Stave Hillage

Some gigs are simply meant to be out there - even if they take decades to actually make it into our hands. This is without doubt one of those concerts; recorded at the Philips Halle, Düsselsdorf on the 28th March 1979 during the Live Herald Tour. Released following the AIM-nominated deluxe box set from Hillage, 'Searching for the Spark', this new Düsselsdorf vinyl showcases the Steve Hillage Band's prowess with excellent sound quality - a quality so high that you'll forget that it's a live recording until the applause. This is a band at the height of it's powers, with Steve in great voice throughout, and most obviously utterly enjoying themselves. The vibe is completely infectious and doesn't let up throughout the entire gig. Featuring Steve's own adventurous compositions and covers of Beatles and Donovan classics, all are approached with a joie-de-vivre and high sensibility. The trademark heady combination of vibrant psychedelic rock interwoven with an irresistible full-blooded groove, interspersed with the smoothest of deep-space synth/guitar trips gathers all before it in a tsunami of up-lifting music. With the benefit of hindsight, Steve's musical trajectory from the creative space riffs of Gong to the trance and techno of System 7 is made instantly clear.

Formed in 1967 at the height of the UK psychedelic scene, Uriel consisted of Steve Hillage (guitar/vocals), Dave Stewart (organ), Mont Campbell (bass/vocals) and Clive Brooks (drums). When Hillage left the band Uriel continued as an organ trio, later changing their name to Egg. Arzachel ~ Collectors Edition is a re-mastered version of the legendary 1969 psychedelic album recorded under a pseudonym by Uriel, featuring the amazing 17-year old Steve Hillage on guitar throughout. The CD also contains four unreleased, ultra-rare Uriel studio demos, a spoken-word message from the past and a live snippet recorded in 1968. Steve Hillage plays on two of these bonus tracks.

Gong slowly came together in the late '60s when Australian guitarist Daevid Allen (ex-Soft Machine) began making music with his wife, singer Gilli Smyth, along with a shifting lineup of supporting musicians. Albums from this period include Magick Brother, Mystic Sister (1969) and the impromptu jam session Bananamoon (1971) featuring Robert Wyatt from the Soft Machine, Gary Wright from Spooky Tooth, and Maggie Bell…