We can exclusively reveal that Beth Orton will play the Caught by the River stage at Port Eliot Festival next month (July 19th – 22nd). It will be her only UK festival appearance.
Caught by the River first met Beth nearly twenty years ago. Back then, she was a constant at our club night – the Heavenly Sunday Social. You’d usually find her dancing on the bar as the lights went up, head seemingly holding up the ceiling. After a few weeks of nods and acknowledgements, she told us that she wrote and performed her own songs. When we heard them – Carole King meets Bert Jansch meet Spector meets Screamadelica. It was like someone turned the light on in a very dark , very boring room (if that sounds like an over-enthusiastic exaggeration, bear in mind that at the time Suede were massive).
The club finished in November 1994 and Jeff signed her to Heavenly shortly afterwards. Heavenly released Beth’s first three hugely acclaimed and well loved LPs – Trailer Park, Central Reservation and Daybreaker. Her fourth album, Comfort of Strangers, came out on our (then) sister label EMI and we’ve stayed close friends ever since.
When Beth’s on stage, something truly magical happens. If you’ve seen her, you’ll know what we mean – if not, you’ll just have to trust us. It’s the reason why we’ve asked her every year to come and play Port Eliot. Thankfully, summer 2012, she was able to say yes.
Beth is going to play on Saturday night. She’ll be playing a little earlier on the same stage as Andrew Weatherall, the man responsible for the sound of Galaxy of Emptiness, one of the most jawdropping moments on Trailer Park. She’ll be playing songs old and new; firm favourites and future classics.
Suffice to say, we’re ridiculously excited about this gig, a UK festival exclusive. Hell, we might even get up and dance on the bar for it.