Portishead’s Beth Gibbons brought joy to Coachella crowds this weekend as she performed the band’s haunting song ‘Glory Box’ during her solo performance.
The singer of the Bristol band took to the Gobi Stage at Coachella for her first performance at the festival since Portishead’s show in 2008.
Coming off the back of her critically acclaimed debut solo album, ‘Lives Outgrown’, Gibbons 10-song performance consisted of mostly tracks from that EP, with ‘Glory Box’ and her 2002 collaboration with Rustin Man, ‘Tom The Model’, being the outliers.
Check out the full setlist below:
‘Tell Me Who You Are Today’
‘Burden Of Life’
‘Floating On A Moment’
‘Rewind’
‘For Sale’
‘Lost Changes’
‘Tom The Model’
‘Beyond The Sun’
‘Glory Box’
‘Reaching Out’
Gibbons has recently been touring North America to showcase her debut solo EP, which was last year nominated for the Mercury Prize along with the likes of Charli XCX, Nia Archives and English Teacher.
Although Gibbons couldn’t replicate Portishead, after they won the Mercury Prize in 1994 with their debut album ‘Dummy’, just being nominated must’ve been a moment of reflection and full circle with her debut solo album being nominated for the same esteemed award that she won over 30 years ago.
After finishing up at Coachella next weekend, Gibbons will head back to Europe to continue touring her album, including a show at the Roundhouse in London. Tickets for this gig and all her other upcoming shows can be found here.
The Roundhouse show will be one of only two performances in the UK this year for Gibbons, with the other coming on the same weekend at Glastonbury 2025. It will mark Gibbons’ fifth performance at Glasto’, following on from her solo slot on the Acoustic Stage in 2003 and Portishead’s three gigs in 1995, 1998 and 2013.
Glastonbury-goers will be hoping for a similar performance to what the ‘Sour Times’ singer gave to Coachella this weekend. The comments on this ‘Stereogum’ article show just how excited fans are by this upcoming era for Gibbons.
User ‘beyondless’ said: “My Boyfriend and I were at the Denver show… she did Roads and Glory Box for the encore and I don’t know if I’ve ever heard and participated in such a long standing ovation for any artist I’ve seen previously! Her voice still sounds fantastic and it was a once in a lifetime show. She is truly incredible!”
Gibbons debut album earned a four-star NME review and was named as the 26th Best Album of 2024 in their list.
Speaking in the review, NME writer Huw Baines said: “She cannily foregrounds the weather-beaten gravitas of her vocal at each turn, its familiarity holding us tight so that, in parallel, she can undercut that feeling of safety by continually pointing out the grains of sand falling into the wrong half of the hourglass.”
Gibbons will perform at the second weekend of Coachella next Saturday where you can catch the live stream on their YouTube. Tickets for her Roundhouse show in June are still available here.
