2006
Newsworthy events from 06'
The Collected microsite designed to promote not only the Best Of collection but all of Massive Attack's previous major releases in the run up to its release launched on this date. Each subsequent week (on a Monday), the microsite expanded its content to include each album starting with Blue Lines on the 10th January and working its way up in chronological order until Live with Me on the 13th March where it skipped 2 weeks until the 27th March, where it revealed the Collected content. The content for each album revealed included a music and video player, mobile ringtunes, wallpaper, screensaver, buddy icons and in the case of Collected, an EPK Interview Podcast split into 5 parts.
The promo video for Live With Me, directed by Johnathan Glazier is filmed in Camberwell in London, UK. Filming also continues on into the next day on the video.
The alternative promo video for Live With Me known as the "performance version", directed once again by Johnatan Glazier is filmed at asylum studios in Middlesex,UK.
The promo video for False Flags, directed by Paul Gore is filmed in Brixton in London,UK
BBC Radio 1 had the exclusive world first radio play of Live with Me on the Jo Whiley show, with the song being released to general radio playlists across the world the day afterwards.
Channel 4 in the UK had the world exclusive first showing of the promo video for Live With Me directed by Johnathan Glazier. The video was shown at 11:30pm GMT.
Live With Me is released as a single in certain European terroities.
Live With Me is released as a single in the UK
Triple J Radio, an Australian radio station broadcasts an 11 track mixtape compiling some of Massive Attack's highlights from the last 15 years. This mixtape is notable as it contains Small Time Shoot Em' Up, the first time in the world this track was played on air or heard by fans.
Collected is released in Japan. this is the earliest release date in the world.
Collected is released in Germany. This is first European country to recieve it.
Collected is released in the UK and throughout most other European terrioties. The Itunes release of the Regular edition is also released on this date.
Collected is released throughout North and South America.
The Special Edition version of Collected is released on Itunes.
The 2006 tour to promote the recent release of Collected, gets under way at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, USA with a mini tour of the West coast(Seattle,Denver and the Coachella Festival). Not only is this the first date of this year's tour, it is also the first North American date in nearly 8 whole years, the last one being at the Palladium in Los Angeles,USA on 27th September 1998.
Massive Attack performed an exclusive live performance for the BBC which was broadcast on the Dermot O'Leary Radio 2 show. The show was recorded sometime earlier in May but broadcast on this date.
The long awaited collabaration project from ex "Faith No More" member Mike Patton, "Peeping Tom" is released. The album features a Massive Attack collaborartion with Mike Patton on vocals called "Kill The DJ".
In a rare appearance, former Massive Attack member Mushroom took part and succeeded in breaking a world record - the highest altitude live concert ever performed. A promotional event for a new band called "The Girls" hailing from Bath,UK, the concert was performed in a one large 16-man hot air balloon over the Wiltshire countryside at about 6000ft for a lucky audidence of two. Mushroom himself for whatever reason, was involved doing DJ duties as part of the band. Quote - Mushroom on the record breaking event - "The balloon was rocking with the music. It was the perfect little gig. That’s what you get with accomplished musicians, they are going to make it work,It’s got me ready for the project I’m working on at the moment. It has taken all the stress away. I can go back into the studio with a clear mind again.” [Virgin Balloon Flights PR - June 2006]
Horace Andy sustained a minor injury involving a motorcycle whilst in Kingston, Jamaica and was out of action for roughly 2 weeks. As a result he missed the opening leg(the first 6 shows) of the 2006 European tour.
The 2006 tour takes off in Europe now with its first date being at the Earth Theatre in Salonika, Greece. This show and the following 5 dates are notable for the absense of Horace Andy as a result of his injury in the prior few days.
The Massive Attack online shop relaunches with new t-shirt designs modelled after Collected and the return of the limited edition lithograph prints(250 only) for each album. All the 100th Window t-shirt designs, flame logo pins and keychains that were apart of the previous online shop were removed.
Following on from a well deserved 2 week break and a brief stop over in Japan for the Summersonic Festival, the second half of the European tour begins in the Philipshalle in Dusseldorf, Germany.
The False Flags/United Snakes EP is released as an exclusive Itunes release. It is the only commerical release of the EP following on from the promo CD and 12" vinyl releases roughly two months earlier.
