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Massive Attack's fifth

Tricky relations ease ahead of the release of Heligoland

  • 08/12/2009
  • Georgie Rogers
Massive Attack at Glastonbury 2008

The rift between the fathers of trip-hop Massive Attack and their early collaborator Tricky is healing.

Grant 'Daddy G' Marshall revealed they met in Paris recently and the Bristol-based outift have asked Tricky to work on a future Massive Attack project.

"I did actually ask Tricky to come on board for this album and there's talk about him maybe coming on the next album," he said to BBC 6 Music.

Their first album for six years, Heligoland is out on 8 February.

Tricky, an original associate of the Bristol collective, collaborated on Massive Attack's 1991 debut Blue Lines and their follow-up Protection.

But when his solo career took off in 1994, the musician decided not to work with Robert '3D' Del Naja and Marshall any longer due to creative differences.

"Things seem like they've healed between us and Tricky," said Marshall of their relationship now. "It's been quite well documented how us and Tricky get on hasn't it?

"It's not that well, but things have changed. Things have softened up. We saw Tricky a couple of weeks ago in Paris and it was quite an amicable meeting after five or six years."

"I did actually ask Tricky to come on board for this album and there's talk about him maybe coming on the next album."

Grant 'Daddy G' Marshall

Heligoland is the groundbreaking band's follow-up to 100th Window and features an impressive list of collaborators, including Damon Albarn of Blur, Portishead's Adrian Utley, Tunde Adebimpe from TV on the Radio, Elbow's Guy Garvey, Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star) and regular vocalist Horace Andy.

Martina Topley Bird, one-time partner of Tricky and vocalist on his debut, Maxinquaye, as well as follow-up albums Nearly God, Pre-Millennium Tension and Angels with Dirty Faces, is another musician that was involved with Heligoland, which resulted from better relations between them and Tricky.

"It was one of those things where we've always wanted to work with Martina because we've always thought she was amazing, but politically we never really approached her because of the Tricky situation," Marshall said. 

Topley Bird supported Massive Attack on their 2009 tour, with him adding: "Hopefully we'll be taking her this time as well."

The band have just completed a European tour and have more dates planned in the UK in February.

You can hear the whole interview in the Music Week Podcast available to download for free until Sunday 13 December.

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