Martina Topley-Bird [news]


	*news*


		*the latest news*
		_ 6. APRIL 2024 - MISC (OLDER) NEWS: REMIX, PODCAST, INTERVIEW Here are some older news: There is a remix of 'Game' from 2022, I've added it to the solo discography. Martina was a guest in this podcast: Signal Path. It is from November 3, 2021. And if you speak Italian, Martina did an interview with Italian Vogue in December 2021. Check it out here. 27. JANUARY 2022 Martina announced on Facebook that she cancelled her tour because of too many Covid uncertainties. 23. OCTOBER 2021 - FOREVER I WAIT CD Martina has now released her new album 'Forever I wait' also in CD format. Go to Bandcamp to buy it. 11. OCTOBER 2021 - BANDCAMP STORY AND TOUR Martina will be touring the UK and Ireland in spring 2022! Check out the tourdates section for details. You can buy a special VIP ticket on Bandcamp for 60£ including guest list entry plus one, high quality download of Forever I Wait and one piece of signed merchandise. Bandcamp also featured a Martina Topey-Bird story (which is basically a short interview), go here to check it out. 14. MAY 2021 - MARTINA IS BACK! Martina has released a new single: "Pure Heart". You can listen to it on different platforms following this link or buy it on Amazon or iTunes. It was co-produced by Robert Del Naja and Euan Dickinson. I've added the single to the discography. An album with the title "Forever I wait" will follow on September 10th. It will have 12 tracks and more collaborations with Robert Del Naja, also with Rich Morel, Christoffer Berg, Benjamin Boeldt and Tiadiad. About the recording process she said: „I had to recalibrate/reconfigure my way of relating to music and the music industry in order to make the record I wanted to make.…and that took time. And I took the time I needed. I started in London, moved and lived in America for the first time in my life, then briefly moved back to London and finished the record in Spain.” Here's the tracklisting for the record: 1. Pure Heart 2. Wanted 3. Hunt 4. Weasel 5. Wyman 6. Love 7. Game 8. Free 9. Collide 10. Blood 11. Sand 12. Rain 14. APRIL 2020 - MILLENIAL HEART This is old, but nevertheless: Martina sings on "Millennial heart" by Rich Morel. You can listen to it on You Tube. I've added it to the collaborations discography. 10. AUGUST 2019 - SAD NEWS ABOUT MARTINA'S DAUGHTER Tricky and Martina announced in May that their daughter Mina Mazy Topley-Bird died at the age of 24 on May 8. According to Mina's bandmates from Collective 404 she commited suicide: "As some of you may know she had long struggled with her mental health, and recently tragically took her own life. Mina was a beautiful soul; brave, caring, and immensely strong. Through her music she is eternal and will never be forgotten.” (NME). Tricky posted a video on You Tube as a tribute to her on May 28. It features her song "When you go", released on his album "Adrian Thaws" in 2014. He wrote: "I thought I knew what loss was, but now my daughter is gone I realise I had no idea what it was after all. It feels like I'm in a world that doesn't exist, knowing nothing will ever be the same again. No words or text can really explain - my soul feels empty. Mazy Mina, my daughter, had two names - some people called her Mazy, some people called her Mina. She had an amazing talent for singing and songwriting; songs which will be finished and heard. Your words and songs will live on, I will make sure they do. I haven't had the strength to even look at a picture of you until now - people will hear your voice and songs. All my heart - what's left of it. Love you Mazy Mina, Dad" Martina added: "Sweet baby, life won’t be the same without you." (Pitchfork, it seems to be deleted from the original posting of the video and on Facebook?) 25. OCTOBER 2018 - NEW MATERIAL LIVE Martina played some of her new songs at the Koktebel Jazz Festival in August! These are the new tracks she played: - Wanted - Solitude - 2D - Twelve o'clock (formerly Massive Attack live song "Clock Forward") You can watch the whole show on You Tube. She opened with Aftermath and also played Overcome, so it wasn't all new, but also very old :) I've added the setlist to the concertography, go here to take a look. 22. JUNE 2018 - SINGLE "SOLITUDE" FOR DOWNLOAD Martina released a new single called "Solitude" last week, and now you can finally buy the single at Bandcamp! 15. JUNE 2018 - SINGLE "SOLITUDE" & UPCOMING EP Martina's new single is out today! The name changed from "Untie" to "Solitude". You can listen to the full song on her official website, but I couldn't find any place to buy it. A four track EP will be released later with the name "MTB Conutinued". 14. JUNE 2018 - SINGLE "UNTIE" Martina announced on Instagram and her official website that she will release a single called "Untie" on June 15! I couldn't find any more info on formats, b-sides or whatever. Probably it will be a one-track download single. More news tomorrow! Meanwhile there is a preview on Soundcloud. 10. JUNE 2018 - NEW ALBUM & KOKTEBEL JAZZ FESTIVAL Martina announced on Instagram that she will release new material on June 14! According to her official website, it will be an EP called "MTB Continued". She will also be headlining the Koktebel Jazz Festival in Odessa (Ukraine) on August 18. According to the official festival website this will be her only appearance at summer festivals.


