Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A real treat!, 16 Oct 2007
Here's a real treat for all the Hillage fans: a live gig filmed at Otto-Hahn-Schule, Berlin, in 1977. Most of this show was broadcasted at the time on the German television, but now the whole gig is included! The sound quality is very good. The picture quality is also excellent for a seventies footage, after all. The band is on fire, and you'll for sure enjoy this if you're into Steve's music. For me, the guy is absolutely on the top of my favourite guitar players list, and his music is psychedelic enough and skilful. The first thousand copies of this DVD also includes the gig as an original mono mix bonus CD, which is nice. The gig begins with the superb "Fish Rising" from Steve's first solo album. The going is very tight all the way from the beginning, and MiniMoog really gets it. This version works really well played by two guitar players and Hillage smiles looking very happy. "Hurdy Gurdy Glissando" from the album L starts off peacefully with glissando guitar, synthesiser and a bell. The track gets more hypnotic and we get to hear some really great soloing and amazing stuff. I must also especially mention the great bass playing of Colin Bass! Then we get a really great cover version of the Donovan song "Hurdy Gurdy Man". The vocal microphones are opened just a bit too late... After this Steve presents the band. The more peaceful and beautiful "Solor Musick Suite" from Fish Rising comes next. There are some wild synth and guitar solos towards the end. Then comes the track "Lunar Musick Suite" from the "new" L album released in 1977 and it has a primitive sequencer going on. I think this is a bit weaker material, but still a fine track... "Meditation of the Dragon" is a short atmospheric track after which comes the George Harrison cover "It's All too Much" that was also released as a single. Steve breaks a string in the beginning which is the reason why this was omitted from the original broadcast. A professional takes care of the problem very swiftly and also this track works very well. After the silly beginning "Afterglid (Part I)" is a real space jam! "Electrick Gypsies" continues directly from the previous track. Also these two tracks were not included on the original broadcast and are now seen for the first time. "Not Fade Away (Glid Forever)" begins with a real glissando bliss and then some funny and spacey Gong styled stuff follows.
Germany -77 really is a must-have for all the Steve Hillage fans and an excellent showcase for what the band was alike live in 1977. As an extra feature the DVD includes a fresh and very interesting interview with Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy where they mostly do some retrospection. There are also some mentions about the times before Gong. The cover of the DVD is pretty simple on the outside, but you can find for example the original gig poster and some paper cuttings from the inside and the insert includes a 70's Steve Hillage biography. A very nice package!!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the real spirit of 77, 15 Sep 2008
This dvd, recorded on the legendary 'rockpalast' show in 1977 is quite simply nothing short of breathtaking. i suppose that this is the type of music that punks, ignorant little twerps that the majority of them were (and still are i might add) , were 'rebelling' against. whatever. Self-indulgent prog? listen, watch and learn. there is no improvisation going on here. these are fully structured songs. not one note is wasted. everything is saying something at all times. steve and the band are simply on fire throughout - the level of musicianship is quite staggering. its incredibly tight and powerful, with a massive rhthym section holding it all together (one of whom is the incredible jethro tull drummer clive bunker, surely one of rocks greatest drummers) it really showcases just what a talent hillage was/is as a songwriter and guitarist. they held up eddie van halen as a guitar god a few years later, but really, hillage is way in front of him. this is thrilling stuff, both melodic and effortlessly heavy when it has to be. the likes of joe strummer, if he had lived a hundred lifetimes, could never have come up with something as powerful, majestic, intelligent and downright cool as the material on offer here. absolutely essential viewing and listening for anyone who calls themself a music fan.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sheer delight!, 28 Feb 2009
For anyone who remembers those heady moments of the first listen to Fish Rising (which I hated the first time round and loved a year later - call it aural maturity), L, Motivation Radio & Green, this is a true delight. Excellent sound quality (Clive Bunker is such a terrific drummer), a really tight band, and very good camerawork - so nice to see close ups of Steve's fingers on the frets. I have waited a long long time for this - well, ok, technically I never expected to see it.
Really great to hear Solar Musick Suite followed by Lunar Musick Suite.
Steve enriched my life in so many ways and still does (System 7 no exception). And yes, I do still believe in his overwhelmingly positive vibe: love glissandos, ether ships and all (and still listen enraptured to YES for the same reason). My only disappoint is that during the extensive and very enjoyable interview, with Miquette Giraudy in the chair beside him, they never discuss the Green album. But that is small potatoes when stacked against this really excellent package.
And perhaps a concert from the Green tour is in the can or on the editing deck as I write. We can hope.
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![Gong - Live at the Uncon 2006 [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Bjp-zOaKL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
