The was Glastonbury 2007. The single had gone top 10 our highest ever chart entry and the second album was coming out the day after we had played. The stars aligned and we had that Glastonbury moment. The first time we played Glastonbury was one of the really muddy years, 2005. All the acts before us had been cancelled as it was unsafe and I remember it been a bit hard playing to a lot of people that didn’t really know us. This was one of the ‘comeback’ shows from the first album premiering the second it was huge for us.
I remember looking out the back of a van on tour somewhere in England, and saw a group of smokers outside a hospital. I wrote down the observation in my notebook. Then later, coming to write songs, there were a few things going on in my life, people around me getting poorly – older people – for the first time so a lot of the songs were fixated on mortality. And to have that title on this big, grand indie-rock song and have that land in the Top Ten, was interesting. I remember walking up the road in London and this guy shouting out of a van at me: ‘Alright, Tom?’ So, White Van Men knew who I was. That was different!
Welcome to the Black Gold Archives. Explore the timeline as it chronicles sixteen tracks that make up the Black Gold greatest hits record and discover stories from each song. Videos, photos and memories written by the band and people who lived through every era of Editors. And, most importantly, add your own memory to the archives and let the whole world share in it. Every memory that is shared will be added to the archive. A photo of a tiny, sweaty gig in the early 2000s… A grainy video taken from your old camera phone thrust in the air while you lived out your favourite festival moment… Or maybe words. A story, a moment, a memory.
Explore the Black Gold Archive at your leisure and share in the moments that crafted Editors. And don’t forget to leave something to show the world that you were part of the journey too.