		*the past*
		5. APRIL 2018 - NEW MATERIAL SOON? NEW WEBSITE & YOU TUBE CHANNEL! It has been really quiet around Martina, but now she announced on Instagram that she will be "sharing new music". She also has an official You Tube Channel now, so probably she will share new material there! It has all kinds of live performances, interviews and official videos with Tricky, so check it out. Also her official website is back again with a new design! At first I thought there is nothing on there, but in the top right corner there is a little menu sign and when you click on it, you have different sections. In "about" you can read at the end: "Now splitting her time between Baltimore, London, and Valencia, Martina has been working on new music.... to be released in 2018." Meanwhile I've found three older song that were missing from the collaborations discography: Son Of Dave feat. Martina: Hot Summer Nights (go here), Clark feat. Martina: Henderson Swooping and Clark feat. Martina: Secret Show Show, both on the "Fantasm Planes" EP (go here). The collaborations discography is also updated in general with new links and more details. 15. JULY 2017 - SONG WITH TRICKY Tricky just released a song with Martina! It's called 'When we die' and is released as a digital single, it will also be on his next album 'Ununiform', released September 22. Check out the Tricky collaborations discography for details. 20. JANUARY 2016 - MARTINA ON TOUR WITH MASSIVE ATTACK Martina just started a European tour with Massive Attack! Check out the tourdates for details, they will play mostly in the UK, Germany and Netherlands... 2. NOVEMBER 2015 - MARTINA & THE PRODIGY I must admit I missed that, so sorry if this is a bit late: Martina recorded a track with The Prodigy called "The Day Is My Enemy", listen to it on You Tube. It was released in January as a download single and in March as an album. I've also updated the collaborations discography. 1. NOVEMBER 2015 - ALBUM WITH PATTI YANG It has been very quiet, but finally there's some recording activity from Martina! A recent article about Patti Yang mentions that Patti and Martina are writing an album together! Patti Yang is "a trip hop and electronic songstress from London", her last release is the song "Anonymous Face" (listen to it on Soundcloud). 14. SEPTEMBER 2014 - LIVE VIDEO Not really news, but it's been a while since I wrote something here. Martina toured this summer with Massive Attack, here is a performance of Crystalised at the Gurten Festival with Bastian Baker. 7. JULY 2014 - MARTINA ON TOUR! Martina is currently touring with Massive Attack! Check out all the tourdates here. 11. NOVEMBER 2013 - CRYSTALISED SINGLE AND VIDEO Martina's collaboration with Mark Lanegan - Crystalised - is now officially released on 12" with remixes, there is also a video for it! Watch the video here, see details at the videography. I've also added an older collaboration from 2006 to the discography (Ozark Henry - We were never alone). [Thanks to Ferdinand for this info!] 11. AUGUST 2013 - MISC. NEWS OLD AND NEW Martina will play at Festival Number 6 in Portmeiron (UK) on September 15. Her Facebook site announced a new studio album for spring followed by a tour, well, obviously that is delayed. The official website is currently under construction, so maybe some news will appear there soon! I found an (unreleased?) cover of 'Black Steel' by Molecule featuring new vocals by Martina, listen to it on You Tube or Soundcloud. Here are some older news to close the gap since 2010 (sorrrryyy for no updates for so long): - Martina's album "Some Place Simple" with stripped-down versions and some new songs was released in 2010, check out the discography - Martina went on a long tour with Massive Attack in 2010 and 2011 (see concertography) - Martina performed with Tricky for three UK dates in 2012 (see concertography) - Martina did a couple of collaborations including: 2010: with Molecule: 'Baby Girl 2014' (watch on You Tube, see discography for details) 2012: with Mark Lanegan & Warpaint: 'Crystalised' (unreleased so far, see discography) 2012: with Clark: 'Secret' (You Tube, see discography) - check out a cool video on You Tube with Martina performing Baby Blue on the streets / subway and another street performance for the Caprices Label Night in December 