It\u2019s hard to believe that next year will mark 30 years since Elbow <\/a>formed, while Garvey was at school in Manchester with bassist Pete Turner, brothers Craig and Mark Potter on guitar and keys, and Richard Jupp on drums (Jupp left the band in 2016, replaced by Alex Reeves). Will there be a cake, a party? \u201cProbably not,\u201d Garvey tells me. \u201cThey\u2019re horribly unsentimental, my boys.\u201d <\/p>\n That\u2019s a surprise, given their rousing anthem \u201cOne Day Like This\u201d has provided the soundtrack to a number of hugely sentimental moments, from the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London to countless first dances at weddings. They do majestic very well: the swelling strings that open \u201cOne Day\u201d, the sombre march of \u201cMy Sad Captains\u201d or the foot-stomping drama of \u201cGrounds for Divorce\u201d. But their songs can be sexy, too. \u201cThe Bones of You\u201d opens with the sharp strum of an acoustic guitar as Garvey is struck by memories of a past love; \u201cAn Audience with the Pope\u201d, also from the band\u2019s Mercury Prize-winning 2008 album The Seldom Seen Kid, shivers with a flurry of piano notes and sultry bass hooks. <\/p>\n There’s a solid case for them as the UK\u2019s most dependable band: 10 critically adored albums, sold-out tours around the world, a regular (brilliant) 6 Music show for Garvey and all of it without a blemish to their name. It\u2019s no surprise to hear that The Cure\u2019s Robert Smith, curating this year\u2019s Teenage Cancer Trust<\/a> gigs at the Royal Albert Hall, messaged Garvey personally asking if Elbow wanted to headline. Not everyone loves Garvey, though. Years ago, with just one album to their name, they were supporting the indie-rock band Grandaddy in Salt Lake City, playing to around 300 people, when a man raised his arm with a \u201cthumbs down\u201d gesture in their direction and stayed like that for the rest of the set. <\/p>\n \u201cWe finished the gig and had to walk through the audience to get off stage, and I knew if I didn\u2019t have hold of Mark Potter he\u2019d kill this bloke,\u201d Garvey says. We\u2019re speaking over video call \u2013 he\u2019s in his office, a wall of framed photos and other bits and bobs on shelves behind him. \u201cMark knew I\u2019d stop him as well, so he bolted but I caught his belt and pushed him up the stairs \u2013 that guy would have been mincemeat!\u201d He\u2019s walked out of gigs, too, once shouting \u201cbulls***\u201d at an unnamed musician who spent more time tuning his guitar than acknowledging his audience. \u201cI think I expected a skein of people following me in my indignation,\u201d he says, laughing at himself. \u201cOf course, I just missed a really good gig.\u201d<\/p>\n Garvey enjoys a spot of mischief. Elbow were on tour a while back when his unsentimental bandmate, Turner, came up to him with a gripe. \u201cHe said to me, \u2018Guy, I didn\u2019t wanna mention it and I feel silly, but you haven\u2019t thanked me for the last three nights.\u2019\u201d It turned out Garvey had left Turner out while introducing the rest of the band at intervals during the gig: \u201cCraig Potter on the keys, Mark Potter on guitar\u2026!\u201d Garvey was guilt-ridden at first, but he made up for it. \u201cThe next night, I told the audience it was Pete\u2019s birthday, when it wasn\u2019t. And I did that every night for the rest of the tour, until his actual birthday, when I didn\u2019t do it,\u201d Garvey says, with uncontained glee. Suffice to say, Turner never complained about being forgotten again. \u201cYou know, they\u2019ve all got microphones,\u201d he points out, pretending to be disgruntled. \u201cHave they ever done that for me? Not once. What about my ego?\u201d<\/p>\n Garvey is wonderfully ego-less, although he definitely isn\u2019t always the teddy bear many of his fans think. I should know: we last spoke over a decade ago, when I was a rookie music writer and Elbow were releasing their Lost Worker Bee EP. He doesn\u2019t remember at first and I don\u2019t blame him \u2013 it was a boozy afternoon <\/a>spent sinking pint after pint with him and Turner in the backyard of their local pub, near the studio where they\u2019ve recorded the majority of their albums. They drank me under the table.