Lots of little news bits all circling around Damon Albarn:

• First off, he's collaborating with Massive Attack on their next album and is wary of a long drawn out recording process.  So he's making them work 10am-6pm at his home studio to get the recoding done.  I think he just wants them out of his home studio.
• Then his other band, Gorillaz, is finishing up mixing their upcoming album and frontman, "Murdoc", is now on twitter announcing the progress.  Their album is due out in March and a tour will likely follow.
• Finally, Blur's reunion shows last year were stellar and they made a DVD of the shows, "No Distance Left to Run", which is currently airing in England movie theaters and will be released on February 15th.  Check out the trailer, it looks pretty fun.

As if he wasn't all over the place already, Damon Albarn has apparently contributed vocals to the new Massive Attack album according to today's NME. He hasn't been credited on the track, which will appear February in 2003 in the long awaited followup to 'Mezzanine'. Also featured on the album are Sinead O'Connor and Horace Andy .

So you say you want a revolution? So do Robert '3-D' Del Naja of MASSIVE ATTACK and Damon Albarn of BLUR. As the NME has been reporting for awhile, the pair have been teaming up with CND and 'Stop The War' coalition to register their dissent with the British government's involvement in an upcoming (aka on-going) war in Iraq. 3-D has been extremely active in advertising his resistence through the NME and actively attempting to involve fellow musicians. According to a new NME story, their attempts are only to escalate as the push for war increases.

On a music related note, the new MASSIVE ATTACK album, as yet untitled, is still scheduled for a UK release on January 27. No word yet on an anti-war theme. ;-)

Yet another band split to report on: MTV Europe is confirming the recent rumours that Mushroom has left MASSIVE ATTACK due to creative differences with co-founders 3D and Daddy G. From what we can ascertain, the group will continue as a duo and retain the Massive Attack name (the shrunken line-up has already played some festival dates this month in Europe.)

The obvious highlight of the MTV Europe Video Music Awards, held this past week and broadcast in America this past Friday, had to be MASSIVE ATTACK accepting the award for Best Video from none other than Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York. After the Duchess botched the announcement and stumbled over their name, not only did 3-D and the Attack virtually ignore Fergie (refusing to shake her hand,) but also left the stage with a mumbled, "F**k you very much." Classic.

Following in the "we-told-you-so" vein, when MASSIVE ATTACK made it public last week that they were withdrawing from The Verve's US tour, we told you that they would likely announce their own North American tour for September. This weekend, they did just that -- check the tours page for details.

Okay, we can now confirm that MASSIVE ATTACK have dropped out of the plagued VERVE tour of the States. The Verve's US booking agent, Marty Diamond of Little Big Man, told Sonicnet's Music News of the World today that Massive Attack were dropping out due to unknown "scheduling issues" and that a replacement is currently being decided upon.

Rumor: Nick McCabe quits the Verve!! There have been several unconfirmed reports from fans and even radio stations. Verve are supposed to continue their US tour with a replacement which starts on July 28. The Verve has always been plagued with bad luck and thing is just another example. So far the US tour has been victim to cancelled shows, poor ticket sales, rescheduled venues, Massive Attack dropping out from the opening slot, and now the genious behind the music is gone. We can only hope that this rumor is false.

Here's a bit of a concert tour newsflash for everybody: It was announced today that THE VERVE are returning to the States for a summer arena tour, with no less than Bristol crusaders MASSIVE ATTACK in tow as an opening act. The Attack's new album comes out within a couple of
weeks, and critics everywhere are already calling it one of 1998's Albums of the Year. Gee, if only there were a way to hear it early... hmm... (hint hint - look for the flame.)