2010 here - Neneh Cherry and The Thing covered Martina's song 'Too tough to die' in 2012 (listened to it here, live version here) - in 2010 Martina often performed 'Overcome' in an sort of unplugged version (for example in Sofia) - Martina covered "Marlène" by Noir Désir on a French Radio show (You Tube) - Martina joined the Africa Express train to play concerts with about 80 musicians in the UK in September 2012, read more here - in 2012 Martina started working as a vocal coach and songwriting coach for BIMM, a music college in Bristol (official website)_ 20. JUNE 2010 - LIVE ALBUM, STUDIO ALBUM AND CONCERTS As you can read on the official website Martina will release a live album on July 12, called "Some place simple". It was recorded in Damon Albarns Studio and will be released on his label Honest Jon’s, as you can read here. She played and will play several concerts with Massive Attack, check out the tourdates for more info. 2. JANUARY 2010 - TWO SONGS Martinas collaboration with Massive Attack ("Psyche") was released in October (see discography). It was only released for download or as a limited 12". The official website says that Martina also worked on the song "Babel", soon released on Massive's new album "Heligoland" (in February). 13. SEPTEMBER 2009 - SONG WITH MASSIVE ATTACK As you can read on the EMI website Massive Attack will release an EP (called "Splitting the atom") on October 2. It contains the track "Psyche" with Martina Topley-Bird. You can already listen to the track at Myspace or at Spinner. On this Myspace site you can listen to a song called "Psyche" that is obviously with Martina. 6. SEPTEMBER 2009 - COLLABORATION WITH LUCIANO As you can read here Martina contributed vocals to one song to Luciano's new album "Tribute to the sun", which will be released on October 12. The song is called "sun, day and night". You can buy and listen to the song at Amazon, for example. 22. JULY 2009 - TOUR WITH MASSIVE ATTACK According to her official website Martina will join Massive Attack on their upcoming tour, not only as support act, but also as a guest vocalist. She will probably sing the song "Red Light" (see below), but maybe even more??? The tour starts in September, check out the full list of dates in the tour section. 18. JULY 2009 - SONG WITH MASSIVE ATTACK Martina will record one song with Massive Attack for their new album. According to BBC 6 she "is to sing on a track Robert Del Naja and Elbow frontman Guy Garvey have written together." The song is called 'Red Light'. The song was performed already last year on tour, you can listen to it on You Tube (the singer, Stephanie, almost sounds like Martina!). The album has no definite release date yet, maybe it will October 2009, maybe later. [Thanks to Guy for this info!] 29. JANUARY 2009 - LIVE VIDEO You can see a live performance in Paris from Martina here. The concert was at La Bellevilloise on September 12. 7. NOVEMBER 2008 - MARTINA TOUR In case anyone didn't know: Martina is on tour again, and it will be really interesting this time! Check out details from the concert in Paris on November 5 (the setlist and some links to You Tube videos can be found here): she played 23 (!) songs including new songs (check out an experimental one at You Tube), cover songs (Kate Bush, Radiohead...) and a special treat for all Tricky fans: BLACK STEEL!!! She is touring with some background singers (including Cath Coffey) and a beatbox-man (sorry, I don't know his name!). Most of the songs are arranged differently (quieter, accoustic, like a sort of "Unplugged"). I recommend everyone in Europe to go out and see her (I'm myself counting the days until Tuesday)! 5. NOVEMBER 2008 - H&M and Melody Nelson concert in Paris Martina's song "Need One" (from Quixotic) is featured in a H&M TV spot, read and see more about it here. On October 23 she performed at Serge Gainsbourg's "Histoire de Melody Nelson" concert. She sang two songs, one was "Melody" with Mathieu Amalric, the other was "ballade de Melody Nelson" with Brian Molko (see the video on You Tube). Read more about the concert at Martina's official site or in this blog. 6. SEPTEMBER 2008 - BABY BLUE "Baby Blue" will be released as the next single tomorrow. It will be a download only single (without any b-sides, unfortunately), you can download it at 7 Digital. 