Beth Gibbons – 14th July 2025 (Les Nits de Barcelona)

Almost a year after presenting her first solo album, Lives Outgrown (2024), at Primavera Sound 2024, Portishead vocalist Beth Gibbons returned to Barcelona to perform at the Les Nits de Barcelona festival.. Her emotional, melancholic and introspective concert attracted around 1,500 spectators, who responded to the British artist’s delicate performance with sepulchral silence. The concert, which was perhaps short (just over 75 minutes), left the audience with a final sensation of having experienced a remarkable show thanks to a majestic band that elevated the singer’s delicate proposal, as well as the unbreakable communion between artist and audience.

Photo of Beth Gibbons by José Irún provided by the Nits de Barcelona 2025 organisation

The Bristol-born singer continued to show signs of her extreme shyness for much of the concert, either dancing with her back to the audience or interacting minimally with the microphone beyond the songs. She was supported by a set of lights that were perhaps too dazzling for her intimate approach. She started the concert in an almost identical way to the LP, performing songs such as ‘Tell Me Who You Are Today‘, ‘Burden of Life‘ and the more folk-influenced ‘Floating on a Moment‘.

Photo of Beth Gibbons by José Irún provided by the Nits de Barcelona 2025 organisation

With the occasional help of a monumental band that included Emma Smith (Pulp) on violin, Sophie Hastings on drums, the immense Howard William Jacobs on percussion, and Eoin Rooney on guitar, the Briton’s delicate pop grew by leaps and bounds, thanks to the oriental touches of ‘Rewind‘ and ‘For Sale‘. She then revisited ‘Mysteries‘ from her now distant album Out of Season (2002), which she recorded with Paul Webb.

Photo of Beth Gibbons by José Irún provided by the Nits de Barcelona 2025 organisation

The band’s excessive prominence, in terms of both power and baroque style, drowned out Gibbons’ delicate voice in the middle section, during which they performed ‘Lost Changes‘ and the chaotic ‘Oceans‘, before returning to her album with Rustin Man for ‘Tom de Model‘, which stood out for its soulful spirit. The concert regained its initial brilliance with the frenzied violin playing in ‘Beyond the Sun‘ and the flawless synchronisation of the flute and Beth’s voice in ‘Whispering Love‘, providing the perfect prelude to the encores that sent the audience wild.

Photo of Beth Gibbons by José Irún provided by the Nits de Barcelona 2025 organisation

To close her concert, the most recognised voice of trip hop would draw on memories in the form of hits by her band, Portishead. She opted for two generational anthems from Dummy (1994), such as ‘Roads‘ and ‘Glory Box‘, which delighted part of the audience who seemed more interested in capturing the moment on their phones for Instagram than enjoying the concert as a whole. Almost 75 minutes into the show, there was still time to close with ‘Reaching Out‘, sung in a kind of sighing mode. After this, the audience gave the singer and her band a couple of minutes of applause.