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Portishead
Background information
Origin	Bristol, England
Genre(s)	Trip-Hop Alternative rock Psychedelic music Trip rock
Years active	1991 - present
Label(s)	Go! Beat
Website	Official Site
Members
Beth Gibbons Geoff Barrow Adrian Utley

Portishead (IPA: [pɔːtɪsˈhɛd]) is a band from Bristol, England, named after the town of Portishead, 12 miles (19 km) west of Bristol. The band, along with fellow Bristol artists such as Tricky and Massive Attack, created a new genre of down-tempo electronic music with distinct hip-hop, jazz and dub influences that came to be known as Trip Hop.

Contents 1 History 2 New Songs 3 Discography 3.1 Albums 3.2 Singles 3.3 Compilations 3.4 Bootlegs 3.5 Solo projects 3.6 Collaborations 3.7 Remixes 3.8 Videography 3.8.1 Promos 3.8.2 Short films 4 Samples 5 Portishead in soundtracks 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

The band was formed in Bristol, UK in 1991, by multi-instrumentalist Geoff Barrow and vocalist Beth Gibbons. Barrow previously worked with the Bristol-based sound-system/DJ collective The Wild Bunch, which included trip-hop artist Tricky, producer Nellee Hooper, and Daddy G and Mushroom, who formed trip-hop group Massive Attack. Barrow assisted with the programming on Massive Attack’s 1991 debut album Blue Lines. ^[1] 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, featuring 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. 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, recorded primarily at Roseland in New York City, was released in 1998. A video of the concert, released shortly afterwards, was well received. 1999 saw a cooperation with singer Tom Jones for a track on his album Reload.

In February 2005, after a lengthy hiatus, the band appeared live for the first time in seven years at the Tsunami Benefit Concert in Bristol. Around that time Barrow revealed that the band was in the process of writing its third album. The band posted two new tracks on its MySpace page--described by Barrow as "doodles"--in August 2006. ^[2] Also in the summer of 2006, Portishead covered Serge Gainsbourg's "Un Jour Comme un Autre" ("Requiem for Anna") on the tribute album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited. On October 2, 2007, Portishead stated that the new album had been mixed and was nearly complete. It is currently slated for release in the UK in April, 2008. The title has not yet been announced.

On December 7-9, 2007, Portishead curated the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Minehead, England. The festival feature their first pair of full live sets in nearly 10 years.^[3]. Following this Portishead played a one-off gig in Bristol on December 15, 2007^[4].

• Machine Gun
• Peaches
• Wicca
• Mystic
• Hunter

• 1994 Dummy #2 UK, #79 US Gold
• 1997 Portishead #2 UK, #21 US
• 1998 Roseland NYC Live #40 UK, #155 US
• 2008 March 31^[5]

The chart positions are for the UK, the highest US chart position was #53 for "Sour Times", which also hit #5 on the US Modern Rock chart.

• 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

• 1995 Glory Times (the Glory Box and Sour Times singles combined)

• There are also several bootlegs floating around (with songs not on any albums), the most well-known of these probably being Trip-Hop Reconstruction (1995).
• There is another so-called Portishead album circulating called 'Pearl', but this is actually an album by Mandalay.

Adrian Utley was the first member of the group to release an album of original material after Portishead went on hiatus in 1998.

• 1999 Warminster (Adrian Utley & Mount Vernon Arts Lab)

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)

Andy Smith has released six official mix albums to date + a compilation called 'Lets Boogaloo Vol 4' and co produced tracks as Dynamo Productions with Scott Hendy (AKA Boca 45), released 'Sounds Start Rockin' as DJ Andy Smith and recently worked with Keith Lawrence.

• 1998 The Document (London Records)
• 2003 The Document II (Illicit Recordings)
• 2005 The Document III (Discotheque)
• 2005 Andy Smith's Northern Soul (BGP)
• 2006 Trojan Document (Trojan Records)
• 2006 DJ Andy Smith's Freestyle mix (Freestyle)

• 2007 Lets Boogaloo Volume 4 (RecordKicks) - Not mixed

Portishead collaborated with Tom Jones on "Motherless Child" from his 1999 album of duets Reload. That album also has a cover of Portishead's "All Mine" sung as a duet with Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy.

Adrian Utley also contributed to the 2003 Black Cherry album by Goldfrapp.

