Profile: Geoff Barrow

Portishead, "Mysterons" (Roseland NYC Live, 1998)

Dave Simpson says: He takes it very seriously and thinks the world's going to end at any minute. In a musical sense he's very dark...

"As a natural outsider who learned early on to trust little beyond his instincts, Geoff Barrow of Portishead is a classic example of a musical pioneer who has gone against the grain - only to find the rest of the world coming with him. He was born in Walton-in-Gordano, Somerset, but grew up in relative hardship in the small coastal town of Portishead, after which he named his band.

Portishead's 1994 debut, Dummy, remains one of the landmark albums of the 1990s, selling 2m copies in Europe alone. Released against prevailing trends at the height of Britpop, the album popularised what has been dubbed "trip-hop" or "the Bristol sound". A blend of slowed hip-hop grooves, Barrow's old skool scratching, soundtrack samples and (singer Beth Gibbons's) mournful, heartbreaking lyrics, Dummy has been widely copied but never equalled." [Guardian UK]