<\/p>\n What I do remember clearly, though, is meeting Garvey\u2019s now-wife, the Olivier-nominated actor Rachael Stirling<\/a>, whom he\u2019d just started dating. He was already besotted with her then, fussing over her chair and making sure her skirt didn\u2019t trail in a puddle. \u201cWe\u2019re still like that now,\u201d he confirms. They moved to south London a few years ago with their nine-year-old son, Jack. They\u2019re quite the creative power couple \u2013 she can\u2019t make the Royal Albert Hall gig because she\u2019s starring as Felicity Corsland in a Broadway production of Giant with John Lithgow, after it transferred from the West End.<\/p>\n How strange to hear Garvey never imagined himself as a dad; he lets out a burst of laughter when I tell him that, even before Jack was born, he gave off major dad vibes. \u201cAccording to my wife, it was only me who couldn\u2019t see the idea of me being a good one.\u201d Before Jack came along, Garvey was a sort of father figure to younger musicians, encouraging them, championing them. But there\u2019s something of the Peter Pan in him too, in his boyish grin and fondness for winding up his bandmates. So he took some convincing from Stirling (though apparently not too much, as Jack was born a year after they were married, in 2017). Garvey\u2019s own father, Don, died of lung cancer, aged 83, 18 months after Jack was born. But he got to meet his grandson: \u201cThere\u2019s this miraculous photograph of my dad holding Jack up, looking at his face, and he\u2019s got this wide open smile \u2013 you can see he\u2019s looking at [the family resemblance] in Jack\u2019s face.\u201d<\/p>\n The minute Jack was born, Garvey felt he was part of something bigger than himself: \u201cI was no longer the point of my own life, you know?\u201d He recalls hearing Belfast writer Peter Curran tell the playwright Patrick Marber on their podcast, Bunk Bed: \u201cYou realise how much like your father you are, and it\u2019s folly to consider yourself your own person.\u201d His relationship with his dad wasn\u2019t the easiest \u2013 he\u2019s spoken previously about how they struggled to communicate when Garvey was a teenager; of Don\u2019s initial disapproval of his music pursuits. \u201cI wasn\u2019t always happy with him. He wasn\u2019t always happy with me,\u201d he says. \u201cWe had our ups and downs \u2013 but if you have a tricky relationship with either parent, it\u2019s actually only in the summing up, as they die, that you go, OK, they were great. You know? That\u2019s if you happen to have great parents, which I do.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n When young artists look to Garvey for advice on practical matters, he shares his experiences and tries to help wherever he can. As for the best advice he\u2019d give anyone? \u201cHave as much sex as you possibly can, and I mean that \u2013 as much as you possibly can \u2013 because one day it won\u2019t be an option, and you\u2019re gonna want those memories,\u201d he says, with complete sincerity. He plans on sharing this advice with his son, as soon as it\u2019s appropriate: \u201cDon\u2019t be a d***, but please have as much sex as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n He said in an interview a few years back that he had to reach back to his hedonistic days for songwriting material, now that he\u2019s more settled, and I wonder if that\u2019s still the case. \u201cI\u2019m just really glad I got so much hedonistic stuff in!\u201d Garvey says, cracking another wide grin. \u201cThe only regrets I have are once or twice hurting somebody, because I was a d*** in my early twenties. Apart from that, I have not a single regret. And the only thing I\u2019d regret if I died tomorrow is not getting to spend more time with Jack and Rach \u2013 because I\u2019ve had the most amazing time so far, and it\u2019s not showing any signs of stopping.\u201d No wonder our mums are obsessed.<\/p>\n Elbow are the opening headliner of Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday 23 March. Also appearing are Mogwai, Manic Street Preachers, My Bloody Valentine, Garbage and Wolf Alice, as well as Robert Smith\u2019s Comedy Favourites. Visit www.teenagecancertrust.org\/gigs<\/a> for ticket information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-489015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Guy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/elbow-2025-press-shot-(1).jpeg\")
Guy Garvey, right, with his Elbow bandmates (Press)<\/p>\n![\"Starry-eyed:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-614382800.jpg\")
Starry-eyed: Garvey and his wife, actor Rachael Stirling, at a screening at the BFI London Film Festival, 2016 (Getty)<\/p>\n