Public Service Broadcasting

Public Service Broadcasting

Oct 21

See how they wheel and bank and glide – perfect

Where: Barrowland
When: 18 October 2017
Support: Palace

PSB on paper seem to be the epitome of nerd music – their albums and EPs are based around historical events (Second World War, The Race For Space, the rise and decline of the South Wales coal industry) and use extensively historical recordings, including propaganda and public information announcements. BUT their music, a mix of soft rock, electronica (the most important element) and, tonight, horns is for the feet and the heart – emotional and dance worthy. They are unique band that any serious indie/electronic dance music lover should see at least once.

The visuals compliment the music. The simple but effective stage design is inspired by their latest album Every Valley (I’ll leave you to guess its historical foundation) – with the main stage lighting provided by a series of safety lamps that moved up and down above the band’s heads throughout the show. Relevant historical images and snatches of film are projected on to screens, interspersed with live shots of the band on stage.

The band’s centre is the unflappable J. Willgoose, Esq. on guitar and electronica, and looking very dapper tonight, backed by multi-muso JF Abraham and energising drummer Wrigglesworth. All three make the hugely enjoyable music they produce sound effortless – no rock star heroics for them, just modest professionalism. By contrast (by design?) on many songs they were also joined by an energetic and engaging three-piece brass section (trmpt, trmb, sax – the latter being particularly good value), complete with occasional and much appreciated coordinated dancing.

Although Every Valley was the bedrock of the show PSB played songs from across their own history. And perhaps a good sign of the strength of the band was that the best songs also reflected that history – ‘They Gave Me A Lamp’, ‘Go!’, ‘Night Mail’, and the two encores of ‘Gagarin’ (complete with two ‘dancers’ cavorting across the stage in full space suits) and ‘Everest’.

J. Willgoose, Esq. told us that Barrowland was one of the band’s favourite venues and the friendly, eclectic (at least in age and gender) crowd repaid this with a warm, enthusiastic response throughout the set – at the end of the final encore the cheers were long and heartfelt. He also mentioned that PSB’s first gig in Glasgow had been to a far more modest crowd at Nice N Sleazy and so to The Skys – there is hope! And finally, a shout out for the very good support band Palace (beautiful guitar sound) – with any luck we will hear more of them in the future.

Band page

Sample video