UKNY For November 25

Saint Etienne's Sarah Cracknell, Pete Wiggs and Bob Stanley (photo by Paul Kelly, PR)
by Kara Manning | 11/25/2017 | 9:36am

Saint Etienne's Sarah Cracknell, Pete Wiggs and Bob Stanley (photo by Paul Kelly, PR)

Tonight's UKNY at 11 adheres to the spirit of FUV's "Feastival" celebration of live performances for Thanksgiving weekend with back-to-back FUV Live sessions of two outstanding British bands: Saint Etienne and Public Service Broadcasting.

Both bands have a lot in common too — even though Saint Etienne debuted in 1991 with Foxbase Alpha while Public Service Broadcasting didn't release its first full-length album, Inform-Educate-Entertain, until 2013. There's a dedicated, richly detailed focus on British culture and history that drives both groups and they each share an innate, inspired understanding of the artisty of sampling too. Saint Etienne and Public Service Broadcasting notably admire the legacy of the BBC and the broadcasting institution's invaluable impact over decades.

For their excellent new albums — Saint Etienne's Home Counties and Public Service Broadcasting's Every Valley — both bands took a sharp detour from London and cast their eye to other UK locales. Saint Etienne explores the comfort and conflict of growing up in the home counties that surround Greater London — like Essex, Berkshire or Surrey — while Public Service Broadcasting headed to south Wales to research the collapse of the British coal mining industry in the 20th century.

A special edition of UKNY — with two innovative, very British bands — for an hour tonight. If you're still in a woozy Thanksgiving stupor of far too much turkey and pumpkin pie, you can catch up to the show in the FUV Weekend Archives immediately after broadcast or find each session, for Saint Etienne and Public Service Broadcasting, in the FUV Vault.

 

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