The complete 77 minute concert on CD for the first time - I mean, this thing's
so rare it's never even been bootlegged - well, not in this quality it hasn't!
Yes you can really wake up now - it's a mixing desk recording - that's right,
MIXING DESK! Time to foam at the mouth and reach for that computer button or
phone and order - right now, from us - what is a slice of classic Hillage from a
time when a live recording has never before been presented to us! The rather
fabulous 'Live Herald' was from a year earlier, and this CD here really
represents the "last of the old", as the new, altogether more muscular, rhythm
section backs the trio of Hillage on guitar and vocals, Miquette Giraudy on
synths and vocals and the late, lamented Christian Boule on lead, rhythm and
glissando guitars. Musically it's a set of things from the first four albums and
presented here in excellent quality, so that you'll hear magical playing from
all concerned. In many ways, Hillage's guitar work here is arguably better than
on the previous live album - there seems to be an added bite, and certainly the
whole performance is a lot stronger, none of the heaviness taken away by
post-production or anything like that - it's all here in gloriously "untampered"
sound - you hear it exactly as you heard it at the time. Surely I don't need to
say how essential this is for anyone into Gong, Hillage and all spheres of
psychedelia but I'm telling you anyway - essential and then some!
Andy Garibaldi
For Goldmine review, June 2004 - click here!
