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A Spotify playlist has led me to unearth another gem. I'd never heard of this duo (now trio?) until yesterday. I absolutely love their stuff. I don't know why but I really like the use of old audio newsreel being played over with fitting and awesome music. I guess since I first heard Paul Hardcastle's 19.
Educational too. Until yesterday, I was unaware of the Apollo 1 training tragedy of 1967 until I heard PSB's Fire in the Cockpit.
The Race for Space on CD will be with me within the hour.
Any other fans on here?
+1 Really great stuff.
Oh yes. Fantastic stuff.
Spitfire is another brilliant track.
Funnily enough was listening to their new piece (below) late last night and enjoying it. Am a long-time fan of art rock and ambient/found sounds music? Thomas Dolby and then Orb probably kicked this interest off when I first heard ‘One Of Our Submarines’ from ‘Golden Age Of Wireless, and then interest surged hearing ‘Valley’ on Orb Live 93. Stereolab pointed me backwards to Can, Neu, etc.
Will certainly be checking out more of Public Service. Already enjoyed Spitfire and People Let’s Dance (great, great video). They conjure up a similar vibe to old favourites British Sea Power* and also many Krautrock artists of yore. So it’s deffo up my street.
OP if you like the old radio clips and ‘found sounds’ then on the ambient side of things maybe check out Holger Czukay & David Sylvian ‘Plight and Premonition/Flux and Mutability’
* This goes here for some reason
"Live at the Royal Albert Hall" and "The Quay Sessions" are on YouTube.
Knock yourself out, Derek!
Spitfire is indeed very good. I like them but they seem pretty peak STW, if you know what I mean.
Banjo playing geography teachers?
I just can't imagine a super diverse crowd at their gigs - I'm imagining pretty much entirely middle aged middle class nerds (like most of us on here). Could be wrong!
Banjo playing geography teachers?
Drinking coffee from smoked glass mugs!
Our geog teacher ran a soft porn club at lunch times.
We paid 50p to get ingrowing hard ons watching uncensored versions of Duran Duran's Girls on Film, The Chauffer and other racy numbers.
Spitfire is indeed very good. I like them but they seem pretty peak STW, if you know what I mean.
Now if you’d have said:
Stone Roses
Tool
Transvision Vamp
Some hyper-photogenic Viking woman warbling over some metal
I’d have agreed with you 😉
It’s funny looking back to teenage record collection in that I now I can easily blame Hawkwind, Motörhead, Black Sabbath, Talking Heads, New Order, Thomas Dolby and The B-52s for my entire music tastes since. Well, those bands and some slightly ‘spectral’ brain-preference for ambient/repetition/mantra. I wonder what would have happened had been born in the 80s instead? Pretty sure there’s some truth that geeky science-y types like geeky science-y music? Beauty in the ears of the beholder
I've got tickets to see them in Nov - can't wait and looking forward to the new album - the first 3 tracks have so far been great
I like 'em, but they get very samey after a while.
I've just looked at ticket prices too. And am now not going.
Saw them a couple of years ago in Liverpool. Excellent gig and yes the audience was very diverse, it contained every type of white middle aged male.
Go and Spitfire are my favourites but so far the latest album has been disappointing.
Another fan here. Seen them live and they were fantastic.
Go is my fave track of theirs.
Saw them at Latitude (while stood next to Ruby Wax).
Saw them again at the Royal Albert Hall.
Also have a birthday card from them which a mate somehow sorted at a signing.
The new stuff hasn't grabbed me... Yet.
I like ’em, but they get very samey after a while.
Yeah, I think the same. But the latest stuff seems a bit different.
I’ve seen PSB live 5 times and they are really good. The selection of old film clips, news reels, etc are always spot on and really add to the songs.
Inform - Educate - Entertain is a great album and Every Valley does a good job of illustrating what happened in the South Wales mining communities.
I like ’em, but they get very samey after a while
True, but I seem to like a lot of bands like that.
I’ve just looked at ticket prices too. And am now not going.
£34 for Cardiff SU. Seems about right for a well known band, maybe even rather low these days. (cf £40+ for The Wombats, whoever they are, or £50 for The Specials, including a member of the original band if you're lucky and get in there quick. Although, tbf these last 2 are in the Motorpoint Arena, a bigger venue.)
Backed by radio 6 - Saw them first in play in a barn at the Goodlife festival in 2015. Caught them a few times since - They played the Natural History museums main hall a few years back that was quite a show. Saw them again at the Royal Albert hall and recall being surprised to find myself in the lower half (just) of the demographic at 50. Put a good deal of effort into show preparation and planning, always a big event with a substantial cast (full choir joining at one point for the Every Valley album tracks).
