Public Service Broadcasting

It was his BBC Radio 4 show about the release of footage from the British Film Institute which first inspired mainman J Willgoose to start tinkering with a sample from the public information film Coughs And Sneezes Spread Diseases.

And it was a suggestion from the DJ a few months later that cemented the idea for the band’s current shows – combining video footage with live performance.

“When I went to the Edinburgh Fringe I thought I needed to make my show stand out from the crowd,” says Willgoose.

“I went for an interview with Tom on 6 Music, who suggested having all the original videos running live with the music. He keeps shoving good ideas my way!”

The original idea for Public Service Broadcasting’s combination of authoritative voice-overs and soundtrack-style music came from an interview Robinson did about the release of public information films on the internet.

“They are still there – all these films from the 1940s right up to the 1970s, including Charley Says [which inspired the classic Prodigy single],” says Willgoose.

“I was rummaging around and made a song from the samples, an old Scott Walker record and a bit of Saturn by Holst.

“I remember one moment thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to do an album where every song was a public information film?’ then thought it was a terrible idea!”

Despite this initial rejection, Public Service Broadcasting’s full-length debut, Inform – Educate – Entertain, was released earlier this month.

Taking its title from the mission statement of the BBC, it draws from sources ranging from Night Mail to US driving safety films.

Each is a mini-movie in itself, moving from comedy to tragedy, the cinematic expanses of Mount Everest to statements about “today’s youth”.

It’s a world away from previous EP The War Room, which saw Willgoose take The Blitz as a theme, creating an atmospheric, thoughtful and dramatic five-track journey using elements of rousing speeches and the propaganda movie London Can Take It.

One track which hasn’t found its way on to the album is Willgoose’s original experiment.

“I don’t think the original track will see the light of day for a while,” he admits. “It’s all right but it’s nothing special. I don’t tend to use samples so much now – most of the music tends to be original, sparked by listening to something else.”

Having started out as a one-man experiment in putting songs together, Public Service Broadcasting developed over time into a live show, with Willgoose playing his guitar or banjo accompanied by electronic beats.

His sound expanded around the time of The War Room EP, when he brought in live drummer Wrigglesworth, who now performs with him on every live date.

“It made a big change to the sound,” says Willgoose. “We were much more like a band on record.

“On stage it is just the two of us. It’s structured so that as much as possible can be played live. There is a lot of looping on guitar and keyboard parts – one day we might add a third member on bits and bobs. It has been nice to have grown naturally as we’ve gone along.”

One notable aspect of the live show is the lack of microphones onstage – with Public Service Broadcasting instead subverting the usual artist and audience dynamic by using pre-recorded dialogue.

“We do slightly send up the patter of frontmen the world over,” says Willgoose. “They tend to say two or three things: ‘How are you doing?’, ‘It’s great to be here!’ and ‘Thanks for having us!’ “You can do all that and it seems to make people laugh.”

Comedy is an ingredient on the new album – noticeably in Signal 30, built from driver’s education films, where one unlucky sap discovers he can’t even drink beer before getting behind the wheel.

And it is underlined by the corduroy sported by Willgoose and Wrigglesworth.

“I had a penchant for corduroy anyway,” Willgoose admits. “If you’re going to be called Public Service Broadcasting, you need to look like a geography teacher from the 1970s.”

Some of the music and subject matter is serious, though, as anyone who has heard The War Room EP will testify.

“We structured that EP starting with a foreboding element and ending with something sad,” says Willgoose.

“For obvious reasons, we didn’t take a humourous line with the Second World War footage. It was sensitive material.

“When it is something as serious as London Can Take It, you have to reflect that in the music. As a relatively young Londoner who never grew up with conflict in the city, seeing what it was like knocks your socks off every time. All this was happening and people still got on with it – it was remarkable.

“But where the material is funny, you are entitled to use it that way.”

He admits nostalgia may play a part in what Public Service Broadcasting do.

“These days life goes by pretty quickly,” he says. “Maybe by bringing stuff from the past into the present in such an escapist way it allows for a bit of reflection. People seem to have quite an emotional response to it.”

He has been asked before if there is a danger the band will run out of cinematic material.

“I don’t think of what might happen if we run out of footage,” says Willgoose. “I don’t think people realise how much there is and the different directions we could go in.

“If this continues to grow hopefully more people will come to us with footage. I think there could be some really interesting stuff out there – something like what British Sea Power did with From The Sea To The Land Beyond.

“I’m more worried about running out of music than videos!”

• Public Service Broadcasting play The Haunt, Pool Valley, Brighton, and Resident, Kensington Gardens, Brighton, on Tuesday, May 21, and Meadowlands Festival, Glynde Place, near Lewes, which takes place from Friday, May 24, to Sunday, May 26.
• Resident: Doors 6.30pm, free ticket with every album purchase.
• The Haunt: Doors 7pm, tickets £10. Call 01273 606312.
• Meadowlands: Weekend tickets £95/£48. Visit www.meadowlandsfestival.com