PORTISHEAD
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Geoff Barrow named his band after his home town in a spirit of irony rather than nostalgia. “It’s a place you go to die,” he said. Obviously, that was before Portishead’s new 21st-century reinvention. Don’t write in, Portisheaders.
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MUSIC
Although Bristol gave birth to the occasional big name in the 20th century, there was no internationally-recognised Bristol music scene until the roots tradition of dub/reggae climbed out of the clubs and evolved into the accessible Trip-Hop of the 1990s, most notably in the hands of Massive Attack, Tricky and Portishead. Bristol had found its sound…
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PORTISHEAD Formed in Bristol in 1991, Portishead – Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons and Adrian Utley – created one of the major soundtracks of the era. Those yuppie lawyers in TV series This Life never had Dummy off the turntable.
BANANARAMA Together with Dublin’s Siobhan Fahey, Bristol’s Sara Dullin and Keren Woodward gave us some of the most hummable pop tunes of the 1980s. Rejoice, all ye who danced around to Robert de Niro, Cruel Summer and Really Saying Something – Bananarama have recently reformed, and will be touring from November this year, with a Colston Hall date on 22 November.
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MASSIVE ATTACK There was so much love for Grant Marshall and Robert del Naja on the Downs last year, when Bristol’s most famous musical sons played their first home gig in 12 years. Rob, aka 3D, also hits the news every now and again when somebody ‘proves’ or ‘lets slip’ that he’s Bansky.
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COKE HEADS
What links a pair of Fishponds-born songwriters with the final scene of Mad Men? Roger Cook & Roger Greenaway, aka David & Jonathan, wrote and recorded a number of hit pop tunes (as we called them in the 1970s). They also penned the hippie-tastic I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing, later harnessed by Coke in one of the most famous ad jingles of all time. Was this on Don’s mind as he sat mediating in a field in the final scene of the final season? Oh, we do hope so.
ANDY SHEPPARD One of the best-know sax players around, Andy’s in demand worldwide, but his Quartet frequently plays locally at venues such as St George’s and Alma Tavern.
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18 I BRISTOL LIFE I www.mediaclash.co.uk
NIK KERSHAW “Wasn’t he the one in the Levis ad?” an intern just asked. Wash your mouth out with soap, young person! Nik may have been as handsome as laundromat-botherer Nick Kamen, but this rated Bristol-born singer-songwriter was so much more than a pretty face; he was called “the best songwriter of a generation” by Elton John, who should know. We’re now humming The Riddle . . .
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TRICKY Knowle West’s most famous son (his Twitter handle is @KnowleWestboy), Adrian Thaws began his career with Massive, but went on to collaborate with musicians across many genres, from Bjork to Terry Hall to Grace Jones. He gigged twice in Bristol last year; at BBC6 Festival at Colston Hall, and guesting with 3D and Daddy G on The Downs.
RALEIGH RITCHIE Rejoicing in the birth name of Jacob Basil Anderson, this Bristol boy is rapidly making a name for himself under the name of Raleigh Ritchie; his album You’re a Man Now, Boy has been critically acclaimed, and Bristol crowds go mad for his gigs. He’s even better-known internationally as the Unsullied leader Grey Worm in Game of Thrones.
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GEORGE EZRA “Bristol, I’m coming home to play Summer Series this June!” tweeted George in 2014. The most attractive and likeable of the current generation of troubadours, George moved to Bristol in 2011 to study at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute; from playing open mics on the Glo Road to Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage was the work of but a few years. He looks like a teen idol and sings like a venerable blues singer smoking 30 a day. In the early 1960s, George Melly reflected that Britain’s only international cultural export was “a cider-drinking, belching, West Country contemporary, dressed as an Edwardian musichall ‘Lion Comique’.” He was referring to Acker Bilk, who with Stranger on the Shore, became the second British artist to score a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.