Bristol cream: But best of the West defy labels

PORTISHEAD burst on to the scene pigeonholed as another of the Bristol trip-hop outfits made famous by Tricky and Massive Attack.

Tomorrow the West Country wizards will take the stage at Blackburn's King George's Hall, having succeeded in becoming the latest and greatest Goth-hop band in the country.

Baffled? Not half as much as Portishead main man Geoff Barrow.

He and sultry singer Beth Gibbons are the driving force behind the band who produced Glory Box, possibly one of the best soul-searching singles of the last decade.

When they first emerged they were billed as one of the most groundbreaking bands of the time.

As they tour to promote their eponymous second album, where does that leave them now?

"People do say they have been influenced by us," said Geoff.

"If they have seen what we have done and then taken it somewhere else then that it a good thing.

"But I hate trip-hop. That was just the term coined because the media wanted an easy way to describe us.

"That kind of music comes out of London.

"It's been really weird to read the things that people say we are. "Now the second album is out they describe us as Goth-hop. It's better than trip-hop but I haven't got a clue what it is meant to mean."

One thing Geoff can't argue with is the way Portishead have been packaged by their management as something unique.

"Our own influences have always been American hip-hop stuff and pretty normal bands, nothing really strange," he said. "I listen to Radiohead and The Foo Fighters and I have lived through all the Oasis stuff. We're not some obscure spoon tapping outfit.

"However, when most people play live they use samplers and get their near-perfect sound all the time.

"For us we are caught in the middle. I wouldn't want to play with banks of samplers.

"For me it has to be live.

"We don't want to misrepresent what we did in the studio but we usually take the most difficult route to do anything."

The signs are good that the people of East Lancashire will enjoy what they hear.

The band have just returned from a tour of France, their "second most important" market.

Geoff said: "We had a 10-day stretch in France for a warm-up tour. I'm really pleased with how it went.

"We were really nervous about playing live there because it matters if they don't like us.

"I think playing live is a very valid thing to do for that reason."

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