By: PAULO SILVESTRE
ON MARCH 27, Coliseu de Lisboa will be the venue that sees the return of Portishead.
Portishead may not have invented trip-hop but they were among the first to popularise it, mainly in US.
Taking their cue from the slow elastic beats and adding elements of cool jazz, acid house and soundtrack music, Portishead created an atmospheric, alluringly dark sound.
The band was formed in Bristol, UK, in 1991 by Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons and Adrian Utley. After releasing a short film (To Kill a Dead Man) and its accompanying music, Portishead signed with Go! Beat Records.
Portishead’s first album, Dummy, was released in 1994 and the first single was called Numb.
In spite of the band’s aversion to press coverage, the album was successful in Europe and the United
States. Dummy spawned two hit singles, Glory Box and Sour Times, and went on to win the prestigious Mercury Music Prize in 1995.
After their initial success, Portishead released their second album, Portishead, in 1997. The album’s sound was different to Dummy, the main differences being that much of the music was composed and played by the band, not sampled from records, and had a grainy, harsher sound.
Three singles, Cowboys, Over and All Mine were released, the latter achieved a top 10 place in the UK.
In 1997, the band played a one-off show with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Roseland Ballroom in New York.
A live album featuring these new orchestral arrangements of the group’s songs was released in 1998.
There was also a long-form VHS video of the performance and a DVD followed in 2002 with substantial extra material including many early videos.
In the next years, the band members developed solo projects and other pursuits until in February 2005, the band appeared live for the first time in seven years at the Tsunami Benefit Concert in Bristol.
Around that time Geoff Barrow revealed that the band was in the process of writing its third album.
In August 2006, the band posted two new tracks on its MySpace site page. Around the same time, 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, entitled Third, had been mixed and was nearly complete, and was due for release in April 2008.
Check out Portishead’s songs at www.myspace.com/PORTISHEADALBUM3
