The Race for Space (album)

The Race for Space
Studio album by
Public Service Broadcasting
Released23 February 2015
Studio
Genre
Length43:40
LabelTest Card Recordings
ProducerJ. Willgoose, Esq.
Public Service Broadcasting chronology
Inform-Educate-Entertain
(2013) 		The Race for Space
(2015) 		Every Valley
(2017)
Singles from The Race for Space
  1. "Go!"
    Released: 8 May 2015
  2. "The Other Side"
    Released: 28 August 2015
  3. "Sputnik EP"
    Released: 20 November 2015

The Race for Space is the second studio album by British alternative group Public Service Broadcasting, released on 23 February 2015. Working with sound samples from the British Film Institute, the album relives the story of the American and Soviet space race from 1957–1972. The opening track features the speech by John F. Kennedy on 12 September 1962 at Rice University.

To launch the album, the band played two concerts on 26 and 27 February 2015 at the National Space Centre in Leicester and went on to complete a 14-date tour of the UK and Ireland to support the album. The band have expressed concern in the past about playing the whole album cover to cover live, due to the subject matter of track 4 ("Fire in the Cockpit")[1][2] but did so for the first time at Manchester Science Festival in October 2016.[3][4]

The album reached number 11 in the UK chart and number 1 in the UK Indie Albums Chart the week following its release. The vinyl edition was the 5th highest selling record of 2015 in the UK.[5]

On 25 July 2019, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing in 1969, Public Service Broadcasting performed a specially commissioned new orchestral arrangement of the album at the Royal Albert Hall in London, as part of the summer's Proms programme. The performance was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3[6] and the day after on BBC Four.[7] The group had also performed album track "Go!" live on BBC Two's Newsnight programme on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary.[8]

  1. ^ Fox, Iain (27 September 2016). "Gimme your Answers: An Interview w/ Public Service Broadcasting". A Music Blog Yeah. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  2. ^ "Mary Anne Hobbs sits in... joined by Public Service Broadcasting". Radcliffe and Maconie. 19 October 2016. BBC. 6music. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  3. ^ "Public Service Broadcasting: The Race For Space". Manchester Science Festival 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  4. ^ Heward, Emily (17 August 2016). "Public Service Broadcasting to open Manchester Science Festival 2016". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  5. ^ Griffiths, Sarah Jane (13 April 2015). "UK's first official vinyl chart launched as sales rise". BBC News Online. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  6. ^ "BBC Radio 3 - BBC Proms, 2019, Prom 10: Public Service Broadcasting". BBC. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  7. ^ "BBC Radio 3 - BBC Proms, 2019, Public Service Broadcasting, Public Service Broadcasting honour Apollo 11 pioneer in their Proms concert". BBC. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  8. ^ "BBC Two - Newsnight, 19/07/2019". BBC. Retrieved 17 December 2019.