  beth gibbons (born 4 january 1965) is an english singer and songwriter. she is the singer and lyricist for the english band portishead. ==early life== gibbons was born in 1965 in exeter, devon, and raised on a farm with two other sisters. her parents divorced when she was young."solo album bio" biography previously published on a finnish site (archived), retrieved august 15, 2014. at 22, she moved to bath, then bristol to pursue her singing career, where she met geoff barrow, her future collaborator in portishead. she sings in the contralto range. ==career== with adrian utley, gibbons and barrow released the first portishead album dummy in 1994 and have produced two other studio albums, a live album, and various singles in the years since. she has also collaborated on a separate project with former talk talk bassist paul webb (rustin man). before she joined geoff barrow in portishead, she had auditioned for the singer's slot in .o.rang, the group formed by webb after talk talk's late-eighties departure from emi, but portishead's sudden success pre-empted matters. in october 2002, they released the album out of season in the united kingdom. the album peaked at number 28 in the uk albums chart.{{cite book| first= david| last= roberts| year= 2006| title= british hit singles & albums|
1965_births Contraltos English_contraltos English_female_guitarists English_female_singers English_songwriters Living_people Music_in_Bristol Musicians_from_Devon People_from_Exeter Portishead_(band)_members Torch_singers Trip_hop_musicians