Steve Hillage - L.A. Forum 31.1.77.
STEVE HILLAGE
LA FORUM 31.1.77
(Madfish)
By Paul Davies
Fresh from recording the ‘L’ album with legendary maverick Todd Rundgren at the production helm, Steve Hillage and his band landed a plum gig as the opening act on ELO’s ‘A New World Record’ American tour. This tour granted stateside exposure to Hillage’s cosmic Rock oeuvre, which he had been developing as a side project to his activities in Gong, ever since his debut ‘Salmon Rising’ solo release in 1975. It’s the album that preceded ‘L’.
In front of a full house of 15,000 people at the LA Forum, it’s the title song of the debut release that opens this supporting set of songs; the rest of which are completely culled from ‘L’. Given that it’s sourced from cassette via the front-of-house desk mix, what stands out is the sound quality of this show. Hillage has done a sterling job in editing and producing this recording for CD.
It’s also a reminder of the crack band he had at his back during this creative period. With former Jethro Tull drummer Clive Bunker and future Camel bass player Colin Bass locking down the rhythmic textures; Christian Boule on rhythm and glissando guitar; Miquette Giraudy and Basil Brooks on synths; and Phil Hodge on keyboards revealing the reliance on personnel to create and use the then soundscape technology.
Put together, it combines to make a cosmically joyous musical experience with Hillage’s guitar mastery at the centre of proceedings. This sonic whistle down the euphoric wind recording is supplemented by three bonus tracks: ‘Aftaglid’, ‘Electrick Gypsies’ and ‘Not Fade Away (Glid Forever)’ recorded live at the Rainbow Theatre, London in March 1977.
This will remind Hillage fans of the seminal ‘Live Herald’ double album to which this is a perfect contemporaneous companion. Whilst in LA, Hillage met technology wizard Malcolm Cecil, of Tonto and Stevie Wonder fame, resulting in Cecil producing the follow-up album ‘Motivation Radio’ back in LA later in the year. But that’s another story…