Colin Greenwood plays Marianne Faithfull's songs at the Barbican

Colin Greenwood played bass in the house band at the Barbican Hall in London on Wednesday 18 March, when a preview of Broken English, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard's film about Marianne Faithfull, was followed by a short concert of her songs. Faithfull died in January 2025, aged 78.

The Barbican put the night on with Vue Lumiere, the film's distributor, and it went out live to cinemas two days before Broken English opened in the UK and Ireland on 20 March.

Rob Ellis, a longtime PJ Harvey collaborator, was musical director and led the band, with Colin beside Adrian Utley of Portishead, Ed Harcourt and the violinist Anna Phoebe. Forsyth and Pollard made the Nick Cave film 20,000 Days on Earth, and Cave appears in Broken English. Colin has played bass in the Bad Seeds since September 2024, standing in for Martyn P. Casey.

Stereogum reports that Jarvis Cocker sang “Sliding Through Life on Charm”, from her 2002 album Kissin Time, and that Rufus Wainwright took “Ballad of the Soldier's Wife”. She recorded the Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht song with Chris Spedding in 1985. Beth Orton, who is in the film too, sang “As Tears Go By”, the song Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Andrew Loog Oldham wrote for Faithfull.

Songs named