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Massive Attack cancel US tour at last minute

Massive Attack have cancelled their US tour at the last minute due to what they describe as “unforeseen circumstances”.

The British trip-hop band were set to perform in the US for the first time in five years, with the first concert scheduled for this Thursday (17 October) at Atlanta’s Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre.

Other US dates included a performance at III Points Festival in Miami FL, and headline shows in Atlanta GA, Washington DC, Boston MA, and Forest Hills NY before the end of the month.

“Due to unforeseen circumstances, Massive Attack must regrettably cancel their upcoming performances”

“Due to unforeseen circumstances, Massive Attack must regrettably cancel their upcoming performances…We appreciate your understanding at this time,” reads a statement from the band.

Massive Attack are represented by UTA in North and South America.

The band recently announced a weekend of live music at Liverpool‘s M&S Bank Arena next month, featuring IDLES and Nile Rodgers, under the banner Act 1.5 presents…

The announcement came on the heels of Act 1.5, the band’s groundbreaking eco-friendly concert in their home city of Bristol.

Read IQ‘s recent interview with A Greener Future’s Claire O’Neill about Act 1.5 in Bristol here.

 

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Pioneering a greener future for live music

The live events industry is facing increasing scrutiny for its environmental footprint. Large-scale events with massive crowds, complex logistics, and extensive energy consumption, can contribute significantly to carbon emissions and waste generation. However, new opportunities are emerging to rethink the way live music events are staged.

M&S Bank Arena Liverpool is at the forefront of this revolution. In collaboration with Massive Attack, Act 1.5 and SJM Concerts, the venue is hosting a series of groundbreaking shows headlined by Massive Attack, IDLES and Nile Rodgers & Chic, and designed to test ways to minimise environmental impact. Building upon the success of Act 1.5’s Bristol accelerator, these events aim to showcase innovative decarbonisation strategies that can be replicated across the industry.

The unique series of shows is being staged to celebrate the recent announcement that Liverpool is the world’s first ‘UN Accelerator City’ for climate action – an accolade to recognise the city’s commitment to innovation and smart regulation to rapidly decarbonise the live music and TV/film production sectors.

Building on the methods first trialled in Bristol, and continuing their partnership with clean energy provider Ecotricity, ‘Act 1.5 presents…’ has a variety of incentives in place to dramatically reduce the level of carbon emissions that would usually be produced at an event of this scale. These include:

“The success of this initiative has the potential to inspire other venues and artists to adopt similar practices”

The majority of carbon emissions and air pollution for major live events comes from how the audience travel. To try and tackle this issue, tickets for this unique event were released in two blocks.

The first block release was available to those that live in the Liverpool City region, with an exclusive 48-hour regional presale taking place. For these ticket buyers, an additional small but fixed fee was added to gig tickets to cover public transport to the event. This will mean that on the day of the show, attendees can enjoy unlimited travel on any train, any bus or any ferry on the Merseytravel network – all day – getting them to and from the show.

In the second block release of tickets, all fans were able to purchase tickets. Offers and incentives on public transport from outside the region – especially rail travel – were shared with buyers via their ticketing agent.

Alongside the live concerts, a headline industry event, called Expedition 1, will be taking place in the arena’s sister venue, Exhibition Centre Liverpool, from 29-30 November to test and showcase eight cross-sectoral pilot projects for rapid decarbonisation across live music, TV and film productions scheduled in 2025.

The success of this initiative has the potential to inspire other venues and artists to adopt similar practices. By demonstrating that it is possible to stage large-scale events in a sustainable manner, ‘Act 1.5 Presents…’ is paving the way for a greener future for the music industry.

As Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack commented, “The talking stage is over, it’s time to act.” By taking bold steps to reduce its environmental footprint, M&S Bank Arena is leading the charge towards a more sustainable and responsible future for live music.

More info on ‘Act 1.5 Presents…’ can be found here. Sign up for updates about Expedition 1 Industry Event here.

