Massive Attack organised and headlined the ACT 1.5 climate action accelerator event up on The Downs in Bristol on Sunday 25th August. The last bank holiday of the summer and potentially Massive Attack's last ever hometown gig.
It promised to be a historic event for lots of reasons and it pretty much delivered on every single one of them.
Last week, in a couple of unintentional cliffhanger posts, I reflected on the support shows from DJ Milo and Sam Morton (Thursday), Lankum and Killer Mike (Friday).
I also mentioned that there were various interactive events and speakers at t'other end of the site. The main stage also included a number of guests in between performances, to the audible grumbles of some in the audience, questioning why Massive Attack had to do all this "political stuff" when they should just focus on the music. Well... duh.
I think they were in the minority and hey, there was always the option of listening and exercising the right to disagree. Better still, there were the ridiculously long queues for the food stalls where you could bemoan the wait for a crepe instead of hearing what Dale Vince or Mick Lynch had to say.
It's fair to say that those that are still smarting from the Tories' defeat at the General Election and found having to use the train and e-bus to get to this event will have found much to irk them throughout the day...
The last speaker, introduced by Massive Attack ahead of their set, was Motaz Azaiza. Motaz is a Palestinian photojournalist whose stark and heart rending images of the ongoing conflict can be found on Instagram and formed the backdrop of his brief but impassioned speech on stage.
And then there was nothing left but the final gig of the day and arguably the main reason why thousands of people were here. I first - and last - saw Massive Attack perform in Bristol's harbourside ampitheatre on 2nd August 2004 and it was unfortunately a rather underwhelming experience.
Fate threatened more of the same as, for the first time all day, and right at the start of the set there were problems with the big screens on either side of the stage, requiring several reboots before being fixed some minutes later. After some gloomy but dry skies, we were also treated to one hell of a downpour. We'd come prepared and the sea of smart phones filming was replaced by an ocean of hoods as people suited up, determined not to let "a bit of wet" dampen their enthusiasm for what was happening on stage.
What I wasn't quite prepared for was that, being a specs wearer, pretty much all that happened for the next couple of hours was refracted though dozens of rain drops on my lenses. I got with it and embraced the DIY psychedelic experience, but it does mean that none of the photos here today are mine...!
The set opened with the brooding menace of Risingson before Horace Andy took to the stage for Girl I Love You, which turned out to be the only song from 2010's Heligoland to make the setlist. Fourth album 100th Window fared worse and was entirely absent from the show.
Mezzanine was unsurprisingly much better represented, not least because it features several songs with Elizabeth Fraser, who takes up position for Black Milk, the third song of the night. It was almost too much to bear...
...which was evidently the case for my friend's brother and his mate, as they decided to duck out at that point! Maybe it was the rain, maybe it was the munchies, I don't know, but it definitely wasn't because the collective onstage were not giving their all. We said our goodbyes and I turned back to the stage.
After a version of 2016 song Take It There (not, as far as I could tell, featuring a surprise appearance from Tricky), 3D introduced the third and final guests of the evening.
Young Fathers performed three songs in a row. I think the first one was called Gone, though there's a track on their recent collaborative Ceasefire EP (which I haven't heard) called Give, so it might well have been that. The second, which according to t'internet is called Minipoppa is a brief couple of minutes that in the context of the set almost felt like an interlude or reprise, sitting between the songs either side.
The third song was Voodoo In My Blood, which I recognised from it's appearance (with Take It There) on the Ritual Spirit EP. I've not had the opportunity to see Young Fathers live until now, so this felt like a bit of a 'mini gig' treat and they did not disappoint.
How do you follow that? Well, with Elizabeth Fraser returning for a spine-tingling, spare version of Song To The Siren, the Tim Buckley song she originally covered with This Mortal Coil in 1984. Forty years later, her voice incredibly, impossibly surpasses all expectations. I never could have imagined that I'd be standing in an audience, immersed in a sonic hug of such immense proportions that I would swear I was literally uplifted at one point. There are no words to adequately describe the effect of Fraser's singing live.
Almost as a palette cleanser after this most nourishing of performances, Massive Attack got as close to a balls-out rock show as they could, with the pairing of Inertia Creeps and their take on John Foxx-era Ultravox, with a version of Rockwrok that's apparently been a set staple for several years now. Despite that, pretty much everyone, me included, fell for the false ending and started clapping and cheering enthusiastically before the song launched into it's frenetic final half.
Horace Andy was then back for his second and final song of the evening, what else but Angel. Horace celebrated his 73rd birthday in February and his is another voice that has lost none of it's power and effect over the decades. I'm biased because I think he's a superlative artist in his own right, but Horace is such an integral part of Massive Attack that it's impossible to think of them without him. The version of Angel here tonight only reinforced that fact.
We were then into a couple of classics from 1991's ground breaking, genre smashing debut Blue Lines. As the opening rumbling bass of Safe From Harm kicked in, I wondered briefly if Horace Andy might remain on stage, as the song is covered on and inspired the title of his recent album, Midnight Rockers.
