Portishead

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Portishead
Logo of the band
Background information
Origin	Bristol, England
Genre(s)	trip hop
Years active	1991 - present
Label(s)	Go! Beat
Associated acts	Massive Attack, Tricky
Website	http://www.portishead.co.uk/
Members
Beth Gibbons Geoff Barrow Adrian Utley

For the town, see Portishead, Somerset.

Portishead (IPA: /pɔːtɪsˈhɛd/) is a trip hop band from Bristol, England, 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 [1] and videogame musician/producer Akira Yamaoka.

1 History
2 Discography
3 Samples
4 Portishead in pop culture
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] 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 artists from Bristol, Massive Attack and Tricky. The name Portishead came from the hometown that Barrow grew up in.

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, the movie Lord of War and the teenage drama series Sugar Rush. ^{[citation needed]} Dummy won the 1995 Mercury Music Prize.

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!" [2] As of October 2006, no new album has been released. There is another so-called Portishead album circulating called 'Pearl', but this is actually an album by Mandalay.

Portishead did show the first signs that their third album was progressing by posting two new tracks on their myspace page in August 2006. However these were subsequently dismissed by Geoff Barrow as 'doodles'.[3] On october 18th 2006 Geoff Barrow confirmed that a third album was currently being recorded[4]

Also, in the summer of 2006 Portishead covered Serge Gainsbourg's "Un Jour Comme Un Autre" ("Requiem for Anna") on the tribute album entitled Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited. Oddly, Beth Gibbons' vocal performance sounds nothing like her previous Portishead contributions.

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. ^{[citation needed]}

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.

Utley also contributed to the Black Cherry album by Goldfrapp.

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-categorizable music. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

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

[edit] 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).

[edit] 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)

[edit] Hit singles

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

from Dummy
- 1994 "Numb"
- 1994 "Sour Times" #57 UK
- 1995 "Glory Box" #13 UK
- 1995 "Sour Times" (rerelease) #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