Formation (2002–2004) The band met while studying
Music Technology at
Staffordshire University. They lived in
Birmingham and played at venues such as the Jug of Ale and the Flapper & Firkin. The band was initially known as Pilot and played its first show under that name in 2002. While in college, the band constructed a marketing strategy which involved placing hundreds of promotional stickers across the walls of
Stafford asking "Who's the Pilot?". They made a promo under this name with the tracks "Come Share the View" and "Forest Fire" and made the songs available on
BBC Radio 1's
Onemusic Unsigned. A review of the songs read, "The Pride keep things subliminally lo-fi. Refreshingly simple and restrained, 'Come Share The View' is a lesson in welding hypnotic soundscapes with white noise while showing allegiance to the school of slo-mo on "Forest Fire"". In October 2004, the group signed to
indie label
Kitchenware Records. At that point they changed their band name to Editors.
The Back Room (2005–2006) After supporting bands such as
Puressence and
Oceansize, Editors released debut single "Bullets", which was recorded with producer Gavin Monaghan, as a limited edition of 1000 copies on Kitchenware Records on 24 January 2005. The song had previously been played by
Zane Lowe on BBC Radio 1, where it was 'Single of the Week'. The limited run sold out on the day of its release, with copies selling later the same week for more than £30 on
eBay. The release of "
Munich" followed in April of that year and gave the band their first top 25 hit, a sold out UK tour and a place on
MTV's Spanking New Music show in
Manchester. At this point, due to the band's increasing popularity, Editors and Kitchenware signed an exclusive distribution deal with
Sony BMG. "
Blood" was released two months later, reaching number 18 in the
UK Singles Chart in its first week, selling 5,286 copies. With these releases their fanbase continued to grow and on 25 July 2005 their debut album
The Back Room was released to critical acclaim and commercial success. In its first week, the album entered the charts at number 13, selling 17,627 copies. Editors re-issued "Munich" in January 2006, selling one and half thousand more copies than the last time it was released. The band went on to play influential American festivals in 2006 such as
Coachella and
Lollapalooza. Editors proceeded to perform "Munich" on the American television show ''
Late Night with Conan O'Brien''. At the end of March, Editors released "
All Sparks" as a single in the United Kingdom, achieving a position of 21 in the singles chart. After a European tour which included three successive nights at
Brixton Academy, Editors re-issued a limited edition of "Blood". It entered the Top 40, pushing the album up the chart 45 places. and was also nominated for the 2006
Mercury Prize. After a string of high-profile festival shows across Europe, including slots on
T in the Park,
V 2006 and the
Isle of Wight Festival, Editors began work on their second album.
An End Has a Start (2007–2008) Editors recorded their second album
An End Has a Start with producer
Jacknife Lee in
Grouse Lodge,
Ireland over a two-month period beginning in late November 2006. It was released on 25 June 2007 and went straight to
number one on the UK Albums Chart, selling 59,405 copies in its first week. The album was preceded by the
top 10 single "
Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors" on the 18th. The song was Editors' highest-charting single, reaching number 7. It also earned its own
Making the Video episode on
MTV. Just after the album's release, Editors played at the
Glastonbury Festival with a second from top slot on
The Other Stage. They also played many other festivals such as
Oxegen,
Lowlands and
Pukkelpop over the following weeks, as well as playing their first ever tour dates in Australia and New Zealand. They then released the album's title track "
An End Has a Start" in September to coincide with their North American tour. Editors went on to play the song live on American television shows such as
Jimmy Kimmel Live! and
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Upon returning to the UK, the band contributed a cover of
the Cure's "
Lullaby" to the
Radio 1 Established 1967 compilation, again working with producer Gavin Monaghan, which was released on 1 October 2007. Shortly after this, Editors played a 75-minute set for the
BBC Electric Proms at
KOKO in London with backing from a classical
string quartet. In November, they released "
The Racing Rats" as the third single off the album. Editors played it live on
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and it helped the song reach number 26 on the UK charts. It also reached number 12 on the
Dutch Top 40, the band's highest ever
single charting outside of the UK at that point. For the first two months of 2008, Editors played 30 shows on a tour across America and Canada. During the tour Editors were nominated for a
Brit Award, in the Best British Group Category. Also as a result of the nomination, one of the North American tour dates had to be cancelled, as the band had to return to London to attend the prize ceremony. A month later, Editors announced "
Push Your Head Towards the Air" to be the fourth single from
An End Has a Start. This release was a limited special edition which was ineligible to chart. Along with this release Editors engaged in their biggest and most extensive British tour to date. They played
arenas such as the 12,000 capacity
National Indoor Arena in Birmingham and two sold out dates in London's
Alexandra Palace. In June, they released "
Bones" as a download only single in
Continental Europe to coincide with the
summer festival season, the video of which was directed by the band's bassist
Russell Leetch. Shortly afterwards, Editors played at the Glastonbury Festival, playing on the
pyramid stage for the first time. The band then played their second major support slot of their history supporting
R.E.M. on a 16 date summer tour across Europe alongside their festival dates which included the headlining of the Lowlands Festival in August.
