PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING + HALO MAUD – BRIGHTON DOME 30.10.24
It’s often said that the music you discover in your teenage to young adult years shape your listening taste and the way you listen to and embrace music for your life onward. Songs, albums, artists, bands that mould and sculpt out your personality of audio and harmony, acting as a touchstone for some of your most formative years. One of those bands for me is the mighty Public Service Broadcasting. I was roughly 15 or 16, I distinctly remember my father picking me up from my girlfriend at the time’s house in Findon to drive me home, and a song called ‘Go!’ blessed my ears through the speakers. I remember being entranced by the combination of driving hypnotic indie rock rhythms, shimmering synth lines and a collation of spoken word samples assembled to create a call and response pattern involving the titular lyric. I saw something in the way I engaged with this song in the same way I heard Kraftwerk’s ‘The Robots’ for the first time at the age of 10. Something about the song wanted me to look further into the band. Little did I know that that discovery would lead to me forming a love with this group that would continue to stay strong after eight years.
Public Service Broadcasting is an art rock and indietronica project formed by J. Willgoose Esq. in Tooting in 2009. Originally a solo outfit, PSB eventually expanded to include the talents of drummer and percussionist Wrigglesworth, multi-instrumentalist JF Abraham and visual artist Mr. B. Musically, the band infuses a mixture of progressive electronic stirrings with krautrock, dance-punk and spoken word information film samples to tell stories about various forms of technology (2013’s ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’), the mission to put man on the moon and beyond (2015’s ‘The Race For Space’), the Welsh coal miners strike of the 1980s 2017’s ‘Every Valley’, a testimonial to the history of Berlin (2021’s ‘Bright Magic’) and a celebration of 100 years of the BBC (the 2023 live album ‘This New Noise’).
In October this year, the band released their fifth studio record in the form of ‘The Last Flight’, an album that centres around aviation pioneer and pilot Amelia Earhart and her last journey in the skies where herself and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared. With guest appearances from This is the Kit, Andreya Casablanca and German-Norwegian artist EERA (who joins PSB on-stage playing keyboards and contributing backing vocals), the album saw the band embark on a 12-date UK tour, with their penultimate show landing at the Brighton Dome for their third time together.
My father and I made our way to the Dome in a traditional father-son gig outing, our first since Thomas Dolby in London a couple months ago, and took our seats. Already, I was amazed at PSB’s visual design, aesthetically matching the look of the classic flying engines that Earhart took to the skies.
From 8pm we were engaged in a solid half hour from French art pop and dream pop artist Halo Maud. Previously under the name Maud Nadal, Halo Maud has been crafting ethereal psychedelic explorations of song for a good number of years, with her second album ‘Celebrate’ hitting the online shelfs of Heavenly Recordings back in March of this year after effortless collaborations with Deerhoof madman Greg Saunier.
Herself, bassist Quentin Rochas and drummer David Newington take to the stage and open the set with the title track’s vibrato-tinged electric guitar before an eruption of bass and drums sweep across the room, reminding me a little bit of Wolf Alice here and there. This track makes Halo Maud’s artistry known very quickly: reverberated vocal performances bilingually switching between French and English tongues, traditional dream pop rhythmic arrangements with shades of electronica painting the mix. The strong jangly sound of the next cut ‘Terres Infinies’ featured some cleverly integrated skipping time signature shifts against some strangely vocoded vocals, whose tone often reminds me of a mix between Björk and Stereolab’s Lætitia Sadier.
‘Slowly Surely’ is a much breezier track than its two sisters that came before it; the hazy synth waves and steady momentous drum grooves from David hold the song in place marvellously with Maud closing out the set with a solo guitar passage in an ocean of calm. After a brief technical hitch that prompts Maud to repair her in-ear monitor, we enter the second half of the set with the semi-waltzing ‘Catch The Wave’. David’s drumming on this cut borders on the breakbeat against these great synth textures trying to screech their way into the backdrop.
The calm and patient introduction of the song ‘You Float’ eventually mutates into a trip hop flared instrumental, topped with jangly tambourine textures and heavy saw synths perched underneath Halo’s vocalisations. The penultimate cut, ‘My Desire Is Pure’ features some inventive electronic percussion as well as an amazing balance of dynamics as the song goes from super chilled out textures into a larger-than-life chorus in a matter of seconds.
Halo takes a moment to say thanks to PSB before closing out the set with ‘Pesnopoïka’, the most dreamlike song of the set. This track is a wonderfully bittersweet closer with some great high notes from Halo and an amazing pitch-shifting guitar solo towards the back end of the song. The band are blessed with an array of cheer and applause from the Dome crowd as they make their way off the stage, leaving the technicians to set everything in place for Public Service Broadcasting.
