Public Service Broadcasting Announce New Album
After two years up in the stratosphere with the hugely successful ‘The Race For Space’, Public Service Broadcasting are returning to earth. J. Willgoose, Esq., now has an established reputation for weaving forensic, historical research into evocative storytelling. This time he is taking us on a journey down the mineshafts of the South Wales valleys and using the history of coal mining to shine a light on the disenfranchised.
The band’s first release through independent label Play It Again Sam, ‘Every Valley’ examines the history of coal mining in South Wales. It is a record about community and what happens to an area when its lifeblood is ripped from it and as much as anything, it is a metaphor for a much larger, global and social malaise.
J. Willgoose, Esq., explains: [quote style=’1′ cite=”]“I have no personal ties to mining, be it coal or otherwise, and I have no family links to the area, but something about the story drew me in. Perhaps the romanticism of the valleys and their geography attracted me to South Wales in particular. You can’t always explain these things, as I’ve learned. What’s certain in my mind is that this album isn’t just about mining, and isn’t just about Wales. It’s a story reflected in abandoned and neglected communities across the western world, and one which has led to the resurgence of a particularly malignant, cynical and calculating brand of politics”e[/quote]
To tie in with the theme of the album, PSB will be playing two gigs at the Ebbw Vale Institute in South Wales on Thursday the 8th and Friday the 9th of June. The band used the venue’s former lecture hall to record the album in January of this year. This makes the institute the perfect place to give fans a taster of the record, a month before its official release.
‘Every Valley’ follows PSB’s highly successful second album, 2015’s ‘The Race For Space’, a record that charted in the UK at #11, going on to achieve silver sales status. Their debut release, 2013’s ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’ was nominated for Best Independent Album at the AIM Awards and included in BBC 6 Music’s Top 10 Albums of the Year.
Released on the 7th of July, ‘Every Valley’ is a story of dignity and social responsibility and it rails against apathy. In transposing the story of the South Wales miners into the 21st Century of ‘fake news’, populist politics and a total disregard for the voiceless, ‘Every Valley’ is a resounding call to arms.
