“If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing slowly,” claims Massive Attack on their Myspace page. They have been snailing towards the release of their fifth studio album, LP5, since 2003. But now, legendary trip-hop duo and sons of Bristol, Massive Attack, will return as vocalist and musician Robert “3D” Del Naja has just revealed plans for a huge world tour to support the release of their long-anticipated fifth album out in October via Virgin/EMI. The act has been working with artists including U.K. rock act Blur’s frontman Damon Albarn, Guy Garvey of U.K. indie-rock band Elbow and Stephanie Dosen. “We had a stage name for it, and we’ve given up on it, we’ve gone back,” he says. “We always think of the name at the last minute, that way you haven’t got to think about it or live with it.”

The U.K. shows are promoted by SJM.The British electronic act has already confirmed more than 40 dates in the U.K. and Europe, beginning with three shows at London’s 5,000-capacity O2 Academy Brixton (Sept. 17-19). “We’ll do the U.K., Europe, then take Christmas off, and then go to Asia, into America and then we’ll roll out to the festivals,” he says. “When you get on a roll it’s such a laugh. For Meltdown [Festival] last year we ended up doing about 40 shows all around eastern and southern Europe, it was really good fun. So I can imagine for this we’ll end up doing maybe 150 gigs” Del Naja confessed to Billboard magazine.

Here is the list of dates as posted on the band’s website:
Auditorio Telmex, Guadalajara, Mexico - 5th September
Bestival, Isle Of Wight, UK - 11th September
Brixton Academy, London, UK - 17th September
Brixton Academy, London, UK - 18th September
Brixton Academy, London, UK - 19th September
Sheffield Academy, Sheffield, UK - 21st September
Birmingham Academy, Birmingham, UK - 22nd September
Leeds Academy, Leeds, UK - 24th September
Apollo Theatre, Manchester, UK - 26th September
Apollo Theatre, Manchester, UK - 27th September
Glasgow Academy, Glasgow, UK - 28th September
Newcastle Academy, Newcastle, UK - 30th September

De Montfort Hall, Leicester, UK - 2nd October
Oasis Leisure Centre, Swindon, UK - 3rd October
Olympia Theatre, Dublin, Ireland - 6th October
Olympia Theatre, Dublin, Ireland - 7th October
Luzhniki Sports Palace, Moscow, Russia - 14th October
Old Ice Hall, Helsinki, Finland - 16th October
Globens Annex, Stockholm, Sweden - 18th October
Falkoner Theatre, Copenhagen, Denmark - 19th October
Sentrum Scene, Oslo, Norway - 20th October
Jahrunderthalle, Frankfurt, Germany - 22nd October
Palladium, Cologne, Germany - 23rd October
Lotto Arena, Antwerp, Belgium - 24th October
Forest National, Brussels, Belgium - 27th October
Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam, Netherlands - 28th October
Tempodrom, Berlin, Germany - 30th October

Helmut-List-Halle, Graz, Austria - 1st November
Gasometer, Vienna, Austria - 2nd November
Lucerna Hall, Prague, Czech Republic - 3rd November
Incheba Expo Arena, Bratislava, Slovakia - 4th November
Dom Sportova, Zagreb, Croatia - 6th November
Palasharp, Milan, Italy - 7th November
Le Zénith, Paris, France - 10th November
Le Zénith, Paris, France - 11th November
Le Zénith, Nantes, France - 13th November
Le Zénith, Lille, France - 14th November
Les Arènes, Metz, France - 15th November
Halle Tony Garnier, Lyon, France - 16th November
Le Dôme, Marseille, France - 18th November
Le Phare, Toulouse, France - 19th November
Campo Pequeno, Lisbon, Portugal - 21st November
Campo Pequeno, Lisbon, Portugal - 22nd November
Winterthur, Eishalle, Switzerland - 25th November

Del Naja adds that while the U.K. is the first scheduled run of dates, the band will actually begin its tour in Mexico: “It’s going to be two festivals in Mexico; I think they might be new festivals. The Latin American attitude will definitely ensure that it’s going to be a laugh.”
Now Del Naja has confirmed the full extent of the tour to Billboard, which he says is likely to top 150 shows including U.S. dates.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 24th, 2009 at 4:16 am and is filed under News.