Portishead Can't Decide Whether or Not They're Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of 'Dummy'

Beth Gibbons seems happy, but Geoff Barrow wants nothing to do with it

BY Alex HudsonPublished Aug 22, 2024

Portishead's landmark trip-hop album Dummy turns 30 today, and the band members are celebrating it (or not celebrating it) in very different ways.

Multi-instrumentalist Geoff Barrow rejected the whole idea of an anniversary celebration, as he wrote on social media, "I've always been the kind of person who moves forward and doesn't rely on work I did 30 yrs ago to define who I am now. So I'm never interested in talking about old records. Especially when I feel like a very different person to who I was then."

That being said, if fans want to get nostalgic and listen to Dummy, he's all for it. He added that he's "happy to recieve the 0.0003 pence from Spotify" for the streams. He posted his message against a very Dummy-coloured purple background, so evidently he's at least a bit excited.

Singer Beth Gibbons, meanwhile, is slightly more keen. She posted a photo of herself with a mannequin (a "dummy," if you will) wearing a Portishead sweater. She wrote, "Happy 30th anniversary to Dummy, nearly as old as I am." She added a link to stream or purchase Dummy to her Instagram bio. That same link was shared by the band's official accounts.

Guitarist Adrian Utley, meanwhile, hasn't posted about Dummy at all.

Dummy came out on August 22, 1994, and went on to become one of the most celebrated trip-hop albums ever. The band haven't released an album since 2008's Third.

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