If you haven't seen this band live, just do it. With thematic albums on public service broadcasting itself (songs from some revealing stories of the 30s, 40s and 5Os), the space race and, now, the demise of coal mining and the culture and identities of the south Wales Valleys, culturally PSB are the ultimate critical celebrants of modernity. Their music is built around sampling sound and visual archives, which quite evidently must take loads of time and effort. It's amazing to listen to and retains a freshness that keeps them on always neat the top of the cd pile. Also, especially, in the case of Every Valley, some tracks are beautiful, poignant and evocative. To really bring the music to life you have to go to a gig and see the film footage that goes with the music - archive footage ingeniously inter-cut with live footage of PSB's live performance. I'm told an album about the Titanic is in the offing... I half-joked that listening to and seeing this band is the only history lesson anyone would ever need, especially if they combined it with watching Cunk on Britain for the UK angle! While we were in Swansea to see Public Service Broadcasting, we folded some cranes with friends late into the night in the after gig euphoria... Here's one with the PSB cd cover and a genuine piece of Ffos-y-Fran coal, a souvenir from Wales' last (please God) open-cast coal mine. In the age of climate change our view of coal in Wales as a immense reserve of energy and source of jobs has changed...
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AuthorI am he as you are he as you are me, and we are all together Archives
December 2022
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I said, hey what's going on?
A story, essay, lyric or rhyme with no reason almost every day... or at least sometimes, randomly