One of them has a side-project called Late Night Final, which you may want to check out if you think you'd like something that's more chilled and electronic.
Is it just a coincidence that ‘PSB’ is ‘BSP’ reversed? 🥸🇬🇧🌊🎸
For more dourly-reminiscing lo-jinks with faded flags Upliftingly-melancholic patched-sleeved-jumper-wool-rock hear:
I discovered them from truck festival. The average of the crowd there can never be that far from 16, and everyone still seemed to be enjoying it. I thought they were great!
Edit: Truck is an excellent festival by the way. Great vibes. It makes me feel old though and I'm not even 30 yet...
I found them almost by accident is the “ live at Brixton “ plus and dvd was on offer at my local vinyl dealer
Now have most of their stuff and have seen them live several times including the bash at The Albert Hall that finished with a wonderful rendition by the male voice choir
Now waiting for delivery of Bright Magic the ticket for Leeds 🤗
Tweet rubbish for radio 6 bores. Said in the nicest possible way 😀👍
That male voice choir was ace. Remember when they did it with a full brass orchestra from oop North? The musty Empire-age working-class authenticity of the whole thing made my hard-earned arch-cynicism cartwheel off-course into a steel-grey cloud of permanent knowing. But later a nagging doubt returned as I knew from interviews that BSPPSB sounded in person to be authentically ineloquent and inarticulate so maybe they just like brass bands because it sounds good. But then my arch-cynicism kicked my arse again and now I’m stuck in between a mock and a hardened place when before I used to jump up and down with glee and play along with air-trumpets.
#ifonlyclivedunnhadbeenalive
*The only cure was to lock myself in a room for four days with Stormzy looping on Tidal. I emerged with a fresh desire for some fresh shoes.
I saw them doing an orchestral choral version of Race for Space as a late night Prom at the RAH the year before lockdown, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the moon landings. Wonderful.
I still get a lump in my throat when the static comes back on The Other Side.
Just this week they've released the first tracks from a new album. Germanic. Snippets in SoundCloud and bamdcamp
“They gave me a lamp” and “white star liner” are great tunes.
I raved about them when I first heard them, now I’m a bit meh. Same for London Grammar. Great sound but no real growth as song writers.
Similiar-ish and who i discovered around the same time are Warm Digits
https://warmdigits.bandcamp.com/album/interchange
Banjo playing geography teachers?
Nah, that's Bears Den fans.
That Blue Heaven track is really growing on me.
Just downloaded their latest album and just started playing it...first 2 tracks are sounding good. Hoping rest of album is also good...
I like their work, but the last album didn't quite work for me like the others have...it was interesting but it just didn't sound right and was more like a story with some background music...
PSB are ace, we saw them at the Ramsbottom Festival a few years ago and they were brill.
Perennial favourite on here I thought. Holmfirth Picturedrome too about 3-4 years back.
"Wings, body, tail, all in one"
Loving the Warm Digits!
Top tip.
Been a fan for years. Saw them at Belfast titanic slipways for 6 music festival and after liking them for years I worried that they might not work live. How wrong I was!
Arguably my favourite band at the moment (along with BC camplight)
Might be dreaming this but I seem to remember first hearing about them on TMA,Spitfire and this are my favourites
I’m a big fan , seen them live seven or eight times now but the new album just doesn’t do it for me. I’ve listened to it a couple of times and apart from perhaps one track it’s just more of the same and instantly forgettable to me. I get the feeling they’ve run out of ideas.
Im with you on this rockhopoer. Guardian review said new album has lost psb's USB which hit the nail on the head for me.
However, I've always found PSB to be more about the live show that the home listening. There's a lot of imagery that they'll be exploring - and I've got tickets for Sunday 24th in Cardiff.... 🙂
It was ‘Spitfire’ on 6Music that got my attention, saw them at the O2 Academy in Bristol, and they were amazing, but the later albums have slightly lost their sparkle for me, and I’m definitely in two minds about the latest one, but I’m not really into 80’s German disco.
Not just me then. I wonder if Spotify are picking up stw folks for their listeners...
For anyone interested there is a superb podcast (The Bright Magic Podcast) on the making of Bright Magic. It gives great insight into the stories behind each song and the detail they go into to creating the sound they want - breaking lightbulbs and using the bits in a shaker or capturing electro magnetic waves on a Berlin street and transforming that into a beat for a song.
I thought they were very good when I saw they at Rock City a couple of nights ago. I even think my 16y old daughter enjoyed them who I'd dragged along - one of the few non middle aged white blokes.