The decision by Massive Attack to employ Horace Andy, the veteran reggae singer, on their three albums had none of the ironic intent of such old/new team-ups as Shirley Bassey with Propellerheads. Andy's eerie, haunting tones are perfectly suited to the Bristol act's dolorous beatscapes. Nearly 30 years after his pioneering recordings at the legendary Studio One with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd, Andy is basking in the acclaim of whole new generations, from trip hoppers to ex-punk rockers (the title track of his most recent album, Living in the Flood, was co-written with Joe Strummer).
It is hardly surprising, then, that Andy - born Horace Hinds in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1951 - is revered like a god. At 12.15am, DJ David Rodigan comes on stage to announce him: "Welcome to a living legend," he says. Yet Andy cuts a less than imposing figure. A small man with a smiling face, he wears the sort of patterned open-necked shirt favoured by ageing American tourists and dances across the stage like your dad at a wedding.
None of this quite squares with the sorrowful falsetto of his best work, or the image of the pensive soul caught on the sleeve of Living in the Flood. At one point he pulls the pretty female bassist from his backing band to the front of the stage like a genial uncle, and suddenly the apocalyptic menace of his performance on Massive Attack's Mezzanine is forgotten.
But then, there is more than one side to Horace Andy. For the standard rocksteady lilt of Fever, he plays the libidinous loverman whose louche manner has earned him the nom de disque, Sleepy. For the bass-heavy dub-quake that is Money is the Root of All Evil, he plays the righteous prophet of doom with the Old Testament worldview. On the slight Chat Away Chatterer, his tone is oddly high, his delivery almost comically fast.
It is during After All, however, that the "real" Horace Andy comes to the fore: the tortured romantic whose sweet tenor has spawned legions of lovers' rock lotharios, most of whom miss the ache, the anguish, behind his music. If Bob Marley was the John Lennon of reggae, then Horace Andy is its Marvin Gaye.
