In 1999, Portishead recorded the song " Motherless Child" with Tom Jones for his album Reload. There was also a long-form VHS video of the performance, and a DVD followed in 2002, with substantial extra material including many early music videos. A live album primarily featuring these new orchestral arrangements of the group's songs was released in 1998. In 1997, the band performed a one-off show with strings at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City. The album's sound differed from Dummy, characterised as "grainy and harsher." Three singles, " All Mine", " Over" and " Only You" were released, the first one achieving a Top 10 placing in the UK. The album is often considered one of the greatest trip hop albums to date and is a milestone in the definition of the genre.Īfter their initial success, Portishead withdrew from the spotlight for three years until their second album, Portishead, was released in 1997. In 2003, the album was ranked number 419 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The success of the album saw the band nominated for Best British Newcomer at the 1995 Brit Awards. Dummy spawned three singles: " Numb", " Sour Times" and " Glory Box", and won the Mercury Music Prize in 1995. Rolling Stone praised its music as " Gothic hip-hop".
Dummy was positively described by the Melody Maker as "musique noire for a movie not yet made". Adrian Utley, who co-produced the album with them (and who played on nine of the tracks and co-wrote eight), became an official band member shortly after its release.ĭespite the band's aversion to press coverage, the album was successful in both Europe and the United States (where it sold more than 150,000 copies even before the band toured there). The credits indicate that at this juncture, Portishead was a duo of Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons. The cover features a still from the band's own short film To Kill a Dead Man. The resulting first album by Portishead, Dummy, was released in 1994. They then met Adrian Utley while they were recording at the Coach House Studios in Bristol, and Utley heard the first song Barrow and Gibbons had recorded, and began to exchange ideas on music.
That year they recorded their first song for the album, "It Could Be Sweet". Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons met during a coffee break at an Enterprise Allowance course in February 1991.