Acclaimed oddballs Public Service Broadcasting rolled through Cardiff earlier this week and we were there to review them…
Who? The most out-there prog indie-rock samplers Public Service Broadcasting, touring their new album The Race For Space…
Where? In Cardiff University’s Y Plas.
Was it full? And how were the crowd? The room itself gets very busy beforehand with everybody trying to get the best view of the stage. PSB aren’t the sort of band for sing-alongs or dancing, however the closest this comes is during Go…
So what was the set like? What did they play? The set is frequently surprising and always entertaining right from the off. We are treated to a short infomercial regarding the correct concert etiquette in terms of photo taking and talking loudly. This tongue in cheeky tone is common throughout the duration.
Opening with Sputnik from The Race For Space, it’s a slow build but perfectly establishes each member of the band and highlights the progression of their music. In comparison Signal 30 follows which were it not for the samples is the closest thing to straight up rock they go and comes to life even more in its live setting.
Throughout the set we see a multitude of instruments on show from the standard keyboards, bass and guitar to brass sections, flugelhorns and even a banjo on Theme from PSB. The accompanying light show during these songs including Night Mail is very impressive telling a story whilst playing at the same time.
Debuting new song Korolev for the first time tonight feels like a genuine treat along with the best song about “Dutch Ice Skating” you will likely hear! As the audience hear the opening notes of Spitfire from their debut album it gets the biggest cheer of the night so far.
The next comes half way through The Other Side which really tells a story through the sampling and use of stage lighting. As the ship in the story travels around to the dark side of the moon, the stage goes into darkness until some dangling stars from the ceiling light up. As the band come back in again the crowd cheer along with the footage.
Go is the closest the crowd gets to singing along whilst an encore return for Gagarin is the closest everyone gets to a dance. Accompanied by jazzy suits, a grooving brass section as well as a dancing astronaut at the back, it’s great to see the band not taking themselves too seriously and having as much fun as the audience are.
Did they put on much of a show? The light show is very impressive accompanied by some screens at the back showing the footage which accommodates the music. Each of the band members are characters in themselves bringing a sense of humour to proceedings by throwing themselves into it.
Any good between song banter? The band themselves go under their own pseudonyms so there is no actual verbal communication with the crowd. Yet frontman J. Willgoose Esq communicates to the crowd through his computer which really maintains their sense of humour and fun that they have with everybody.
What was the highlight of the set? New single Korolev stands out from the rest particularly when a brass section get involved and takes it up another gear.
Where can I catch them next? The tour seens them visiting London with next year arriving at Leeds, Edinburgh and Liverpool. They are also playing a massive show with the Manic Street Preachers in Swansea’s Liberty Stadium over the summer.
Public Service Broadcasting performed their unique :duties with foot-tapping wizardry
Electronic wizards Public Service Broadcasting had Cardiff Union’s Y Plas bouncing!
★★★★☆
By Tony Woolway
To the uninitiated, Public Service Broadcasting can appear a bit of an enigma.
They are certainly not your regular band, in that they don’t have a singer per se, preferring to use an odd combination of old newsreel footage, public information films, as their name would suggest, plus a whole load of geeky weirdness all thrown together to enhance a quite diverse electronic mishmash of technology .
Comprising the intriguingly named J. Willgoose, Esq, guitar and keyboards and Wrigglesworth, drums, this London-based duo have created a fairly unique sound and look that is both innovating and inspirational with their merging of the old and the very new.
It was a treat to see a banjo and a flugelhorn alongside an array of keyboard wizardry and it was this contrast and eclectic mix that both dazzled and amazed.
Aaided and abetted by the occasional brass section and the talented J F Abraham on bass, keyboards, percussion and the previously mentioned flugelhorn plus Mr B in charge of the equally impressive visuals of a mostly bygone age, giving the evening a creaky fifties feel.
With the only interaction verbally between the band and audience being a sampled Stephen Hawking-like computer generated voice triggered by a pad, the band certainly played up to their image but with their tongues firmly in their cheeks.
Their swotty appearance proving deceptive one as they as they set about creating a tasty brew of foot-tapping funk, pop electronica.
From their chilled intro into a pulsating Sputnik it was pretty rousing stuff played in a good-humour that delighted the packed crowd, with Go! From their latest offering The Race For Space keeping the momentum going and the crowd bouncing.
