Combining music, spoken word, and visuals, London-based outfit Public Service Broadcasting crafts ethereal and mesmerizing post-rock that sources the majority of its vocals from public service announcements, documentaries, and other archival material. With a mission to "teach the lessons of the past through the music of the future," the band has covered everything from the Apollo space program to Welsh coal mining strikes and even Amelia Earhart's last flight - all in sonically inventive and enthralling ways. It’s nerdy in the best possible way, humane, and inspiring. The band will be playing at VAS ear with support from Wuhan act Sweet Sister Session - a cesspool of 1960s acid rock and space psychedelic music - with a sound dabbed in layers of electronic transistor organ, noise feedback, muddy guitar riffs, and distorted vocals. Righteous.

About the Performance

Public Service Broadcasting builds their music around archival recordings, historical footage, and electronic composition. Their work often replaces a traditional lead vocalist with voices drawn from history—radio transmissions, documentaries, and spoken-word fragments—turning real events into narrative-driven soundscapes.

Their 2024 album The Last Flight centers on the story of Amelia Earhart, reconstructing her final journey through sound and atmosphere. In a live setting, these elements are combined with projected visuals and tightly synchronized instrumentation, creating a performance that merges music, history, and multimedia staging.

Previous works such as Inform - Educate - Entertain, The Race for Space, Every Valley, and Bright Magic reflect the band’s consistent approach: using historical themes—from industrialization to the space race—as the foundation for immersive electronic compositions.

Performers

Public Service Broadcasting – A UK-based band known for integrating archival material with electronic and rock instrumentation. Their work focuses on historical storytelling through sound and visuals.

Sweet Sister Session – A psychedelic band from Wuhan, blending 1960s-inspired sounds with spacey, experimental textures.

Why Go

This is less a standard concert and more a staged audio-visual experience that treats history as live material. Public Service Broadcasting’s approach—turning archival voices into the “lead singer” and combining them with tightly constructed electronic arrangements—creates something that sits between a gig, a documentary, and a sound installation. For audiences used to conventional live music formats, this offers a different entry point: one where narrative, visuals, and sound design carry equal weight, and where the past is presented not as something distant, but as something actively reconstructed in real time.