 

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Massive Attack, IDLES, Nile Rodgers for climate weekend

Massive Attack has announced a weekend of live music in Liverpool, featuring IDLES and Nile Rodgers, under the banner Act 1.5 presents…

Last month, the British band delivered a groundbreaking eco-friendly concert in their home city of Bristol, dubbed Act 1.5.

The all-day outdoor event was a “manifestation” of a carbon emissions report commissioned by Massive Attack and conducted by scientists at the University of Manchester’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

Today, Massive Attack and the Act 1.5 partners have announced a weekend event at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena between 28–30 November which will build on the sustainability methods first trialled in Bristol.

Continuing their partnership with clean energy provider Ecotricity, ‘Act 1.5 presents…’ will test, operate and adapt a range of measures to dramatically reduce the level of carbon emissions and air pollution that would usually be produced at an event of this scale.

These measures include a localised presale period for anyone living in the Liverpool City Region, an entire event site powered entirely by 100% renewable energy, a public transport incentive initiative to reduce travel emissions, a meat-free arena, 100% zero to landfill waste removal and a single technical set up shared by each act.

“Our recent Bristol show demonstrated beyond question that major live music events can be Paris 1.5 compatible”

News of Act 1.5 presents… coincides with today’s announcement at UN Headquarters in New York that Liverpool is the world’s first ‘UN Accelerator City’ for climate action.

“Our recent Bristol show demonstrated beyond question that major live music events can be Paris 1.5 compatible, and that audiences will embrace change enthusiastically,” says Robert Del Naja, 3D – Massive Attack.

“The vast scope of work in Liverpool and UN recognition means we can now concentrate more dynamic pilots and experiments to rapidly phase out fossil fuels. This idea and this insistence are not going back in any box. We’re delighted to see artists like Coldplay testing elements like localised ticket pre-sales as recommended in the Tyndall Centre Paris 1.5 decarbonisation road map and encourage other artists to do so freely. The talking stage is over, it’s time to act.”

Nile Rogers adds: “Some of the greatest CHIC shows have taken place in Liverpool so I’m thrilled that we are bringing our funk back to the city. We love the people and it’s always a night to remember. However, the circumstances this time are special, as we’re joining forces with our friends in Massive Attack to launch Liverpool’s UN climate action programme across music and film.

“Our We Are Family Foundation community of global youth changemakers have been sounding the alarm and working in the climate change space for years, as have Massive Attack, and now it’s time for all of the music and film communities to get onboard. Yes, we’re going to have a party at Liverpool Arena, but we’re also going to act!”

Read IQ‘s recent interview with A Greener Future’s Claire O’Neill about Act 1.5 in Bristol here.

For more information on Act 1.5 presents… click here.

 

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AGF’s Claire O’Neill hails ‘new dawn’ for sustainable events

A Greener Future (AGF) co-founder Claire O’Neill has hailed a “new dawn” for sustainable live music events after Massive Attack’s groundbreaking eco-friendly concert.

The British band recently delivered their first show in five years, dubbed Act 1.5, which was powered by 100% renewable energy.

Held at Clifton Downs in their home city of Bristol, the concert, production and catering were powered entirely by battery and solar power.

AGF was responsible for advanced planning, on-site sustainability management and coordination, post-event analysis and reporting for the 35,000-capacity concert.

“This show has really pushed the boundaries and shown what is possible in events at scale,” says O’Neill, who has worked on sustainability in live events for 20 years.

“A huge amount of work and effort has gone into the greening of the live sector over time albeit often isolated or on the fringes without becoming the norm. I’ve never seen the entire main stage of a 35,000-capacity event solely depend entirely on a battery which is solely powered by the wind and the sun with no diesel back-up, with 100% vegan menu and extra trains and free EV buses organised for the audience.”