Offical confirmation was issued, that Massive Attack were forced to reschedule several of their North American shows owing to the fact that essential U.S. immigration visas were not issued in time to key tour personel for the beginning of the North American leg of the tour. The dates affected by this were the first 4 shows of the North American tour namely Toronto(9/10), Montreal(9/11), Detroit(9/12) and Chicago(9/13). All other tour dates remained unaffected.
The rescheduled North American dates were announced as follows: Chicago(9/27), Toronto(10/6), Montreal(10/8) & (10/9). The Detroit date was unfortunately cancelled.
The North American tour continues on from where it left off with the mini tour in April at the Verizon Theatre in Houston, USA. Daddy G was absent for the first leg of the North American tour as he was awaiting the arrival of his newborn child with his wife.
Daddy G's wife gave birth to their third child. Because of this happy occasion, Daddy G missed the first leg of the North American tour, returning to the touring fold for the beginning of the triple New York shows.
The North American and along with it, the entire 2006 tour official comes to an end at the Metropolis in Montreal, Canada. This was 4 days after it was originally intended to end, brought on as a result of the rescheduled gigs.
Massive Attack announced two special one-off live dates for 2007 in order to raise money for the HOPING Foundation, an organisation that hopes to raise money and awareness for Palestinian children living in refugee camps in the Westbank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The shows themselves were be at the Birmingham Academy in Birmingham,UK on the 6th Febuary and Brixton Academy in London,UK the next day on the 7th. Tickets for these dates would go on sale on the 3rd November.
Because of the rapid sell out of tickets for the first 2 dates for the HOPING Foundation benefit gigs in 2007, one last extra date was added. This new date was in Brixton Academy in London,UK on the 8th February making it a 2 night residency for Massive Attack at the Brixton Academy.
An art installation known as Volume opened on this day to the public and which ran to the 28th January 2007 at the John Madejski Garden in London, UK. Volume itself was sponsored by the Victoria and Albert(V&A;) Museum and Sony Playstation. It was an array of light columns positioned dramatically in the centre of the garden, which reacted to human movement, creating a series of unique audio-visual experiences as one stepped through the light columns. Volume was the brainchild of UVA(the designer's behind the visuals at the last 3 Massive Attack tours), who created the visual aspect whilst 3D and Neil Davidige(under their film music production company name of onepointsix) worked on the audio. The audio portion was created mainly from using analogue sounds from old keyboards and converting them by using digital software in an attempt to keep the sound as pure and the sequences natural as possible. The logistics behind Volume consisted of 46 8ft glossy black aluminum columns arranged in a grid, with a panel of LED lights in the front of each one, literally towering over visitors. As the viewer walks into the grid, their position and movement affects the colours and sounds produced by it. The concealed speakers within each light column were devised by Lee Shephard - one of the studio whiz kids behind Massive Attack.
Joel Lewis from UVA on Volume - "Volume is the one we exhibited in November 2006 for 3 months. It was commissioned by Play Station for their Play Station 3 launch event in the UK. We made something visually beautiful, with strong audio. It consists of 46 columns of lights, each equipped with a speaker, so that there are 46 channels of sound. It uses a camera system to track everyone that moves through the installation and responds to them in a different way. We commissioned Massive Attack to do the audio."[PingMag Magazine - April 2007]
3D on Volume - “We’ve had to work on a way of making it so that the whole area will be musical, because if it was random it would just be a cacophony.”[The Times Newspaper - November 2006]
3D on the necessity of using analogue sound recordings in Volume - "We need to have a sequence running so that it’s a beautiful experience" [The Times Newspaper - November 2006]
The Twilight Singer's EP "A Stitch In Time" was released featuring a cover version of Live With Me featuring vocals from Mark Lanegan. The cover version was played many times on The Twilight Singer's live shows throughout 2006.
The Zane Lowe show on BBC Radio 1 hosted a live session appearance by Massive Attack. The sessions on this show were taken from the same sessions recorded in May at Maida Vale studios for the Dermot O'Leary show with the added bonus of Safe From Harm which was omitted on the Dermot O'Leary show. This session also contained a new interview segment conducted over the phone between Zane Lowe and 3D.
The Bitesize Massive Attack EP is released as an exclusive Itunes release, a 5 track selection covering all of Massive Attack's 4 albums up to that point.