Beth Gibbons

ICE QUEEN: Beth Gibbons
BAND: Portishead
ORIGIN: Bristol, UK
GENRE: Trip hop
ACCOMPLICES: Geoff Barrow (noises and sounds), Adrian Utley (guitar).
DISCOGRAPHY: Portishead: "Dummy" (1994), "Portishead" (1998), "Third" (2008). Solo: "Out of Season" (2002).
INFLUENCES: Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf, Cocteau Twins, Nina Simone, Otis Redding, Janis Ian, Jimmy Cliff.

IMHO: Portishead were one of the leaders of the trip hop movement that erupted in the mid-nineties in the UK. In my taste, "Dummy" is the best album in the history of music for the time it came out and for what it meant (and also because it's a debut album!!). I realize this is totally subjective, but that's how I feel. It's a PERFECT TEN album. And Beth Gibbons is half responsible for that. Her voice, like a shy person who looks through the crack of the door but doesn't dare to enter the room, creates a painful, ethereal and beautiful melody that stays in your brain and reminds you how delicate and fragile things are. Too bad that this band choked on its own success. They could have been the shit and a half, but they just were the half. The self-titled follow up was good but never reached the standards of the first one. There are neverending rumours that Portishead is writing a new album, but these rumours have been going on forever, and like the sheperd and the wolf story, I think that if some day it becomes true, people will not be ready for it. Just like when Elastica released their eagerly awaited for follow up album "The Menace" and no one gave a shit.

FAVOURITE SONGS: "Pedestal", "It's a fire", "Numb."
FAVOURITE ALBUM: "Dummy."

WHAT OTHERS SAY: Here are some interersting information bits from A Portishead Fansite...

"The name "Portishead" came from the West Coast shipping suburb of Bristol where Geoff Barrow was raised. The story goes that Geoff was known as "that guy from (the town) Portishead" when he first began making music on the first Massive Attack album. The idea for the band name grew out of that."

"Nowadays Beth has her own little studio in the countryside in which she writes music for Portishead. She records the songs and sends them to the other band members in Bristol where they do their part and send it back to Beth and so on. This is the recording process Portishead have used on their last albums."