“I think that we’re going to see fewer and fewer diesel generators being used in the coming years, finally”

“A new line has been drawn in the sand for what we expect of events of all sizes, and what can be done when you really put your mind to it, and your money where your mouth is. I think that we’re going to see fewer and fewer diesel generators being used in the coming years, finally.”

Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity and co-founder of Grid Faeries alongside O’Neill, which provided the giant renewable charged batteries, is inclined to agree: “We’ve had several enquiries off the back of the concert and I think it’s only a matter of time before batteries take over from diesel – that’s our intention as the Grid Faeries.”

In fact, battery-powered shows have already been embraced by artists including Billie Eilish, Bruce Springsteen, Lukas Graham and Dave Matthews Band, festivals such as Lollapalooza and venues such as the Netherlands’ Johan Cruijff ArenA.

As O’Neill explains, the Act 1.5 concert was a “manifestation” of a carbon emissions report commissioned by Massive Attack and conducted by scientists at the University of Manchester’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

Findings from the report and the event will be used to develop a roadmap for the live music industry to make events compatible with the 1.5-degree temperature change limit specified in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

“So many people came together to make this happen,” adds O’Neill. “Huge respect to Make Donne who has been working on Act 1.5 along with the band for the last five years, and Jamal Chalabi who went beyond the role of tour managing to navigate much of the sustainability actions of the show on the Bristol Downs.”

“There’s a real fear of stepping away from business as usual – especially when there’s a perceived risk”

But O’Neill says it was the cross-sector collaboration that made the concert viable – particularly in regards to travel, which the report found to be “the single largest contributor to an outdoor event’s carbon footprint”.

To remedy this, Great Western Railway put on specially commissioned trains while Zenobe provided eight fully electric double-decker buses among other things. All vehicles used for transporting batteries and recharging the concert were either fully electric or CNG. Where EV wasn’t possible for trucking and tour buses all suppliers were encouraged to use certified or fuelled by certified waste product HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) fuel.

While these partnerships were invaluable to the event, O’Neill says more infrastructure is needed when it comes to making live music events sustainable.

“We need the rail networks to be cheaper,” says O’Neill. “We need to be able to have drivers or operations happening later if we’re going to have gigs later. There’s infrastructure that needs to be built. We did the composting of all the serverware but we had to take it to a site in West London because there were no in-vessel composters that could process that type of material in the southwest. So these are the kinds of things that we need to work with other sectors on.”

O’Neill has also called on the “bigger players in the industry” to ensure that Act 1.5 is the beginning of a tide change.

“There’s a real fear of stepping away from business as usual – especially when there’s a perceived risk,” she explains. “There is often a resistance to change but what was lovely to see with Act 1.5 is that people who were sceptical at the start came on board by the end and were excited to be a part of something that has a positive impact and worked.”

“The economics have caught up with the environmental reasoning at this stage”

As for misconceptions about the affordability of sustainable events, O’Neill argues: “There’s funding available and finances to build out the grid. Economics has caught up with environmental reasoning at this stage. It makes economic sense to change, and even more so when we factor in the cost of not taking climate action.”

The new Labour government in the UK is also a source of optimism for the AGF chief: “There’s a kind of a green light for green sectors to start making the solutions available, and which connects into temporary events as well. Our ultimate aim with the Grid Faeries, for instance, is to work with sites where connecting to the grid is a possibility. The batteries are a stepping stone towards making sites that are used regularly actually fit for purpose, so you don’t truck in a lot of extra equipment. And then when we build out the grid, where possible we build new renewables too, which will move us towards energy independence as a country.”

Excuses banished, O’Neill concludes: “Rather than it being like ‘Oh yes, the green event stuff is all very nice but the technology is not there yet, or it’s too expensive, or we can’t take that kind of risk on the headliner of the show. Actually, that’s all been proven now. We’ve done it and so from here, we can just keep on building from that.”

