Info → Saturday Come Slow
Blur frontman Damon Albarn provided vocals on Saturday Come Slow, which marked his third distinct collaboration with Massive Attack over the years.
UK Release: 8th February 2010 (Heligoland)
Track Duration: 03:43
Formats: CD, Vinyl, Digital. View Discography Entry.
Written By: Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Damon Albarn, Stew Jackson and Dan Brown
Produced By: Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall and Neil Davidge
Additional Guitar: Adrian Utley
Promo Video Directed By: Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin
Video Producer: Black Dog Films
Filming Location: Audio Anechoic Chamber, Cambridge University, UK
Date Of Filming: 19th February 2010
Video Duration: 08:00
Saturday Come Slow was initially the brainchild of Daddy G working separately on his own from 3D. The track was conceived in early 2006 between himself and members of a Bristol music production team known as The Robot Club (Stew Jackson and Dan Brown), who would also work on the Helgioland track, Paradise Circus. A demo of Saturday Come Slow was sent to Blur's Damon Albarn in March 2006 and he would compose his lyrics to the song within an hour of first listening to it.
The track was shelved for almost another 3 years until Damon Albarn came to work with Massive Attack for a period of 2 weeks in early 2009 in his London studio to put the finishing touches on this song while also simultanouely helping them compose the track Splitting The Atom.
An interview with Massive Attack in the Sunday Times newspaper in March 2006 contained the first mention of the track's name and Damon Albarn as its intended vocalist, even though it would be almost another 4 years until the completed track was finally heard on the Heligoland album.
Adrian Utley of the Bristol band, Portishead, played additional guitar on the Saturday Come Slow track.
Before this track, Damon Albarn had previously worked with Massive Attack on the tracks One Day At A Time in 2000, and Small Time Shot Away in 2003. He would also feature on another Heligoland track, Splitting The Atom; playing keyboards and synth.
Adrian Utley, the chief guitarist in fellow Bristol band, Portishead, contributed to Saturday Come Slow as a session guitarist on the track.
Saturday Come Slow has only been played live on two occasions both of which were in London. The first time was on the 17th September 2009 at the Brixton Academy, London. The second time was on the 11th February 2010 at the Hammersmith Apollo, London. On both times, the song was the second last song played and Damon Albarn joined the band on stage to perform the song. Damon Albarn had once performed live on stage with Massive Attack before at their Tsunami Benefit gig in Bristol back in February 2005.
3D on his interpretation of Damon's lyrics for Saturday Come Slow – "Damon wrote this about Bristol and the sort of limestone caves of the south-west land. 'One sound that the believers understand': you know, it's definitely about Bristol and Damon interpreting our relationship with our own land. It's almost, like, you know, frontiers and medieval times, when the land was divided into counties, this being the county of Bristol and his view of it. And also I think his experience of passing through it and of places like Glastonbury or Devon." [The Independent – February 2010]
3D on on working with Damon Albarn in early 2009 on Saturday Come Slow – "It changed everything up. It was a different energy and a different environment. We started to strip everything back and build it back up again. That feels like the start of what the album is now." [The Daily Telegraph – Janurary 2010]
Damon Albarn on stage performing Saturday come Slow with Massive Attack at their show in London's Brixton Academy on the 17th September 2009. Watch a YouTube clip of this performance here.
Lost in the magic
From the last time
This town turning
My rose to desire
Saturday comes slow
Do you love me?
Do you love me?
Or is there nothing there?
In the limestone caves
In the south west lands
One time in the kingdom
Believe is on the sand
Saturday comes slow
Do you love me?
Do you love me?
Or is there nothing there?
Saturday comes slow
Do you love me?
Do you love me?
Do you love me?
Do you love me?
Or is there nothing there?
The Guantanamo prisoner, Ruhal Ahmed, who was the main subject of the short film produced to promote Saturday Come Slow.
The video for Saturday Come Slow was similar to the other videos produced for the Helgilnad album in being less of a traditional music video and more of a experimental short film.
In this case, this particular video was shot inside Cambridge University’s anechoic chamber – a soundproofed room that dampens all background noise to create total silence. Within the eerily muffled chamber, Ruhal Ahmed, a former Guantanamo detainee, recounts his experiences at the hands of the interrogation squad. For over two years, he was held and questioned repeatedly, often left in isolation for days on end whilst excruciatingly loud music was piped into the room. Ahmed’s recollections are interspersed with scientific commentary on the effects of extreme noise on the human body, and audio clips of Saturday Come Slow set to sound-related animations created by London design studio APFEL.