Though it was Everest, near the end, with stark black and white images of Hillary and Tenzing complementing the sweeping music perfectly that provided the evening’s highlight and in true pioneering fashion, a flag firmly placed on a musical peak.
Public Service Broadcasting – Cardiff University Student Union
By Steven Prince
IT was fitting that Public Service Broadcasting chose to make their Welsh return to Cardiff University’s student union on Thursday.
Music which aims to teach lessons of the past through modern dexterity was warmly received by the crowd – raucous in their reverence – of the conceptual band.
The London duo launched their UK tour, which has been truncated due to personal reasons, in style – bringing their signature audio-visual transmissions to the Welsh capital.
Consisting of multi-instrumentalist J. Willgoose Esq., and drummer-cum-percussionist Wrigglesworth, a musical cavalcade of differing genres ensued – as well as themes.
The most recent album, The Race for Space, understandably covers humankind’s assent to the stars but the pair are not afraid to push the boundaries of time as well as space.
Historical moments featured prominently throughout the performances, from the delivery of mail on steam trains to the stiff upper lip shown by Britain during the Blitz to Dutch long-distance speed skating.
What is most enjoyable about the cacophony of lights and sounds is the variety in the performance – a fusion of synths, banjos and archive footage with the staple drums and guitar of modern music.
The pair, akin to two history teachers found marooned in the music department of any secondary school, are a force to be reckoned with due to the avenues open to their music
Public Service Broadcasting keep looking to the stars in the Race for Space
The Space Race marked unparalleled period of exploration and technological advance for mankind.
But curiously it all now seems rather antiquated and the time is dusted with nostalgia.
However Public Service Broadcasting have taken a fresh look at the 15 years from 1957 to 1972, using archival footage and combining it with cutting edge music.
As PSB mainman J Willgoose, Esq, says: “It’s incredible when you think this was over 40 years ago. We put men on the moon and then stopped. It’s not often that we step backwards from an achievement in technology and it doesn’t get revisited.
“The political expediency left I suppose. You need the right historical circumstance that fuelled this incredible period, when they had the reason and the excuse to spend the money on these kind of endeavours.
“I think it’s an interesting example of how humanity pushed itself forward – how this creative thrust can come out of something intended for destruction”.
“I think it’s an interesting example of how humanity pushed itself forward – how this creative thrust can come out of something intended for destruction”. J Willgoose, Esq
The Race For Space takes us from the launch of Sputnik 1 through the Afrobeat-with-balalaikas tribute to the first man in space, Gagarin, the Apollo 1 disaster, and the eventual moon landing.
After the success of 2013’s debut album Inform-Educate-Entertain, J says he already had an idea about where he wanted to go next: “I thought this would be an EP or mini-album, I never thought it would be a full-blown album but when I started working on it, it became eight tracks quite quickly and by then it’s an album”.
The new album was debuted at The National Space Centre in Leicester in February.
“The live show is a bit of an evolution rather than a revolution – we’ve got a few more special bells and whistles”, says J. “We have built our own LED Sputnik, and we’ve got a whole bunch of other visual effects. We also have a third member joining us on stage, JF Abraham who is playing a bit of brass, keys and percussion. It’s a bigger sound and more musically involved show.
Support comes from Chichester’s Smoke Fairies who appear on The Race For Space’s tribute to the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova. “The way they did it, they’ve been quite brave”, says J of their contribution. “I would find it terrifying to go into a studio and do what they did.
“They definitely pushed the song in a direction it wouldn’t have otherwise gone in”.
They play at The Pyramids Centre tonight, doors 7pm. Tickets £19.25.
Après The Race For Space aux Proms de 2019, Public Service Broadcasting ont été commissionnés pour créer une œuvre de la durée d’un album pour marquer le centenaire de la BBC. Le guitariste J, Willgoose, Esq. présente la réponse du groupe à ce défi unique.
Qu’il nous ait été demandé d’écrire un morceau spécial pour la consécration du centenaire de la BBC est à la fois un immense honneur et immensément intimidant – non seulement l’écrire mais l’interpréter avec un groupe de musiciens aussi talentueux que le BBC Symphony Orchestra sous la direction du chef d’orchestre Jules Buckley au Royal Albert Hall. En tant que groupe, PSB a souvent abordé de grands sujets auparavant, mais il y a quelque chose de remarquablement intimidant dans essayer de refléter, sous forme musicale, toute l’histoire et l’influence qu’a la BBC sur son propre pays et le monde. La question de où commencer est souvent la plus difficile à surmonter.
