Valleys boys

Having tackled the Second World War, early twentieth-century British history and the mid-twentieth-century space race between the USA and the USSR on previous releases, Public Service Broadcasting have chosen a rather more specific topic for their third album, Every Valley: the history of the coal-mining industry here in south Wales.

In a recent interview with Buzz's Chris Williams, the band's frontman J. Willgoose, Esq. spoke about what attracted him to the subject, despite having no personal connection to the industry or area at all: "I just thought it was an interesting story: something about the strength of the community and the geography of the area - as well as how it came to define those communities and the whole region."

When it came to arranging album launch gigs, it made obvious sense to hold them on location - and so it was that this bunch of Londoners played a pair of sell-out shows at the Ebbw Vale Institute the last two nights. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it along to either, but it would be fascinating to know how the music was received - I'm imagining it might have been something like when Grayson Perry presented his artworks to the people who inspired them in his three documentaries, In The Best Possible Taste, Who Are You? and All Man.