Watch Massive Attack’s Short Film on the Climate Crisis and Live Music
Massive Attack have released a film in collaboration with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, addressing the climate crisis and the future of live music. The group announced in November 2019 that it had teamed with the Tyndall Centre to map the carbon footprint of band tour cycles, and “to present options that can be implemented quickly” to curb emissions. The band’s original research plans entailed a low-carbon show in 2020, which was scrapped due to COVID-19. Watch the full film below.
The film, directed by Anthony Tombling Jr for Unit 3 Films, is narrated by Massive Attack’s Robert “3D” Del Naja. It features the planned collaborators for the low-carbon show—including Liverpool’s director of culture Claire McColgan and green energy industrialist Dale Vince—in addition to the Tyndall Centre’s Carly McLachlan. At one point, McLachlan cautions against normalizing drive-in shows as a long-term solution after the pandemic.
Some measures to make gigs COVID-secure, says McLachlan, “would increase their carbon emissions if they were locked in as practice going forward. We need to be careful that we don’t reassemble after this period with things like [drive-in gigs] baked in. I think it’s a really critical moment to make sure that as we rebuild the sector—as it comes out of this period of crisis—that we do that in a way that gives it long-term sustainability.”
Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
