Between 14–22 June, in the concert halls and spaces of London's iconic riverside arts centre, including Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, MASSIVE ATTACK will reveal just what makes them tick.
Ever since emerging out of the Bristol club scene in the late 1980s, MASSIVE ATTACK have always been musical innovators, pushing barriers forward with every release. Now featuring Robert Del Naja (3D) and Grant Marshall (Daddy G), they are one of UK's most inspirational and influential bands. Having released era-defining albums of the likes of Blue Lines (1991) and Mezzanine (1998), their musical legacy has provided the blueprint for a sound that influenced a generation. Crucially, for a festival renowned for inspired collaborations, the band has worked with a wide range of artists including Tricky, Portishead, Tracey Thorn, Liz Fraser, Sinead O'Connor, Horace Andy, Terry Callier, Madonna, Mos Def and Damon Albarn.
MASSIVE ATTACK is also one of the UK's most visually creative bands, whether it be groundbreaking art direction, award-winning videos, film and documentary soundtracks, art installations or the giant LED screens with thought-provoking messages and real time, localised information that accompanied the 100th Window tour.
In recent years, MASSIVE ATTACK has had an increasingly political edge. The group were deeply involved in the anti war movement in 2003, working closely with the Red Cross, the Stop The War Coalition and Oxfam. Last year they played two benefit gigs for the Hoping Foundation, a charity which offers support and encouragement to Palestinian children living in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and throughout the Middle East. The band recently travelled to Congo with Damon Albarn, scouting for acts for the inspirational Africa Express project, conceived as a response to the line-up for Live8. Most recently, the band has been collaborating with Reprieve, Clive Stafford Smith's campaigning organisation that provides frontline investigation and legal representation to prisoners denied justice by governments across the world.
With nine days of concerts, DJ sets, talks, films, and visual art planned, MELTDOWN 2008 promises to be as diverse as MASSIVE ATTACK's many influences and interests, as thought-provoking as it is entertaining. The full line up for MASSIVE ATTACK'S MELTDOWN will be announced soon.
MASSIVE ATTACK are currently in the studio working on their fifth studio album, due for release in September 2008.
MASSIVE ATTACK, the 15th Directors of Southbank Centre's Meltdown, said: "It's an honour to host Southbank Centre's Meltdown festival and to be in such inspiring company as its previous curators. In addition to the music, we want this year's festival to have a strong political and visual element to it to reflect our influences and obsessions. Our aim is to mix it up a bit by instigating collaborations that make sense and probably some that don't."
GLENN MAX, producer of contemporary culture at SOUTHBANK CENTRE, said: "Massive Attack embody the promiscuous intermingling of late 20th-century music. As West Indian and other global music rose in our collective consciousness, the tools of technology enabled these sonic explorers to send UK dancehall culture into a state of hallucinatory bliss. Theirs is a world where psychedelia and punk align, where sensual sophistication and urban grit share equal ground. All this would be enough, but equally important, since their earliest days, few artists could throw a better party. I'm thrilled by the possibilities they present as this year's Meltdown Directors." -- www.southbankcentre.co.uk
