Portishead on mission to keep fans awake at gigs

Jonathan Warren

Author: Jonathan Warren

28.03.2024

News

89152331Mercury Prize winners Portishead spoken of how they are making a concerted effort to ensure their fans don't drift off to sleep during their gigs over the summer. According to group creator Geoff Barrow, the trip-hop band are not playing a number of their songs live for fear of making their fans feel sleepy. Musical numbers that have been considered too sleep-inducing are predominantly from the Bristolean outfit's popular album Third, released in 2008. Speaking to online music mag Pitchfork, Barrow explained: "Some tracks from Third just don't translate; so far, we haven't played Deep Water because that's kind of a weird tune. "And we don't play Small because if we played that and some of the other tracks from Third," he continued, "I think people would go to sleep." Nonetheless, fans will undoubtedly be happy that Portishead are performing in the first place; after all, Barrow has avoided playing live shows in the past due to his one-time hatred for open-air shows.