Star
rating - 9/10
If you went to the Massive Attack/Adam Curtis event expecting
a normal gig (as many of the audience seemed to have done) you would be a bit
baffled and possibly disappointed. If however, you went with an open mind,
hoping to see something spectacular, a little uncomfortable possibly, and thought provoking - then you were in for a
rare treat.
As with so many MIF events, the venues are as much of an
attraction as the main acts, and this disused railway depot at the back of Piccadilly
train station was one of the most intriguing locations this time around. You
were given prior warning of no open toed footwear and no heels, and the dark immense
cavern of a building was surrounded with giant screens for the projection of
Curtis's images. This was really a cross between a gig and a film, as the
unsettling photos told the story of how post war idealism of the American and
Russian varieties were both doomed to failure. Giant images of Donald Trump, Jane
Fonda, Michael Jackson, Tony Blair etc hammered home the point. ( And as I
confess to having owned the actual Jane Fonda fitness video in the '80s, the clips
of her were particularly disturbing as you can imagine!).
The music was a beautiful backdrop, sometimes played
live, sometimes just recordings to juxtapose the images like The Archies sickly saccharine Sugar Sugar as the pictures told of a
world doomed to fall in on itself. Elizabeth Fraser from the Cocteau Twins and
reggae star Horace Andy sang hauntingly
and sweetly as images flashed up of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his
wife Elena being executed, and then Vladimir Putin using the same system to
rise to the top as a modern day dictator.
It was pretty much 90 minutes of unrelenting gloom and the
stuff of Orwellian nightmares, which I found absolutely mesmerising. The only
fault I could find is that at the very end of it all, a slightly glib message about how,
if we all got together, we could put a stop to all the nonsense was flashed up.
Not exactly clear how that would happen but I guess it was aimed to send the
crowds away without feeling they should just jump under a nearby train at
Piccadilly station instead of carrying on with the dystopian reality that is
their lives.
A really brilliant and original idea, which was very well
executed, with a wonderful soundtrack, and barking guards dogs to escort you
off the premises. How could you possibly ask for more?
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