PRS for Music Outstanding Contribution to British Music - Portishead

Francis Bacon once said that it’s the job of the artist to deepen the mystery. The conceptual artist would probably have loved Portishead. The band – named after a suburb of Bristol, the city where they formed – may have made some of the most cherished music of the last three decades but, in an age where most stars Instagram their breakfast and tweet their every random thought, the people behind those songs have maintained a mystique from another age.

Since forming in 1991, Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons and Adrian Utley have only made three albums, taking the time to ensure each one was as ground-breaking and earth-shattering as they could possibly be. They famously walked away from the band at the end of the ‘90s, just when it seemed to be on the verge of a gigantic international breakthrough. And singer Gibbons articulates heartbreak like no other singer on the planet, and yet never – and, for once, we really do mean never, ever – gives interviews.

What’s not in any doubt, however, is the power of their songwriting. Portishead’s debut album, 1994’s Dummy, re-arranged music’s tectonic plates, coming to define the genre that would be known as trip-hop, although Portishead themselves never sought such a tag. The album won the Mercury Prize and is consistently ranked as one of the greatest albums of all time in magazine polls, while songs such as Sour Times and Glory Box became the soundtrack of many of the era’s late nights and heartbreaks.

Portishead, of course, reacted to the fuss by disappearing for several years, before returning with 1997’s Portishead, a darker, bleaker album that nevertheless proved every bit as successful and important, even delivering a Top 10 single in All Mine.

Uncomfortable with the attention brought by unasked-for fame, the band – while never formally splitting – disappeared again until their oft-dreamed of reunion for 2008’s Third album – more wide-ranging and dance-orientated than the previous two records – and some rapturously received live shows. They continue to thrill and surprise in equal measure, whether headlining at Glastonbury or contributing an ABBA cover to the High-Rise soundtrack.

Barrow once said that making music “generally is hell, because we’re not a band in the traditional sense”. But anyone looking for non-traditional listening pleasure will find that listening to Portishead is heaven. Mystery solved.