See Portishead’s Politicized Video for Abba Cover ‘SOS’
A new video for Portishead‘s cover of Abba’s “SOS” ends with a political message. As the camera closes in and focuses on singer Beth Gibbons looking down (and not singing), she eventually looks at the viewer and reaches out her hand. A quotation from late British politician Jo Cox, who was fatally shot and stabbed last week, is superimposed on the screen. “We have far more in common than which divides us,” it reads.
Police reported that they are treating the man they arrested for allegedly carrying out the attack on Cox, 52-year-old Tommy Mair, as a terror suspect. When asked to identify himself in court Saturday, he twice said, “Death to traitors, freedom for Britain,” CNN reported.
The politician’s widower, Brendan Cox, said he believed his wife “died for her views,” according to the BBC. Among other causes, she supported the notion that Great Britain should remain a part of the European Union.
Cox was associated with the liberal-leaning Labour party. Today would have been Cox’s 42nd birthday.
Portishead posted the video to Facebook without further comment. The song originally appeared in High-Rise, an adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel of the same name, according to Pitchfork. The track is the group’s first since 2009’s “Chase the Tear.”