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Beak> review – cosmic rockers’ noisy, glorious send-off for Geoff Barrow


Ahead of ex-Portishead man Barrow leaving the trio, there’s time for one last tour – and it’s a triumph of musical freedom and fraternity

Night one of the experimental rock band’s final tour with Geoff Barrow – their drummer and, thanks to the lingering power of his work with Portishead, their foot in the door when they began in 2007 – is a celebration of noise, focus and, most importantly, the things that can be achieved when musicians really get each other. With Barrow stage left, bassist-vocalist Billy Fuller seated in the middle and multi-instrumentalist Will Young standing off to one side before a table of gadgets that look like they might once have sent a cosmonaut into orbit, the trio play spiky, difficult songs with the low-stakes freedom of three mates with a block booking at a rehearsal space. Backed by flashing neon strip lights, which hang from wire trellises in mid-80s Top of the Pops fashion, Secrets is a weightless synth-pop song, its hook all the more effective for its half-mumbled delivery.

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