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Welcome to my 2009 live music reviews page |
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Gong / Steve Hillage Band The Corn Exchange, Cambridge 26 November 2009 |
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Wow! I rather think we have just witnessed something very special indeed. What a joy! Gong returned to Cambridge tonight with one of the most enigmatic and positive shows I have seen in a long time. |
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Steve Hillage opened the show with a short set of material from his solo days. Backed by Miquette Giraudy on keyboards, drummer Chris Taylor and the quite splendiferous bass playing of Mike Howlett, the music was accompanied by the most amazing light and graphics show [as I hope is evident from my snaps, posted on this page]. |
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Sadly, there was no ‘Unzipping the Zype’ [I subsequently discovered, to my delight, that the track does feature on a brand new live album, Hillage recorded and released during 2009]. However, tonight’s set culminated with a brilliant rendition of ‘The Salmon Song’ with its utterly hypnotic riff. |
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For the main Gong set, the nucleus of Hillage, Giraudy, Taylor and Howlett was augmented by Theo Travis on sax
and flute and the splendid septuagenarians Gillie Smyth and Daevid Allen. |
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Allen made his grand entrance, wearing the first in a series of elaborate, decorative hats, midway through the introduction. Second song in, Smyth provided the whimsical lines ‘she looked into her soft wear and found a php on her hard drive’ on ‘Digital Girl’. |
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‘Wacky Baccy Banker’, with its time changes and topical lyrics, featured Allen’s Stanley Holloway-esque style vocals and some sonic guitar playing from Hillage. |
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Allen changed costumes and headgear on several occasions throughout the show. By the time we got to ‘Oily Way’, I think everyone was totally won over by the quality of the music and the performance. Come the encore, the whole of the Cornex audience was singing ‘You are I and I Am You’. Tonight, Gong made it all such great fun! |
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Hillage Set List included: |
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More reviews ... 2010 reviews here ... 2009 reviews here ... |
