Massive Attack are a trip-hop group which formed in Bristol, England in 1988. The group currently consists of Robert "3D" Del Naja and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. Third member Andy "Mushroom" Vowles left the group in 1999. The band has released five studio albums: "Blue Lines" (1991), "Protection" (1994), "Mezzanine" (1998), "100th Window" (2003), and "Heligoland" (2010). On 28 January 2016, Massive Attack released a new EP, Ritual Spirit. The group are considered to be progenitors of the trip hop genre. Their debut album, Blue Lines was released in 1991, with the single "Unfinished Sympathy" reaching the charts and later being voted the 10th greatest song of all time in a poll by The Guardian. 1998's Mezzanine, containing "Teardrop", and 2003's 100th Window charted in the UK at number 1. Both Blue Lines and Mezzanine feature in Rolling Stones list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The group has won numerous music awards throughout their career, including a Brit Award—winning Best British Dance Act, two MTV Europe Music Awards, and two Q Awards They have released 5 studio albums that have sold over 11 million copies worldwide. In the nineties, the trio became known for often not being able to easily get along with one another and working increasingly separately. Andy Vowles (Mushroom), who had once thought of himself as the trio's musical director, acrimoniously left Massive Attack in late 1999, after an ultimatum from the other two members to end the group immediately if he did not. Despite having taken Del Naja's side in the effective firing of Vowles and then participating in a show-of-unity webcast as a duo the following year, Grant Marshall (G) had also effectively left by 2001 in that he abandoned the studio altogether. Marshall returned to a studio role in 2005, having joined the touring line-up in 2003/4. The two later worked together again in the 2008 Damon Albarn sessions for the fifth proper studio album.
