What we have here is a bit of a misnomer, as this is'nt really a new bootleg, but an upgrade on an existing one that used to be shared on the old MA.IE.
Back in May 2006, while doing the rounds for Collected, Massive Attack payed a visit to the BBC Maida Vale Studios and recorded a session for them. That session was a great example of their live sound captured in a studio environment, and its still one of the best live recordings I've heard from them. We even have the added bonus of a pre X-Factor Dermot O'Leary interviewing 3D. Check out the photos from that session by clicking here.
The unfortunate thing about it was, whilst 7 tracks were recorded that day, only 4 were ever broadcast. The missing trio of Future Proof, Black Melt and Safe From Harm went unheard (or at least if they were re-broadcast no one made a recording). Until now.
BBC Live 2006 Promo CD-R. Download Here.
I've come into possession of a very rare promo CD-R, which contains all 7 tracks that were recorded that day. Officially produced live material of Massive Attack is quite rare, so this is definitely a bit of a find.
Did I mention, this recording has one of the best live versions of Safe From Harm I've heard. I'm a fan of how Safe From Harm has been performed since 2006 onwards. You know the bit I'm talking about when the song breaks down in the 2nd half, and all the guitar effects come in and slowly build up to an almighty crescendo. One of my favourite moments at any Massive Attack show and its captured in perfect studio quality on this disc.
Well enough with me prattling on about it, here's the download link -
http://massiveattack.ie/media/bootlegs/bbc-maida-vale-studios-london-uk-15th-may-2006/
You'll need to be logged in to see the links on that page. Call me a bastard for doing that, but I've got to encourage registration someway or another ;-)
I'm going to make a future post, picking out some of my favourite live recordings of Massive Attack I've collected and listened to over the years. They can all be downloaded by going to the bootlegs section, but I believe there's over a 100 of them now, and some sort of recommendation guide on which ones to download first, would'nt go amiss. Until next time on the blog...
Massive Attack's debut album, Blue Lines came out in April 1991, so you'll have to forgive me as I'm nearly 6 months behind on writing this post to mark its 25th anniversary.
In my time as a Massive Attack fan while loving their music of course, I've also been an avid collector of the band's physical releases. CD's vinyls, cassettes, promos etc... you name it, if its got the Massive Attack name on it I've probably either bought it or am still trying to find it! I've even dedicated a section of this site (Discography) to listing and detailing all of these said releases.
We're roughly halfway through Massive Attack's 2016 tour, which has just finished its UK leg before hitting the rest of Europe, so its about time for a news update post covering all that's been going on in the last couple of weeks.