Biography
London trio Public Service Broadcasting integrate music, spoken passages, and visual elements into energetic post-rock arrangements whose vocals draw mainly from archival broadcasts, documentaries, and similar historical sources. Guided by the stated aim to "teach the lessons of the past through the music of the future," the group concentrates on historical subjects. The Race for Space, released in 2015, explores space missions conducted between the 1950s and the 1970s, while Every Valley, issued in 2017, traces the growth and contraction of Wales’s coal-mining sector. Though their format, sonic approach, and thematic choices remain unconventional, studio albums have consistently placed well on the U.K. charts, with the Berlin-themed Bright Magic reaching number two in 2021. Their second live album resulted from a collaboration with the BBC Symphony Orchestra on a concert staged at Royal Albert Hall and later issued in 2023 as This New Noise. The Last Flight, centered on the life of Amelia Earhart, followed in 2024.
Public Service Broadcasting originated in 2010 when multi-instrumentalist and songwriter J. Willgoose, Esq. enlisted drummer Wrigglesworth after a series of varied yet commercially unsuccessful projects dating back to the late 1990s. Prompted by archival broadcasts on BBC Radio 4, Willgoose began collecting audio clips and film footage from the twentieth century to pair with indie and electronic textures. The duo’s debut release, EP One, surfaced in August 2010 and introduced their concept through the track “New Dimensions in Sound,” which combined an infomercial for a record player with dynamic indie rock culminating in distorted guitar. Early live performances featured a walnut-veneered 1960s television set that the bandmembers affectionately identified as their frontman, helping establish their reputation on the circuit.
One year after EP One, the pair issued the single “Roygbiv” and the follow-up EP The War Room, which examined World War II, especially the Blitz, by incorporating propaganda footage, air-raid sirens, and material about the Spitfire’s development. The EP generated additional radio exposure and prepared the way for the debut album Inform - Educate - Entertain, released on the band’s own Test Card label in May 2013. By then, Willgoose’s guitar, banjo, and electronics had meshed with Wrigglesworth’s jazz-informed drumming into a cohesive unit. A standout track, “Everest,” drew on the 1953 film The Conquest of Everest and included the line “two very small men/cutting steps in the roof of the world.” The band toured the album, appeared at multiple festivals during summer 2013, and supported the Rolling Stones in London’s Hyde Park.
In 2015 the duo delivered their second studio album, The Race for Space, an ambitious conceptual work built around the American-Soviet space race from 1957 to 1972. The record received broad critical praise and was followed in 2016 by the companion release The Race for Space [Remixes]. That same year saw the appearance of the group’s first live album, Live at Brixton, documenting a sold-out 2015 performance at the London venue that included a thirteen-piece choir, a five-piece string section, and an enlarged brass ensemble. Expanded to a trio by the addition of JF Abraham, Public Service Broadcasting returned in 2017 with Every Valley, a conceptual exploration of industrial decline centered on Welsh coal mining. The four-song Titanic-themed EP White Star Liner appeared in 2018. In 2020 Willgoose issued the solo EP A Wonderful Hope under the name Late Night Final.
Willgoose’s relocation to Berlin shaped the next album, Bright Magic, which arrived in 2021. Influenced by David Bowie and Walter Ruttman and featuring a guest appearance by Einstürzende Neubauten’s Blixa Bargeld, the record climbed to number two on the U.K. charts, the band’s highest placement at that point. The following year, to mark the BBC’s centenary, the group joined the eighty-eight-piece BBC Symphony Orchestra for a specially conceived concert at Royal Albert Hall that was later released in September 2023 as This New Noise. In 2024 Public Service Broadcasting issued The Last Flight, an album recounting Amelia Earhart’s final flight and disappearance; unlike earlier releases, it employed newly recorded dialogue performed by actors rather than vintage samples.
Public Service Broadcasting originated in 2010 when multi-instrumentalist and songwriter J. Willgoose, Esq. enlisted drummer Wrigglesworth after a series of varied yet commercially unsuccessful projects dating back to the late 1990s. Prompted by archival broadcasts on BBC Radio 4, Willgoose began collecting audio clips and film footage from the twentieth century to pair with indie and electronic textures. The duo’s debut release, EP One, surfaced in August 2010 and introduced their concept through the track “New Dimensions in Sound,” which combined an infomercial for a record player with dynamic indie rock culminating in distorted guitar. Early live performances featured a walnut-veneered 1960s television set that the bandmembers affectionately identified as their frontman, helping establish their reputation on the circuit.
One year after EP One, the pair issued the single “Roygbiv” and the follow-up EP The War Room, which examined World War II, especially the Blitz, by incorporating propaganda footage, air-raid sirens, and material about the Spitfire’s development. The EP generated additional radio exposure and prepared the way for the debut album Inform - Educate - Entertain, released on the band’s own Test Card label in May 2013. By then, Willgoose’s guitar, banjo, and electronics had meshed with Wrigglesworth’s jazz-informed drumming into a cohesive unit. A standout track, “Everest,” drew on the 1953 film The Conquest of Everest and included the line “two very small men/cutting steps in the roof of the world.” The band toured the album, appeared at multiple festivals during summer 2013, and supported the Rolling Stones in London’s Hyde Park.
In 2015 the duo delivered their second studio album, The Race for Space, an ambitious conceptual work built around the American-Soviet space race from 1957 to 1972. The record received broad critical praise and was followed in 2016 by the companion release The Race for Space [Remixes]. That same year saw the appearance of the group’s first live album, Live at Brixton, documenting a sold-out 2015 performance at the London venue that included a thirteen-piece choir, a five-piece string section, and an enlarged brass ensemble. Expanded to a trio by the addition of JF Abraham, Public Service Broadcasting returned in 2017 with Every Valley, a conceptual exploration of industrial decline centered on Welsh coal mining. The four-song Titanic-themed EP White Star Liner appeared in 2018. In 2020 Willgoose issued the solo EP A Wonderful Hope under the name Late Night Final.
Willgoose’s relocation to Berlin shaped the next album, Bright Magic, which arrived in 2021. Influenced by David Bowie and Walter Ruttman and featuring a guest appearance by Einstürzende Neubauten’s Blixa Bargeld, the record climbed to number two on the U.K. charts, the band’s highest placement at that point. The following year, to mark the BBC’s centenary, the group joined the eighty-eight-piece BBC Symphony Orchestra for a specially conceived concert at Royal Albert Hall that was later released in September 2023 as This New Noise. In 2024 Public Service Broadcasting issued The Last Flight, an album recounting Amelia Earhart’s final flight and disappearance; unlike earlier releases, it employed newly recorded dialogue performed by actors rather than vintage samples.
Albums
Singles
