. The song gave Editors their first Top 10 single and an appearance on Top of the Pops. With the single release, The Back Room also rose back up the album charts, peaking at number 2. It sold an additional 40,000 copies in the week of "Munich"'s release and went platinum in the process. A joint North American tour with Stellastarr* coincided with the American release of The Back Room in March 2006. It was released by Fader Label and sold 35,000 albums after 20 weeks. The band went on to play influential American festivals in 2006 such as Coachella and Lollapalooza. Editors proceeded to perform "Munich" on the American television show Late Night with Conan O'Brien. At the end of March, Editors released "All Sparks" as a single in the United Kingdom, achieving a position of 21 in the singles chart. After a European tour which included three successive nights at Brixton Academy, Editors re-issued a limited edition of "Blood". It entered the Top 40, pushing the album up the chart 45 places. Shortly after this, The Back Room hit the million mark in sales worldwide and was also nominated for the 2006 Mercury Prize. After a string of high-profile festival shows across Europe, including slots on T in the Park, V 2006 and the Isle of Wight Festival, Editors began work on their second album. Lead singer Smith revealed that the band will explore a new direction on their next album, pursuing a new, rawer sound. Before January 2009, Editors had written around eighteen new songs for the new album and they have been described as some of the most synthetic, raw and anthemic songs they have written to date. In October the band went to the studio to record some demos. The band spent the first week of April recording the album and on 8 April, they released a short video with information about the recording process. It announced that Mark 'Flood' Ellis would be the producer for the album. Earlier on in the year, the sound of the album was said to have a very electric feel; the band often using the Terminator theme song as a reference. On 2 June 2009, it was announced that the new album title would be In This Light and on This Evening and that they would be the first band to play at the new O2 Academy Birmingham. Through producer Flood's heavy usage of synthesisers, the album provided a synthpop/post-punk sound to Editors' production. Flood, who is famous for collaborating with electronic music influenced bands like U2, Depeche Mode, The Killers and Erasure, helped develop synthetic elements on the album, which resulted in a mixed reception from long-term fans as to the group's new direction. The album was released on 12 October and debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart. Alongside the album, the band released lead single "Papillon" and it led them to their first taste of number one success outside the UK, with the song hitting the top position in Belgium and being certified Gold in the process. After releasing singles "You Don't Know Love", "Last Day" and "Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool" to limited chart success, it was announced that their unreleased song "No Sound But the Wind" would appear on the New Moon soundtrack. A live version of the song was later released in continental Europe in September 2010 and again achieved the same success as "Papillon" in Belgium, going to number 1 and being certified Gold. In November 2010 it was confirmed that a boxset called Unedited compiling the first 3 albums, as well as b-sides and previously unreleased songs on 7 12" vinyls, 7 CDs and 7 MP3 albums, alongside a book of photos and words, would be released in early 2011. The boxset included the full band version of "No Sound But The Wind", demos of "Camera" and "These Streets Are Still Home To Me", and an unreleased version of "The Weight of the World", called "Every Little Piece". CANNOTANSWER

Editors (band)