December 16, 2008 10:29

Portishead announce fourth album plans

Band say they are also looking at touring again

Portishead have confirmed that they have started forming ideas for their fourth album.

It seems fans will not have to wait over a decade for their next effort, unlike the 11-year gap between their second album, 1997's 'Portishead', and this year's 'Third'.

Producer/instrumentalist Geoff Barrow told BBC 6music that the band had finalised the initial direction of the album, and were now looking at recording plans - plus new tour dates.

"When everyone's had a bit of a break, I think we're just going to plough onto it," he explained. "I think we're kind of there now. We've sat down and we've talked about the direction and stuff like that.

"Everyone seems really positive about it. And I think everybody at some point wants to get back out on the road, because we didn't really do an awful lot of live stuff. What's really interesting is that we're in this lucky position now. We haven't got a record company; our deal ended and so did our publishing deal.

"So we pretty much own all of our own rights now, which is scary as well as exciting really, so we're thinking of loads of different ways of doing things."