Although often overlooked when the talk turns to great guitarists, Steve Hillage should always be a part of the conversation. The skilled string-bender stands as one of the most influential and important progressive rock artists – possibly one of the reasons for the lack of appreciation of his talents by mainstream critics and music historians – and Hillage has made significant contributions to the language of guitar with bands like Gong and System 7 as well as with his own lengthy solo career.
On October 21st, 2016 Hillage will release Searching For The Spark, an awesome 22-disc box set that celebrates the guitarist’s lengthy and prolific career. Although the set definitely showcases Hillage’s extensive solo work, it includes plenty of other material to keep the prog-rock fanboy drooling for days. Searching For The Spark gathers all eight of Hillage’s solo albums for Virgin Records, seven albums of live performances, and four discs of demos and archive recordings, most of ‘em previously-unreleased, plucked directly from Hillage’s personal collection.
The box also includes rare photos, press clippings, and reviews in a 188 page book with a history of the artist penned by Gong expert Jonny Greene. Throw in three reproduction promo posters, two lyric booklets, a high-quality enamel badge, and a Hillage-signed certificate of authenticity, and you have a lot for the Hillage fan to like.
Musically, in addition to über cool and critically-acclaimed Hillage solo albums like 1975’s Fish Rising, 1976’s L, and 1977’s Motivation Radio, you’ll also get the very rare 1969 album Arzachel, recorded by Hillage with the members of British psych-prog band Egg and Shanty, the 1972 album by proggers Khan featuring Hillage and including 40+ minutes of previously unreleased material from Kahn’s Mark II line-up. You also get the first System 7 album, two BBC performances recorded live in 1976 and ’79, and much, much more!
Searching For The Spark ain’t cheap – as of this writing, it’s gonna cost you around $260 US – but that breaks down to less than $12 per CD for an awesome amount of great music. Pre-order it from the Burning Shed website or wait for it to show up on Amazon. Extra bonus: one lucky fan will find a special ‘golden ticket’ hidden inside their Searching For The Spark box set that entitles them to an exclusive gift from Steve Hillage. Really, what more could you want?
This LP appeared on your favorite music dealer’s shelves a few days ago, but in case you may have missed it, sonic provocateur Nik Turner (Hawkwind) released his new solo album, titled Space Fusion Odyssey. The follow-up to Turner’s critically-acclaimed 2013 release Space Gypsy, the new album includes contributions from a stellar cast of talented guests, including Billy Cobham, Robby Krieger of the Doors, Steve Hillage and Gilli Smyth of Gong, Soft Machine’s John Etheridge, and Amon Düül II founder John Weinzierl, among others.
Released by Cleopatra Records’ Purple Pyramid imprint, Turner’s Space Fusion Odyssey CD comes packaged in a mini-LP gatefold sleeve with a 12-panel poster, while a vinyl version arrives in a deluxe 12-panel poster fold-up jacket, pressed on glorious, gorgeous starburst colored wax. Leading what he’s dubbed the Interplanetary Arkestra (in honor of jazz legend Sun Ra), Turner applies his otherworldly sax and flute playing to an ambitious set of jazz-fusion influenced psychedelic space-rock that is quiet unlike anything you’ve heard before (don’t believe me – stick the video below into your earholes and if the swirling guitarplay of Robby Krieger and Megadeth/Ohm axeman Chris Poland doesn’t blow your little mind, nothing will…)
Later this year, Turner will be publishing The Spirit of Hawkwind 1969-1976, the book promising to be the definitive biography of the legendary space-rock innovators, documenting the band’s gravy years. Written by Turner and noted music historian Dave Thompson, the hardcover tome will include over 250 pages of rare and unseen photos as well as a comprehensive Hawkwind discography – no mean feat, considering the extensive and oft-confusing Hawkwind/Hawklords back catalog. Definitely a book for the Hawk-geek among us (the Reverend included…)
Nik Turner’s Space Fusion Odyssey track list:
1. Adjust The Future
2. Hypernova
3. Spiritual Machines
4. Pulsar
5. An Elliptical Galaxy
6. A Beautiful Vision In Science Forgotten
7. We Came In Peace *
8. Interstellar Clouds *
9. Spiritual Machines Chapter 2 *
10. Random Acts (Revisited) with The Fusion Syndicate *
An important member of progressive rock's royal family, guitarist Steve Hillage had his fingers in a number of groundbreaking and influential prog-rock outfits of the late 1960s and early '70s. With keyboardist/guitarist Dave Stewart (no, not the Eurythmics guy), Hillage formed the group Uriel, which evolved into prog cult faves Egg after Hillage's departure for school.
Progressive Rock Royalty
The guitarist popped up a couple years later to form the short-lived prog outfit Khan with Stewart, the band releasing one acclaimed album, 1972's Space Shanty, after which Hillage hooked up with former Soft Machine guitarist Daevid Allen in the influential psychedelic experimental prog band Gong. Hillage contributed fretwork and songwriting to three of Gong's most important albums: 1973's Flying Teapot and Angel Egg, and 1974's You.
After reuniting with Stewart and Egg to record that band's third and final album, 1974's The Civil Surface, Hillage hung out his shingle and begun flying solo with the 1975 release of his excellent debut album, Fish Rising. A number of acclaimed albums would follow, including 1976's L and the following year's Motivation Radio. By the mid-1980s, however, Hillage had turned to production, working on albums by Simple Minds and Robyn Hitchcock before virtually disappearing from music altogether. He would resurface in the 1990s, working with electronic dance band the Orb before launching his own electronic outfit System 7, with which he has explored the far reaches of popular music well into the 2000s.