Dans le cas de This New Noise, cette question est également devenue la réponse, à sa façon. Cela semble évident, mais : commencer au début. Comment est née la BBC ? Pourquoi ? Qu’est-ce que ses créateurs et dirigeants originaux, directeurs et têtes pensantes créatives pensaient qu’elle était, et ce qu’elle allait devenir ? Comment ses nombreuses innovations technologiques et pratiques allaient changer le cours de l’histoire du pays ? Comment la BBC est devenue, dans les termes du livre de Charlotte Higgins, dont nous avons très admirablement emprunté le titre, “la plus grande institution culturelle que notre nation n’a jamais connue” ?
Selon moi, la plus grande réponse à la première de ces questions (et une qui pourrait décevoir tout spectateur des Proms qui espérait une sorte de “best of des génériques télévisés de la BBC”), c’est la plus extraordinaire des inventions : la radio. Il est facile d’oublier de nos jours combien ces systèmes ont dû sembler mystiques. Pour le prix d’un appareil et d’une modeste redevance annuelle, une nouvelle machine entrait dans votre monde ; allumez la et des voix humaines, de la musique et le miracle du son se manifestaient tout à coup dans votre foyer, transportés par l’éther. C’est ainsi que commence notre concert ce soir : Ripples in the Ether (Towards the Infinite) (“Des ondulations dans l’éther (vers l’infini)”) est une tentative de nous rappeler tous du truc magique simple d’apparence mais qui a changé le monde de la diffusion et la réception des ondes radio, comprenant une recréation de la première transmission faite au nom de la BBC, par la station 2LO, à Londres.
Puis nous nous lançons dans la grandiloquence du morceau éponyme, This New Noise (“Ce nouveau bruit”), tentative de recréer musicalement le chaos, la confusion et l’opportunité des premiers jours de la radiodiffusion, comprenant une partie des réflexions de John Reith, le premier directeur général de la BBC, et de J.H. Whitley, président du conseil d’administration à partir de 1930, sur l’objectif et le devoir de la radio diffusion en tant qu’idée et idéologie.
Reith est une figure imposante de l’histoire de la BBC (et ainsi de cette nation), et le troisième morceau, An Unusual Man (“Un homme inhabituel”), cherche à représenter le genre de personne qu’il était et les talents qu’il possédait et a exercé sur la Company (plus tard Corporation) naissante. La BBC, à ce jour, a un air de ferveur idéologique dans sa mission et son objectif, et l’enfance de Reith en tant que fils d’un pasteur presbytérien à Glasgow, associée à ses qualités uniques décrites dans ce morceau, signifiait qu’il a contribué à façonner la BBC plus que n’importe quelle autre personne de son histoire. Il n’a été là que pendant 16 ans mais son influence et son opinion ont resonné dans les couloirs de Broadcasting House des décennies plus tard.
La BBC de Reith a probablement fait plus pour unifier le pays (et, plus tard, l’Empire) que n’importe quelle institution du XXème siècle.
L’ouverture de l’émetteur à Daventry en 1927 a permis aux auditeurs de toute la nation d’entendre la même radiodiffusion pour la première fois en simultané. Il a également, selon les conditions atmosphériques, attiré des auditeurs de bien plus loin. Seth Lakeman est invité sur le quatrième morceau, A Cello Sings In Daventry (“Un violoncelle chante à Daventry”), comprenant la poésie traduite du poète allemand Robert Seitz, qui a écouté les premières radiodiffusions depuis Berlin et s’est retrouvé assez ému pour écrire ces beaux mots.
Dans le cinquième morceau, Broadcasting House, nous sommes emmenés dans une visite guidée de vénérable “temple des arts et des muses”, offerte par le film de la GPO de 1935 BBC: The Voice of Britain. Le fonctionnement interne de ce bâtiment des plus innovants et augustes, le cœur de la Corporation à ce jour, est révélé via le film de Stuart Legg, ainsi qu’un documentaire radio du début des années 1930.
