sawyl | Why we love Portishead

Today's Guardian features a piece on Portishead, in which Geoff Barrow rails against the misuse of their music:

"You're writing music because you're really concerned about certain things and then it gets put on to entertain twats at trendy fondue dinner parties," protests Barrow, still aggrieved. There is something bracing about his militant distaste for mainstream culture. "People would ask me to DJ at some trendy bar and you'd think, 'These people are fucking horrible'. Big sunglasses. I'd think, 'Fucking hell, have I spent my life working in music just to be a performing monkey for these cunts?'"

Did he ever watch This Life? "I thought they were the most odious cunts," he spits. "The thing is, our music was being associated with the bullshit conditioning of television, and it's not about that. It's the polar opposite. It's like everyone wants to use Glory Box in sex scenes. Can you not fucking hear what she's singing? But my bank manager's eternally grateful, so what can I say? I can slag it off and still buy a new bouncy castle for my little girl out of fondue money."

What a superb sentiment!