What band was called Mr Soft? BBC Radio 2 Glastonbury competition explained - will band play 2022 festival

Listeners of the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 this morning might have been left stumped when Ball asked: “Which band, appearing on the Pyramid Stage on Sunday, were originally known as Mr Soft?”

The question was one of three that listeners needed to know the answer to in order to be in with a chance of bagging themselves two tickets to the sold out Glastonbury Festival.

This is everything you need to know.

What band used to be called Mr Soft?

Back in 1990, 16 year old Gus Garvey met guitarist Mark Potter at Bury College in Greater Manchester. Potter invited Garvey to sing in the band he was in alongside drummer Richard Jupp (who was later replaced by Alex Reeves in 2016) and bassist Peter Turner.

Together, the four created the band known as Mr Soft, which was later shortened to just Soft. Mr Soft was a tribute to the Cockney Rebel song of the same name.

Later, Potter’s brother Craig joined the band on keyboards and it was that year that they played their first gig together at a pub in Ramsbottom.

It wasn’t until 1997 that Soft changed their name to what we know them as today - Elbow.

The name comes from a play called Singing Detective by Dennis Potter, in which Philip Marlow says that the word elbow is “the loveliest word in the English language”.

In 2017, keyboardist Craig joked to Viva Manchester: “Elbow is a rubbish name really isn’t it, but we were running out of ideas.”

What is the BBC Glastonbury Ticket Competition?

This year, the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 ran a competition which gave listeners the chance to win a pair of camping tickets to the sold out Glastonbury Festival.

The tickets include access to the camping fields at Glastonbury and travel from anywhere in the UK. The competition was open to all residents of the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man aged 18 or over and began on 9 June 2022.

Throughout the show on Thursday, Ball asked listeners three questions associated with Glastonbury, with the first letter of each answer to each question forming a three letter keyword.

In order to enter, listeners must have texted in the keyword followed by their name and age between 8:30am and 8:45am.

A selection of correct entries were then chosen from the texts with the numbers called live on air - the entrants had to answer within seven rings and upon answering had to say: “Zoe get me to Glastonbury.”

From there, the entrant had to answer a Killer Question correctly in order to secure the tickets.

Ball ended up calling a listener by the name of Nick who was able to answer his question right and snag the tickets.

Will Elbow be playing Glastonbury 2022?

Elbow have officially confirmed that they will be performing at Glastonbury 2022, stating on their website: “Elbow are pleased to announce that they’ll be heading back to Worthy Farm in June to join this year’s Glastonbury 2022 line-up.”

Elbow will take to the Pyramid Stage on the Sunday, from 5:45pm to 6:45pm.

Also on the Pyramid Stage that day are:

• Kendrick Lamar, from 21:45 - 23:45
• Lorde, from 19:30 - 20:45
• Diana Ross, from 16:00 - 17:45
• Herbie Hancock, from 14:00 - 15:00
• Dakhabrakha, from 12:45 - 13:30
• Black Dyke Band, from 11:30 to 12:15  

In attendance at Glastonbury 2022 will be fellow artists like Billie Eilish, Sam Fender, Glass Animals, Wolf Alice, Years & Years, Declan McKenna, Phoebe Bridgers, Girl in Red, Yungblud, Clairo, Mitski and many more.

Are Elbow on tour?

Following the release of their ninth studio album at the end of last year, titled Flying Dream 1, Elbow are gearing up for a number of live gigs throughout the UK and Europe.

Their tour dates and venues go as follows:

• 10 - 11 June, Hampton Court Palace, London
• 16 June, Forest National, Brussels
• 17 June, Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam
• 20 June, 3Arena, Dublin
• 21 June, Waterfront Hall, Belfast
• 22 - 26 June, Glastonbury Festival, Somerset
• 24 June, Canons Marsh Amphitheatre, Bristol 
• 7 July, Lytham Festival, Lancashire 
• 9 July, Open Air Theatre, Scarborough
• 15 July, Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh
• 13 August, Audley End, Saffron Walden 
• 28 August, Tunes in the Park, Cornwall 

Tickets for all of the performances, minus Glastonbury Festival which has sold out, are available to buy via Ticket Master.

On 4 June, Elbow performed their song One Day Like This, from their fourth album The Seldom Seen Kid, at the Platinum Party at the Palace as part of the celebrations held to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Other acts that performed at the Party at the Palace included Sir Rod Stewart, George Ezra and Queen with their longtime Freddie Mercury stand in Adam Lambert.