Massive Attack Wanted Patti Smith for New Album

Posted on Dec 10th 2009 4:42AM by Stephen Dowling
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Massive Attack have no shortage of guests vocalists for their forthcoming album 'Heligoland.' From Elbow's Guy Garvey to Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval, Damon Albarn to TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe, their fifth LP is chock-full of stellar contributions.

But this cast of collaborators, which also includes Martina Topley-Bird and long-time friend Horace Andy, doesn't include some artists the Bristol group tried and failed to get for the album. David Bowie was one. And Massive Attack's Grant Marshall -- aka Daddy G -- tells Spinner the band had been hoping to get none other than Patti Smith.

"It was all on the cards with Patti Smith to work with us and she never sent anything back."

Marshall continues, "I saw her at this Cannabis Cup thing in the Milky Way [Amsterdam venue] and it was the first time I'd seen her, and I thought, 'Right, she's f------ amazing, we should work with her. And that's when I started pursuing her after seeing her three years ago. I'd never seen her before. I went to Holland to go, watched her and I was completely blown away.

"When I saw her at the Cannabis Cup, everyone was offering her spliffs, and she was refusing them, and at the end she suddenly relented and took one from a member of the audience and took two or three puffs off it. And the whole crowd went 'yaaaay.'"

Despite the invitation, Smith didn't say yes to a link-up. But Spinner wagers we haven't heard the last on this one. 'Heligoland,' meanwhile, will be released in February 2010.