A Rainbow in Curved Air

Last night saw me in Bristol's Old Vic theatre for the third night in a row, this time to see and listen to a performance of Terry Riley's "A Rainbow in Curved Air" by Charles Hazlewood's All Star Collective and Danceroom Spectroscopy. I'd seen the All Stars perform the piece last year - in fact, embarrassingly, their performance was my introduction to this seminal work - and was keen to hear it again, and whatever else they'd play in the concert.

Charles Hazlewood educates the audience prior to the performance

I wasn't disappointed; not at all. Charles Hazlewood introduced the piece with a short lecture about the nature of minimalist music and explained that the night's performance would follow the form of Rilley's piece but would be improvised and that the musicians would be interacting with Danceroom Spectroscopy's visuals.

Charles Hazelwood, Will Gregory, Ross Hughes 

And what a performance it was. Danceroom Spectroscopy' visuals were spot on, a great blend of abstract, photographic and algorithmic, and I enjoyed seeing the band members interacting with the visuals. Sonically the performance was grounded in the late 1960s with parts coming straight from Rilley's original and parts sounding like they'd been sampled from the more experimental parts of Pink Floyd's The Piper at The Gates of Dawn or from the first two Soft Machine albums. The piece became very free-form at times, and just as it seemed on the edge of falling to apart Tony Orrell's drumming would bring structure back into the piece and bring the audience to edge of their seats. 

Overall a great evening. I hope someone has recorded it and a copy finds its way in to my hands. The Pit at The Old Vic was a great place to see the performance from - although the next time I'll opt for standing rather than sitting. The only other thing I'd change would be to project the visuals over the whole performance area rather than on a screen - then we'd really be back in the 60s. 

Wish I Were There

Hoping Foundation benefit performance from Hoping Foundation on Vimeo.

Echoes

I blogged about seeing David Gilmour at the Albert Hall last year. I got the DVD "Remember That Night" for Christmas and I'm looking at it for the first time this evening. I said about the performance of Echoes:

... an absolutely stunning performance of "Echoes". The band seemed to be really into the piece and there was a very good middle section (I guess improvised) with great interactions between David Gilmour and Rick Wright. ... Wonderful, great, ...

Understatement. And kudos to Guy Pratt.

"A Breath of Fresh Air" and "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn"

Many years ago, before the easy availability of bootleg recording, while I was educating myself about the early music of the Pink Floyd, I came across reference to a song called "Embryo". It hadn't made it on to record, but had been part of their live repertoire, although dropped before I first saw them in 1973. Then I discovered that "Embryo" had appeared on a Harvest Records sampler called "Picnic: A breath of fresh air", and I spent a lot of time searching for "Picnic" in the record shops of London. Eventually, I bought a copy, and discovered, not only "Embryo" but a whole host of other goodies by people like Michael Chapman, Quatermass, Kevin Ayers, Pete Brown, Forrest, Roy Harper, ....".

Subsequently, I heard lots of stories that Pink Floyd were not happy about this release of Embryo, and had had the album pulled, although the track did turn up on the US compilation "Works". But now, thirty something years since the release of "Picnic", Harvest have just released Breath of Fresh Air, a triple CD which includes "Embryo" and "Careful With That Axe Eugene".

My copy was waiting for me when I got back from Grenoble on Friday. As was may boxed set, 3CD, 40th Anniversary Edition of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Stereo and mono mixes, and a third disc with various interesting items such as the singles from 1967 (Arnold Layne, See Emily Play, Apples and Oranges). Oh, in case you are interested, here is the original video for "Arnold Layne".

All I'm waiting for now is a CD release of "Point Me at the Sky".

Polka Floyd

Yes, I meant Polka Floyd. Interstellar Overdrive is OK but the others are horrid.

Gilmour and Bowie

Earlier this year I went to see David Gilmour at the Albert Hall. One of the highlights of the evening was seeing David Bowie perform Arnold Layne. Well, the video is on the web, with the David Gilmour site having a good selection.

The revolution is available for download

I took a look at a Pink Floyd torrent site this morning at 8 am and it already had a video of last night's David Gilmour concert. I remember the saying "When the revolution comes it won't be on TV." Well, it may not be, but it will sure be available for download.

Echoes of Robert Wyatt and David Bowie

I went to see David Gilmour at the Royal Festival Hall last night. Overall a very good evening with three outstanding incidents.

Firstly, the appearance of Robert Wyatt playing trumpet during one of the songs from "On an Island". It was great to Robert live on stage again after many years.

Secondly, an absolutely stunning performance of "Echoes". The band seemed to be really into the piece and there was a very good middle section (I guess improvised) with great interactions between David Gilmour and Rick Wright. And then there was the Pink Floyd style light show. Wonderful, great, made the whole evening worthwhile. "Echoes" always was my favourite.

Thirdly, David Bowie joined on stage during the encore to sing "Arnold Layne" and the doctor's part of "Comfortably Numb". I've heard Roger Waters, Robert Wyatt, Kate Bush and Bob Geldorf sing the part but Dr Bowie surpassed them all.