Phead - Portishead Biography

BIOGRAPHY

1992	Geoff Barrow (born: Dec 9, 1971, Avon) who has grown up in the small village of his birth, in between the Avon Towns of Portishead and Clevedon, has learned to play the drums as a boy and has moved with his mother to live in Portishead as a teenager when she seperated from his father. He searched of a career in music production. Subsequently employed as one of the Coatch House Studio, has been promised a job at the studio once it is finished resulting in his working as a tea-boy and part time tape-operator, on Massive Attack debut album "Blue lines". Then she met Beth Gibbons (born: Jn 4 1965, Devon) and teamed with Caroline Killouri and Debie Swainson who are forming their own Fruit managment company (also handle Tricky) . Barrow and Gibbons return to the Coatch House and record a session with Adrian Utley an R&B jazz session guitar veteran which initially yields "Sour Times". Gibbons quits her job at a Bristol advertising agency and "Portishead" is formed in the sprin of '93 and including Dave McDonald (sound engineer) as integral members who together prepare a three-track demo.
1993	Barrow has been invited to play the three-song demo (Sour Times, It's a fire, It could be sweet) to Go! Discs R&B imprint, Go! Beat, resulting in a record contract. Go! Beat Records was a record label launched as a subsidiary of Go! Discs Records for dance artists like David Holmes. When Go! Discs folded, Go Beat continued as a label within the Universal Music Group.
1994	A mini-album taster "Numb" is released by Go! Beat. Also, the ten-minute movie "to kill a dead man" receives its premiere at London's Prince Charles Cinema and open major movies like "the last seduction" and "pulp fiction". The only live appearance this year was at London's Blue Note's Athletico Club. "Dummy" makes UK #32 and voted album of the year by The face, Melody Maker, Mix Mag, The Daily Telegraph.
1995	"Dummy" -is certifies gold by the BPI. Glory Box bows at its UK #13 peak. Portishead is named Best Dance Act at the NME's BRAT awardsheld in London. Sour times makes US #53 and Dummy US #79. Portishead begins its first full tour in eight countries and "Dummy" finally makes UK #2. Also, it wins the hotly-contested Mercury Music Prize at a presentation held at London's Savoy Hotel. Portishead performson the accoustic stage of Glastonbury Festival.
1997	The only US date of the year was that at New York's Roseland Ballroom backed by a 30-piece orchestra warming up for the release of their eponymous sophomore album "Portishead".Dummy certifies GOLD by the RIAA and "all mine" hits #8 in its week of entry. "Portishead" albumenters the UK chart at #2 behind the Verve's "Urban Hymns" and bows at its US #21 peak. Finally, "Over" reaches UK #25 during a two-week chart stay. In December the group begins an 11-date North American at the Coca-Cola Roxy Theater in Atlanda set to end on the 18th at Los Angeles' Hollywood Palladium.
1998	January: The band performson NBC-TV's "Sturday Night Live" and only you reaches UK #35 during a two-week chart stay. May: Proposed dates in Bristol are postponed when Gibbons is stricken with a throat infection. The band performs on the Jazz World Stage at the annual Glastonbury Festival held at Worthy Farminlitton, at the start of a series of European festival dates which will end on August 30th at the Lowlands Paradise 1998 festival in Lelystad, Holland. September: The band palys the first of two Brazilian dates in Sao Paolo. The 11-track live album, PNYC bows at its UK #40 peak and also charts for a week at US #155.
1999	Beth Gibbons makes the vocals in Tom Jone's album "Reload" in the last track "Motherless child" (previously preformed by Peggy Lee) and Portishead participated in Tom Jones project among other bands as Divine Comedy, Robbie Williams, Cardigans etc. A russian band called "Mandalay" released the album "Pearl" with the same portishead artwork and the press thought that they stole portishead studio work. Finally, it was a fake "portishead" album,produced by that Russian band and had nothing to do with the band.
2000	Portishead’s Adrian Utley has teamed up with film director Nicolas Roeg to make a soundtrack for a silent film called ‘The Sound of Claudia Schiffer’ as part of an upcoming BBC series to be screened later in the year. geoff barrow in nme.com told that PORTISHEAD are about to commence work on their third album, and has spoken in support of a new website aiming to promote the Bristol music scene: www.bristolsound.co.uk. He revealed that the band are currently resting, but plan to go into the studio in the "early summer" to commence work on the follow-up to 1997's eponymous second album.so the new portishead album is going to be released in December or January of 2000.the work will start in the coatch house studio.
2001	Portishead are to record their third studio album in Australia. Speaking exclusively to bristolsound.co.uk, Adrian Utley said that he and Beth Gibbons will be flying out to join Geoff Barrow, who is already in Sydney, very early in the new year
2002	The Portishead DVD released in 4/1/2002 contains Promo Videos For- Numb, Sour Times, All Mine, Over, Only You and the Short Films- Roadtrip, To Kill A Dead Man. buy it here ::Beth Gibbons solo album but she's not leaving Portishead:: Beth Gibbons and Rustin' Man are the voice of Portishead and her mate Paul Webb (of Talk Talk). Releasing her debut solo album 'Out Of Season' on October 28th, Beth will be taking the album on the road - watch this apace for details of UK and continental shows and then continue work on the next Portishead album, due 2003.. The album is largely semi-acoustic and deeply moving. Lead track 'Mysteries' will promote the release but not be available in the shops. Her debut solo show was in October 16 at the London Shepherds Bush Empire and followed by a live show at L'Olympia in Paris in 11/11/2002. The album "Out Of Season" hits UK #28
2003	Beth Gibbons abd Rustin Man start a European tour including many countries. all tour dates -previous and current- are here 03/03/2003: The new video and single "Tom The Model" released by Go! Beat Phead, AMG, MSN, PItchfork, UBL and many more music sites claim the new Portishead album "Alien" will be released in April but it was just another rumour followed by the official statement: "We have noticed that there is some confusion on an album release called "Alien". Please be aware that this is NOT a Portishead release. The band are in the studio working on new material now but no release dates are scheduled as yet. Keep an eye on the site as any release plans will of course be announced here first!"
2005	Portishead and Massive Attack share the stage for the first time for Tsunami benefit relief in February. Geoff Barrow told BBC 6 Music that he's surprised that people thought the band has split up. "We've just had our heads down really, we've never actually broken up, or parted, or whatever." The band have nearly completed their third LP and he added: "So for us it just seems, even though we haven't played for years, we still see each other and write, we just haven't released a record for a long time."
2007	Finally, there are news about a new album which is going to be released next year. Portishead are curate ATP "Nightmare before Christmass" show with 2 performances of the band previewing new songs. Some clips can be found in YouTube. The band has totally changed their style. The new album is going to be released April 14th and its name is "Third". (Island Records UK). A follow up concert was made in Bristol Academy and the tickets were sold immediately. (left: The setlist of ATP concert ) They also created Myspace site where they post their latest news and other stuff.
2008	Portishead announced a European tour in spring which will be started from Spain (Oporto Colisseum) and they will also headline Coachella Festival in April 26th. (Indio, USA). Some countries they visit are France, Italy, Spain and Germany. There are no plans for a summer tour yet. This photo is a poster of their upcoming concert in Milan and Firence in Italy. Tickets from venues where they play are sold out in most places and are very difficult to find.