La Corporation avait le temps et les ressources importants avec lesquels tenter de surmonter la majeure partie des difficultés techniques et technologiques auxquelles elle a fait face. Les microphones à ruban importés à prix élevé étaient une de ces difficultés : l’ampleur de la BBC était telle qu’elle a simplement conçu, produit et par la suite vendu son propre microphone Type A et d’innombrables autres innovations. Dans The Microphone (The Fleet is Lit Up) (“Le microphone (La flotte est allumée)”), les observations amusantes de George Bernard Shaw sur le pouvoir du microphone sont un clin d’œil à l’influence de la BBC dans ce domaine ; et, ayant été averti des dangers de boire un verre avant de se lancer sur les ondes, il fallait out simplement revenir sur l’un de nos plus vieux morceaux, de 1937, (Lit Up), et le commentaire glorieusement, et par occasions profondément, ivre du Lieutenant Commander Thomas Woodrooffe.
L’avant-dernier morceau, A Candle Which Will Not Be Put Out (“Une flamme qui ne sera pas éteinte”), cherche à aborder les directions uniques sur lesquelles la BBC a été fondée, avec une profonde emphase sur le service public et un désaveu de l’influence commerciale sur les droites et devoirs quasiment sacrés dont la BBC a assumé la responsabilité. Sa déclaration de mission, rapportée ici par des sommités telles que Sir Ian Jacob (DG, 1952-9), Basil Binyon (l’un des premiers directeurs de la Company), Sir William Haley (DG, 1944-52) et Reith lui-même, ne pouvait s’éloigner autant de l’allocution notoire de James Murdoch au festival international de la télévision d’Édimbourg plus de 70 ans plus tard : “le seul garant fiable, durable et perpétuel de l’indépendance est le profit”, nous informait-il en 2009.
Ayant tenté de décrire certains de ce que je considère comme les moments et développements clés du début de l’histoire de la BBC, nous tournons notre attention dans le dernier morceau de la soirée vers les événements à venir. What of the Future? (In Touch with the Infinite) (“Et l’avenir ? (En contact avec l’infini)”) sont les titres, respectivement, du dernier chapitre du livre de 1924 de Arthur Burrow The Story of Broadcasting et Broadcasting Over Britain de Reith. C’est, d’après moi, un fait simple et incontestable que si la BBC continue à être réduite – potentiellement jusqu’à ce qu’elle expire – il y aura de nombreux domaines qu’elle couvre, et les fonctions que cela fournit, disparaîtra tout simplement. Aucune organisation privée, motivée par juste le profit, ne financerait la saison des Proms ; ni Radio 3, ni 4, ni 6Music (sans le soutien de laquelle notre groupe n’existerait pas) ; ni les divers orchestres de la BBC (dont celui qui joue avec autant de dextérité ce soir) ; ni aucun des multiples services commercialement rebutants mais vitaux sur le plan culturel que nous fournit la BBC au quotidien pour ce qui – comparé à d’autres appareils de distribution grandement loués – revient à une bagatelle. Cela laissera un vide, il n’y aura plus d’ondulations dans l’éther, plus de tentatives tournées vers le public d’améliorer l’éducation et l’expérience (et cohésion) de ce pays. Il y aura tout simplement une scène vide, et peut-être que là l’ampleur de l’influence et l’importance de la BBC se verront ressentir si elle disparaît véritablement.
J’aimerais dédier This New Noise à la mémoire de mon amie Rebecca Teulet et sa famille, dont j’espère certains membres seront dans le public ce soir. Rebecca a travaillé pour la BBC et croyait passionnément en sa mission et son objectif, même si elle était par occasions frustrée par la manière dont elle fonctionnait. J’espère que notre concert est un hommage approprié à sa vie. Elle nous manque beaucoup.
La tournée d’octobre était à peine commencée que le groupe annonçait déjà celle de mars ! Truro et Bath sont désormais quasi complètes, ce qui n’est guère étonnant après la pléthore de dates complètes en octobre et novembre ! Voici toutes les dates sur le poste suivant :
She Drew The Gun fera la première partie sur toutes les dates, à l’exception de Liverpool.
Le groupe a également été annoncé à l’affiche des festivals Latitude et Victorious, toujours au Royaume-Uni.
