Steve Hillage Live Herald (1979)

Originally released in 1979, this album of Hillage's self-styled "elektric gypsy musick" was spread across two vinyl discs; when subsequently reissued during the digital era the guitarist/singer's cosmic space rock set - including a version of George Harrison's "It's All Too Much" - fit onto a single CD.
The album was recorded at the peak of Hillage's popularity (although peak might be too strong a word!) at a variety of gigs during 1977 and 1978, in and around the London (UK) area. The songs are primarily taken from Hillage's first album "Fish rising", "L" (which appears virtually in full) and "Motivation radio".

Steve Hillage has always had one eye on the future, experimenting with genres such as ambient and dance before many of his peers, and creating extra-terrestrial guitar sounds throughout his career with Uriel, Khan, Gong and System 7…

A highly skilled guitarist known for his fluid, effects-heavy playing, British musician Steve Hillage has collaborated with countless musicians and influenced several genres over the course of his lengthy career, particularly space rock, prog, ambient, and techno. Initially associated with the Canterbury Scene during the late '60s and early '70s, Hillage played in groups such as Uriel and Khan before becoming a key member of psychedelic cult favorites Gong during the '70s.
1979 was an incredibly busy year for Steve Hillage - possibly too busy, what with three albums hitting the market in a brief span of time. Live Herald was a strong summation of his live performances, and Rainbow Dome Musick was a left turn into ambient music which, a decade later, would inspire Hillage and his constant partner Miquette Giraudy to get into the EDM scene as the ambient house act System 7…

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.