AGF are now working together on the post-event analysis supporting Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, which will help form a blueprint for eco-friendly touring that will be made publicly available.

Findings from the event will be presented at the 17th edition of the Green Events & Innovations Conference (GEI).

 

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Massive Attack cancel gig in Georgia amid protests

British band Massive Attack have pulled out of their upcoming concert in Georgia in protest against the government’s “attack on basic human rights”.

The gig was set to take place on 28 July at the Black Sea Arena (cap. 9,000) near Batumi, the country’s second-largest city.

It was announced in April as part of Starring Georgia, a two-year campaign that has brought international stars such as OneRepublic, Scorpions and Jungle to the country.

The cancellation of Massive Attack’s concert was initially announced by organisers, who claimed that it had been made due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

But in a statement issued a few hours later on Wednesday (12 June), the trip-hop band clarified that they feared appearing in Georgia would be seen as an endorsement of the country’s political leadership.

Hundreds of thousands of people have massed outside Georgia’s parliament in recent months to protest against a “foreign agents” law. It obliges media and civil society organisations with over 20% of their revenues from abroad to register as “organisations serving the interests of a foreign power”.

The legislation has been described by Brussels as an obstacle to Georgia’s accession to the European Union, while the US state department has also raised its concerns that the “Kremlin-inspired law” is evidence that the country’s government is realigning with Moscow three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, per The Guardian.

“Beatings, arrests, threats and violence… go against everything we stand for”

Those protesting against the law have been seized off the streets and political opponents have been beaten by both police officers and unidentified gangs.

Georgia’s ruling party also came under scrutiny earlier this year when it introduced a bill that would prevent same-sex marriages from being registered and ensure that only “heterosexuals” could adopt children.

At the same time, references to LGBTQ+ people would be erased from public spaces under the draft legislation, and schools would be banned from making available information that supposedly “promotes belonging to the opposite sex, same-sex relations or incest”.

“At this moment, performing at the state-owned Black Sea Arena could be seen as an endorsement of their violent crackdown against peaceful protests and civil society,” said Massive Attack in a statement.

“Beatings, arrests, threats and violence against peaceful protesters, activists and opponents, along with laws smearing civil society and denying LGBTI rights, go against everything we stand for.”

The Bristol band added that they stood in “solidarity with peaceful protesters in Georgia defying state violence and feel that it is their voices that need to be heard and their struggle that needs to be under the international spotlight”.

Organisers of the event said ticket holders would be refunded.

The news comes a month after 4GB Festival, an annual international electronic music festival held in Georgia since 2011, cancelled its 2024 edition amid the protests.

“Based on the situation in the country, we consider it unjustified to hold a festival at this time,” organisers wrote on Instagram. “Our full support to every person fighting for the European future of Georgia.”

 

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Massive Attack plan gig powered by 100% renewables

British band Massive Attack has announced their first concert in five years, which will be powered by 100% renewable energy.

The outdoor show, which will take place on Clifton Downs in their home city of Bristol, will have the lowest carbon footprint of any concert of its size, according to the band.

The concert, production and catering will be powered entirely by battery and solar power. In addition, food vendors will be vetted to ensure they use locally sourced produce and a “climate-resilient woodland plantation in the south-west region” will be created after the show.

The Act 1.5 concert, scheduled for 25 August 2024, will primarily target audience travel – “the single largest contributor to an outdoor event’s carbon footprint”.

Mark Donne, a filmmaker and climate activist who has worked with Massive Attack on several projects, said 65% to 85% of emissions for large-scale shows comes from audience travel. “This will be the first show that meaningfully deals with that,” he said.

“In terms of climate change action, there are no excuses left”

Massive Attack will give local fans priority when it comes to tickets, train travel will be encouraged, and the organisers are putting on free electric buses to ferry crowds back to Bristol Temple Meads station if they’ve come from farther afield.

The band said all vehicles used for the concert will either be electric or fuelled by certified waste product HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) fuel.

