Meltdown 2008

London’s Southbank Centre is one of the hippest venue’s in the world, and it’s the home of an event, Massive Attack’s Meltdown 2008, that may be the event of the year.

Massive Attack’s Meltdown will feature performances from:

• Gong – Seeded in Paris during the 1968 student riots, Gong weave their unique magic with an imaginative mix of psychedelic jazz fusion, eastern/world music, synths and loops, and deep space funk all laced with self-deprecating humour – 40 years on their underground influence is massive.
• Massive Attack – This year’s Directors open the festival by performing songs from their wide-ranging career live on stage.
• Yellow Magic Orchestra – Pioneers of electropop, Yellow Magic Orchestra brought synthpop to the world along with Kraftwerk in the 1980s.
• Vangelis’ Blade Runner Soundtrack performed live by the Heritage Orchestra, mixed by Massive Attack.
• Grace Jones – The statuesque Grace Jones performs, including songs from her as yet untitled new album.
• DJ Peaches
• DJ Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet
• George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic
• DJ Andrew Weatherall

More artists to come – but you have to admit, that’s a pretty awesome lineup already.

I was in London last year on business last year and had a night open. I checked what was happening at the Southbank Centre and ended up going to a tribute to Robert Anton Wilson, author of the Illuminatus Trilogy. The evening was a dense multimedia event, featuring Coldcut, Mixmaster Morris, Bill Drummond from the KLF, V for Vendetta author Alan Moore and Ken Campbell, the producer of the Illuminatus play.

It was insanely cool, and if Meltdown is even half as cool, it will be an event to remember.