Massive Attack to curate Meltdown, the music festival for grown-ups

London’s South Bank Centre has just announced that Bristol band Massive Attack are to be Artistic Directors of its 15th Meltdown festival, to be held Saturday 14 - Sunday 22 June.

Massive Attack follow a run of directors from the top echelons of music for grown-ups, including John Peel, Scott Walker, David Bowie, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Morrissey and Patti Smith.

Emerging from the Bristol club scene in the late 1980s, Massive Attack are innovators; they’ve worked with collaborators as diverse as Tricky, Portishead, Liz Fraser, Sinead O’Connor, Mos Def and Damon Albarn.

Meltdown, the highlight of London’s summer music scene, is almost guaranteed to offer an outstanding programme of gigs for grown-ups, far more engaging than all the contemporaneous summer festivals in muddy fields catering for kiddy campers (of all ages).

Meltdown takes over all 21 acres of South Bank Centre - including the riverside, Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall - for nine days of concerts, DJ sets, talks, films, and visual art.

Watch this space for the line-up for Meltdown 2008. You’ll have to book quickly, though - demand for Meltdown festival tickets is always high.




Gerry Smith