Live Review + Gallery | Massive Attack Headline London's LIDO Festival

Lido Festival, London

6th June 2025

Photography by Samuel Wilson (@samuelwilsonphotography)

Toby Furlong

I’m a writer hailing from the distant land of Norfolk. With a deep love for vinyl, currently standing at over 100 in my collection. When it comes to picking a favourite artist, it will always be the sounds of Trish Keenan and Broadcast.

Featuring a headline set from Massive Attack, LIDO Festival blends legendary icons with some of the most unique rising stars in town

This weekend saw us travelling down to East London’s Victoria Park to watch Lido Festival explode into life. Featuring a bill curated by Massive Attack’s Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall, all the food stalls sold vegetarian food, and the festival pioneered itself as being fully battery-powered.

Our day in the sunshine started with intimate beginnings on the main stage. Early entry was rewarded by a beautiful performance by South London’s HUNNY. As the site was still yet to fill, the set felt confessional and suited the handful in the crowd, as we all leant in to hear the secrets HUNNY was whispering in our ears. I was picking up the soulful reverberations of vocals akin to Amy Winehouse, along with an excellent melody.

A change of pace now on the second stage, as we locked in for Everything Is Recorded, the visionary work of Richard Russell. This performance was almost a precursor for what to expect from Massive Attack: a revolving door of guest vocalists, unpredictable samples, and gorgeous harmonies to make it all flow so effortlessly. My highlight was ‘October’, a dreamy introduction to the set that included birdsong, a phone call, and tender spoken word. Talk about a perfect way to set the tone for what’s to come.

Today’s festival only had two active stages, which resulted in a lot of back-and-forth shuffling. Not to dwell, though, as up next was the compelling singer-songwriter Tirzah. She delivered her trademark mix of downtempo love songs, minimalist and strikingly honest (think ‘Marilyn‘ by Mount Kimbie). It’s also a testimony to her talent that she even sparks visions of the Durutti Column’s ‘Otis‘ in her soundscapes.

Shortly after a few peach jubels, a margherita pizza, and a leg stretch, I heard something was primed to explode back on the second stage. Introducing hip-hop legends Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) and The Alchemist, who brought the ruckus with a supercharged display of their collaborative project ‘FORENSICS‘.

The duo’s performance had the festival motoring into gear, and the buzz around the place was palpable as the crowds looked to the sky and awaited Air’s cosmic arrival.

Now, if you release an album as cool as 1998’s ‘Moon Safari‘ and feature heavily on a soundtrack for a Sofia Coppola film, the boys from Versailles have earned the right to dress head-to-toe in white and play from within a rather grand white box stage setup. From the opening melodics of ‘La Femme D’Argent,‘ the duo had the masses in the palm of their hand. With a setlist that waltzed through hit single ‘Sexy Boy,’ the sensational sound of ‘Kelly Watch the Stars,‘ by the time they hit ‘Cherry Blossom Girl,’ it was out of Victoria Park and into the stratosphere.

Massive Attack’s 1991 ‘Blue Lines‘ is the forever sound of modern urban cool, but in the 33 years since, it is all the more evident that the present day’s soundtrack is consumed by the plight of the Palestinian people and the survivors in the Congo and Ukraine. Much like Belfast rappers Kneecap, they recognise the key role musicians have in spreading solidarity and calling for justice.

This was not your usual gig, but Massive Attack point the finger and ask ‘why should it be’ in desperate times like these. It was a tour de force of off-kilter imagery, vivid colours, and firm anti-war messages, set to the group’s darkly sensual groove.

The actor Khalid Abdalla introduced Massive Attack’s set, delivering an impassioned speech that declared the Palestinian solidarity mission as “the civil rights movement of our time.” He set the tone for the rest of the performance to be an intersection between part-gig, part-documentary, and protest art. It was my first time witnessing something like this on the live stage, and I am grateful I was able to witness it.

The music was incredible, as you would expect from the band, featuring a roll call of familiar collaborators. Yasiin Bey reappeared to perform their 2003 collaboration ‘I Against I’, while the eternally fantastic Horace Andy blew our minds with ‘Girl I Love You’ and ‘Angel’. Deborah Miller was on perfect form for ‘Unfinished Sympathy‘, but, far and beyond anything else I heard that day, Elizabeth Fraser, in the glow of the spotlight, singing ‘Teardrop‘, was a crystallised moment in time. She also performed ‘Black Milk‘ and a lovely cover of Tim Buckley’s ‘Song to the Siren‘.

As the night sky settled above the stage, the atmosphere in the audience started to become increasingly fervent, owing to the visuals provided by filmmaker Adam Curtis. Combine this with the industrial sound of ‘I Against I‘, and the result leads to a really confronting atmosphere. Mind you, I can’t really put a finger behind the intention to play a cover of Avicii’s ‘Levels‘ just before that spellbinding version of ‘Teardrop’.

Massive Attack have the catalogue to have a huge ’90s-inspired dance party, but by delivering something challenging and indeed vital, they recognise the importance of political art at a crossroads moment in our history. The group will challenge the inevitable accusation they will get of “virtue signalling” by ensuring the struggles of the resistance worldwide are central to the group. It may have been 33 years since ‘Blue Lines‘ hit the shelves, but Massive Attack have a fair shout at being one of the most important political artists in the modern world.