Huge Assault performed a robust headline set at London’s LIDO Pageant final evening (Friday June 6), the place they had been joined by actor and activist Khalid Abdalla and Yasiin Bey (previously Mos Def).
Topping the invoice on the opening evening of the inaugural Victoria Park pageant after Air performed the basic ‘Moon Safari’ in full and alongside units from the likes of Bey and The Alchemist, Tirzah, Richard Russell’s Every little thing Is Recorded and 47SOUL, the Bristol trip-hop icons had been beckoned on stage by a big swathe of followers waving Palestinian flags when Abdalla gave a prolonged and impassioned introductory speech calling for peace within the center East and an instantaneous ceasefire alongside the deployment of help to the folks of Gaza.
“The Palestine Solidarity Motion is the civil rights motion of our time,” he concluded. “It’s the anti-apartheid motion of our time. It’s the anti-genocide motion of our time.”
Taking to social media after the present, Abdalla posted: “What a pleasure it was to talk at Huge Assault’s gig. The area they maintain as a band, the area they maintain as folks, the area that’s held of their music, was merely an honour to attempt to dwell as much as within the phrases I spoke earlier than their set.
“Thanks Huge Assault to your dedication to breaking silence, and the braveness you retain giving us all. Profound liberation and profound belonging all the time go collectively. A greater world is feasible and inside attain, and we lived that collectively at scale final evening.”
The band have been vocal supporters of Palestine for years, collaborating in a cultural boycott of Israel since 1999. Their set featured quite a few tributes, with Robert Del Naja paying tribute to harmless kids and journalists which have misplaced their lives in battle. The band additionally displaying footage of the devastation and of the imprisoned Palestinian political chief Marwan Barghouti declaring that “safety will probably be achieved by a technique: by peace”.
They then displayed Nelson Mandela’s 2002 quote “what is occurring to Barghouti is precisely the identical as what occurred to me”, honouring the decision for peace and a two-state answer, earlier than a Palestinian flag adorned the display screen and calls of “Free Palestine” rang out.
Elsewhere within the set, the band had been joined by an array of visitor vocalists together with frequent collaborators Horace Andy, Deborah Miller, and Cocteau Twins‘ legend Elisabeth Fraser. Highlights included highly effective outings of ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ and ‘Angel’, stirring nearer ‘Teardrop’, a young cowl of the Tim Buckley basic ‘Tune to the Siren’ and Yasiin Bey becoming a member of the band in sporting a battle correspondent press uniform for the cult basic ‘I Towards I’ – taken from the Blade II soundtrack and carried out dwell for the primary time since 2018.
Take a look at footage and the total setlist under.
. @MassiveAttackUK pic.twitter.com/xWUdiTcXna
— Andrew Trendell (@AndrewTrendell) June 7, 2025
Huge Assault’s setlist was:
‘In My Thoughts’ (Gigi D’Agostino cowl)
‘Risingson’
‘Woman I Love You’ (with Horace Andy)
‘Black Milk’ (with Elizabeth Fraser)
‘Take It There’
‘Future Proof’
‘Tune to the Siren’ (Tim Buckley cowl, with Elizabeth Fraser)
‘Inertia Creeps’
‘ROckwrok’ (Ultravox cowl)
‘Angel’ (with Horace Andy)
‘Secure From Hurt’ (with Deborah Miller)
‘I Towards I’ (with Yasiin Bey)
‘Unfinished Sympathy’ (with Deborah Miller)
‘Ranges’ (Avicii cowl)
‘Teardrop’ (with Elizabeth Fraser)
This comes after Huge Assault performed in Manchester’s Co-Op Stay earlier this week once they spoke out towards Barclays’ sponsorship of the venue – taking intention at their “profoundly unethical company identification” as a consequence of its funding in arms corporations that offer Israel “in its genocidal onslaught of Gaza and battle crimes within the West Financial institution”, in addition to their “large-scale financing of latest fossil gas extraction”.
Because the battle escalates, Israel deny allegations of battle crimes and genocide.
In addition to teasing incoming new music for 2025, Del Naja sat down with NME final 12 months to speak about placing strain on the music trade in mild on the heightening local weather disaster.
“For me it’s much less of the excellence between music, movie and TV,” he stated. “It’s extra of the journey of the creativeness. As Mark says, an industrial answer to a civic downside isn’t going to be discovered inside the sectors themselves as a result of they’re all utterly locked into their very own relationships and provide chains which may’t be damaged open. That’s why coverage takes so lengthy to implement from authorities to authorities.
“Typically you want one thing like this that comes from the skin and says, ‘Fuck it, maintain up, why can’t you guys work with you guys?’ There’s a scientist there, an vitality industrialist there – why don’t you get collectively and go to the town and ask ‘why can’t we do it this fashion’? That’s what this [Act 1.5] is. It’s about breaking free from the mindset, and with the ability to specific creativeness. We have to flip the creativeness of this sector into motion.”
LIDO Pageant continues with exhibits from the likes of London Grammar, Charli XCX and Jamie XX, in addition to an Outbreak takeover headlined by Turnstile. Go to right here for tickets and extra data.