Sunday 4 October 2009

West Country Massive


Massive Attack finished their UK tour with a gig at the Swindon Oasis - sadly not in the domed pool with palm trees and wave machine, where I used to swim as a kid, but in the not so idyllic sweaty sports hall. Massive Attack are getting on, but they are not embarrassing like some other aging pop heroes of my youth. They do seem to evolve, even if the crowd save most of their cheer for the classics. The singer Martina Topley-Bird; who came to light on Tricky's first album Maxinquaye, has joined them on tour. Their new material is dark, backed up by a light show of giant flashing text messages and banks of abstract strobes. It's not necessary to get off your tits beforehand. tomorrow night they play Dublin, then head off to tour the rest of Europe. Recommended. BP

4 comments:

Mick P said...

Y'know, I'm a twat. I turned down going to see them last summer here in Rome, for whatever reason, and I regret it. And now they're playing the spurned lover card by only coming to Milan on this tour.

Massive Attack are the soundtrack to loads of stuff I got up to in the 90s, but something that always sticks with me is being at a party when Blue Lines was new and I had a copy on cassette that a friend had done for me. No one else at this (obviously pretty uncool and provincial) party had heard of it. I recall dancing to that album in my swimming trunks with a bottle of vodka in my hand. It was a party thrown by John 'Selwyn' Noble, the legendary bike photographer who was then the chief snapper on Motor Cycle News, where I was a fresh-faced new-boy. To get a true taste of this bloke, take a look at this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pTaayXGyE8

Sideburn Magazine said...

ok Mick, how about the YouTube link to your vodka fueld trunk twirling? BP

Mick P said...

The court case put paid to that clip...

vincent prat said...

M.A was my favourite band in the early 90s, I saw them after the second album: Protection, it was great with Horace Andy, dark but not fat. Five years ago I saw them at Sonar Barcelona that was a fat and wheezy concert, i leaved after the third track...
In my mind this band must stay as my greatest musical discovery in 1992.Amen