The new Public Service Broadcasting album is out now, called 'Every Valley'. PSB basically take old archive audio of speeches and broadcasts and set it to music. It sounds crap but they make it work and it's great. Their first album used public service broadcasts (hence the band name) and had some stand out tracks on it (Spitfire, Night Mail). At the time I thought it might just be an interesting gimmick that would work for one album. But the second album, The Race for Space, is fantastic, telling the history of the space race and hangs together far better. This all sounds a bit geeky I admit, but the music is fantastic and with the spoken words it just somehow works. As a good example try 'Go' off of The Race for Space. Anyway, that's a very long digression to say that the new album is all about mining. A lot of it uses Welsh archive material and interviews with miners but its definitely worth a listen if any of the above sounds your kind of thing. Oh, and they're playing 02 Academy Leeds on Thursday 19th October.
Album of the year by a mile. Almost had me crying on first listen. Very emotional. Even better than the Race for SPACE.
Yeah I agree. Even more so cos the words are all spoken by real people who lived through the decline. Particular on Mother of the Village. We all thought we'd be there for the rest of our lives But of course it didn't turn out like that We knew we'd lost Well at least it's over we can get back to normal But there was never going to be normal Nothing will ever replace it because it's the end of an era That is gone completely I don't think it will ever return toward these valleys I remember all the shops there used to be in the village The pubs'd be full on payday And you begin to realise what you mean by "the death of a village" And about the pits being "the mother of the village" And all these phrases that sound all very romantic But they're not romantic at all, they're true I loved the mining industry and I wouldn't have missed it, not for anything And I'm so sad and sorry to see that it's gone
My old village in Donny is now run down and a lot of folks have now moved away. Very proud people. An absolute tragedy. "Forgive them for they know not what they do."! Never ever, the vindictive Tory bar stewards.
My brother-in-law bought it for me for my birthday. Listened to it in the car on Saturday and really enjoyed it. Had a couple of deja vu moments, reminiscences of listening to War of the Worlds and "Moon Safari" by Air.
Would be there, but heading to Basingstoke Premier Inn for DJ gig on Friday. I am Alan Partridge! Nice.