Steve Hillage's Live In England 1979
In 1979, however, Hillage and band were touring in support of that year's Live Herald album, itself a collection of fine performances of material from across the previous half-decade of Hillage's career. Live In England 1979, a two-disc CD/DVD set, takes the Live Herald tracklist one step further…capturing a February 1979 performance by Hillage at The University of Kent, this Gonzo Multimedia release offers up over an hour of mind-bending prog-rock audio but also a video version of the performance.
Live In England 1979 opens with the psychedelic-tinged six-minute rocker "The Salmon Song," taken from Hillage's debut disc, that offers up plenty of screaming guitars courtesy Hillage and his old friend Dave Stewart, and some amazing percussion work by drummer Andy Anderson. "Unzipping the Zype" is a freeform band jam that includes synthesizer wizard (and longtime Hillage partner) Miquette Giraudy and bassist John McKenzie along with Hillage, Stewart, and Anderson, every band member getting an instrumental moment in the spotlight while Hillage and Giraudy share vocals. The song is a spacey amalgam of prog-rock, jazzy licks, electronic riffing, and heady percussion.
Electrick Gypsies
Hillage's take on Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" is taken from the guitarist's album L and twisted into a hallucinogenic musical landscape that the composer wouldn't recognize. With Giraudy's synth swirls providing a multi-hued backdrop, the band's gorgeous vocal harmonies, and Hillage's imaginative guitar licks take the hippie anthem to an entirely higher plane of consciousness. Ditto for the band's take on George Harrison's classic "It's All Too Much" (taken from the Beatles' Yellow Submarine album), the performance graced by dancing synths, melodic vocals, and gorgeous guitar lines.
Two bonus tracks on Live In England 1979 are actually live performances from an uncredited 1977 show, perhaps the Rainbow Theatre show in London that was partially documented by Live Herald. Both "Hurdy Gurdy Glissando" and "Electrick Gypsies" are culled from Hillage's L album, the former ostensibly inspired by the Donovan tune, Hillage and crew taking their vision to deliciously mind-altering extremes, the performance a third eye-opening psychedelic brew of soaring guitars; buzzing, throbbing synthesizers; breakneck percussion; and fluid bass lines that mix jazzy and classical elements into the prog-rock stew. The latter is a more straight-forward 1970s-era hard rock number but with plenty of proggy flourishes like phased fretwork, jazzy percussion, odd time changes, and oscillating synth riffs livening up the performance.
The Reverend's Bottom Line
The DVD portion of Live In England 1979 offers up pretty much the entire audio portion of the set, minus the 1977 live bonus tracks but including the ethereal dueling acoustic and electric guitars of "Radio," a simply stunning performance that emerges from billowing clouds of smoke-machine generated fog, as well as the scorching "Light in the Sky," another period rocker with plenty of spacey visuals, Giraudy's oddball vocals, and Hillage's lively fretwork. The DVD also includes a 2006 interview with Hillage and Giraudy talking about the Live Herald album and the tour documented by Live In England 1979.
Overall, Live In England 1979 offers up a fine representation of the Steve Hillage Band on stage as well as the guitarist's creative state of mind during the latter part of the 1970s as Hillage explored the outer reaches of the psych, prog, and hard rock universes. The CD and DVD are a lot of fun, and a welcome reminder of Hillage's immense and often underrated talents and his hallowed status as one of progressive rock's great guitarists and composers.
(Click here to buy Steve Hillage's Live In England 1979 from Amazon.com)
Guitarist Steve Hillage is one of the most influential and innovative musicians in the prog-rock universe. Since his late 1960s and early '70s work with bands like Egg, Khan, and Gong to his ground-breaking, acclaimed solo albums like 1975's Fish Rising and 1977's Motivation Radio and his ongoing musical project System 7, Hillage has continued to push the boundaries of rock music.
On July 16, 2013 Gonzo MultiMedia UK will release Hillage's Live In England 1979, a two-disc CD/DVD set that captures an incredible performance by the Steve Hillage Band. The line-up of Hillage's band at the time included guitarist Dave Stewart (his former bandmate in Egg and Khan), bassist John McKenzie, drummer Andy Anderson, and synthesizer-wrangler Miquette Giraudy, the same musicians that recorded live and studio tracks that were used for Hillage's 1979 album Live Herald.
Live In England 1979 includes performances of songs like "Unidentified Flying Being" (from Hillage's 1978 album Green); covers of George Harrison's "It's All Too Much" and the Donavan hit "Hurdy Gurdy Man" from 1976's L; and "The Salmon Song" from Fish Rising. Bonus tracks added to the CD include a live 1977 performances of "Hurdy Gurdy Glissando" and "Electrick Gypsies," both recorded with the L album tour line-up. The DVD includes short promo videos for "Radio" and "Light In The Sky" from Motivation Radio as well as recent in-depth interviews with Hillage and Miquette Giraudy.
Hillage has been busy lately writing new rock-oriented material for a possible 2014 Steve Hillage Band album but, first, his long-running outfit System 7 and Japanese avant-garde rockers Rovo will be releasing a joint album in September 2013, samples of which can be heard on the project's Bandcamp page. Check it out!
