Elbow – “Gentle Storm” Video (Feat. Benedict Cumberbatch)

Elbow – “Gentle Storm” Video (Feat. Benedict Cumberbatch)

Next week, Elbow are releasing a new album called Little Fictions. We’ve already heard early singles”Magnificent (She Says)” and “All Disco,” and today they’re sharing another new one called “Gentle Storm,” complete with a video that serves as an homage/recreation of Godley And Creme’s 1985 video for “Cry.” One of the morphing faces belongs to actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Here’s what Guy Garvey had to say about the video:

‘Gentle Storm’ reminded me of something but I couldn’t work it out for a bit, the yearning and the sparsity of the sound. When I worked out it was ‘Cry’ I asked the rest of the band if they remembered the video ‘cos it was such a seismic event as a kid. Pete and Mark did but Craig didn’t and I realised that a lot of people wouldn’t know the track or the video even though they were BOTH so important to me. So Kevin Godley is a Prestwich boy and so am I so I thought ‘I’ll be a cheeky bastard and get in touch with him and see if he is up for doing it again for our track.’ It was amazing that he was up for it. We got a load of our friends and family involved so they ALSO are in it. The shoot day was incredible, video shoots can be quite grim but it was such a great atmosphere that Kevin created and the finished film is something we are amazingly proud to be involved with.

And here’s what director Kevin Godley (the director of the original Godley And Creme video) had to say:

When Guy Garvey called me and said: ‘Would you consider recreating the ‘Cry’ video for our new song ‘Gentle Storm” I was a bit puzzled. Why would he want something that was already out there? Then I realised… ‘out there’ really meant out there since 1985 and a whole generation or three wouldn’t have seen the original, or have a clue who Godley & Creme were, so to a world of millennials it would probably be “who the fuck?”

I didn’t really have to direct anyone – they all became suitably themselves as soon as the camera rolled. Everything felt real, nothing felt forced and there were no fuck ups, no tantrums and no 35mm gates to check as we shot on 4K res digital video. In fact the only difference between this shoot and Cry was the major technological advance of steadying people’s heads with a sink plunger instead of a saucepan.

Watch below.

Little Fictions is out 2/3 via Concord.

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