Massive Attack Biography

Massive Attack formed in 1987, around their influential and legendary Dug Out club and Jamaican-style sound system. The club played a groundbreaking blend of hip hop, new wave reggae and early house and techno which shaped their hugely acclaimed 1991 debut, ’Blue Lines’. Second album ’Protection’ featuring Tracey Thorn and produced by Massive Attack and Nellee Hooper, was released in 1994 and was similarly well received - and like Blue Lines sold over two million copies. ’Mezzanine’ was released in 1998 and apart from selling three million worldwide, took the band in a new, guitar-led direction - and contained the sublime ‘Teardrop’ featuring Cocteau Twin Liz Frasier. In the four year interim - after founding member Andrew ‘Mushroom’ Vowles left the band – the band went back to work, collaborating with David Bowie on a cover of ‘Nature Boy’ for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack, focusing on the bands on their Melankolic label and Del Naja did a rare remix for The Dandy Warhols on ‘Godless’