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Monday October 26 saw Editors perform at Southampton Guildhall. The show was sold out and not even the freezing rain could keep the excited audience away. The show began at 7.30 with support from the prog-indie outfit Airship, A tight band with a superb range of instrumentation. Both guitarists regularly changed over to keyboard or additional drums in order to suit the arrangement of each song. Despite their superb playing the band lacked energy on stage and their original songs did not seem inspiring enough to get the crowd really pumped, leaving them with a fairly lukewarm reception.

The next support was Wintersleep, from Halifax. They were more stage worthy with a confidence that dwarfed that of their predecessors. The range of dynamics was vast yet well chosen, an exposition of their collective creativity. Their sound leaned mainly towards metal but with enough sensitive moments, random time signatures and changes in style to display their eclecticism. Winterleep are a virtuosic group of musicians and they were sure to demonstrate this, with extended instrumental passages that may have come across to non-musicians in the audience as self-indulgent, including an impressive drum solo over a hypnotic ostinato which lasted a full 9 minutes. The band balanced this by making sure they had a good rapport with the audience, chatting between each song. Thanks to this and the growing number of people in the hall they received a much warmer reception than the first group.

By the time the lights dimmed on the stage for the headliners the entire venue was packed full. There was no space to move down at the front and an excited buzz filled the room. The energy of the audience was like a volcano waiting to erupt into applause and cheering. And erupt it did, as the band strode confidently on stage. After an embarrassing false start with a malfunctioning backing loop, The Editors launched into a teaser intro track that built up over a couple of minutes and then ended just as it was about to climax. This left the audience seething with anticipation and as the next song began the crowd went wild. The headliners were much hyped but certainly did deliver. Their songs were built around strong melodies, with Tom Smith’s commanding baritone delivering catchy yet meaningful lyrics that had the audience singing along for much of the set. The tight and consistent drumming was very satisfying and the whole sound was augmented by the Guildhall’s exemplary sound engineering team.

The number of instruments shared between the other three performers at first appeared gratuitous, but it soon became clear that every one of the keyboards, synthesisers, effects and extra guitars had a purpose, as the group introduced a much more electric and modern sound than their previous work. The keyboard parts ranged from sustained string pads to driving rhythmic chord sequences on the impressive electric upright piano in centre stage. Editors released a new album ‘In this light and on this evening’ on October 12th 2009, and performed a sizeable amount of material from their latest record. Every one of the catchy starting riffs was greeted with cheers from the hundreds of fans filling the room. The band said very little to the audience all night, and simply played their set, confident that they needed to do no more. The songs spoke for themselves, from the dark, brooding electro moments, to the driving beats that had the whole crowd jumping.