Amazing Cover Bands: Portsmouth Sinfonia

We love cool and interesting covers here at VSQ Blog, for obvious reasons, and this one is a doozy. Portsmouth Sinfonia was a British orchestra founded by a group of art students in the early 1970s. To join, you didn’t have to have any skill on your instrument. Seriously. You did have to rehearse religiously and give it your all – no playing bad on purpose. What resulted was a brilliantly off-kilter sound, and could be very funny. Brian Eno, the legendary musician and producer, performed on clarinet for a time with the band. Portsmouth Sinfonia actually got so popular they played Royal Albert Hall.

Now, for your listening pleasure (?), we present their excruciatingly great rendition of “Also sprach Zarathustra.” Hey, it makes your old grammar school band sound pretty good, right?