2. SEPTEMBER 2008 - BBC SHOW Martina was on a BBC radio show with Marc Riley last Tuesday, you can listen to it again here. 22. AUGUST 2008 - BABY BLUE It seems like "Baby Blue" will be the next single. A cover photo can be seen on the official website. But as you can read here it will be released as a download single only. There are no mentions of b-sides... 4. JULY 2008 - TOUR & TV You can find some new tourdates on the official site - Martina will support Lenny Kravitz on his European tour. Funny coincidence: she will play at the Pukkelpop Festival, where also Tricky will perform! Check out her tourdates here. You can also read on the official site that Martina will be performing on the Italian TV-channel "All Music" on July 10 (10.30 PM). And last but not least: if you missed Martina at Glastonbury, you can watch a stripped down version of "Baby Blue" recorded for The Telegraph here. 27. MAY 2008 - NOT REALLY NEWS, MORE RANDOM THOUGHTS I don't know where to put this, so I'll put it here: updating old links and stuff from the concertography I've realized that Martina performed "Poison" already live in 2004, for example at the Montreux Festival (hear the old version on You Tube). And then by coincidence I've found a recent interview with Martina, where she says (asked what her muse for the album was): "My original version of Poison was the main point of reference". She also mentions the song "Walking in the sand" by the Shangri Las in this interview, which reminded me that she also performed this cover song live once (Regents Park, London, 2004) and made me think that maybe that is where the name of the song "Shangri La" comes from? Oh, but this is definitely news: in the above mentioned interview Martina says that she will play Glastonbury this summer! I've checked it, and it's true: June 29 is the day (see tour dates). And, more news derived from that interview: Leila's new album "Blood, Looms & Blooms" will be released on July 7 with Martina on two tracks! The tracklist that can be found here lists a song called "Deflect w/ Martina Topley-Bird" (which will also be the lead single) and "Why Should I? w/ Terry Hall & Martina Topley-Bird" (which is probably the song that can already be heard on Leila's My Space site with the working title marterry = martina and terry?). 25. MAY 2008 - VIDEO INTERVIEW There's an interesting video interview with Martina on MK2. She talks about the term "trip-hop" - and why she isn't that - and how about she wanted Leila to be the producer of the album first... 21. May 2008 - LONDON'S CALLING Martina plays another show in London tomorrow (May 22): Tiscali showcase, Soho Revue Bar. Tickets are £8.50. Also check out some cool photos from the Paris show here and from the Brussels show here. [Thanks to Guy for this info!] 12. MAY 2008 -BLUE GODDESS Martina's second solo album "The Blue God" is released today in the UK! Check out the discography for details. 7. MAY 2008 - BOOOOOHOOOOO By checking Martina's My Space site today I saw that she played a concert in my city yesterday, how cruel is that! Finally today also her official website is updated with the rest of the European tourdates (with Morcheeba), so everyone who didn't miss it: enjoy! 6. MAY 2008 - POISON RELEASED! The single "Poison" was released yesterday! It has three b-sides: the Gorillaz collaboration "Solider Boy", a version of Poison with Leila and Terry Hall (hardly audible, though) called "Like Poison" and a Van She remix (you can listen to that remix on the official website). Check out the discography for sounds and pictures. 27. APRIL 2008 - FESTIVALS AND OTHER NEWS You can read in the forum that Martina will play two festivals this summer: Festivalnoise in Brussels on May 12 and Meltdown in London on June 18. She will also be part of a charity show ("V Day Ballroom Blitz Party") on April 30 in London's Bloomsbury Ballroom (read more about it here). Also check out the official site, because they've added the b-side "Soldier Boy" from the upcoming 'Poison' single for listening pleasures. And if that's not enough of new Martina sounds, check out my discography, because I've added sounds for her album "The Blue God" and the "Poison" remixes (from promo CDs). _

for older news go to the news archive


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