Public Service Broadcasting

With Andrew Wasylyk

Kelvingrove Bandstand, 6 August 2025

For anyone unfamiliar with Public Service Broadcasting, over recent years they have cultivated a niche in the musical market, recording and touring a series of ‘concept’ albums based around a range of topics including The Race For Space,  Every Valley, about the Welsh Mining Industry and last years album, The Last Flight which tells the story of Amelia Earhart’s last flight.

Before they left the stage founder J.Willgoose, Esq., indicated that they hoped their performance had help to Inform, Educate and Entertain. With the assistance of some great visuals by Mr B, archive material trawled from national collections together with the lyrics and music contained in their songs they can take heart that they passed on all three counts.

Public Service Broadcasting remain a four-man project with J. Willgoose, Esq., on guitar, banjo, strings, samples and electronics, Wrigglesworth on drums, piano and electronics, J F Abraham with flugelhorn, bass guitar, drums and vibraslap and Mr B with visuals and set design for live performances.

Playing live though requires a different skillset, with a three-man brass section and Anna Lena Bruland, aka EERA who delivers much of the vocals, especially on the tracks from the Last Flight album which forms the basis of the first half of the set.

With a stage set resembling the cockpit of the Lockheed Electra plane flown by Amelia Earhart, it gave Mr B plenty of scope to create visuals that mixed both close up of his band mates with the archive film material that added context to the music.

As the night sky darkened it seemed fitting that the band gradually gravitated towards the three crowd favourites from the Race For Space album. The Other Side set things up for the expected finale Go! It seems difficult to imagine that the footage from the Apollo 11 control room, a very formal recording despite its historical significance, delivers such an uplifting song. The song that finally got everyone in the amphitheatre on to their feet. Go! They roared. Stay! they roared.

In many respects, this was the moment that everyone had waited for despite the warm reception for all that had gone before. And with that momentum, the band returned from a very short break to  finish with four from four, They Gave Me A Lamp off the Every Day album, People, Let’s Dance from Bright Magic, a clarion call that everyone was happy to react to, the brilliant Gagarin with the brass section leading the band, the audience and the besuited Mr Gagarin who appeared on stage and finally Everest from Inform-Educate-Entertain album.

Few would argue that Public Service Broadcasting delivered a performance that effortlessly combined uplifting music, a modern history lesson, and contemporary visuals. Until the next time.

Support – Andrew Wasylyk

Andrew and his pal Tommy Perman took to the Kelvingrove Bandstand stage to a healthy crowd which grew steadily during their support set.

Scottish composer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Andrew Mitchell goes under the pseudonym Andrew Wasylyk for his albums of reflective and bright instrumental compositions. His sounds tie together pastoral jazz, experimental post-rock leanings, and touches of electronics and it was to this soundtrack that he entertained prior to Public Service Broadcasting,

It was a set that was as intriguing as it was entertaining with the backing tracks, visuals and songs providing a very easy listening experience. Listening again to one of his earlier albums the next morning it’s not difficult to see the progression that is being made as the years go on. A fine start to a good night.