Portishead’s Beth Gibbons returns to shine light through the darkness

We’ve had to wait 15 years for the return of Portishead singer Beth Gibbons to the live stage - and it’s been worth it.

Portishead singer Beth Gibbons performing solo with her band for Vivid. Pictures: Jordan K Munns

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Australia has had to wait 15 years for the return of Portishead singer Beth Gibbons to the live stage and her two shows at Sydney Opera House Concert for Vivid LIVE were all that we could have hoped for.

Showcasing her debut solo album Lives Outgrown, and with a top-notch seven-piece behind her, this was a masterclass where her mainly dark songs, some shot through with moments of great beauty and consolation, washed over the audience as the stage lights changed hue, enhancing the atmosphere. Her glorious voice – strong but fragile and vulnerable at the same time - interweaved with her band’s layered and superbly performed arrangements.

Embracing the microphone in a pose which became iconic at the trip-hop trio’s concerts throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the blonde 60-year-old acknowledged her fans with an almost timid smile.

The lightest, funniest moment came when she was going to speak but was drowned out by spontaneous applause, so she ducked and danced away from the microphone.

The 14-song set included two Portishead classics, Roads and Glory Box from their celebrated 1994 Dummy album, as well as Mysteries – complete with musical saw filling in for the theremin solo - and Tom the Model from Out of Season, Gibbons’ 2002 collaboration with Rustin Mann (aka Paul Webb, bassist for Talk Talk).

The rest of the set comprised the complete track-list from her recent debut solo album Lost Changes, which was short-listed for the 2024 Mercury Prize. “It has been a time of farewells to family, friends and even to who I was before, the lyrics mirroring my anxieties and sleepless night-time ruminations,” Gibbons posted when she announced she was making the record.

Beth Gibbons is a much-needed voice of comfort for troubled times.

The resulting 10 songs, all of which she performed, featured arrangements that at times remind you of Robert Plant – Middle Eastern string phrases and strong drums, often played by multiple musicians – and the sound world of PJ Harvey.

Taking full advantage of the brilliant new concert hall acoustic and a savvy mixer, Gibbons’ ethereal voice cut through these arrangements which included electric, acoustic and bass guitars; violin and viola; various keyboards and a remarkable multi-instrumentalist in Howard Jacobs – a one-man orchestra perched behind a massive rig housing saxophones, bass clarinet, an array of percussion, including xylophone and marimbas.

The rest of the band – Eoin Rooney on guitars, bassist Tom Herbert, drummer Jack McCarthy, keyboardist Jason Hazeley, violist Richard Jones and violinist Anisa Arslanagic – doubled up on other instruments and provided a haunting background chorus to create rich, ever-changing layers to Floating on a Moment (“But all we have is here and now, All going to nowhere, to nowhere”).

Rewind’s message was similarly weighty, a dire warning about the future of our planet (“This place is out of control and we all know what’s coming, Gone too far to rewind”) accompanied by relentless drums and desolate metallic moans over Rooney’s acoustic guitar.

Mysteries dreams of love winning out with its chorus “Mysteries of love where war is no more, I’ll be there any time” proving an irresistible highlight of the set, while Oceans, like all the recent songs, deals with what’s been “happening inside” Gibbons as she goes through her 50s to “an older horizon”.

Whispering Love, with Howard’s beautiful consoling flute and repeated bird-like slides from Arslanagic’s violin, is an English pastoral beauty – the sort of sound and feeling that you get from the likes of Linda Thompson or Pink Floyd’s middle folky period. It’s an instant classic – autumnal, yearning but also reassuring.

The title track, Lost Changes, may contain the hypnotic refrain “Time changes, life changes, love changes things”, but one thing is certain: Gibbons is a beautiful and much-needed voice of comfort for our troubled times. Her talent shines – and nothing can change that.

VIVID LIVE

• CONCERT Beth Gibbons

•WHERE Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

•WHEN May 30, 2025