Veteran electronic music duo Massive Attack have cancelled an upcoming gig at ACC Liverpool in protest of an electronic arms fair set to take place at the same venue.
Massive Attack’s show was created as a “super low-carbon” trial event to test the feasibility of hosting similarly environmentally friendly shows in the future. The duo believe that an arms fair ties directly into environmental issues that could exacerbate armed conflicts in the near future, though.
“On the eve of a global event that’s totally critical if we’re to avoid a catastrophic extinction event, arms barons are shop-windowing technologies that inevitably harm and incarcerate people, often in the hands of states already acknowledged to be human rights violators,” said Massive Attack’s Robert “3D” Del Naja in a statement.
“The International Red Cross says that the impacts of climate emergency seriously increase the risks of armed conflict, by exacerbating existing social, economic and environmental factors,” he continued. “In what world is that an ‘opportunity’ worth promoting? As artists, we cannot travel along with that.”
Massive Attack feel so strongly about the topic that they also expressed solidarity with the Liverpool Against The Arms Fair. The group held a demonstration last Saturday, September 11th at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.
“The one-off testbed show planned for Liverpool involved design, planning and relationship building on a scale that dwarfs any conventional tour, so it’s really disappointing that for reasons way beyond our control we can’t pull it off,” said Del Naja. “But showing solidarity with the people of Liverpool at this crucial moment supersedes that.”
