Friday, November 13, 1998

'98 comes alive with Portishead

By JANE STEVENSON
Toronto Sun

In the mind-boggling, pre-Christmas rush of music
releases this year, there is no shortage of
high-profile live albums in stores by such veteran
acts as Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith,
Rush, the Bee Gees, and the recently re-formed
Black Sabbath. And still to come on Tuesday is the
mother of them all -- Garth Brooks' double live CD
-- plus Pearl Jam on Nov. 24.

"Blimey, that's a lot of live albums, isn't it?"
comments Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley down
the line from the band's hometown of Bristol,
England.

In case you were wondering, the wildly revered
trip-hop act Portishead entered the fray earlier this
week with their own excellent live album, Roseland,
NYC Live, and accompanying home video.
(Rolling Stone just called the album "Frampton
Comes Alive! for the high-minded and
black-clad.")

So, will Portishead -- undeniable underdogs in the
race for your holiday money -- get lost in the
shuffle?

"No, we don't worry," says Utley. "I think in
marketing strategy, with a studio-based album, this
would be a consideration, obviously. I think a live
album is very intensely fan-based."

Still, some might wonder why Portishead, who
have stood out from the rest of the pack with their
distinctive cinematic soundscapes and singer Beth
Gibbons' torchy, tortured vocals, would do a live
recording and video with only two albums under
their belt. There was their highly regarded 1994
debut, Dummy, and last year's Portishead.

"We had to launch our second album, so we
decided to go and play with an orchestra in New
York. This meant we could orchestrate a load of
stuff from Dummy and Portishead, which wasn't out
yet," says Utley. "And then obviously it's such a big
operation we thought we'd film it as well. And so
we got in a big, six-camera shoot with a director."

For Toronto fans of Portishead, the album -- nine
of the 11 tracks were recorded with an orchestra
on the floor of the Roseland Ballroom last year -- is
a chance to hear the group at their gloomy,
atmospheric best after two disappointing concerts
here, most recently last year at the Warehouse.

"Yeah, that concrete place," remembers Utley. "It
was an awful gig. It was a dreadful place to play."

The accompanying 90-minute video, meanwhile, is
less accessible than the album, despite slow
sweeping camera movements and great sound. It
begins with a 10-minute montage of road trip
footage over a medley of Portishead music and
ends with the band celebrating backstage at
Roseland with champagne. In between, Gibbons
grasps the microphone with both hands, bobs her
head, keeps her eyes closed, and lights up a smoke
whenever she can.

"In Roseland? Yeah, it was terrifying," admits
Utley. "It was new material that nobody'd ever
heard that we'd gone through a weird time writing,
so we felt vaguely insecure about it anyway. And
we were working in bright lights. And also working
with an orchestra, they're very quiet -- 30 strings
does not make a lot of noise compared to a drum
kit in a big room, so it was just a weird situation.
And we had cameras flying 'round us, surrounded
by an audience. We were pretty frightened."

Good thing that after a grueling 87-gig, 10-month
world tour, the members of Portishead are taking a
break.

"We're not doing anything for like six months or
more," says Utley. "We're just going to have time
off 'cause we haven't stopped for three years really.
And it's time to stop, think and reassess."