“Curtain! Fast music! Light! Ready for the last finale! Great! The show looks good, the show looks good!” -Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., American Broadway Producer/Impresario

Music is widely considered a form of art but as a casual, non-musically or artistically talented person I don’t have a finely tuned taste to what makes art and music “good” in a general sense and so I can only describe when music and art make me feel something special. That is where Public Service Broadcasting comes in. Public Service Broadcasting is a 3-man band from London, England who in a word can only be described as unique. Last night I took a late evening train to Hamburg and a midnight train back home to finally see them in concert and I wasn’t sure what to expect but that I got was an hour and forty-five-minute long show of music and art combined.

The three members of Public Service Broadcasting are J. Wilgoose Esquire, Wrigglesworth, and JF Abraham. They use archival news recordings, speeches, propaganda radio casts etc, as vocals to their own instrumental music which is some combination of electronic/synth, rock, dance and they are incredibly talented people. Just from my observation at the show they played: Drums, Guitar, Bass, Banjo, Bugel, Trumpet, Keyboard/Piano, Vibraslap, some kind of evolved Maraca with noise making twisting beads wrapped around it(I have been informed that this is called a Cabasa), and an advanced two-part cowbell looking object(or as the professionals would call it, Agogo) as well as a DJ/music pad with recorded audio on it. They are incredibly talented and use all these instruments/tools to create something that I have never seen before at a concert.

A punctual start, leading with archival footage, a powerful drum beat, an old voice saying “As the cage dropped suddenly into darkness, the working morning begun” and some lights lead us into the show. Their three albums, “Inform-Educate-Entertain”, “The Race for Space”, and “Every Valey” all have some specific theme that all the songs revolve around. Well, “The Race for Space” and “Every Valley” are very specifically focused on one thing, The Space Race between the Soviets and the US and Coal Mining in South Wales respectively. “Inform-Educate-Entertain” is more of a combination of many different things including technological advancements and notable historical events focused on the United Kingdom. They played a few songs from each album, however, understandably the majority came from the newest album Every Valley.

This show was as far from a “normal concert” as you can get. Generally, musicians and bands are referred to as artists but these guys truly are. They are able to tell a story, entertain, and have fun as a band but with the whole venue. From Wilgoose’s pretty solid attempts/successes at speaking German, to his, what can only be described as robotic google translate sounding phrases he used to reply to things the crowd said there was a nice little bit of crowd interaction between songs. The footage chosen to play behind the band gave you a better feeling of how this was an artistic adventure you were on. I feel like I can’t really properly explain what the concert was like because there is no frame of reference I can use to compare it to because I have really never experienced anything like it and in some ways, I wish there was more like this, but I also am happy that PSB have a unique style.

I was lucky enough to manage to squeeze next to two guys, a father, and son. The son was about my age and his father was a little bit older than mine. It was the son’s first ever experience with listening to PSB and after each song, he had an incredibly positive comment about it, whether it was simply appreciating the number of instruments the band was switching between, the sound and harmony of the instruments, the orchestral feeling of harmony throughout the songs and anything else. I remember him specifically liking the songs, “Spitfire”, “Korolev”, “Go”, “They Gave Me A Lamp” and “All Out” which was something so awesome to see because it was this guy experiencing PSB for the first time and he got to do in an intimate venue with maybe between 100-200 fans next to his father.

All this comes down to this, Public Service Broadcasting have a fantastic style, an unmistakable charm, a unique method and an interesting message in their albums and songs. I understand that the music might not be everyone’s favorite, but I think that anyone should be able to relax and just enjoy listening to this band. From reading or writing a paper to laying down and thinking about the day, to just going on a walk, and even about getting pumped and worked up for a run, I think there are songs from PSB that would accompany all these activities and more. Below at the bottom, I will embed a Spotify playlist of all the songs I remember them playing last night, which might be all of them, as well as links to a specific song or two of theirs that I think should be listened to if you want to hear what they are about.

The last thing we saw on stage after the band left was a little message on the projection screen that simply said:

“Thank you for being with us this evening. we hope that in some small way we have been able to add to your pleasure, comfort and relaxation”

and I cannot overstate how much Public Service Broadcasting has given me in terms of pleasure, comfort and relaxation since I first heard them so thank you J.Wilgoose, Wrigglesworth and JF Abraham for all the enjoyment you have given me and here’s hoping for much more.

Listen to the songs from Public Service Broadcasting last night

Buy or Stream their music

Album Google Play iTunes Spotify
Every Valley Google Play iTunes Spotify
The Race For Space Google Play iTunes Spotify
Inform-Educate-Entertain Google Play iTunes Spotify

You can also find them on twitter: @PSB_HQ

Edit: Thank you @AnneSpooky for the musical terminology assistance.