| Relationships | Members:
J Willgoose Esq. - guitar, banjo, stringed-instruments, samplings, electronic instruments
Wrigglesworth - drums, piano, electonic instruments
JF Abraham = flugelhorn, bass, drums, vibraslap, assorted instruments |
| Biography | Public Service Broadcasting are a London-based pseudonymous musical group consisting of J. Willgoose, Esq. on guitar, banjo, other stringed instruments, samplings and electronic musical instruments, Wrigglesworth on drums, piano and electronic musical instruments, and J F Abraham on flugelhorn, bass guitar, drums and assorted other instruments including a vibraslap. The band have toured internationally and in 2015 they won the Vanguard breakthrough category of the fourth annual Progressive Music Awards.
At first, the band consisted solely of Willgoose. He made his public debut at The Selkirk pub in Tooting, London in August 2009. Shortly afterwards he issued EP One. Teaming up with Wrigglesworth on drums the band played its first festival in September 2010, Aestival in Suffolk, and work began on a second EP, The War Room, which was released in May 2012. Since then, the band has released three albums, Inform-Educate-Entertain (2013); The Race for Space (2015); and Every Valley (2017). The Race for Space was supported by two shows at the National Space Centre in Leicester celebrating the album's launch. The album charted just outside the top 10 in 11th place in the UK in its release week and reaching Number 1 in the UK Independent Charts for that week. A follow-up EP was released at the tail end of 2015 (Sputnik/Korolev) which was backed up by a UK tour, climaxing in the band's biggest headline show, a sold-out night at the O2 Academy Brixton, of which a live album was released in 2016. While writing The War Room the band formed a close relationship with the British Film Institute, using their material during live shows.
The band mostly plays instrumental music; Willgoose has said that "singing is never going to work. I'm not going to be happy with it, I'm not going to be comfortable playing it to other people." They take samples from old public information films, archive footage and propaganda material. Despite Willgoose's prior reservations about singing, he did later contribute vocals to the duet piece 'You + Me' from Every Valley, because the intended vocalist was not available. |