Editors are an English indie rock band from Birmingham who formed in 2002. The band consists of Tom Smith (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano), Chris Urbanowicz (lead guitar and synth), Russell Leetch (bass guitar and live backing vocals) and Ed Lay (drums, percussion and live backing vocals). Their brand of sweeping indie rock is compared to the sound of bands such as Echo and the Bunnymen, Joy Division, Interpol and U2.

Editors have so far released two albums, both went platinum and sold over 2 million copies between them worldwide. Their debut album The Back Room was released in 2005. It contained hits such as "Munich" and "Blood" and the following year received a Mercury Prize nomination. Their follow-up album An End Has A Start went to number 1 in the UK Album Chart in June 2007 and earned the band a Brit Awards nomination for best British Band. It also spawned another Top 10 hit single with the release of "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors".

After their continued success in the charts, sold out tours and numerous headlining festival slots, Editors were lauded as the second biggest British band of the decade after Arctic Monkeys by The Mail on Sunday.

Formation (2002–2004)

The band met while studying Music Technology at Staffordshire University. They realised it wasn't the career for them and decided to form a band, playing in Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Stafford. After graduation, they relocated to Birmingham.

The band was initially known as Pilot and played its first show under this name in 2002. While in university, the band had a marketing strategy which involved placing hundreds of promotional stickers across the walls of Stafford asking "Who's the Pilot?". However, they realised the name was already taken by a 1970s Scottish pop group, so they changed their name to The Pride.

Under this name, they uploaded the tracks "Come Share The View" and "Forest Fire" onto the internet, making the songs available to listen to on BBC Radio 1's Onemusic Unsigned. A review of the songs reads "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 then took its music offline in order to create mystery and anxiousness and ensure that more "Artist and Repertoire" representatives came to see them perform.

They then changed the line-up with Ed Lay replacing Geraint Owen on drums as he began to focus on his Welsh band The Heights. Under this lineup they became known as Snowfield. They played their debut gig under this name at the request of Fused Magazine in March 2003. The following summer the band self released a demo six track EP, all of which went on to become future Editors songs. It wasn't long until word of mouth helped them become a popular unsigned band.The band then sent out a one track demo cd of Bullets, earning them the interest of several British labels, with thirty A&R reps coming to see them play at Birmingham. In October 2004, the group signed to indie label Kitchenware Records. Upon signing to the record label they decided to change their band name to Editors.