Portishead have shared a behind-the-scenes glimpse of their reunion performance for Together For Palestine – see below.
Earlier today, it was announced that the iconic trip-hop group had been added to the line-up of Brian Eno’s event at OVO Arena Wembley on September 17, alongside the likes of Damon Albarn, Hot Chip, Jamie xx, Sampha, Bastille and Paloma Faith.
Portishead have said they will be unable to attend the event in person, but instead they have recorded a special one-off performance of their 1994 track ‘Roads’ with a string quartet, which will be aired during the evening on the big screens.
Writing on Instagram on Wednesday (September 3), the band’s Geoff Barrow wrote: “Yesterday we went to the Brilliant @cubemicroplex and filmed a live song for the up and coming “Together for Palestine” concert. We can’t be there in the day but we desperately wanted to be involved to put our voice to help end the Ongoing Genocide that is taking place right now.”
The post included photos of the band on stage together – Barrow, Beth Gibbons and Adrian Utley – as well as the string quartet. Check them out here:
The band have also shared a statement in which they say: “We are incredibly honoured to stand in solidarity with Palestine and be part of this crucial event. The genocide must stop.”
Also appearing at the show will be Cat Burns, Greentea Peng, James Blake, King Krule, Mabel, Obongjayar, Rachel Chinouriri, Celeste, Leigh-Anne, Riz Ahmed, PinkPantheress and Rina Sawayama, alongside Palestinian artists Adnan Joubran, Faraj Suleiman, Nai Barghouti, Elyanna, Saint Levant and El Far3i. Actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Guy Pearce, Jameela Jamil and Ramy Youssef will also be there, as will broadcasters Amelia Dimoldenberg and Louis Theroux and Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos.
You can find any remaining tickets to ‘Together For Palestine’ here.
Portishead last played live in 2022 in a one-off show in Bristol for War Child UK. It was their first show for seven years and they played ‘Mysterons’, ‘Wandering Star’, ‘Roads’, ‘Magic Doors’ and ‘The Rip’. Their last full-length album remains 2008’s ‘Third’.
Since then, Gibbons has released her debut solo album ‘Lives Outgrown’ in 2024, which NME awarded four stars. “On ‘Lives Outgrown’ Gibbons uses this history to her advantage,” the review said. “She cannily foregrounds the weather-beaten gravitas of her vocal at each turn, its familiarity holding us tight so that, in parallel, she can undercut that feeling of safety by continually pointing out the grains of sand falling into the wrong half of the hourglass.”
She also played a solo tour across North America and made appearances at Glastonbury, Green Man and London’s Roundhouse this summer.
Barrow, meanwhile, announced he was leaving Beak> last year after “nearly 16 years of bad language & random tempo decisions”. He played his final shows with the group earlier this year, with the band planning to continue without him.
