November 22, 2001
From
The NME:
LIVE AID!
Gorillaz,
Massive Attack and Death In Vegas's RICHARD
FEARLESS are amongst the artists set to
appear at two benefit shows for the RED CROSS
and RED CRESCENT in Afghanistan.
The first
night will see the artists joined by Geoff
Barrow of Portishead, Howie B, Asian Dub
Foundation DJs James Lavelle's UNKLE project
and Scott Hendy at Bristol Academy on
December 15. Two days later, Barrett and
Hendy will be absent, though Daft Punk and
Pulp will appear at London's Fabric. On both
nights, Gorillaz will perform live while the
other artists will all DJ.
Money raised
will go towards helping ease the humanitarian
crisis that has exploded in the country since
air attacks began.
October 29,
2001
In
Time magazine's special "Music Goes
Global" issue, Portishead was named as
one of the "Ten Best Bands on the Planet
Earth." The list is described as
"the top contemporary acts outside the
U.S." Other notables that made the list
include U2, Sigur Ros, and Radiohead.
Here's
the part of the article featuring Portishead:
Portishead,
BRITAIN
Atmospheric, surreal trip-hop music; Geoff
Barrow produces, and vocalist Beth Gibbons'
hollow voice haunts every track. These songs
pull listeners two ways: they make you want
to dance and to despair. Key album: Dummy
You
can find the whole article here:
TIME.com - Music Goes
Global
October 21,
2001
This
is from the Rolling Stone:
Portishead
Ready to Begin New Album
Trip-hop outfit Portishead head to Australia
to record third album
Good
news for Portishead fans who have been
lamenting the fact that there hasn't been an
offering from the pioneering purveyors of
trip-hop in two years. Both programmer and
founder Geoff Barrow and bassist Adrian Utely
have confirmed that the band are about to
head to Australia to begin recording their
third album.
Barrow
told the British press last spring that the
band had planed to begin recording last
summer, but Utley had teamed up with noted
director Nicolas Roeg to provide the
soundtrack for a silent film called The Sound
of Claudia Schiffer, as part of an upcoming
BBC series due to be screened later this
year. He also submitted a track to American
Psycho and scored both Accelerator (with
David Holmes) and Signs & Wonders, a
small French independent film directed by
Jonathan Nossiter. But it looks like he's
ready to put his film work on the shelf, and
pack his bags for a trip down under.
Speaking
to local Bristol-based Web-site
bristolsound.co.uk, Utley revealed that he
and Portishead chanteuse Beth Gibbons are
about to fly off to join Barrow, who is
already in Sydney, to begin recording their
long-postponed album. The reason the band
decided to go so far afield to record was
cemented after Utley and Barrow traveled to
Australia last March and became enamored of
the place. "It's a really nice
place," Utley told Bristolsound.
"We decided to go back and record there
because we don't need an expensive studio to
work in. We've got a lot of equipment
ourselves."
"Towards
the end of touring last time we were all
pretty fucked up and we'd had enough of
Portishead," Utley confessed. "But
it's going to be nice to start again. I'm
looking forward to working with Geoff. We've
done stuff together but we haven't really sat
down and stared at each other for a while.
We've got a few ideas, but we haven't got
specific in anyway. We'll just see what
happens."
The
band has plans to release the disc by the end
of the year -- which would be a record. The last album took them two years to
record due to Barrow's exacting standards.
Jaan
Uhelszki (January 5, 2001)
