Massive Attack on the Downs, Bristol, September 3rd 2016
A crowd of some 30,000 braved the slate-grey skies and continual downpours over Bristol yesterday to soak up an inspiring day of music and other cultural events that combined to provide a case for wider contact with the world and greater solidarity with refugees in particular.
A Team Love and Crosstown Concerts production, all acts on the main stage had been chosen personally by Massive Attack, themselves headlining and performing their first large concert in Bristol for 13 years.
Underpinning the music event was a parallel ‘ideas’-based area called The Information that for me featured the highlight of the event, a performance by Kate Tempest of her new 45-minute piece entitled Let Them Eat Chaos, an extraordinary stream of consciousness that started in space – (“Picture a vacuum…”), before plunging down into our own planet and tearing into dysfunctional states of human existence in this Anthropocene age. Her final challenge, to question the doctrine of the individual, was a gutsy call for social collectiveness as a means to survive globally and psychologically.
Kate was preceded by Dan Efergen and his co-worker Sam from Ardman Animations, who described their research and development of virtual reality and its potential to bring people closer to experiencing the lives of others, via their mobiles and a headset. In particular Dan had used the 360-degree VR camera to record refugees arriving at Lesbos that helped build a VR experience of a refugee’s journey through Europe which can be accessed via an app. Hassan Akkad, a Syrian refugee, later spoke about his personal experiences, and there was a moving testimony from Lliana Bird, the radio presenter who had suddenly found herself propelled into co-founding Help Refugees.org, the humanitarian organisation.
Meanwhile, on the second stage, a happy throng had collected to groove away to the sounds of some well-known and popular Bristol Selectors including Dub king Stryda, Smith and Mighty and Bristol Drum and Bass ‘Royalty’, DJ Krust.
Over on the main stage I caught Khruangbin a UK-US three-piece playing some very chilled guitar-led vibes (think Pete Green on Albatross), although billed as being a cross between soul and Thai funk! They were followed by the much more in-your-face Savages, the all-female post punk band lashing into new material from their new album Adore Life. But the surprise package of the day for me was Primal Scream, who turned in an absolute belter of a rock set, making us oblivious to the rain that looked like digital confetti sweeping over our heads, highlighted by the strobing stage lighting. Scream managed to touch the festival nerve.
And then it was Massive Attack’s turn. Massive it was! Not only did the bass shake internal organs against our rib cages, but it shook the very ground we stood on. The stage took on the guise of a mother ship about to lift off. Out of this drum and bass-fuelled Armageddon, the plaintive and soulful voice of reggae legend Horace Andy soared into the very soggy night. Behind the band, a led-lighting wall burst into life, beaming random political and philosophical ideas and questions across the width of the stage. Later flags of all players in the Syrian war flashed before us, an immensely powerful presentation of sound and graphics. But I thought the cleverest use of the digital wall was to see it used as a giant flight destination board, eventually showing that each destination had been cancelled because of border closure. It served as a livid post-Brexit dystopian warning.
Massive were later joined onstage by the powerful vocal trio Young Fathers and Bristol favourite Tricky. But because the audio tech is so overwhelmingly powerful, verbal communication was sometimes completely lost. In particular Robert Del Naja was rendered almost inaudible by synth saturation, which was a pity because I really wanted to hear what he had to say.
At the end of the night, what stayed most prominently in the mind was the simple power of a single human voice. In Kate Tempest we had our own Joyce, the jewel in the crown of this unique and wonderful event. Simon Bishop 4th September 2016
