Considering that she had presumably spent a fair bit of money on her ticket to see them, the Italian woman in front of me seemed utterly unaware of Massive Attack’s long history of activism on Palestine. Their set at the Lido festival was preceded by speeches and a video about the genocide in Gaza. She was shouting idiocies like “this is a music festival, we don’t want politics” and “that’s enough about Gaza”. I’ll be charitable and assume that she’d come to see Air’s pleasant but inconsequential performance a bit earlier. She will have been disappointed by the text and videos which were part of the show reminding her not just of Gaza, but Ukraine and Bosnia. Well done to me for not telling her to vaffanculo.

Massive Attack delivered a stupendously sublime mix of music and politics. It is impossible not to love a group which covers a fairly obscure song by the proper Ultravox! in the middle of a festival set, though I suppose you could argue that Rockwrok is only one of three albums worth of obscure songs by that lineup. Let’s not quibble. It was magnificent.

The contrast with Air’s noodly set was instructive. They were a band going through the nostalgic motions and not wanting to rub anyone up the wrong way. Massive Attack were using the stage, their video screens with images from Adam Curtis and their opportunities to speak to the crowd to remind us that art is never neutral and silence on genocide is consent to it.

It is easy to be preachy and tedious as anyone who has met me can confirm. Where Massive Attack have a big advantage is in the quality of their music. It was an evening full of tingling moments. Horace Andy’s performances of Girl, I love you and Angel were intense and beautiful. Debroah Miller almost reinvented Unfinished Sympathy by giving it a more intense and hurt quality than you get on the album and Elizabeth Fraser lent her unworldly quality to Song to the Siren and Teardrop.

As you can see from my not very good photo, a group of what looked about fifty people had organised themselves into a cluster with Palestinian flags and the group have been collaborating with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Surprisingly few British musicians have taken a public stand on Gaza. Girl Ray and Paul Weller are the only ones who come immediately to mind. In contrast to the numpties who argue that you have to leave the world outside when you go to a show, Massive Attack demonstrate with every performance that by being in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Gaza we become more human.

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