This year Portishead are fifteen years old and are still working on their third album.
The pioneering Bristol trip-hop act found much success in the mid-'90s with their dramatic orchestral electronica and vocalist Beth Gibbons spine-tingling singing. Both their 1994 debut 'Dummy' and 1997 self-titled albums hit number two on the UK charts but since the live album of 1998 'Roseland NYC Live', the trio have been virtually silent.Producer Geoff Barrow has been posting missives on their myspace page saying that he's writing material for their third album, eight years in the making. He noted in June that they'd been meeting with their label, but a recent post says they're stumbling again. He wrote, "Work ain't good at the moment, we've got stuck, just a few more months and we can really go at it" and joked that the group should become a pop band like Steps.
He also responded to suggestions that they team up with producer Danger Mouse, who claimed the band as an influence in a recent interview, by adding the postscript: "I'd rather poo in my mum's Sunday roast than have Danger Mouse produce a Portishead record... no offence like." None taken, Geoff!
