LIVE AT THE GONG FAMILY UNCONVENTION (E), dvd

Although Steve Hillage doesn’t think so, many of our readers will remember him as a progressive rock artist from the seventies. Many more will remember him as one of the more illustrious members of Gong, a band that still perfoms live in different line-ups. It was November 2006 when the Gong Family Unconvention was organized in Amsterdam in venue De Melkweg. There, the Steve Hillage Band performed for the first time in almost three decades: their last performance live was in December 18th, 1979. The band on stage consists of Steve Hillage (guitar, vocals), Miquette Giraudy (keyboards, vocals), Mike Howlett (bass), Chris Taylor (drums) and Basil Brooks (keyboards). This release dates from August 2009. The band opens with an up-tempo track called Hello Dawn, a mixture of pop, rock and just a tiny bit of psychedelic influences. Immediately is clear that Hillage brought a fantastic rhythm section to this gig. Especially Howlett proves to be a terrific bass player and he really pushes the music to a higher level. Hillage shows that after some practicing, he hasn’t lost his touch and plays his solos as thirty years ago. The second track is an arrangement of a song by George Harrison, as anyone knows, the most ‘psychedelic’ member of The Beatles. This is the only track that is not composed by Hillage and Miraudy. Sometimes Hillage seems to have just a little difficulty to keep his voice steady, but his soloing makes up for this tiny bit of criticism. An echoing guitar with wah-wah pedal is the overture to the three parts of Aftaglid with lots of synth effects by Brooks and 'psychedelica' all the way. At first just Howlett joining Hillage and it takes a while before the music really involves the full band but when it does, it blows you away: space rock like Hawkwind in a brilliant form. Again great instrumental performances by Hillage, Howlett and Taylor. Om the screen behind the band mostly abstract images and the cameras are filming the band from different angles. Sometimes two or even three different shots in one screen at the same time. By changing colours or transforming the filmed musicians into their ‘photographic negatives’, the viewer is able to enjoy much more than watching just the rather static band. Inspired by his reading about the events about to come in 2012, Hillage introduces us to Solar Musick, again a nice combination of space rock, pop and of course psychedelic elements as well. Miraudy let her synths create all kinds of spacey sounds and in the second instrumental part of the song it’s very catchy space rock again. Steve excels once more on his very unusual tiny rectangular shaped guitar, probably a Steinberger. An extremely enthusiastic response by the audience is their reward. The next more rocky tune is referred to by Steve Hillage as ‘a fishing trip is in order’: The Salmon Song. The more spacey interlude is called ‘swimming with the salmon’. The last song These Uncharted Lands is inspired by journeys outside of the body. The band never performed this song live although Steve calls it one of the best songs they ever wrote. Musically it starts off rather pop-like in the vein of Alphaville but the second part is much more psychedelic with images of a tower on a hill and Hillage soloing on a single chord. If I’m not mistaken he uses an e-bow as well during this last part full of improvisations.

In the interviews, Steve refers to this event as one of the best weekends in their lives and explains how the band was invited to play, why they actually decided to do it and he reveals his personal history of how he and Miquette became members of Gong. He talks about his project System 7 and how he had to work hard to be able to play these old tunes again, but when he was finally ‘into it’ it was like ‘riding a bike’. It seems to me this DVD is the missing piece in the oeuvre of the Steve Hillage Band and due to the craftsmanship of all musicians and technicians involved, this is a valuable addition in the musical library of anyone who’s interested in the Steve Hillage, Gong or space rock in general.