Prom 58: Public Service Broadcasting – This New Noise (30.08.22)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

20:00 Tuesday 30 August 2022 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Public Service Broadcasting
This New Noise - BBC commission: world première

Public Service Broadcasting
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Seth Lakeman
Jules Buckley conductor


Archive footage, soundscapes, dancing astronauts and a flashing, blinking Sputnik right here in the Royal Albert Hall – when cult ‘retro-futurists’ Public Service Broadcasting brought The Race to Space to the Proms in 2019, it’s safe to say that the results were out of this world. So in the year that the BBC celebrates a century of – well, public-service broadcasting – it makes perfect sense to invite them back with This New Noise: a joyously eclectic, album-length celebration of 100 years of BBC Radio, backed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and delivered with all the wit and showmanship of a band on an ongoing mission to ‘teach the lessons of the past through the music of the future’.

[bluestateprommer]

From hearing Public Service Broadcasting's Prom tonight "This New Noise", the general impression that I got was more of a "sound installation" rather than a concert as such, if that makes sense. Elizabeth Alker's comments mentioned various visual elements beyond the purely sonic, which obviously the audience in the RAH and the TV audience at home there will more fully appreciate, compared to just the sound alone (which remains substantial with all the historical spoken word material, of course, beyond the music). All parties did well, even if clearly folks like me who only get the audio will literally not get the whole picture. But one thing didn't change from PSB's Prom from 3 years back, namely PSB's words in praise of the BBC (for all its flaws).

[johncorrigan]

From hearing Public Service Broadcasting's Prom tonight "This New Noise", the general impression that I got was more of a "sound installation" rather than a concert as such, if that makes sense. Elizabeth Alker's comments mentioned various visual elements beyond the purely sonic, which obviously the audience in the RAH and the TV audience at home there will more fully appreciate, compared to just the sound alone (which remains substantial with all the historical spoken word material, of course, beyond the music). All parties did well, even if clearly folks like me who only get the audio will literally not get the whole picture. But one thing didn't change from PSB's Prom from 3 years back, namely PSB's words in praise of the BBC (for all its flaws).

Heard this Prom broadcast on Gideon Coe's show on BBC Radio 6 this evening - I enjoyed it very much - fairly typical Public Service Broadcasting, and nothing wrong with that in my book. I saw some of it on the telly earlier in the week, but for all that and the video footage, I think I preferred hearing it on the radio.