Halo Maud:
Halo Maud (Maud Nadal) – vocals, keys, guitar
Quentin Rochas – bass
David Newington – drums
Halo Maud setlist:
‘Celebrate’ (from 2024 ‘Celebrate’ album)
‘Terres Infinies’ (from 2024 ‘Celebrate’ album)
‘Slowly Surely’ (from 2024 ‘Celebrate’ album)
‘Catch The Wave’ (from 2024 ‘Celebrate’ album)
‘You Float’ (from 2024 ‘Celebrate’ album)
‘My Desire Is Pure’ (from 2024 ‘Celebrate’ album)
‘Pesnopoïka’ (from 2024 ‘Celebrate’ album)
As the Public Service Broadcasting live show tradition of playing David Bowie’s ‘Sound And Vision’ through the speakers concludes the pre-show waiting time, the lights dimmer to the sound of a Northern man, with a meditative voice, reminding us about simple mobile phone and audience chatter etiquette, the former of which led to me apologising to the man to my left before explaining my duty re reviewing the show; he kindly understood. The eight-piece line-up of the four main members, EERA on keys, and a brass section comprising of saxophonist John ‘Rittipo’ Moore, trumpeter Toby Street and trombonist Barnaby Philpott made their way onto the stage, donning a mixture of suit and tweed as per the PSB fashion and kick off the set with the post-intro track off ‘The Last Flight’, ‘Towards The Dawn’; a glorious opener to the night, even if it does remind me of The Divine Comedy’s ‘Generation Sex’ a fair bit (not a bad thing!). The jerky 3/4 rhythms of ‘Electra’ are a marvellous propulsive jolt to start kicking the show into high gear, with this track acting as a testament to Public Service Broadcasting’s music as a whole, featuring samples used in three previous tracks of theirs: ‘Spitfire’, ‘Korolev’ and ‘Progress’. The song’s spelled out backing vocals from J. Willgoose, Esq. and EERA are complimented with the visual talents of Mr. B, filming the band from a camcorder hooked up to the backdrop!
‘The Fun Of It’ features some bouncy rhythms, backed by projected disco silhouettes, with EERA’s lead vocals here stunning and well-executed. I must say I’m starting to vibe a lot more with PSB’s more lyrically-led tracks as, any long-term fans will know, vocals are not a particular mainstay of the band’s sound. One of my all-time favourite tracks, ‘Progress’, the lead single from ‘Every Valley’, I could describe as the archetypal PSB song at this point in their career, the implementation of spoken word samples, the grand indie rock arrangements and simple yet beautiful choruses. However, a quote in this track, “Machines will do the heavy work, men will supervise the machines”, seems to be becoming increasingly anachronistic with each passing year…!
Willgoose takes a seat for the song ‘The South Atlantic’, as he orchestrates a calm bed of instrumentation from his acoustic guitar, and malleted open snare drums from Wrigglesworth. One of the more rhythmically explorative tracks from the new album, ‘Arabian Flight’ features some warm piano chords and a more linear progression, but that gorgeous expansive sound that makes PSB so good live is more than there! Somewhat of a PSB rarity, the ‘Sputnik’ B-side ‘Korolev’ seems to be a live staple for the band despite not being too well known… but boy does it rock! This track has such incredible driving propulsion and one of the roughest and rowdiest performances in the band’s arsenal, even with it only being the four main guys on the stage at this point in the set!
Easily the most criminally underrated song in the band’s discography, ‘Valentina’, centred around the first female cosmonaut in space, is a dreamy and bittersweet song aided by Willgoose’s slick and stunning Gretsch guitar tone, and an amazing build into the song’s final section. Continuing with the more calm and dreamlike mood, ‘A Different Kind Of Love’ is preceded with Willgoose’s thanks to EERA for joining them on the tour. This track seems to be PSB’s first foray into Americana, with a halcyon painting of love and romance (an ode to Amelia Earhart’s husband George P. Putnam perhaps?) amplified by warm electric pianos.
The song ‘Blue Heaven’ is truly one of Public Service Broadcasting’s anthemic triumphs; EERA continues to knock it out of the park with her amazing vocal performances and the energy that PSB have without batting a single eyelid is remarkable. ‘ROYGBIV’ is, unsurprisingly, one of the most colourful songs in the set. Themed around the invention of colour television, the song employs the usage of banjo and some beautifully arranged instrumentation that makes this track an underappreciated gem from their debut record (would have been cool to see them drop the rainbow balloons they often use for this song live though). Despite being my least favourite track on ‘The Last Flight’, ‘Monsoons’ actually translates live really well, with Willgoose’s stop-start guitar chords powering out the track and their distinctive Manic Street Preachers influence starting to show…!
