Know your writes
Editors mainman Tom Smith is pining for his mainsqueeze Edith Bowman. HP advises him on an anniversary gift. Aw, bless. Still, he hasn't gone soft, as is borne out by copious potshots at Keane and Sugababes.
Stuart Clark, 03 Jul 2006
They may sound like Joy Division’s equally maladjusted little brothers on record, but in person, Editors – there is no “The” – are a rather jovial bunch who insist on conducting our chinwag in a boozer where it’s pints of creamy Guinness all round.
Another preconception is shattered when singer and guitarist Tom Smith asks where he can buy something “shiny and expensive” for his girlfriend Edith Bowman. It’s their first going-out-together anniversary and the man responsible for such acidic barbs as “Blood runs through your veins/That’s where our similarity ends” is pining for the BBC Radio 1 jockette. Thinking that Poundstretcher mightn’t be quite what he’s after, I recommend Arnott’s and then get down to the serious business of finding out how Editors have become one of the hottest rock ‘n’ roll properties on the planet.
“Making a decent record and touring our bollocks off for 12 months has helped,” Smith proffers, “but what’s really made the difference in terms of profile and sales is getting on daytime radio. What would have been considered ‘indie’ and a ‘Steve Lamacq record’ three years ago is now being played next to Kylie and Sugababes on the breakfast show, which is great ‘cos we’ve never considered our music to be superior to any particular audience. Well, except Keane’s!”
Talking of Sugababes, what did he make of the girls’ sensitive rendition of Arctic Monkeys’ ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’, and are they living in fear of Girls Aloud covering ‘Munich’?
“Too late,” Tom chuckles. “Corrine Bailey-Rae’s already done a jazzy, acoustic take on it for radio. She’s got a feel for the song, whereas Sugababes sound like they’re singing the Bangkok telephone directory.”
“Did you see them do it on the NME Awards?” inquires Smith’s fellow guitarist Chris Urbanowicz. “Their backing-band looked like they’d been plucked out of Spinal Tap and left to rot for 25 years. There was a real ‘men in the park with sweeties’ vibe about them.”
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