Sometimes you just know you are in the midst of greatness. I’ve felt it often in this sublime venue. The Blue Nile, John Grant, GoGo Penguin. I even performed there, several times.
This is one of those great nights in which Beth Gibbons (of Portishead fame) played, mostly, her astonishing new album, Lives Outgrown. It’s gorgeous, moving (the Philistines amongst us would say wailing or depressing) and it transforms live with her 8 piece band into a thing of extraordinary beauty.
It’s a pin drop night. The audience remarkably reverential, after all we are in the presence of greatness. A greatness that has not performed in nigh on 20 years and has come on only a 12 date tour to OUR TOWN. It’s obvious she has chosen her venues with care. The Albert Hall in Manchester and the Barbican preceded tonight.
And we are treated to a bonus song, Portishead’s The Rip. (What a fucking iconic banger) as the tour’s closer.
Just an hour and a wee bit. But that was plenty. Because an hour and a wee bit of perfection is better than three hours of pomp and circumstance. And I don’t actually mean Taylor here.
Lighting is elegant, the band is profound, the soundman should win a fucking Oscar or some other shit because it’s amazing. (Sorry, it might be a sound woman.)
She also plays two of her songs from Out Of Time, her collaboration with “Rustin Man”. These and her two Portishead numbers move the crowd, but despite their greatness it is her new work that wins the day.
This may be the album of the year come December. It will certainly be hard to beat in my gigs of the year.
Truly sublime.
gibberish 