The tweed-wearing archivists close the main set out with three of their greatest musical achievements – first off, ‘Spitfire’, introduced by the Public Service Broadcasting electronic voice as “a song about a different plane” to rapturous cheers, infuses some amazing krautrock momentum with a great demonstration of the band’s musicianship via an extended jam towards the end of the track. ‘The Other Side’ is the best example of a PSB track I can think of where the word “journey” seems most significant; documenting the first manned spacecraft orbit of the Moon by Apollo 8. The song features these filtered synths, gradually opening to let the song breath, only to pare back down to near-silent pulsings, with no light present in the Dome to represent the period of time spent where NASA received no signal from Apollo 8 as it traversed the dark side of the moon. “There’s a cheer in this room” is proclaimed by the spoken word samples as the drums kick back in, signalling the successful orbit, matched with an enthusiastic audience in one of the best live performances of a song I’ve ever witnessed. Finally, my introduction to the band, “Go!”, is just purely remarkable to see live. The call and response of the title lyric from the crowd, the amazing band interactions and stunning visuals of a modern art rock classic cannot be matched by any other band.
The group naturally returned for a four-song encore to wrap the night off perfectly, starting with ‘They Gave Me A Lamp’. Now, I’d be damned if someone were to point a gun at my head and tell me to name my all-time favourite Public Service Broadcasting song, but this one is dangerously high up there. There’s something so magical and sublime about this song, the stunning glockenspiel played by Wrigglesworth in the intro, the static guitar lines from Willgoose, the transcendent horn section in the song’s closing leg, the gleam of positivity in the song’s message of women support groups during the Welsh miners’ strike. ‘People, Let’s Dance’, the last track in the show to exclusively feature EERA as vocalist, is easily the band’s most synth-heavy track here, with usage of vocoder and arpeggiators abound here. This song transitions pretty nicely into the following ‘Gagarin’, where the brass trio of ‘Rittipo’, Street and Philpott take full reign at the front of the stage, not to mention the appearance of two dancing astronauts in the song’s bridge!
Willgoose takes a moment to thank the crowd for watching before introducing the band and entering into the closing track, ‘Everest’. Wonderfully motivational and majestic in execution, ‘Everest’ is marvellous song to end the night on, packed with a powerful drum solo from Wrigglesworth and an array of ever-increasing dynamics from the horn section to reach fever pitch at the closing spoken word sample quote: “Why should a man climb Everest? Because it is there”. Naturally, I give my standing ovation for the band, as does everybody surrounding me, why wouldn’t we? It was utterly enthralling to finally see these guys again after seven years, as they continue to prove their power to inform, educate and entertain as, what I believe to be, one of the greatest bands of all-time.
Public Service Broadcasting:
Willgoose, Esq. – guitar, banjo, other stringed instruments, samplings and electronic instruments
Wrigglesworth – drums, percussion and electronic instruments
JF Abraham – flugelhorn, bass, guitar, drums and other instruments
Mr. B – visuals
EERA (Anna Lena Bruland) – keyboards, vocals
John ‘Rittipo’ Moore – saxophone
Toby Street – trumpet
Barnaby Philpott – trombone
Public Service Broadcasting setlist: (* = with EERA)
(Intro tape) ‘Sound And Vision’ (David Bowie song)
(Intro tape message) Mobile phone etiquette announcement
‘Towards The Dawn’* (from 2024 ‘The Last Flight’ album)
‘Electra’* (from 2024 ‘The Last Flight’ album)
‘The Fun Of It’* (from 2024 ‘The Last Flight’ album)
‘Progress’* (found on 2017 ‘Every Valley’ album)
‘The South Atlantic’* (from 2024 ‘The Last Flight’ album)
‘Arabian Flight’* (from 2024 ‘The Last Flight’ album)
‘Korolev’ (B-Side of ‘Sputnik’ single)
‘Valentina’ (from 2015 ‘The Race For Space’ album)
‘A Different Kind Of Love’* (from 2024 ‘The Last Flight’ album)
‘Blue Heaven’* (found on 2021 ‘Bright Magic’ album)
‘ROYGBIV’ (from 2013 ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’ album)
‘Monsoons’ (from 2024 ‘The Last Flight’ album)
‘Spitfire’ (found on 2013 ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’ album)
‘The Other Side’ (found on 2015 ‘The Race For Space’ album)
‘Go!’ (found on 2015 ‘The Race For Space’ album)
(encore)
‘They Gave Me A Lamp’ (from 2017 ‘Every Valley’ album)
‘People, Let’s Dance’* (found on 2021 ‘Bright Magic’ album)
‘Gagarin’* (found on 2015 ‘The Race For Space’ album)
‘Everest’* (found on 2013 ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’ album)
