On Monday the benefit show ‘Help! A War Child Benefit Concert”. All proceeds and donations were collected for the benefit of Ukraine. The line-up included Idles, Katy J Pearson, Billy Nomates, Heavy Lungs – and the Portishead legends, who hail from Bristol like all other acts, announced as “a special appearance by”.
This performance was actually special: Founded in 1991, Portishead advanced to pioneers of trip hop with their debut album DUMMY (1994) and its successor PORTISHEAD (1997), even before Massive Attack and Tricky. Their third album THIRD was released in 2008. The band, consisting of Beth Gibbons, Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow, never broke up, even if this is the impression: They gave their last live concert to date in 2015.
Their short set in Bristol on Monday included five songs: “Mysterons”, “Magic Doors”, “Wandering Star”, “The Rip” and “Roads” – fans waited in vain for classics like “Glory Box” and “Sour Times”. . However, the majority of the audience is said to have come not because of Portishead, but because of Idles: The punk rock band, which released their fourth album CRAWLER in 2021, performed as a headliner after Portishead – a situation that even made singer Joe Talbot nervous: “I don’t usually look that serious,” he is said to have said on stage. “But there’s something scary about sharing the stage with Portishead. I just want to show myself vulnerable to you and say: I never want to go on stage after my heroes again.”
Incidentally, the singer of Heavy Lungs is called Danny Nedelko – exactly, after Idles once named a song. But this only marginally. Read a fuller account of the Bristol benefit concert here.
Watch a video of Portishead’s performance here: