Portishead

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Portishead

For the town, see Portishead, Somerset.

Portishead (IPA: ) is a trip hop band from Bristol, United Kingdom, named after the small town of Portishead, 12 miles west of Bristol. With their use of live jazz samples and intentionally lo-fi sound, the band has been cited as influential by many modern musicians including underground producer Danger Mouse ^*.

History

The band was formed in 1991, by keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Geoff Barrow and singer Beth Gibbons. Barrow had previously worked with two other trip hop bands from Bristol, Massive Attack and Tricky, and decided to name his new endeavor after his hometown.

After releasing a short film (To Kill a Dead Man) and its accompanying music, Portishead signed a record deal with Go! Beat Records and their first album, Dummy, was released in 1994, and featured heavy contributions from guitarist Adrian Utley. In spite of the band's aversion to press coverage, the album was successful in both Europe and the United States, spawning two hit singles, "Glory Box" and "Sour Times". Portishead has often been used as accompanying music in the media. Such examples include car adverts, Channel 4 intermissions and the teenage drama series Sugar Rush.

Their second album, Portishead, was released in 1997, and featured the single "All Mine". A live album featuring new orchestral arrangements of the group's songs was recorded primarily at Roseland in New York City, and released in 1998 with a DVD of the concert soon following. 1999 saw a cooperation with singer Tom Jones for a track on his album Reload.

There were rumours of a third album to be published, possibly called Alien, but Portishead's official site dismissed the rumours: "We have noticed that there is some confusion on an album release called "Alien". Please be aware that this is NOT a Portishead release. The band are in the studio working on new material now but no release dates are scheduled as yet. Keep an eye on the site as any release plans will of course be announced here first!" ^* As of June 2006, no new album has been released. However, in the same month, a new Portishead track, entitled "Requiem for Anna" (from the tribute album to Serge Gainsbourg "Monsieur Gainsbourg revisited"), began to circulate in the music blogosphere.

In February 2005 the band appeared live for the first time in seven years at the Tsunami Benefit Concert in Bristol. Around the same time Barrow revealed that the band was in the process of writing its third album, although nothing has been produced as yet. In January 2006 3D from Massive Attack confirmed that the two bands planned another joint concert later in the year.

In 2005, Utley and Barrow produced The Coral's The Invisible Invasion. Barrow along with Utley, Clive Deamer and John Baggott also assisted with the production of Stephanie McKay's "McKay" album in 2003 under the Go! Beat Records label.

Portishead and other so-called trip hop groups have expressed dislike for the term, arguing it is a media invention designed to categorise their otherwise not-so-categorise-able music.

Discography

Albums

1994 Dummy #2 UK, #79 US
1997 Portishead #2 UK, #21 US
1998 Roseland NYC Live #40 UK, #155 US

Compilations

1998 Glory Times (CD-Single compilation)

There are also several bootlegs floating around (with songs not on any albums), the most important of these probably being Trip-Hop Reconstruction (1995).

Collaboration

Beth Gibbons also made an album in 2002 with Paul Webb (from Talk Talk), aka Rustin Man, but this is not a Portishead release.

2002 Out of Season (Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man)

Hit singles

The chart positions are for the UK, the highest US chart position was #53 for "Sour Times".

from Dummy
- 1994 "Numb"
- 1995 "Glory Box" #13 UK
- 1995 "Sour Times (Nobody Loves Me)" #13 UK
- 1995 "Wandering Star" (US promo)
from Portishead
- 1997 "Cowboys" (promo)
- 1997 "All Mine" #8 UK
- 1997 "Over" #25 UK
- 1998 "Only You" #35 UK

Samples

External links

Portishead Official Site
Portishead Official Forum - Separately linked as it is now 'hidden' from the main site, but is fully supported by the band.
Portishead Myspace page
Portishead Lyrics
Another Portishead fansite

Trip hop groups | Electronic music groups | English musical groups | Music from Bristol, England | Saturday Night Live musical guests

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