Re-Work Those Songs!

Ask Katy

One of the things I enjoyed most about your live shows between 1987 and 2000 was that you changed the arrangements of some of your songs. 'Girls On Film' has probably had the most facelifts over the years (no pun intended)...from the 88/89 house version, to the 93/94 string arrangement to the 95 Portishead take. Of course some of your other songs were also reworked such as 'Hungry Like The Wolf' in 87 and 93/94, as well as the more obscure 'Secret Oktober' in 98.

When the original line up got back together it made sense to play the original versions live - it's what your audience expected and I'm sure you guys also got a kick out it. My question is, after over 3 years of being back on the live stage, are you guys going to mix things up again a little and re-work some of your old classics for the live show? It would certainly make the large number of re-offenders coming to your shows very happy while pleasing Joe Average who only comes to your shows to hear the hits you cannot possibly drop from the set list. Thanks, Carsten

“Dearest Carsten - Well it is somewhat fortuitous you should pose this question at this time. We have indeed experienced the joys of re-working songs on previous tours. I thought I spied you in the audience 3 days ago at our show in Bratislava, at which you may have been thrilled to discover that we elected to play “Some Like it Hot,” which segues into “My Own Way” in an altered state. We are also performing “Serious” from the Liberty album, which again has had some re-constructive surgery. We shall continue to explore the “Nip/Tuck” process with our songs. NR”