Tomorrow I fly to Bordeaux with Anekdoten to headline a French festival, so it seemed appropriate to share some French Symphonic Prog recorded in 1973/74 under the direction of pianist Cyrille Verdeaux. Three members of Gong appear on the record including Steve Hillage on electric guitar, Dider Malherbe on tenor sax and Tim Blake on […]
The trip into Fusion is a road populated by the harshest criticism from those that prefer other music. Fusion is the cricket of music and if you don’t understand it, best quietly change channels than shout at the television. Interestingly, Shamal is on the way to Fusion rather than being full-blooded Fusion and consequently it […]
After the Radio Gnome trilogy, Daevid Allen left Gong in 1975 and Steve Hillage took over as the band’s leader. Shamal was recorded later that year, it was produced by Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason and came out in early 1976, but Hillage uncomfortable with his new position left before the album was released. With Allen gone, Gong were […]
A nod to Daevid Allen (who died in March) and his influence on all underground music from the early sixties to Psychedelia and onwards. A founder member of Soft Machine and lifelong itinerant experimentalist, one looks on with awe at his and the band’s ability to be so completely lost in the music whilst breezing […]
As their is no live footage of Arzachel this is a clip put together by a fan on You Tube. It is a track from Egg’s 1971 second album featuring three members of Arzachel, Dave Stewart and Clive Brooks with Mont Campbell singing about their times in their previous band. It’s as Prog as Prog […]
Although the story of Arzachel may be a little complicated, a trip to the Uriel, Steve Hillage and Egg links will explain the story, but the short version is as follows: Arzachel is in fact Uriel who are in fact three quarters of Egg with Steve Hillage. Hm, maybe that’s not quite clear – Ok […]