According to a recent article on the Drowned in Sound website, members of the seminal '90s trip-hop trio, Portishead performed together on February 25, their first concert together since their February 2005 performance at the Tsunami Benefit concert in Bristol.
Fans of Portishead keyboard/instrumentation wizard Geoff Barrow arrived at the Grumpy Man nightclub that Sunday evening expecting nothing more then the billed “Special Guest DJ” spot; they were in for a very special treat indeed.
Calling the performance a concert is a bit of a stretch as Barrow, Adrian Utley, and siren Beth Gibbons performed only a handful of songs including an as yet unnamed track from their long-delayed third album.
Seems no one knew the three were going to perform. Barrow and Utley were performing duties as DJs at the Bristol, UK nightspot, Gibbons was charged admission to enter the club. Barrow and Utley began playing the bass line to “Wandering Star” from the band’s 1994 debut album, Dummy, when Barrow stood up and asked if anyone in the venue knew how to sing. Working her way through the crowd, Gibbons joined the two on stage for the show.
Barrow later posted some thoughts on the evening at Portishead’s Myspace blog:
“Thanks for everyone who came down to see me dj last night and the response to the live stuff, even though it was only 2 songs beth and ade enjoyed playin as well.”
So does this mean that the long awaited, highly anticipated third Portishead album is finally about to see the light of day? One can only hope. What with the state of pop music today, it’s a ray of sunshine to think that great musicians are still out there perfecting their craft, waiting for the right moment to drop their bombshell. I know that I, for one, will be keeping a very close eye on this as more, hopefully, develops.
Article comments
1 - Peter
Boy I hope so. They're brilliant. Always have been. Nice work!
2 - Connie Phillips
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3 - tom
Just a small point, Adrian was not a DJ at this event. Geoff was a guest of myself and the other Grumpy Man DJ's and asked if it "would be ok for them to play a couple of songs live?" Of course, we said and the rest is history.
It was a fantastic night, only about 10 people knew what was happening which made it even better.