Un nouvel extrait de The Last Flight a été dévoilé par le groupe, une nouvelle collaboration avec Andreya Casablanca, déjà entendue sur Blue Heaven.
J. Willgoose, Esq. explique son choix de Andreya : “Je n’arrive pas à penser à quelqu’un de mieux placé qu’Andreya pour apporter le genre d’esprit, d’impertinence et de pure mélodie que demandait cette chanson. C’est un magnifique faire-valoir de la détermination, du courage et de l’honnêteté de Amelia. Je le fais parce que je le veux – n’est-ce pas une raison assez suffisante ? La chanson est une tentative de récapituler ce genre d’attitude sous forme musicale”.
Côté tournée, les billets se vendent toujours aussi bien, avec de plus en plus de dates complètes.
Le troisième album de PSB vire trop vers l’infotainment
Guy Oddy
Every Valley est le deuxième album studio de Public Service Broadcasting depuis Inform-Educate-Entertain de 2013, et comme ses prédécesseurs, c’est un voyage nostalgique vers le passé pas si récent que cela avec une toile de fond lourdement éléctronique et un sac plein de samples choisis de la bibliothèque du British Film Institute.
Tandis que J Willgoose Esq et Wrigglesworth ont pu être inspirés par les chemins de fer à vapeur et la course à l’espace sur les disques précédents, Every Valley voit le duo londonien prendre la mort de l’inductrie du charbon dans le Sud du Pays de Galles et son impact social comme source. Si cette terminologie sonne un peu sèche et académique, elle reflète l’ambiance de l’album, qui semble au bout du compte comme de “l’infotainment” valide avec de la musique que les saveurs electronica-trance-krautrock habituelles de Public Service Broadcasting.
Pour les premiers morceaux, Every Valley n’est pas surprenant pour les auditeurs de longue date de l’attaque particulière de Public Service Broadcasting sur l’idée de l’album concept. Mais au fur et à mesure, J Willgoose Esq et Wrigglesworth commençent à introduire des changements à leur son en incorporant des chanteurs invités comme Tracyanne Campbell, Lisa Jen Brown et James Dean Bradfield des Manic Street Preachers. Tandis que cela fonctionne sur la pop à la Goldfrapp de Progress et le duo anglo-gallois de You + Me, Turn No More semble être une opportunité perdue. Au lieu de sortir de sa zone de confort et d’essayer quelque chose de différent, Bradfield semble interpréter de manière terne un morceau de rock assez standard qui fait sonner ses hôtes comme son propre groupe.
Alors que Every Valley peut être un hymne attachant à l’idée de la “communauté”, il y a aussi un sentiment qu’il romantise un emploi qui était sale, dangereux et, dans plus de cas que possible, mortel pour tous ceux sur le front (littéral) de taille. De même, il ne fait pas attention aux retombées environnementales de l’industrie du charbon et semble par conséquent légèrement peu satisfaisant dans son échec à raconter plus que cette partie de cette histoire particulière.
PSB’s third veers too close towards infotainment for comfort
Guy Oddy
Every Valley is Public Service Broadcasting’s second studio album since 2013’s Inform – Educate – Entertain, and like its predecessors, it’s a nostalgic trip to the not-too-recent past with an electronica-heavy backing and a bag full of samples culled from the spoken word library of the British Film Institute.
While J Willgoose Esq and Wrigglesworth may have been inspired by steam-powered railways and the space race on previous discs, Every Valley sees the London duo take on the death of the coal industry in South Wales and its social impact as their source material. If this terminology sounds all a bit dry and academic, it reflects the ambience of the album, which ultimately comes across as worthy “infotainment” with tunes rather than Public Service Broadcasting’s usual electronica-trance-krautrock flavours.
For the first few tracks, however, Every Valley holds no surprises for long-time listeners of Public Service Broadcasting’s own particular take on the concept album idea. But as things unfold, J Willgoose Esq and Wrigglesworth begin to introduce some changes to their sound by bringing in guest vocalists like Tracyanne Campbell, Lisa Jen Brown and Manic Street Preacher’s James Dean Bradfield. While this works on the poppy Goldfrapp-like “Progress” and the folkie bilingual Welsh-English duet “You + Me”, “Turn No More” does seem something of a lost opportunity. Instead of stepping outside his comfort zone and trying something different, Bradfield rather uninspiringly performs a pretty straight-forward rock number that just makes his hosts sound like his own band.
