Massive Attack - Royal Festival Hall, 22 June 2008
Looking like a couple of blokes who've been ordered to do the washing up but aren't quite sure where to start, Massive Attack (that is, founders Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall) lurked behind some sort of cloth-draped mixing desk at the start of their set, leaving their soulful guest vocalist Yolanda Quartey to take the strain of public attention. They may not be natural stage animals in the Iggy Pop I-live-to-perform sense, but they more than compensated with their typically fanatic attention to detail - stunning lighting, great musicians and the most perfect sound balance I've ever heard in the nasty old RFH.
Del Naja provided a lot of the evening's vocals (touchingly, with autocue support). The ethereal Stephanie Dosen and the legendary Horace Andy helped out too. It wasn't till the familiar sound of Unfinished Sympathy that the crowd got up and danced, but the handful of guitar-based new songs (more of a lean to the right than a new direction) went down well too.
The lighting was more audience-wowing than photo-friendly, but a few came out half-OK:
consulting teh autocue:
Stephanie Dosen:
Yolanda Quartey:
Horace Andy:
