Massive Attack Blog

In Support Of Victims Of Torture

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:38:00 +0100

Today is the UN's support In Support Of Victims Of Torture Day... go to http://www.zerodb.org/

posted by MP

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100

we're going to let you know you what's happening with release of new music very soon, sorry it's been quiet on that front for a while. you'll be the first to know. thanks as ever, for your support.

New UK show

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:12:00 +0100

Reading Rivermead: 23rd September... Tickets: 0118 960 6060

Hope Not Hate

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100

The BNP don't represent Britain: http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/page/s/notinmyname

EUROPEAN SHOWS

Fri, 01 May 2009 23:04:00 +0100

Check back for links and for info:
October 6th Dublin,
Olympia 7th Dublin,
Olympia 14th Moscow,
Luzhniki Sports Palace 16th Helsinki,
Old Ice Hall 18th Stockholm,
Annexet 19th Copenhagen,
Falkoner Theatre 20th Oslo,
Sentrum Scene 22nd Frankfurt,
Jahrunderhalle 23rd Koln,
Palladium 24th Antwerp,
Lotto Arena 25th Brussels,
Forset National 27th Amsterdam,
Heineken Music Hall 30th Berlin,
Tempodrome November 1st Graz,
Helmut List Hall 2nd Vienna,
Gasometer 3rd Prague,
Lucema 4th Bratislava,
PKO 6th Zagreb,
Sportova 7th Milan,
Palasharp 10th Paris,
Zenith 11th Paris,
Zenith 13th Nantes,
Zenith 14th Lille,
Zenith 15th Metz,
Arenes 16th Lyon,
Halle Tony Garnier 18th Marsielle,
Le Dome 19th Toulouse,
Le Pahre 21st Lisbon,
Campo Pequeno 22nd Lisbon,
Campo Pequeno 24th Winterthur, Eishalle

UK TOUR

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:45:00 +0100

http://www.gigsandtours.com/?s=massive+attack

UK TOUR

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:00:00 +0100

POSTED BY MACHINE: SEPTEMBER UK DATES ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 9:00 CHECK BACK WEDNESDAY FOR MORE DETAILS AND PRE-SALES

SUMMER OF SUBMISSION

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:00:00 +0000

POSTED BY ROBERT: FEEL FREE TO CONGREGATE IN GROUPS OF MORE THAN THREE PLAYING LOUD AND REPETITIVE MUSIC AT ALL HOURS.FEEL FREE TO JUGGLE AND BURN EFFIGIES. STOP RECYCLING GLASS AND START COLLECTING BOTTLES THERE IS A BETTER USE FOR YOUR HOUSEHOLD WASTE.SNAP UP THE LAST OF THE AUTUMN/WINTER SKI WEAR MASK AND BALACLAVA COLLECTION.NOW THE GOOD TIMES ARE OVER AND THE FINE WINE RACK IS DRY THAT COMBUSTIBLE CHEAP PLONK AND A LITTLE BBQ FUEL WILL BE LIGHT THE PLACE UP WHEN RE-BOTTLED AND USELESS WORK OVERALLS LYING DORMANT STUFFED WITH JOB APPLICATION FORMS, WILL MAKE HANDY RAGS WHEN SHREDDED LIKE PRIVATE ACCOUNT INFORMATION. AND LASTLY BUT MOST IMPOTENTLY..LETS CUT SOME SERIOUS STENCIL PEOPLE!

AN UPDATE

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:00:00 +0000

POSTED BY ROBERT: SPRING WAS IN THE AIR TIGHT CONTAINER OF 100 SUNS STUDIOS..OUR HEADS WERE DOWN OVER THE ELECTRIC DESK LOOKING FOR SINES,GNAWING AND CLAWING AT THE MATTER THAT WILL BECOME LP5-'WEATHER UNDERGROUND'/STEAL IT BACK'..OR ANY EQUALLY INANE SUGGESTIONS..PLEASE POST ON THE FORUM.KEEPING IT TOPICALLY ANGRY MIXED WITH A SUBMISSIVE MARITIME AIR OF APATHY FROM THE CITY WITHOUT A CLOCK.IT TRULY WAS A GLORIOUS WEEK THAT ALMOST DEFROSTED THE COLD STRANGLED TURKEY OF 2009-FROM THE MYSTIC MAGNOLIA OF DEVON TO THE STOLEN CHARMS OF EDINBURGH.

Bestival date

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:32:00 +0000

posted by machine: Massive will headline Bestival on The Isle Of White on September 11th. Other acts include Kraftwerk, MGMT, Fleet Foxes, Klaxons and Diplo. More touring news soon. http://www.bestival.net/

DEC appeal

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:26:00 +0000

posted by machine: please go to www.dec.org.uk and make whatever donation you can.

yusuf track in aid of the children of gaza

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:27:00 +0000

Today sees the release of "The Day the World Gets 'Round" - a song written by George Harrison which has been rerecorded by Yusuf as a charity download in aid of the suffering children of Gaza. Please show your support for the innocents affected by the recent conflict by downloading the song from iTunes at the following link - you will need to have the iTunes application installed on your PC/Mac first. To download iTunes go to: http://apple.com/itunes/download And the song link: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=303114064&s=143444 Proceeds will be donated to various charities including UNRWA and Save the Children. Spread the word!

gorillas.org part 2

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:45:00 +0000

It is with great sadness, that the Gorilla Organization received confirmation of the death of ranger Safari Kakule. Safari was at Mount Tshiaberimu with six other rangers during the evening of 8 January when they were attacked by rebel militia without warning. They defended their position, managing to detain a rebel officer, but the attack was extremely violent and the rangers were far outnumbered. As they retreated from their position, Safari was fatally hit by the attackers’ gunfire. Safari was an exceptional ranger, who had worked on the Gorilla Organization project at Mount Tshiaberimu for over three years. Recently Safari had taken part in gorilla health monitoring training organised by the Gorilla Organization through Conservation through Public Health (CTPH). He was expected to play a very important role in protecting the gorillas of Tshiaberimu. His body was carried out of the forest by his colleagues and brought to Kyondo, several hours from where the attack took place. From there he was taken back to Lubero, to a final resting place at his family home. Safari leaves a widow and three children. Gorilla veterinarian, Gladys Kalema recalls Safari’s visit to Bwindi where he took part in gorilla health monitoring training towards the end of last year. “Safari was such a hardworking and dedicated ranger, with a great personality. May God rest him in peace”. Fifteen rangers were dispatched during the early hours of 9 January. After a long and arduous journey to the remote area of Mount Tshiaberimu they arrived safely. The rangers will help the Mount Tshiaberimu team strengthen their position, which remains extremely fragile. ICCN Director Norbert Mushenzi, head ranger, Atamato and Gorilla Organization project manager and Tshiaberimu Conservator, Jean-Claude Kyungu are all on site, conducting the investigation and organising the emergency reinforcements. The rebel that was arrested by the rangers during the attack has been questioned and several leads on the perpetrators of the attack have been identified. About Mount Tshiaberimu Mount Tshiaberimu is a stunning area in the northern annex of the Virunga National Park, DR Congo, which has long been an area of scientific interest. In 1996 a tiny population of just 16 rare gorillas were found at Mount Tshiaberimu and the ICCN believed that they would soon be extinct if no conservation action was taken. The gorillas are currently classified as eastern lowland gorillas, but there are morphologically different to those elsewhere and may yet be reclassified as a distinct sub-species. This project combines conservation, research, education and community development to protect these precious gorillas and their habitat whilst improving the standard of living for the local communities.

gorillas.org

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Posted by ROBERT I was devastated to hear today that a ranger, safari kakule, was killed on thursday at the station that i sponsored in the DR Congo. these amazing people put their lives on the line to protect the mountain gorillas. this is the UN year of the gorilla and we are planning a pan African gig/event to raise money and awareness later in the year. please help-donations and information at http://gorillas.org/ranger_killed_at_tshiaberimu

tanya reinhart hamas article

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:22:00 +0000

Posted by ROBERT. photo from Saturday's march: The Hamas Government Should be Recognized Tanya Reinhart The Hamas government must be recognized, not only because recognition of Hamas would be good for Israel, as the former Mossad head Ephraim Halevy recently argued, [1] but because this is the right move by any criterion of justice and international law. The U.S. and Europe decided, despite Israel�s opposition, to permit the Palestinian people to hold democratic elections. According to Jimmy Carter�s report in the �Herald Tribune�, the elections were �honest, fair, strongly contested, without violence and with the results accepted by winners and losers. Among the 62 elections that have been monitored by... the Carter Center, these are among the best in portraying the will of the people.�[2] In a just and well-ordered world, it would be unthinkable for a government that was elected in this way to be disqualified because Israel does not like the choice of the electorate in question. But in a world in which the U.S. rules, might is right, and might can define democracy as it chooses. Thus it was announced that the outcome of the Palestinian elections would not be recognized until the three �mantras� were fulfilled: Hamas must renounce terror, honour previous accords, and recognize the State of Israel. Meanwhile the Palestinian people would be punished and starved through an economic boycott, in the hope that this will lead to the collapse of the elected government. In January 2005, Hamas announced its resolution to replace armed struggle with political struggle and agreed to a unilateral ceasefire (�calm�). In the 17 months since then, Hamas has not perpetrated a single terrorist attack. According to security sources, since the election, Hamas has not even participated in the launching of Qassam rockets from Gaza; most rocket launches are carried out by Fatah. [3] What exactly is the substance of the demand that Hamas renounce terror? Regarding previous accords, Hamas PM Haniyeh explained that according to the Oslo Accords of 1993, after an interim period of five years, a Palestinian state was to have come into existence. But Israel violated every clause of the Accords and continued to colonize and to dispossess Palestinians of their lands. From now on, he says, his government will only honour accords that are good for the Palestinian people. Since the Oslo Accords, we Israelis have become accustomed to the idea that negotiations with the Palestinian Authority always revolve around the sole question of what is good for Israel - the extent to which the Palestinians are prepared to recognize its existence as a Jewish state and to take care of its security. Suddenly Israel is confronted with an elected Palestinian government which is not willing to play that game any more. Haniyeh is telling the government of Israel: From now on, you will represent the position of Israel in the negotiations, and we will represent the position of the Palestinians. At the Algiers meeting of the Palestine National Council in 1988, the Palestinian people undertook to recognize the partition of the country and to be satisfied with a state within the 1967 borders. Israel has not done a thing since then to prove that it is prepared to accept such a compromise. The Palestinians will recognize the right of Israel to exist only when Israel proves that it is prepared to recognize the right of the Palestinian people to exist. But that is precisely what the governments of Israel and the army have never accepted. No Palestinian leadership has yet been found to be a suitable partner for peace, but a leadership that announces that it represents only the Palestinian people is in their eyes a real enemy that must be destroyed. Olmert may have succeeded in garnering a majority in the U.S. Congress for a boycott of the Hamas government, but in Israeli society itself he does not have a majority. According to a poll by the Truman Institute in March of this year, 62% of Israelis are in favour of negotiations with Hamas. [4] But for quite some time now, the majority in Israel has had no say. At the moment, what remains to be hoped for is that Europe will come to its senses and also influence the U.S. to accept the democratic choice of the Palestinian people. Tanya Reinhart is a lecturer in linguistics, media and cultural studies at Tel Aviv University and the University of Utrecht. She is the author of several books, including Israel/Palestine: How to End the 1948 War (Seven Stories Press, 2002). This article was first published in Yediot Aharonot on May 31, 2006, and was translated from Hebrew by Mark Marshall (quotes and references added).

snapshots from the demo on saturday.

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:46:00 +0000

posted by ROBERT aintest glimmer of optimism coming from the obama camp-suggesting possible dialogue with hamas. and in case you were wondering... Tony Blair, special envoy to the Knightsbridge Armani store Kul ‘am wa intu bikhair! In these war times it is nice to know that we have skilled diplomats who work day and night to secure a ceasefire. Thanks to Mark Farha for allerting me to the story. Tony Blair, special envoy to the Middle East, has been spending Christmas and New Year with his family, only arriving in his Jerusalem office on Saturday, just in time to watch the land invasion from a safe distance. “For at least part of the time he was in London, where he was spotted at a special private opening of the Armani store in Knightsbridge,” the Daily Mail reports. “Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: ‘People in the Middle East are entitled to ask themselves, “Where is Tony Blair?” “‘So far he has been conspicuous by his absence.’” “In a weekend interview, Gordon Brown was asked if he had talked to his predecessor since the crisis began. He replied: ‘Tony’s on holiday at the moment.’” Well, with hard work he has put in in 2008, he must have badly needed one.

How Hypocrisy on 'Terrorism' Kills

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

posted by machine: How Hypocrisy on 'Terrorism' Kills By Robert Parry January 01, 2009

"Consortium News"

Hamas rose to power in January 2006 through Palestinian elections, which ironically the Bush administration had demanded. However, after Hamas won a parliamentary majority, Israel and the United States denounced the outcome because they deem Hamas a "terrorist organization."

Hamas then wrested control of Gaza from Fatah, a rival group that once was considered "terrorist" but is now viewed as a U.S.-Israeli partner, so it has been cleansed of the "terrorist" label.

Unwilling to negotiate seriously with Hamas because of its acts of terrorism - which have included firing indiscriminate short-range missiles into southern Israel - the United States and Israel sat back as the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza worsened, with 1.5 million impoverished Palestinians packed into what amounts to a giant open-air prison.

When Hamas ended a temporary cease-fire on Dec. 19 because of a lack of progress in those negotiations and began lobbing its little missiles into Israel once more, the Israeli government reacted on Saturday with its lethal "shock and awe" firepower - even though no Israelis had been killed by the post-cease-fire missiles launched from Gaza. [Since Saturday, four Israelis have died in more intensive Hamas missile attacks.]

Israel claimed that its smart bombs targeted sites related to the Hamas security forces, including a school for police cadets and even regular policemen walking down the street. But it soon became clear that Israel was taking an expansive view of what was part of the Hamas military infrastructure, with Israeli bombs taking out a television station and a university building as well as killing a significant number of civilians.

As the slaughter continued on Monday, Israeli officials confided to Western journalists that the war plan was to destroy the vast support network of social and other programs that undergird Hamas's political clout.

"There are many aspects of Hamas, and we are trying to hit the whole spectrum, because everything is connected and everything supports terrorism against Israel," a senior Israeli military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Washington Post.

"Hamas's civilian infrastructure is a very, very sensitive target," added Matti Steinberg, a former top adviser to Israel's domestic security service. "If you want to put pressure on them, this is how." [Washington Post, Dec. 30, 2008]

Since the classic definition of "terrorism" is the use of violence against civilians to achieve a political goal, Israel would seem to be inviting an objective analysis that it has chosen its own terrorist path. But it is clearly counting on the U.S. news media to continue wearing the blinders that effectively limit condemnations about terrorism to people and groups that are regarded as Washington's enemies.

Whose Terrorism?

As a Washington-based reporter for the Associated Press in the 1980s, I once questioned the seeming bias that the U.S.-based wire service applied to its use of the word "terrorist" when covering Middle East issues. A senior AP executive responded to my concerns with a quip. "Terrorist is the word that follows Arab," he said.

Though meant as a lighthearted riposte, the comment clearly had a great deal of truth to it. It was easy to attach "terrorist" to any Arab attack - even against a military target such as the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 after the Reagan administration had joined hostilities against Muslim forces by having U.S. warships lob shells into Lebanese villages.

But it was understood that different rules on the use of the word "terrorism" applied when the terrorism was coming from "our side." Then, no American reporter with any sense of career survival would think of injecting the word "terrorist" whatever the justification.

Even historical references to acts of terrorism - such as the brutal practice by American revolutionaries in the 1770s of "tar and feathering" civilians considered sympathetic to the British Crown or the extermination of American Indian tribes - were seen as somehow diluting the moral righteousness against today's Islamic terrorists and in favor of George W. Bush's "war on terror."

Gone, too, from the historical narrative was the fact that militant Zionists employed terrorism as part of their campaign to establish Israel as a Jewish state. The terrorism included killings of British officials who were administering Palestine under an international mandate as well as Palestinians who were driven violently from their land so it could be claimed by Jewish settlers.

One of the most famous of those terrorist attacks was the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem where British officials were staying. The attack, which killed 91 people including local residents, was carried out by the Irgun, a terrorist group run by Menachem Begin who later founded the Likud Party and rose to be Israel's prime minister.

Another veteran of the campaign of Zionist terrorism was Yitzhak Shamir, who also became a Likud leader and eventually prime minister.

In the early 1990s, as I was waiting to interview Shamir at his Tel Aviv office, I was approached by one of his young female assistants who was dressed in a gray and blue smock with a head covering in the traditional Hebrew style.

As we were chatting, she smiled and said in a lilting voice, "Prime Minister Shamir, he was a terrorist, you know." I responded with a chuckle, "yes, I'm aware of the prime minister's biography."

Blind Spot

To maintain one's moral purity in denouncing acts of terror by U.S. enemies, one also needs a large blind spot for recent U.S. history, which implicates U.S. leaders repeatedly in tolerance or acts of terrorism.

For instance, in 1973, after a bloody U.S.-backed coup overthrew the leftist Chilean government, the new regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet joined with other South American dictatorships to sponsor an international terrorist organization called Operation Condor which assassinated political dissidents around the world.

Operation Condor mounted one of its most audacious actions on the streets of Washington in 1976, when Pinochet's regime recruited Cuban-American terrorists to detonate a car bomb that killed Chile's former foreign minister Orlando Letelier and an American co-worker, Ronni Moffitt. The Chilean government's role immediately was covered up by the CIA, then headed by George H.W. Bush. [For details, see Robert Parry's Secrecy & Privilege.]

Only weeks later, a Venezuela-based team of right-wing Cubans - under the direction of Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles - blew a Cubana Airliner out of the sky, killing 73 people. Bosch and Posada, a former CIA operative, were co-founders of CORU, which was described by the FBI as "an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization."

Though the U.S. government soon learned of the role of Bosch and Posada in the Cubana airline attack - and the two men spent some time in a Venezuelan jail - both Bosch and Posada since have enjoyed the protection of the U.S. government and particularly the Bush Family.

Rebuffing international demands that Bosch and Posada be held accountable for their crimes, the Bushes - George H.W., George W. and Jeb - have all had a hand in making sure these unrepentant terrorists get to live out their golden years in the safety and comfort of the United States.

In the 1980s, Posada even crossed over into another U.S.-backed terrorist organization, the Nicaraguan contras. After escaping from Venezuela, he was put to work in 1985 by Oliver North's contra-support operation run out of Ronald Reagan's National Security Council.

The Nicaraguan contras were, in effect, a narco-terrorist organization that partially funded its operations with proceeds from cocaine trafficking, a secret that the Reagan administration worked hard to conceal along with the contras' record of murder, torture, rape and other crimes in Nicaragua. [See Parry's Lost History.]

President Reagan joined, too, in fierce PR campaigns to discredit human rights investigators who documented massive atrocities by U.S. allies in Central America in the 1980s - not only the contras, but also the state terrorism of the Salvadoran and Guatemalan security forces, which engaged in wholesale slaughters in villages considered sympathetic to leftist insurgents.

Generally, the major U.S. news outlets treaded very carefully when allegations arose about terrorism by "our side."

When some brave journalists, like New York Times correspondent Raymond Bonner, wrote about politically motivated killings of civilians in Central America, they faced organized retaliation by right-wing advocacy groups which often succeeded in damaging or destroying the reporters' careers.

Double Standards

Eventually, the American press corps developed an engrained sense of the double standards. Moral outrage could be expressed when acts of terrorism were committed by U.S. enemies, while studied silence - or nuanced concern - would be in order when the crimes were by U.S. allies.

So, while the U.S. news media had no doubt that the 9/11 terrorist attacks justified invading Afghanistan, there was very little U.S. media criticism when President Bush inflicted his "shock and awe" assault on Iraq, a war that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths.

Though many Muslims and others around the world have denounced Bush's Iraq invasion as "state terrorism," such a charge would be considered far outside the mainstream in the United States. Instead, Iraqi insurgents are often labeled "terrorists" when they attack U.S. troops inside Iraq. The word "terrorist" has become, in effect, a geopolitical curse word.

Despite the long and bloody history of U.S.-Israeli participation in terrorism, the U.S. news media continues its paradigm of pitting the U.S.-Israeli "good guys" against the Islamic "bad guys." One side has the moral high ground and the other is in the moral gutter. [For more on the U.S. media's one-sided approach, see the analysis by Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher.]

Any attempt to cite the larger, more ambiguous and more troubling picture draws accusations from defenders of U.S.-Israeli actions, especially the neoconservatives, of what they call "moral equivalence" or "anti-Semitism."

Yet it is now clear that acquiescence to a double standard on terrorism is not just a violation of journalistic ethics or an act of political cowardice; it is complicity in mass murder. Without the double standard, it is hard to envision how the bloodbaths - in Iraq (since 2003), in Lebanon (in 2006) and in Gaza (today) - would be possible.

Hypocrisy over the word "terrorism" is not an innocent dispute over semantics; it kills.

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book ,Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat. His two previous books are Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth'. © 2008 Consortium News

posted by robert

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

although a fragile truce was observed-Gaza has always been blockaded and under siege,effectively cut off from the world- squeezed and rinsed in economic social limbo. the world's largest urban prison camp. on the eve of the us election the IDF killed 6 militants leading to heavy rocket fire into Israel. the refusal of European and US govts to hold talks with Hamas was only ever going to lead to violence. by re-using the "useless we don't negotiate with terrorism muzzle", no diplomatic solutions could ever develop. historically, when negotiating for peace or land both sides would get a seat at the table-on a chair of the same height or with military back up in order to gain a strong enough position to bargain from. it's how we got to the good Friday agreement in Britain after decades of bloodshed. in this case Palestine is to be bombed into pacification in time for the new US administration to start the peace process once again. one side backed by full US military hardware-the other shell-shocked and bloodied from siege. a full military assault on Gaza-where no civilians/citizens can leave or get shelter as refugees is unbelievable and to my limited memory unprecedented, but totally accepted by the international community- since when do we bomb POW camps? the real unmentionable issue is that the Palestinian territories are under occupation and until Palestinians have a free homeland with the right to trade, communicate and travel and with control of their own borders like the rest of us, surely they have the historic and legal right to resist. it seems in this case resistance is simply terrorism that must be met with force... march on saturday to show your sadness and anger at this tragedy.

Land, Sea, Sky: All will kill you

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

posted by machine: Karma Nabulsi , The Guardian, January 3rd Last Saturday, the first day of massive air strikes on Gaza, I finally get through to my old friend Mohammed. We speak for a few moments, he reassures me he is OK, he asks about my now-delayed trip to Gaza, and suddenly I ask: "What is that noise?" It is a sort of distant keening, like the roar of approaching traffic, or a series of waves hitting a rocky shore. "I am at the cemetery, Karma", he says, "I am burying my family." He now sounds exhausted. He repeats, over and over again in his steady, tired voice as if it were a prayer: "This is our life. This is our life. This is our life." I had just come off the phone with Jamal, who at that moment was in another cemetery in Jabaliya camp, burying three members of his own family. They included two of his nieces, one married to a police cadet. All were at the graduating ceremony in the crowded police station when F16s targeted them that Saturday morning, massacring more than 45 citizens in an instant, mortally wounding dozens more. Police stations across Gaza were similarly struck. Under the laws of war (or international humanitarian law as it is more commonly known), policemen, traffic cops, security guards: all are non-combatants, and classified as civilians under the Geneva conventions. But more to the point, Palestinian non-combatants are not mere civilians, but possess something more real, more alive, more sovereign than a distancing legal classification: the people in Gaza are citizens. Some work in the various civic institutions across the Strip, but most simply use them on a daily basis: their schools, police stations, hospitals, their ministries. Later on that first day I finally reach Khalil, who runs a prisoners' human rights association in Gaza. He was trying to organise a press conference. It was chaotic: he was shouting, he couldn't finish his sentences or form words. When I told him what I had just heard, he told me that he too had just come from the cemetery. His cousin, Sharif Abu Shammala, 26 years old, had recently got a job as a guard at the university. He had been asked to go in that morning to sign his worksheet at the local police station; he had felt lucky to find the work. For the one and a half million Palestinian citizens living in Gaza, ways to absorb and describe their daily predicament - these collective and individual experiences of extreme violence - had already been used up by the two years of siege that preceded this week's carnage. Hanging out with Mohammed at his office in Gaza City six months ago, mostly just watching him smoke one cigarette after another, he abruptly leant over his desk and said to me: "Everyone is dead. There is no life in Gaza. Capital has left. Ask someone passing by: where are you going? They will answer: I don't know. What are you doing? I don't know. Gaza today is a place of aimless roaming." On this New Year's Day at his home in Sheikh Radwan, his walls tremble from the F16 aerial bombardment under way in his neighbourhood. The intensity of it courses down the line into my ear, his voice a cloud of smoke. His house is just next to the mosque. Earlier this week, his wife's cousin in Jabaliya refugee camp lost five of her children: they lived next to a mosque the Israeli air force had bombed. "So where can I sleep, my children sleep?" he asks down the phone. "I don't know how to tell you what this is like, as I have stopped sleeping, myself. We cannot go out, we cannot stay in: nowhere is safe. But I think I would rather die at home." I first met international law professor Richard Falk when he was a member of the Seán MacBride commission of inquiry into the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The UN rapporteur of human rights to the Palestinian territories, he has studied massive bombardment of this type many times before. Yet he too struggled to put words on to the singular horror unfolding: "It is macabre ... I don't know of anything that exactly fits this situation. People have been referring to the Warsaw ghetto as the nearest analog in modern times." He says he cannot think of another occupation that endured for decades and involved this kind of oppressive circumstances: "The magnitude, the deliberateness, the violations of international humanitarian law ... warrant the characterisation of a crime against humanity." A friend of mine, a brilliant and experienced journalist from Gaza, has been covering these indescribable things in her job for an American newspaper. She tells me: "I don't know what to do. I feel overwhelmed by what I am seeing, and what they are doing: I simply can't understand the enormity of what I witness in the hospitals, where they keep bringing in children, or out in the streets - they are killing all of us. I don't know how to write about it." She feels utterly weighed down by the fact that the Israeli government have refused to allow international journalists into Gaza to see what she is seeing. Despite her bewilderment she, like all the other citizens of Gaza I speak with this week, seem to know exactly what to do: although filled with fear, they run to volunteer, help pull neighbours from under the rubble, offer to assist at the hospital (where more than half of the staff is now voluntary), write it all down, as best they can, for a newspaper. Only a gifted few have found for us the words we keep seeking, and indeed Palestinian poetry of siege has a tradition going back generations. Mahmoud Darwish wrote some for an earlier Israeli siege, 26 years ago in Beirut: The Earth is closing on us pushing us through the last passage and we tear off our limbs to pass through The Earth is squeezing us I wish we were its wheat so we could die and live again I wish the Earth was our mother so she'd be kind to us During that siege, in the daily bombardment from F16 fighter planes, entire buildings would come down around you - six, seven stories high, hundreds of neighbours, colleagues, and friends disappearing forever under a tonne of rubble and plumes of smoke. We stopped racing down to the cellar: better to sleep up on the roof. This week the citizens of Gaza find themselves seized with the same dread choices. On Wednesday night one colleague, Fawwaz, a professor of economics, was trapped under the rubble of his house near the ministry of foreign affairs. He managed to text a friend to send emergency workers to rescue him. Haider, another university colleague, tells me about it in wonder. He hasn't known where to place himself inside his flat: all parts of it have been struck with building debris and huge flying shards of glass. He is sitting outside in his car while we speak, although I can't see that this is the right move. Many now sleep on the roofs, he says, as if their visible presence may deter the Apache helicopters, earsplitting drones, and fighter planes that are demolishing everything in their path - more than 400 buildings in six days. The recently completed building of the ministry of education (paid for by European donors) is damaged; the ministry of justice, the foreign ministry utterly destroyed: all national institutions of the Palestinian Authority, none military. On New Year's Day, Khalil tells me in a voice gone hard with a combination of anger and despair: "When we heard the news last night that the British government are giving something like €9m [£8.65m] for humanitarian assistance, all of us understood immediately that this Israeli war against our citizens will not stop but will continue, and that the donation is the invoice. We understood the Europeans will pay the price - with us". He is roaming around his office as we are chatting, assessing the damage to it: he works just across from the Palestinian Legislative Council, where the democratically elected parliament sat; now flattened by Israeli aircraft. Every neighbourhood in Gaza is a mixture of homes, shops, police stations, mosques, ministries, local associations, hospitals, and clinics. Everyone is connected and fastened down right where they are, and no citizen is safe in today's occupied Gaza from the Israeli military, whose reach is everywhere. As a way to share time on the phone, while my friend Houda's neighbourhood was under aerial assault for more than 40 minutes, she and I discussed at length comparisons between previous Israeli military sieges we had been under. The carefully planned and premeditated strategy of terrorising an entire population by intensive and heavy bombardment of both military and civic institutions - destroying the entire civic infrastructure of a people - was identical. What is unprecedented here is that in Gaza there is nowhere to evacuate people to safety: they are imprisoned on all sides, with an acute awareness of the impossibility of escape. Land, sea, sky: all will kill you. My friend As'ad is a professor of phonetics at one of the universities in Gaza. He had been giving the students poetry to read these last months, and this summer told me about a class where they had worked on a piece by the late Palestinian poet Abu Salma. "It spoke to our situation so powerfully that all at once they began to sing it: 'Everyone has a home, dreams, and an appearance. And I, carrying the history of my homeland, trip ... wretched and dusty in every path.'" He told me yesterday on the phone, when I finally reached him after days of trying: "They bombed the chemistry lab at the university. I have a phonetics lab. Will they bomb that too?" Before this week's war on the citizens of Gaza, the government of Israel and its war machine had been attempting to fragment the soul and break the spirit of one and a half million Palestinians through an all-encompassing military siege of epic proportions. The theory behind besieging a population is to annihilate temporal and spatial domains, and by so doing slowly strangulate a people's will. Siege puts extreme pressure on time, both external and internal, and on space: everything halts. Nothing comes in, nothing comes out. No batteries, no writing paper, no gauze for the hospitals, no medicines, no surgical gloves even - for these things, say the Israeli military, cannot be classified as humanitarian. Under siege no one can find space to think lucidly, for the aim is to take away the very horizon where thoughts form their reasoning, a plan, a direction to move in. Things become misshapen, ill-formed, turn in on themselves. Freedom, as we know, is the space inside the person that the siege wishes to obliterate, so that it becomes hard to breathe, to organise, above all to hope. Not achieving its aim, and even now with no international action to put a stop to it, the siege this week reached its natural zenith. Western governments, having overtly supported the blockade for two years, now fasten their shocked gaze upon the tormented and devastated Gaza they have created, as if they were mere spectators. I wish we were pictures on the rocks for our dreams to carry as mirrors. We saw the faces of those who will throw our children out of the window of this last space. Our star will hang up mirrors. Where should we go after the last frontiers? Where should the birds fly after the last sky? Where should the plants sleep after the last breath of air? We will write our names with scarlet steam. We will cut off the hand of the song to be finished by our flesh. We will die here, here in the last passage. Here and here our blood will plant its olive tree. (Mahmoud Darwish) This week Palestinians have created an astonishing history with their stamina, their resilience, their unwillingness to surrender, their luminous humanity. Gaza was always a place representing cosmopolitan hybridity at its best. And the weight of its dense and beautiful history over thousands of years has, by its nature, revealed to those watching the uncivilised and cruel character of this high-tech bombardment against them. I tell each of my friends, in the hours of conversation, how the quality of their capacity as citizens inspires a response that honours this common humanity. From the start of the attack, Palestinians living in the cities and refugee camps across the West Bank and the Arab world took to the streets in their tens of thousands in a fierce demand for national unity. More than 100,000 people erupted on to the streets of Cairo; the same in Amman. Earlier this week I regaled my friend Ziad, who lives in Rafah refugee camp, with an account of how, at the demonstration in London on Sunday, a young man threw his shoe over the gates of the Israeli embassy. Rushed by police (who perhaps thought it was a bomb), the mass of British protesters poured off the pavement to envelop him. Ziad laughed for ages and then said quietly, "God only knows, he must be from Gaza."

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR SOME..

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

POSTED BY ROBERT: as the israeli bombardment of gaza continues, donations to unwra-oxfam and to hoping are more vital than ever. it's seems a long time since any wise men entered bethlehem. if memory serves-the ceasefire was broken on the eve of the US elections by the controlling power in the region. pray to your chosen god that the bloodshed is not politically motivated.. GO TO: www.hopingfoundation.org

44 inch chest

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:39:00 +0000

posted by machine: 100 Suns are working on the score for 44 Inch Chest. The film stars Ray Winstone, Ian Macshane and John Hurt and is directed by Malcolm Venville.

studio snaphots 2

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:34:00 +0000

studio snaphots

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:30:00 +0000

posted by machine: lo-fi snapshots from the studio chaos this week.

now that's what I call torture

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:22:00 +0000

posted by machine: launch of reprieve's 'zerodb' campaign

IPMWL on Sundance Channel

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:38:00 +0000

posted by machine: In Prison My Whole Life is being screened on the Sundance Channel Monday 8th at 9pm. www.sundancechannel.com

Trouble the water screenings

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

posted by machine: Trouble the Water is being screened at the ICA in London this weekend. go to: www.ica.org.uk The film also just won best documentary at the Gotham Independent Film Awards

100 suns soundsystem

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:41:00 +0000

posted by machine: Robert is curating a club night in Bristol on the 19th. DJ's include 3D, James Lavelle, Pablo, James Holden and Skull Juice. Profits go to local homeless charities.

Volume Taipei

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

posted by machine: Volume installation in Taiwan this week.

outsiders

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:24:00 +0000

posted by machine: more on Laz's Outsiders book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Outsiders-Steve-Lazarides/dp/1846055466/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226139766&sr=8-6

the outsiders

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:06:00 +0000

posted by machine: Robert's work is featured in Lazaride's new book http://www.lazinc.com/news/

100 Suns vs Snoop

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:27:00 +0100

posted by machine: Here is a stream of the 100 Suns vs Snoop Dogg track from In Prison My Whole Life.

witness.org

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:10:00 +0100

posted by machine: interesting new website witness.org. online community exposing human rights violations http://www.witness.org/index.php

children of the can

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:49:00 +0100

posted by machine: new link http://www.childrenofthecan.blogspot.com/

re-launched reprieve site

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:01:00 +0100

posted by machine: http://www.reprieve.org.uk/

redlines youtube channel

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:11:00 +0100

posted by machine: here's avalanche's youtube channel http://uk.youtube.com/user/youredlines

Herculaneum

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:02:00 +0100

posted by machine: Here's a lo-res stream of the track

In Prison My Whole Life

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:41:00 +0100

posted by machine IPMWL is getting a limited UK and European release check out myspace page for details www.myspace.com/inprisonmywholelife

NYC

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:00:00 +0100

Gomorrah is without doubt the best movie I have been involved with. When the director Matteo Garrone first showed me the film, I was blown away and I told him that no score was needed - basically talking myself out of a job. After trying a few scenes with score, we agreed. I then wrote the exit music, with assistance from Euan and Neil at 1.6. I spent last weekend in New York, where Martin Scorsese presented the movie in a small cinema on 6th ave. NY always charges me with a sense of romance and bewilderment, in a strangely similar way to the city of Naples. Napoli is the city of my father and this movie represents only a percentage of the population, there is also great beauty, mystery and humanity on every corner. The movie is not against the Camorra but about the Camorra, whos system, in my opinion mirrors that of the Italian state in it's corruption and the many individuals who are not so different in their relentless pursuit of power and wealth. check it out if you get the time..

Herculaneum

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:11:00 +0100

posted by machine
end titles track by robert for Gomorra

Q award

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:03:00 +0100

posted by machine Robert and Grant picked up the 'Innovation' award at the Q Magazine ceremony yesterday. http://www2.qawards.co.uk/2008/2008/10/massive_attack_are_innovators.html

CARROT CIRCUS

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:36:00 +0100

how to spend 500 million pounds and bring the city to its knees- a star studded night of portable TV celebs, shopping debt repayment collectors and total auto gridlock. carrot circus is an amazing piece of work that ingeniously manages to capture that gripping 80's shopping mall look of mid America slash the midlands,just what we need to compliment the mall and the giant Barrett business towers down temple way.The galleries now feel like a taxpayers bargain at the price and look how well they have performed compared to the wasted cash drizzled into welfare health and education.

Absolute Vandalism

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:02:00 +0100

Posted by Robert

shadows of our current selves

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:03:00 +0100

robert back in studio land-the wonder of transmitting to a million human ears in the flesh-still drizzling from the lymph nodes-2 ears each/divide heads by 2-sure we didn't please everybody...present company included-but still...

Manchester - United Snakes 2

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:29:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Manchester, United Snakes film

the best thing about wet tarmac

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 07:00:00 +0100

robert outside studio back on earth waiting for the the end of the world by cern

Manchester gig Flickr

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:51:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Flickr page with more Manchester photos: www.flickr.com/photos/shirlaine/2836387889/

Manchester

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:43:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Manchester

Manchester Crowd 2

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:42:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Manchester crowd

Manchester Crowd

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:41:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Manchester crowd / Angel

Manchester - United Snakes

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:34:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Manchester, United Snakes film

Manchester - Soundcheck

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:33:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Manchester, Grant - soundcheck

Manchester - Santogold

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:21:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Manchester, 6th September
Santogold

Gomorra

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:04:00 +0100

posted by machine Here's the official site for Gomorra the film Robert wrote the endtitles for. http://www.mymovies.it/gomorra/

Lyon Pillow Fight

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:14:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Another Lyon pillow fight shot
Winston, Johnny, Damon and Grant

Italian Photoblog

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:15:00 +0100

posted by machine
Great photo-blog from Nicholas - Padova show.
picasaweb.google.it/NicholasTinelli/MASSIVEATTACKLIVEPIAZZOLASULBRENTAPDITALY20072008

Massive Tour Images

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:19:00 +0100

posted by machine:
This is the UVA website, look here for Massive tour images from this summer:
www.uva.co.uk/latest

Battle In Seattle Trailer

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:18:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Battle In Seattle Trailer

www.apple.com/trailers/independent/battleinseattle/

Spanish Flickr Fan Page

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:16:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Flickr fan page from Ola Festival, Spain

www.flickr.com/photos/antoniobret/2774684147/

Binyan Mohamed Ruling

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:59:00 +0100

posted by machine

Bilnyam Mohamed ruling link here
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/government-loses-guantanamo-ruling-904530.html

The UK Government must disclose information relating to a Briton held at Guantanamo Bay. He says it supports his case that evidence against him was obtained through tortureTwo judges in the High Court in London said today that they concluded that the Foreign Secretary was under a duty to "disclose in confidence" to Binyam Mohamed's legal advisers in Guantanamo Bay certain information relating specifically to him and "which is not only necessary but essential for his defence"....

Trouble The Water Trailer

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:48:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Trouble The Water trailer
www.apple.com/trailers/independent/troublethewater/

Robert, Steph and Grant 2

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:20:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Robert, Stephanie and Grant, Carcasonne

Yolanda and Steph

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:22:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Yolanda and Steph, Ravenne

Pillow Tribute

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:19:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Pillow tribute, Lyon

Steph in Carcasonne

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:11:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Stephanie, Carcasonne

Carcasonne

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:09:00 +0100

Posted by machine:
Carcasonne arena

Grant in Cork

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:08:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Grant, Cork

Robert in Cork

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:07:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Robert, aftershow in Cork

Vienna Show

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:44:00 +0100

posted by machine: Vienna show

Ljubljana Crowd

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:12:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Ljubljana crowd
Photo by Andrew Small

Istanbul Show 2

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:11:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Istanbul show

Istanbul Soundcheck

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:11:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Johnny Baggot - Istanbul soundcheck
photo by Andrew Small

Istanbul Show 1

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:09:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Istanbul show

Reprieve Video

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:44:00 +0100

posted by machine:

Reprieve advert by This Is Real Art

On The Way to Belfort

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:41:00 +0100

posted by machine:
En route to Belfort

Amsterdam Crowd

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:59:00 +0100

posted by machine
Amsterdam crowd
photo by Andrew Smalls

Cork Show

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:44:00 +0100

posted by machine
Cork show
photo by Richard from massiveattack.ie

Meltdown Images

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:59:00 +0100

posted by machine
Meltdown images and movie links:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11287317@N04/2591646702/

BBC Coverage Of Glastonbury

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:24:00 +0100

posted by machine
Glastonbury: BBC coverage link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/glastonbury/2008/artists/massiveattack/

Glastonbury Saturday 5

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:45:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Glastonbury Saturday

Glastonbury Saturday 4

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:44:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Glastonbury Saturday

Glastonbury Saturday 2

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:43:00 +0100

posted by machine
Glastonbury Saturday

Glastonbury Saturday 3

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:43:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Glastonbury Saturday

Glastonbury Saturday

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:19:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Glastonbury Saturday from side of the stage / Stephanie

Letter To The Guardian

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:50:00 +0100

posted by machine

Now That's What I Call Tourture: Letter from Musician Union, from The Guardian

Clive Stafford Smith says "there is a clear reluctance within the record industry to discuss the use of music as torture" (Welcome to 'the disco', June 19). We can reassure him that the Musicians' Union takes this issue very seriously. We will be putting forward a motion to the International Federation of Musicians executive committee at their October conference with a view to securing international condemnation of this use of music in interrogations.
John Smith
General secretary, Musicians' Union

Massive Attack at Glastonbury

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:27:00 +0100

posted by machine
Glastonbury stage times: Other Stage 10:45 - 12:15 Segments form the show will appear on BBC TV and BBC iPlayer

Monday Meltdown

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:39:00 +0100

posted by machine
Meltdown Monday: Fleet Foxes
photo: olivia hemingway

Monday Meltdown

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:04:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Meltdown Monday 16th June: Elbow

Photography:Olivia Hemingway

Sunday Meltdown

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:43:00 +0100

posted by the machine:
Sunday Meltdown
Photography:Olivia Hemingway

Sunday Meltdown

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:41:00 +0100

posted by the machine:
Sunday Meltdown

Photography:Olivia Hemingway

Sunday Meltdown

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:40:00 +0100

posted by the machine:
Sunday Meltdown

Photography:Olivia Hemingway

Sunday Meltdown

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:38:00 +0100

posted by the machine:Sunday Meltdown

Photography:Olivia Hemingway

Sunday Meltdown

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:27:00 +0100

posted by the machine:
Sunday Meltdown

Photography:Olivia Hemingway

Friday Meltdown

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:59:00 +0100

posted by machine
Meltdown Friday: Aloe Blacc

Tunes of Torture

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:59:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Now That's What I Call Torture Volume 1

http://www.russiatoday.ru/features/news/26455

Meltdown Reviews

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:59:00 +0100

posted by machine:

Meltdown reviews:

The Times:entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/live_reviews/article4143364.ece

The Guardian:
music.guardian.co.uk/pop/livereviews/story/0,,2286898,00.html

The Metro:
www.metro.co.uk/metrolife/music/article.html
The Guardian:
music.guardian.co.uk/live/story/0,,2285760,00.html

Thursday Meltdown

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:29:00 +0100

posted by machine
Meltdown Thursday: Grace Jones setlist

Thursday Meltdown

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:28:00 +0100

posted by machine
Meltdown Thursday: Grace Jones

Photography:Olivia Hemingway

Thursday Meltdown

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:07:00 +0100

posted by machine
Meltdown Thursday: Grace Jones

Photography:Olivia Hemingway

Wednesday Meltdown

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:20:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Meltdown Wednesday: Martina Topley Bird

Photography:Olivia Hemingway

Now That's What I Call Torture

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:00:00 +0100

posted by machine:

Now That's What I Call Torture.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/19/usa.guantanamo

http://www.reprieve.org.uk/Press_stop_torture_music.htm

Wednesday Meltdown

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:58:00 +0100

posted by machine:
Meltdown Wednesday: Stiff Little Fingers drum kit

Reprieve at Meltdown

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:59:00 +0100

posted by machine
Meltdown: UVA / Reprieve projections

Photography:Olivia Hemingway

Meltdown Monday: Reggae Acoustic - Johnny Clarke

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:48:00 +0100

posted by Machine:
Meltdown Monday: Reggae Acoustic - Johnny Clarke

Meltdown Monday: Reggae Acoustic - Horace

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:47:00 +0100

posted by machine

BladeRunner Rehearsals 3

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:43:00 +0100

posted by machine: bladerunner rehearsals 3

BladeRunner Rehearsals 2

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:40:00 +0100

posted by machine: bladerunner rehearsals 2

BladeRunner Rehearsals

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:08:00 +0100

posted by machine: bladerunner rehearsals

Meltdown - Sunday

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:25:00 +0100

posted by the machine:
Meltdown: Royal Festival Hall image

Meltdown - Sunday

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:24:00 +0100

posted by machine
Meltdown Sunday: Yellow Magic Orchestra

Meltdown - Sunday

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:47:00 +0100

posted by the machine:Meltdown Sunday: Yellow Magic Orchestra

Meltdown

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:48:00 +0100

posted by the machine:A Gong photo from Saturday's Meltdown.

Photography;Olivia Hemingway

URGENT! As George Bush visits London, Reprieve tells Bush and Brown: Bring Binyam Back to Britain

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:59:00 +0100

On Sunday 15 June, US President George W. Bush is visiting London as part of his valedictory world tour.

Reprieve is using this opportunity to highlight the suffering of Binyam Mohamed, the London resident who remains in Guantánamo Bay. The US military has announced that it wants to put him through its discredited military commission process, using evidence derived from his torture. A final decision will be made in the next two weeks.

This call to action ties in with Reprieve’s exposure at Massive Attack’s Meltdown 2008 at the Southbank Centre (on Sunday, Taxi to the Dark Side will be showing at 6.30).

What you can do:

Write to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Milliband asking them to bring Binyam Mohamed home
Write to your MP about Binyam Mohamed’s case, asking them to request that Gordon Brown does everything in his power to bring Binyam home
Make a donation to Reprieve. We rely entirely on donations in order to provide legal support to prisoners like Binyam, who are unable to pay for it themselves. Please set up a monthly standing order to support us at http://www.reprieve.org.uk/donate.htm.
Write to Binyam in Guantánamo Bay with a message of support:
Binyam Mohamed
ISN 1458
Camp Delta
US Naval Base Guantánamo Bay
Washington, DC 20355
USA

warpaint 2

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:59:00 +0100

robert

Meltdown Image

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:25:00 +0100

Posted by the machine.

warpaint 1

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:01:00 +0100

shots from the gallery

tour dates

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:59:00 +0100

posted by machine: 09/06/08 Saku Arena Tallinn, Estonia 11/06/08 Stereoleto Festival St. Petersburg, Russia 14/06/08 Meltdown London, UK 22/06/08 Meltdown London, UK 28/06/08 Glastonbury Festival Shepton Mallet, UK 01/07/08 Live at the Marquee Cork, Ireland 03/07/08 Westerpark Amsterdam, Netherlands 04/07/08 Eurockeenes Belfort, France 06/07/08 Heineken Opener Festival Gdynia, Poland 10/07/08 Krizanke Monastery Ljubljana, Slovenia 11/07/08 Balaton Sound Festival Balaton Lake, Hungary 13/07/08 Parkorman Istanbul, Turkey 15/07/08 Fly Beyond Athens Festival Athens, Greece 17/07/08 Carpisa Neapolis Festival 2008 Naples, Italy 18/07/08 Roma Rock Festival (Ex Fiesta) Rome, Italy 19/07/08 Pala De Andre Ravenna, Italy 20/07/08 Villa Pisani Padova, Italy 22/07/08 Festival de la Cite Carcassonne, France 23/07/08 Theatre Antique d'Arles Arles, France 24/07/08 Les Nuits de Fourviere Fourvieres, France 25/07/08 Paleo Festival Nyon Nyon, Switzerland 26/07/08 Cognac Blues Passions Festival Cognac, France 06/08/08 Lokerse Feesten Lokeren, Belgium 09/08/08 Sonne, Mond and Sterne Festival Saalburg, Germany 15/08/08 Ola Festival El Ejido. Almeria, Spain

more meltdown

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:59:00 +0100

posted by machine // George Clinton and P Funk have been added to the bill at meltdown 21st June. Peaches and Four Tet are also taking part in the Silent Disco programme. More soon.

meltdown line-up

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 20:32:00 +0100

posted by machine: This is the Meltdown line-up June 14th to 22nd Massive Attack 14th RFH / Gong 14th QEH / Yellow Magic Orchestra 14th RFH / Horace Andy + Johnny Clarke + Earl 16 + Prince Malachai 15th QEH / Reprieve Screening of Taxi To The Dark Side with post talk 15th Purcell Room / Screening of The Night James Brown Saved Boston 15th BFI / Elbow + Fleet Foxes 16th RFH / Vangelis' Bladerunner Score live by The Heritage Orchestra 17th RFH / Stiff Little Fingers + Mark Stewart and the Mafia + Adrian Sherwood 18th RFH / The Shortwave Set + Martina Topely-Bird 18th QEH / Grace Jones 19th RFH / Dalek + Cool Kids + Shape Of Broad Minds + Flying Lotus 19th QEH / Tom Tom Club + Gang Of Four 20th RFH / Terry Callier + Aloe Blacc 20th QEH / Tunng + Leila 21 QEH / Massive Attack 22nd RFH / Saxon Soundsystem + Guests 22nd RFH Ballroom / Plus Silent Disco nights. Films include: In Prison My Whole Life and Shane Meadows Somerstown. Volume - the interactive audio visual collaboration between Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge and UVA will also appear. More announcements to come. Tickets go on sale Friday 25th through Southbank website and usual agents

local beauty

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:55:00 +0100

posted by robert

meltdown line-up

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:00:00 +0100

posted by machine the meltdown line-up will be announced this sunday in the observer newspaper and online here. tickets will go on sale on 24th april.

war paint

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:59:00 +0000

posted by robert del naja--Thanks to clive stafford smith for posting here- REPRIEVE are going to be an important part of the meltdown project.We are still unable to reveal anything on the line-up.But its getting exciting! meanwhile,if you happen to find yourself on charing cross rd next thursday night,and can fight your way past a swarm of smokers, tap me on the shoulder-check out my gleaming blue/gray studio tan-and have a look at the paintings and images from War Stories, collected together for the first time since santas ghetto at bethlehem last xmax. If I/m drunk enough,;ll probably spill the beans on meltdown and the album..and the tour..and the mighty BcFc's surge to glory...

Binyan Mohammed

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:25:00 +0000

posted by clive stafford-smith

memo: from gitmo

If you were locked up in an American Secret Prison like Guantᮡmo Bay for six years or more, would music be high on the list of things youd miss in your solitary confinement? There would be plenty of other things you wouldnt have -- youd never see your family, perhaps rarely read a book but for the most part youd never be allowed to listen to your tunes. Theres one exception, of course: They torture you with their own favorite music.

Binyam Mohamed spent several months in the Dark Prison in Kabul, with the US blasting Eminem at him 24 hours as day. White City: I want to f**k the vice presidents wife doesnt seem like the message the Bush Administration (let alone VP Dick Cheney) would want to be sending out to its supposed enemies, but theres no accounting for taste. I thought it was funny (why dont they use country music? Id break much faster.) till Binyam told me this psychological torture was worse than the razor blade taken to his penis in a Morocco torture chamber. Physical pain is terrible but predictable, he explained as we talked in a Gitmo cell, but when you feel your sanity slipping away, thats exponentially worse. It made me think about it, and I know Id rather lose my hearing, my voice or my sight before Id want to lose my mind.

Its the 21st Century, not the Middle Ages. Its time to pull the plug on torture including torture by music.

REPRIEVE

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:59:00 +0000

posted by machine: clive stafford-smith from reprieve has just returned from guantanamo and he's going to blog here soon. for information on ghost prisoners , extraordinary rendition and black-site prisons go to: reprieve.org.uk

blanksy

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:59:00 +0000

posted by Robert Del Naja>Cannot reveal anthing of use here today.Had a midweekend in Glasgow last WEd/THur and have pruned away large parts of my brain> then spent the actual weekend with the coolest Guy of Garvey on another co/writing mission..interesting shit indeed! Got a couple of pictures from a recent session at 100 suns studios down our way, I will have to dig em out. Got nothing to say about the album today! I am not obliged to discuss Meltdown or the tour..could do better..in fact blogging feels a little like publishing crap egocentric little diary entries-how nice!

Film Scores

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:43:00 +0000

Posted by the Machine:
Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge have recently produced the scores
for three films that will be released this year.
Trouble The Water recently won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance
Film Festival.
More news on the release dates for these films here soon.

In Prison My Whole Life
http://www.myspace.com/inprisonmywholelife

Trouble The Water
http://www.troublethewaterfilm.com/

Battle In Seattle
http://myspace.com/battleinseattlemovie

MELTDOWN

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:28:00 +0000

Posted by Robert Del Naja.Meltdown is a beautiful daydream-drawing up a list of the artists you would most love to be with in the same place with during one week in summer. plans are being hatched every minute. We will try and bring a very visual element to the party as well as a social/political depth.What follows is a couple of months of ducking and dodging line up questions,closing in on a firm album shape and hassling and haranguing super icons and peers to perform.. legend to agent-"massive who?"

Massive Attack Curate Meltdown

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:00:00 +0000

Posted by Machine:
Massive Attack will be curating the Meltdown Festival which runs from
15th - 22nd June on London's Southbank.
Massive will play during the festival and there will be around 30
other shows, installations and films over the week.
More news on Meltdown including line-ups and ticket information will
be released on this site, so check back soon.

Massive Attack Play Festivals

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:16:00 +0000

Posted by the Machine:
Massive Attack will be playing a series of European and headline
shows this summer.
For more details check back soon