Massive Attack at Lido Festival Victoria Park, London review

The LIDO festival may be in a different field to the well-established All Points East – which runs later in the summer – but the vibe is similar.

Featuring curated line-ups by current and past big names with the music the main attraction – you can keep your O2s and London Stadium gigs, this is where cool young Londoners are at.

The band sported combat-style Press jerseys and foregrounded statistics and films of the devastation in Gaza. (Image: Sophia Carey) Warming us up with their Gallic brand of spacey electro-pop were Air.

And with a cold cider in one hand and the sun trying to peep through grey clouds, the white-clad duo from Versailles caught the mood with the opening tracks to their debut album Moon Safari.

La Femme D’Argent, their, um, sexy hit single Sexy Boy, the wistful All I Need and Kelly Watch The Stars were a melodic, feelgood start to the night, before things turned serious.

Robert 3D Del Naja of Massive Attack on stage at the opening night of Lido Festival in Victoria Park. (Image: Bethan Miller) Massive Attack are not a band to pay lip service to an idea. With their decarbonized gigs they are trailblazing changes to how outdoor live music is staged, and on the subject of Gaza and Palestine it went way beyond wheeling on a fervent peace activist then cracking on with the set.

Like Belfast rappers Kneecap, they clearly believe they need to fill the void vacated by world leaders and use their platform to call for solidarity and action.

Palestinian flags waved in the crowd, and on screen, horrific statistics and harrowing films of devastation played  – most memorably on a deeply moving Safe From Harm featuring Deborah Miller, which was dedicated to the people of Gaza.

At one point, Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja, sporting a black jersey with the word Press asserted “children are not a target.”

But what of the music? Given the theme of the night it was never going to be upbeat, but the band leaned in a little too hard on the beeps and grinding guitars for an audience perhaps hoping for more hypnotic, soulful melodies and dub grooves.

Karmacoma was apparently dropped from the setlist and was much-missed, but Horace Andy was a welcome presence on Girl I Love you, and Elizabeth Fraser’s vocals on Black Milk, and a cover of Tim Buckley’s Song to the Siren wove a haunting spell of sublime beauty.

She was back for the powerful, showstopping closing track Teardrop, but before that there was a slightly random but joyful slice of post-punk with the Ultravox track Rockwrok.

Andy was back for a blazing Angel and Mos Def took to the stage for the laser and smokefest of I Against I.

Then Miller reminded us why Massive were such a unique and exciting band when they first broke into the charts.

With Unfinished Sympathy the audience at last had something to groove to, and if the band had saved the best until last, they had certainly pulled it off. 

LIDO Festival continues until June 15 with Outbreak Fest, Charli xcx and London Grammar.