“We’re chuffed to play our home city again and to be able do it in the right way,” reads a statement from the band. “In terms of climate change action, there are no excuses left. Offsetting, endless seminars and diluted declarations have all been found out – so live music must drastically reduce all primary emissions and take account of fan travel.

“Working with pioneering partners on this project means we can seriously move the dial for major live music events and help create precedents.”

The concert is the band’s latest attempt to tackle the live industry’s carbon footprint. In 2021 Massive Attack created a guide for the music industry on how to combat climate change, in conjunction with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. And in 2019 the band decided to tour by train rather than flying between European concerts.

 

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Massive Attack rallies gov for carbon emissions plan

British band Massive Attack are calling on the government to introduce a plan to cut carbon emissions in the live music business.

It comes after the band commissioned the University of Manchester for a report on the issue using their tour data.

The result of the report is a resource entitled ‘Roadmap To Super Low Carbon Live Music’ which is designed to support the sector’s reduction of emissions in line with the UN Paris Agreement.

While the report makes a number of recommendations for sectors across the live industry, Massive Attack’s Robert del Naja (aka 3D) says the sector ultimately needs more government support in order to achieve its goal.

“Our sector is operating in a government void”

“Our sector is operating in a government void,” says Robert del Naja (aka 3D), Massive Attack. “Nine weeks out of COP26, where is the industrial plan, or any plan at all, for the scale of transformation that’s required for the UK economy and society?

“Fossil fuel companies seem to have no problem at all getting huge subsidies from government, but where is the plan for investment in clean battery technology, clean infrastructure or decarbonised food supply for a live music sector that generates £4.6 billion for the economy every year & employs more than 200k dedicated people? It simply doesn’t exist.”

The report lists a number of actions for local and national governments including:

“We hope that this roadmap can help to catalyse change by outlining the scale of action required”

Some of the key recommendations for the live music industry include:

Professor Carly McLachlan from the University of Manchester’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, says: “We hope that this roadmap can help to catalyse change by outlining the scale of action required and how this maps across the different elements of a tour. To reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change, touring practices need to be reassembled differently as the industry emerges from the significant challenges that the pandemic has created.

“This starts from the very inception of a tour and requires the creativity and innovation of artists, managers, promoters, designers and agents to be unleashed to establish new ways of planning and delivering live music tours.”

Christopher Jones from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research will be presenting the ‘Roadmap To Super Low Carbon Live Music’ at the Green Events and Innovations Conference’s (GEI) upcoming Summer Edition – tickets for which are on sale now.

 

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Environment top of agenda for major UK events

The 1975 and Massive Attack, two British bands at the forefront of the effort to make touring more sustainable, have recently announced headline performances in London this summer.

Festival Republic, whose managing director Melvin Benn has spearheaded various environmental projects at UK live music events, is promoting a one-day event headlined by the 1975 in North London’s Finsbury Park on 11 July – the Manchester band’s biggest-ever show and, according to a statement from the promoter, the greenest event ever put on in the park.

Charli XCX, Clairo, Pale Waves, Phoebe Bridgers and Beabadoobee will also perform at the event, which will be entirely powered by sustainably sourced Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) fuel – a form of renewable diesel produced from vegetable fats and oils lowering the show’s carbon footprint by 90%.

In addition to the 1975’s one tree planted initiative, which sees the band plant one tree for every ticket sold to their shows, Festival Republic will plant 1,975 trees in the park’s surrounding boroughs of Haringey, Hackney and Islington, in partnership with charity Trees for Cities.

Fans are encouraged to bring old band t-shirts to the show for reprinting with new logos, as part of the 1975’s sustainable merchandise range. Other eco-friendly measures include the use of hybrid-powered generators with solar arrays, and a traffic light system to highlight the carbon footprint of food options.

