A saviour come my way

Has anybody actually watched the Tuesday live edition of Later With Jools Holland?

And if you have, can you possibly explain to me the point of it?

Other than to pad out BBC2's programming that is. Because other than that, I can't understand for the life of me work out why it exists. Unless I'm missing something. Or are my eyes playing tricks on me? Because there aren't actually any extra bits, are there? No additional songs or special guests? Somebody tell me if there are. Because otherwise, it just seems to be a pointless waste of half an hour. Thirty minutes where they could be showing something else. Like a repeat of something they've already repeated. Besides, it's not even as if the fact that it's live really offers anything new to the format. After all, the Friday program was always recorded, if not broadcast, as though live. It always looked like it was done in one take. So this half hour live show doesn't even have that novelty going for it. I don't know, maybe I really am missing something. And maybe that, is the reason why I'm not a high flying TV executive. Amongst a myriad other reasons obviously.

Anyway, credit where it's due, last Friday's episode was pretty damn good. Not just in terms of good performances, but also in the variety of them. It's something that's always been one of the shows strengths and it's good to see them playing up to it once more. So, we got the funky soul of Sharon Jones And The Dap Kings next to the retro swagger of The Last Shadow Puppets alongside the remarkable sounds of kora player, and current Bjork tourmate, Toumani Diabate. But really, the show was all about Portishead.

Now I wrote about them the other day so I'm not going to repeat myself. But what I will say is that for a band who don't perform as such, they put on a remarkable performance. I think it's something to do with the way Beth Gibbons clings to her mic stand as though for dear life. For support. As they the very effort of singing such heartfelt and emotionally wrenching songs is physically draining her of strength. She is a simply spellbinding front-woman of a band who command your attention everytime they perform. And the more material I hear from 'Third', the more I'm thinking it's a definite contender for record of the year.

Portishead - the rip (live on Later With Jools Holland)

Portishead - we carry on (live on Later With Jools Holland)

Portishead - machine gun (live on Later With Jools Holland)

mp3 / music / later with jools holland / portishead