In This Light and on This Evening (2009–2010) Lead singer Smith revealed that the band will explore a new direction on their next album, pursuing a new, rawer sound. Before January 2009, Editors had written around eighteen new songs for the new album and they have been described as some of the most synthetic, raw and anthemic songs they have written to date. In October the band went to the studio to record some demos. It announced that
Mark 'Flood' Ellis would be the producer for the album. Earlier on in the year, the sound of the album was said to have a very electric feel; the band often using the
Terminator theme song as a reference. On 2 June 2009, it was announced that the new album title would be
In This Light and on This Evening and that they would be the first band to play at the new
O2 Academy Birmingham. Through producer Flood's heavy usage of synthesisers, the album provided a synthpop and post-punk sound to Editors' production. The album was released on 12 October and debuted at number one on the
UK Albums Chart. Alongside the album, the band released lead single "
Papillon" and it led them to their first taste of number one success outside the UK, with the song hitting the top position in
Belgium and being certified Gold in the process. After releasing singles "
You Don't Know Love", "
Last Day" and "
Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool" to limited chart success, it was announced that their unreleased song "
No Sound But the Wind" would appear on the
New Moon soundtrack. A live version of the song was later released in continental Europe in September 2010 and again achieved the same success as "Papillon" in Belgium, going to number 1 and being certified gold. In November 2010, it was confirmed that a boxset called
Unedited compiling the first 3 albums, as well as B-sides and previously unreleased songs on 7 12" records, 7 CDs and 7 MP3 albums, alongside a book of photos and words, would be released in early 2011. The boxset included the full band version of "No Sound But the Wind", demos of "Camera" and "These Streets Are Still Home to Me", and an unreleased version of "The Weight of the World", called "Every Little Piece".
The Weight of Your Love and Urbanowicz's departure (2011–2014) On 26 November 2010, Smith announced on the band's website that they had started working on a new album, which would again be produced by Flood, and that they would be recording "in stages over 2011," with first rehearsals having started in "a matter of days." On 26 March 2011, Editors performed their first tour date of the year at the
Royal Albert Hall as the headline act for the penultimate show in the 2011
Teenage Cancer Trust, during which they showcased two new songs, "Two Hearted Spider" and "The Sting". In October 2011, Editors played their first shows ever in
Latin America with two dates in
Mexico City. In October 2011, Smith spoke to Q Radio about the new album. "It's still going to be fairly electronic, I think, compared to our earlier records. So far it feels quite muscular with a bit of swagger and a bit more of a groove. The last record was liberating in lots of different ways and I think we just need to, kind of, build on that..... with a nod to our past as well. It's our fourth record and we don't want to feel like we're doing the same thing again." On 22 November 2011, Russell Leetch, the band's bassist, posted on the band's official site, saying they had seven songs ready to record and some more ideas "floating around" and the album would "be with you next year." On 16 April 2012, it was announced that Chris Urbanowicz had left the group due to a difference in musical direction. Following Urbanowicz's departure, the band played their first shows as a five-piece with new members Justin Lockey and Elliott Williams in Birmingham, UK, on 26 and 27 June 2012. On 29 June, they played at Main Square Festival in Arras, France, and on 30 June they headlined Rock Werchter festival in Belgium. At the shows they played new versions of "Two Hearted Spider" and "The Sting" as well as two new songs, "Sugar" and "Nothing". On 8 April 2013, Smith stated via his official Twitter account that "the record is being mastered today. it's finished. done." On 6 May 2013, Zane Lowe stated via his official Twitter account that the new Editors record would be titled
The Weight of Your Love. The first single from this album was "
A Ton of Love". In February 2014, the band released the fourth single, "Sugar". During 2014, Elliott Williams left the band for a period of touring to work on his own music project YdotOdotU, supporting
the 1975. The band continued to tour with musician Nicholas Willes.
In Dream (2014–2018) In October 2014, the band reconvened in Scotland to work on their fifth album. During a session supporting Andy Burrows on Jo Wiley's Radio 2 show, Tom Smith confirmed the album's songs had been written. On 20 April 2015, the band released a new song entitled 'No Harm' for free download. The song later became available through retailers, and on 11 May, its official video was posted on their YouTube channel. On 18 June, they released a video for the album's lead single, 'Marching Orders'. The video, directed by Rahi Rezvani (as was 'No Harm'), was filmed in the Western Highlands of Scotland. The song was released on 19 June for digital download, and a limited run of 300 12" vinyl test pressings were distributed randomly throughout
Oxfam stores. On 15 July 2015, the band announced the album
In Dream via Facebook. It is the first Editors record to feature a duet. The fifth album
In Dream, produced by Editors themselves and mixed by Alan Moulder, was released on 2 October 2015. who also directed the video for 'Ocean of Night', released on 24 November. In October 2015, Editors together with Brussels Beer Project has released their own beer 'Salvation', named after a track on their album
In Dream. In support of the album the band embarked on a 42-date tour, playing throughout October, November and December in the UK, Ireland and Europe. Editors supported
Manic Street Preachers across the UK on the 20th anniversary tour of the album
Everything Must Go. They also performed at
Glastonbury,
Bråvalla,
Rock Werchter,
Bilbao BBK Live 2016 and more than 20 festivals.
Violence (2018–2019) Editors released their sixth album,
Violence, on 9 March 2018. The lead single, 'Magazine', premiered on Jo Whiley's BBC Radio 2 show on 15 January 2018. The second single "Hallelujah (So Low)" premiered on Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 show on 21 February 2018.
Black Gold (2019–2022) In 2019, the band released their first compilation album,
Black Gold, featuring 13 tracks from across their career along with three new songs: "Black Gold", "Frankenstein" and "Upside Down", which were produced by Jacknife Lee. The deluxe edition of the release featured eight stripped-down acoustic versions of previously released material under the title
Distance: The Acoustic Recordings. The release was followed by a 2020 best of tour.
EBM (2022–present) On 20 April 2022 the band released the single "Heart Attack", and announced the addition of
Benjamin John Power, who had previously worked with the band on the
Violence album, as an official band member. On 22 September 2022, the band released their seventh album,
EBM. ==Musical style==