While Every Valley can be quite an endearing hymn to the idea of “community” there is a sense that it also romanticises a job that was dirty, dangerous and, in more cases than seem possible, life-shortening or life-ending for those at the (literal) coalface. It similarly pays no attention to the environmental fall-out from the coal industry and consequently feels slightly unsatisfying in its failure to tell more than part of this particular story.
Rating: 9 Release Date: 2017-07-07 Label: Play It Again Sam
When Public Service Broadcasting released their first album Inform-Educate-Entertain in 2013 it left many questions, despite its obvious brilliance. Primarily it was difficult to see how this approach of instrumentals spiced with PSB dialogue would not grow very old very quickly. On their first effort the approach was varied and covered such subjects as the Spitfire, Night Mail and Everest. However that question was largely answered with their excellent, rousing and more focused Race for Space follow up that came two years later. This approach was to focus on a single subject and it told the story of the race for space from both US and USSR angles, being poignant, moving and at times as sparse as its subject matter. It also showed that when marrying a piece of original music to an old John F Kennedy speech it could turn into almost propaganda. There was also a move towards having original vocals with Smoke Faeries guesting on one track. Their third album sees them further explore this approach on what at first might seem like a smaller scale but actually may have hidden depths and meanings and might just be one of the most timely albums released this year. PSB have decamped to Wales and in particular Ebbw Vale to tell the story of the Welsh mining towns. Hiring some Celtic vocals, including James Dean of the Manic Street Preachers they follow the rise, fall and aftermath of Welsh coal.
Of course it is nigh on impossible to remove any politics from this subject matter as it is so deeply entrenched in the whole fall of the Welsh mines. And on first listen it would appear that this is a tale of Welsh mines alone. However, the arc could depict Detroit with its demise of the motor industry or any other abandoned industrial powerhouse where progress has apparently left the workforce long behind, bereft of jobs, hope and a future. In particular on this effort, the counterpoint of the elocutionary perfect delivery of Public Service Broadcasts telling the listener that there will always be a need for Welsh coal, as it does on People Will Always Need Coal, sounds both condescending and like the very kind of propaganda we are hearing on a daily basis from our current ruling classes. The whole album has a very definite arc from the promise of jobs for centuries to the ruination of an entire industry and the broken promises and lives. The centre of this is the attacking guitars and Welsh voiceovers of All Out. This is an almost metallic riff that gives way to allow the workers to tell their story before the assault continues anew. It’s a snarling beast of a number which accurately depicts the confrontation and feelings at the time and perhaps ever since.
The guest vocals are interspersed between the instrumental numbers. The most headline grabbing will be James Dean Bradfield’s turn on Turn No More which concerns the end of a pit and the final turn of the pit wheel. Its ringing guitar almost sounds like MSP at times but with an undertone of foreboding that can only belong on an album such as this. That is until the denouement where the pride begins to return and with it the true grit and defiance that has been there since. Camera Obscura’s Traceyanne Campbell gives a lighter to touch to the adrenaline filled Progress which is both welcome and needed. You Me also sees PSB break from their rules where their leader J Willgoose Esq provides the English counterpoint to Jen Brown’s welsh vocals. This is a light number full of strings and could be one of the most beautiful moments PSB have produced thus far.
Of the instrumental numbers They Gave Me A Lamp stands out alongside All Out as one of the most moving moments. This tells the story of the women in the mines and how they stood shoulder to shoulder with the men.
Of course there are still the odd nagging doubts about PSB. Is the underlying music different enough each time? Sometimes you almost feel it isn’t but this is often transcended by the subject matter and honestly how many bands plough the same furrow on each album anyway? The inclusion of a voiceover by Richard Burton, telling of the pride of Welsh miners on the opening title track is a reminder of the lyrical honey that voice once lent to War of The Worlds and perhaps it’s too close for comfort.
This is an album which provides far more poignancy with its subject matter and approach than would on the face of it be expected. That it is not laid on with a trowel is to be commended and actually makes it far more effective. Of course the tail end of the album can only be a more mournful affair than the false promises contained at the start. And inevitably this album ends the only way it can, with a Welsh voice choir. The unique approach of PSB might have found a ream seam here and perhaps one that reflects as much on our past as our present and sadly our potential future.
