Editors (band)

Editors are an English rock band, formed in 2002 in Birmingham. Previously known as Pilot, The Pride and Snowfield, the band consists of Tom Smith (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Russell Leetch (bass guitar, synthesizer, backing vocals), Ed Lay (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Justin Lockey (lead guitar), Elliott Williams (keys, synthesizer, guitar, backing vocals).

Editors have released seven studio albums, with several million combined sales. Their debut album The Back Room was released in 2005. It contained the hits "Munich" and "Blood" and the following year received a Mercury Prize nomination.

Their follow-up album An End Has a Start went to number one on the UK Albums Chart in June 2007 and earned the band a Brit Awards nomination for best British Band. It also spawned another top 10 hit single, "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors". The band's third album, In This Light and on This Evening, was released in October 2009 and went to number one on the UK Albums Chart. The band released their fourth studio album, The Weight of Your Love, in July 2013, followed by the self-produced In Dream in October 2015. In 2018, the band released their sixth album Violence. Their seventh album, EBM, was released in September 2022.

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 realized the name was already taken by a 1970s Scottish pop group, so they changed their name to The Pride.

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"". The band took its music offline to encourage more "A&R" representatives to see them perform.

Ed Lay replaced drummer Geraint Owen, who began to focus on his Welsh band The Heights. Under this lineup they became known as Snowfield. They played their debut gig under that name at the request of Fused Magazine in March 2003. The following summer the band self-released a demo six-track EP, of which all six songs went on to become future Editors songs. In the autumn of 2003, after graduation, the band relocated to Birmingham, the home of their management and the nearest big city.^{[citation needed]}

For the next year, the band members worked part-time jobs along in addition to working in the band. After regular gigging around the Midlands, it was not long until word of mouth helped them become a popular unsigned band. They sent out a one-track demo of "Bullets". The demo attracted the interest of several British labels, including thirty A&R reps who came to see them play in Birmingham. In October 2004, the group signed to indie label Kitchenware Records. At that point they changed their band name to Editors.