The 1975 and Massive Attack, two bands at the forefront of the effort to make touring more sustainable, have announced headline performances in London this summer

Elsewhere in London, Massive Attack are headlining AEG Presents’ All Points East festival on Sunday 24 May, adding to previously announced headliners Kraftwerk and Tame Impala. Nils Frahm, Young Fathers, Neneh Cherry and Sevdaliza are among other acts performing on the Massive Attack-headlined day.

The Bristol-hailing band have been vocal on the subject of touring’s environmental impact, commissioning a team of researchers to look into how the live industry can reduce its carbon footprint, performing at the Extinction Rebellion climate protest in London, and pledging to tour Europe by train.

The eco initiatives employed by Festival Republic, the 1975, Massive Attack and others will form part of the discussion at leading live industry sustainability gathering the Green Events and Innovations Conference (GEI) on 3 March. Tickets for GEI 2020 are available here.

Tickets for the 1975’s Finsbury Park show go on sale at 9 a.m. on 31 January, priced from £52.50 plus booking fee for general admission, with VIP options also available.

Massive Attack tickets will come on sale in due course. More information can be found here.

Photo: Begoña/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) (cropped)

 

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Norwegian DJ embarks on carbon neutral tour

Norwegian DJ and producer Matoma, real name Tom Stræte Lagergren, is preparing for a climate-neutral concert tour.

Prior to the upcoming US leg of Matoma’s One in a Million tour, the DJ has partnered with climate advocates Chooose to measure the carbon footprint expected from the tour and plan to neutralise emissions.

According to the DJ, the tour will be the first to actively remove unavoidable emissions, using carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in Finland. The aim is to reduce tour emissions by twice the initial footprint, removing 20 tonnes of CO2 from the air.

“We’re thrilled to be actually removing the remaining carbon with our partners in Finland, and continuing to find new ways and technologies to solve this global problem,” says Lagergren.

“We’re thrilled to be actually removing the remaining carbon and continuing to find new ways and technologies to solve this global problem”

The DJ and his team will also reduce emissions on a local scale, using public transport, eating vegetarian meals, staying in sustainable hotels and making an effort to limit electricity consumption.

The tour kicks off on 16 January in Austin and wraps up on 18 April at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California.

The approach is the latest attempt to tackle touring’s carbon footprint, adding to Massive Attack’s academic study into the industry’s carbon emissions and plans to tour by train, Coldplay’s touring hiatus and A Greener Festival’s Green Artist Rider initiative.

Experts will gather to discuss the environmental impact of touring and how to mitigate it at the next Green Events and Innovation (GEI) conference in March.

Photo: Tore Sætre/Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

 

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Massive Attack announce latest eco initiative

Bristol band Massive Attack have announced they will travel by train when touring Europe in future, in the group’s latest attempt to tackle the live industry’s carbon footprint.

The announcement follows the band’s commissioning of the University of Manchester’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research to look into ways in which the live music industry can reduce its carbon footprint. Band travel is one of the three key areas the research will focus on, along with audience transport and venues.

Massive Attack were also among acts to perform at the Extinction Rebellion climate protests in London in October 2019.

Currently on tour in North America, Massive Attack will return to Europe in summer 2020, making appearances at the Netherlands’ Best Kept Secret Festival and Les Eurockéennes in France, among others.

“The challenge now is to not only make personal sacrifices, but to insist on the systemic change that’s needed”

Lead singer Robert Del Naja, also known as 3D, told the BBC: “[As musicians] we have enjoyed a high-carbon lifestyle. But as a society we’ve all existed in a fossil-fuel economy for a long time and had very little choice in that.

“The challenge now is to not only make personal sacrifices, but to insist on the systemic change that’s needed. Business as usual is over.”

Coda Agency and A Greener Festival (AGF) launched the Green Artist Rider at the Green Events and Innovations Conference (GEI) in March last year, in a bid to reduce the environmental impact of touring. Tickets for GEI 2020 are available here.

 

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