In 2003, Geoff Barrow along with Adrian Utley, Clive Deamer, Tim Saul and John Baggott assisted with the production of Stephanie McKay's "McKay" album under the Go! Beat Records label.

In 2005, Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley produced The Coral's The Invisible Invasion.

• Baby Namboos - Ancoats 2 Zambia (Geoff Barrow Remix) (1999)
• Björk - Isobel (Portishead Remix) (Date Unknown)
• Depeche Mode - In Your Room (The Jeep Rock Mix) (1993)
• Depeche Mode - Walking In My Shoes (Grungy Gonads Mix) (1993)
• Earthling - 1st Transmission (Portishead's Earthead Mix) (1994)
• Earthling - Nefisa (Portishead Mix) (1995)
• The Federation - Rusty James (Portishead Remix) (1994)
• Gabrielle - Going Nowhere (Portishead Mix)(1993)
• Gravediggaz - Nowhere to Run, Nowhere To Hide (Portishead Remix) (1994)
• Junkwaffel - Mudskipper (Portishead So-So Mix) (1995)
• Machine Gun Fellatio - Horny Blonde 40 (Portishead Remix) (2002)
• Massive Attack - Karmacoma (Portishead Experience) (1995)
• Natalie Imbruglia - Leave Me Alone (Portishead Remix) (1997)
• Nine - Whutcha Want (Portishead Mix) (1995)
• Paul Weller - Wild Wood (The Sheared Wood Remix) (1994)
• Primal Scream - Give Out But Don't Give Up (Portishead Remix) (1994)
• Ride - Moonlight Medicine (Portishead's Ride On The Wire Mix) (1994)
• Sabres Of Paradise - Planet D (Portishead Remix) (1994)
• Something for Kate - Easy (Mr Barrow and Mr Yates Surfin' For Kate Remix) (1999)
• U.N.K.L.E. - The Time Has Come (Portishead Plays Unkle Mix) (1994)
• Whores Of Babylon - Fall Of Agade (Portishead Remix) (1993)

(directors in parentheses)

• Numb (Alexander Hemming)
• Sour Times (Alexander Hemming) made up of scenes from To Kill a Dead Man
• Glory Box (Alexander Hemming) homage to the Basil Dearden film Victim
• All Mine (Invisible Inc.) based on a 1968 Italian talent show and The Outer Limits
• Over (Chris Bran)
• Only You (Chris Cunningham)
• Wandering Star (acoustic version) (edited by Rick Holbrook, filmed by Adrian Utley, Hazel Grian, et al.)

• To Kill a Dead Man (1994) (Alexander Hemming)
• Road Trip (1997) (Hazel Grian) 10 minute film screened as introduction to each concert on the 1997/98 World Tour and accompanied by a DJ Andy Smith mix of tracks performed by Portishead, footage consists of a car driving from Bristol to Portishead.

• Lord of War (2005) [Soundtrack]
• Nowhere (1997) [Soundtrack]
• The Watcher (2000) [Soundtrack]
• When the Cat's Away (Chacun cherche son chat) (1996) [Soundtrack]
• Stealing Beauty (1996) [Soundtrack]
• Mars Attacks! (1996) [Soundtrack]
• Tank Girl (1995) [Soundtrack]
• Go Now (1995) [Soundtrack]
• Le Confessionnal (1995) [Soundtrack]
• The Craft [Movie Score]
• Sour Times can be heard in Assassins (1995)
• Glory Box is used in CBS TV-Show "C.S.I" Episode 2.02.
• Portishead single Roads is used in the One Campaign commercials on TV.
• Undenied was used in the 2002 short film 17 minute întârziere by Cătălin Mitulescu.
• Glory Box was used in the film B.Monkey (1998).
• Strangers and Roads were used in the film "Nadja" (1994)

• List of bands from England
• List of bands named after places
• Monk & Canatella, as credited in "A Tribute to Monk & Canatella"

1. ^ Reynolds, Simon (1998). Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture. Little, Brown and Co., 320. 
2. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1859997,00.html
3. ^ http://www.portishead.co.uk/news.php
4. ^ http://www.bristolticketshop.co.uk/cgi-bin/browse.cgi?view=group&group=Portishead
5. ^ [1]

• Portishead Official Site

• Portishead Myspace page
• Portishead discography at MusicBrainz
• Another Portishead fansite
• P: A Portishead Fansite
• Massive Attack's Daddy G describes new Portishead tracks.