Massive Attack's Bristol Gig Aims to Spark Green Music Revolution
The iconic Bristol band Massive Attack are hoping their upcoming gig at Clifton Down will serve as a catalyst for change in the music industry, pushing for concrete action on sustainability instead of just talk.
Frustrated by the lack of progress in the sector, the band have been vocal about their disappointment with the slow response to their own research on how to reduce the environmental impact of live music events. In 2018, they commissioned a detailed report from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, which laid out a clear roadmap for a greener future in the music industry.
"It's been five years and no oneâs shown much interest," frontman Del Naja commented. "A couple of bands, a couple of promoters, but very little interest. Most other promoters say 'we've got our own report', which is absurd because these reports are often written by their own teams. It's been incredibly frustrating."
Naja further expressed his exasperation with the proliferation of NGOs dedicated to addressing climate change in the music industry. "There's a whole cluster of NGOs that have been set up over the last decade, taking a lot of public money to discuss how they might reduce emissions in the future, and to conduct impact reports. We've already done an impact report, it's publicly available. We don't need another one. We don't need more pledging. We don't need more public money to study this. The solution exists, we just need to put it into action."
The band believes that the industry, particularly the powerful promoters, have been stalling on real change, choosing to churn out reports instead of taking concrete steps. "They can just keep delaying, another five years, another five years, while we write another impact report," Naja said. "So we've decided to bypass all that, leap over it, and put as much of our own research into action as we can."
Massive Attack's Clifton Down gig aims to showcase practical solutions for greening live music events, demonstrating the feasibility of their proposed changes. The band hopes that by putting these solutions into practice, they can inspire others in the industry to follow suit, finally moving beyond the endless cycle of reports and promises towards tangible action.