It wasn't to be but with the accomplished performances of Safe From Harm and Unfinished Sympathy, it is clear that singer Deborah Miller has made the songs her own. I suspect that this brace of songs is the payoff that many in the audience have been waiting for and they really delivered the goods, with the expected reaction.
Against my desire but listening to my better judgement, I decided to leave at that point and head to the e-bus pick up point a 10-minute walk from the site. At the time, I think I'm being overly cautious but my car is parked about 10 miles away, itself another 10 miles or so from home, so if I don't make the train, I'm stuffed.
This seemed like an eminently good choice almost from the second I turned around and tried to make my way through the crowd. Lost in the moment, absorbed in the concert before me, I'd forgotten the reality that there were tens of thousands of people behind me. I tried to wind my way and gently push through in near darkness without stepping on toes. The added challenge was that the bars had been serving alcohol in cans all night (not the reusable, recyclable, deposit-paid glasses as advertised) so there was now also a carpet of crushed and shifting metal to navigate.
There was a momentary panic, when I became disoriented and seemed to be making no progress at all. I then spotted Oh Crepe! in the distance, made a beeline and followed the line of food stalls up the side of the site. I crossed over to what I thought was the exit, only to find it was the urinals! I corrected course and eventually found my way out, across The Downs and onto one of the two waiting e-buses. By way of compensation, my escape was soundtracked by Karmacoma and then, waiting for the bus to depart, the soaring voice of Elizabeth Fraser on Teardrop.
The only song I missed altogether, as the bus headed back to the train station, was the set closer and Fraser's third song from Mezzanine, Group Four. I would have loved to stay for the entire show, though hearing post-gig tales of trying to get out, onto buses and trains home, I don't think it would have been quite such a happy ending for me!
As
the train left the station and for the rest of my journey home, I was
buzzing. ACT 1.5 was a (excuse the pun) massive undertaking, yet proof
that it can be done and should be a way forward for concerts and events
now and in the future. Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall, I salute you.
Even looked at purely for the lineup, sixty quid for nearly six hours of live music and DJing was worth every penny. But it delivered so, so much more.
I've recreated the ACT 1.5 set below which can't hope to replicate the atmosphere though it does indicate what a finely curated sequence of songs this was. In the absence of studio versions but in the interest of providing a full experience, I've included several live bootlegs from Massive Attack's show in Stockholm a few months ago. The sound quality inevitably dips on several of these, although Elizabeth Fraser's performance on Song To The Siren remains astonishing good.
1) Risingson (Underdog Mix By Trevor Jackson) (1997)
2) Girl I Love You (Album Version ft. Horace Andy) (2010)
3) Black Milk (Album Version ft. Elizabeth Fraser) (1998)
4) Take It There (ft. Tricky) (2016)
5) Gone (Live @ Rosendals Tradgard, Stockholm, Sweden ft. Young Fathers) (2024)
6) Minipoppa (Live @ Rosendals Tradgard, Stockholm, Sweden ft. Young Fathers) (2024)
7) Voodoo In My Blood (Single Version ft. Young Fathers) (2016)
8) Song To The Siren (Live @ Rosendals Tradgard, Stockholm, Sweden ft. Elizabeth Fraser) (Cover of Tim Buckley) (2024)
9) Inertia Creeps (Manic Street Preachers Version) (1998)
10) Rockwrok (Live @ Rosendals Tradgard, Stockholm, Sweden) (Cover of Ultravox) (2024)
11) Angel (Blur Remix By Damon Albarn & Graham Coxon ft. Horace Andy) (1998)
12) Safe From Harm (12" Version by Massive Attack, Jonny Dollar & Nellee Hooper ft. Shara Nelson) (1991)
13) Unfinished Sympathy (Perfecto Mix By Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne ft. Shara Nelson) (1991)
14) Karmacoma (Portishead Experience - Remix By Geoff Barrow & Adrian Utley) (1994)
15) Teardrop (Mad Professor Mazaruni Vocal Mix ft. Elizabeth Fraser) (1998)
16) Group Four (Album Version ft. Elizabeth Fraser) (1998)
As mentioned, none of the photos in this post (except the train from Bristol) are mine. I attempted a couple of shots early in the set, but the rain and my inability to focus through my rain splattered specs rendered them completely unusable. So, a big thanks to those that did and posted them on Twitter!
Propetto Isso, "The rest is nuance": Elizabeth Fraser facing the audience Jerry Hicks, local lad and "blacklisted TU activist": Ceasefire Now! Rebecca, "you can take the girl out of Stockport, but...": Am I Unique? and Horace Andy Simon Parker, "UCU Member / Dad / Disgruntled": Elizabeth Fraser Blue6oy, from "That there London": riseupagainstfascism
And a belated thank you to @oniktimreh ("No tolerance for narcissists"), who supplied the photo of Killer Mike and The Mighty Midnight Revival in Friday's post.
