Miquette and Steve are cosmic soul mates... together in Gong, Steve's solo albums and of course System 7, partners in life and music.... real pioneers of electronica!
I was in Calgary, having come over from england when i was 8. Not many people probably bought Fish Rising in that city. Became my headphones album almost immediately. Ah, i love its holy mystery.
Steve Hillage system seven bloody brilliant, great days and and I went to see gong at Brixton Academy12 hours on stage and what a 12 hours they were Alan from Luton England 🇬🇧💯🍻👍👍👍👍
Now you know why I became a fan of all about Steve Hillage...and it lasts for 40 years now! He is a legend on guitar,but his friends are simply as talented as him! Incredible band,isn't it?😉😝😂🫂
The band Khan which Steve played with in the early 70's made a solitary great album" Space Shanty" with Dave Stewart of the fine band Egg guesting on keyboards . Saw him a few times with he's band , the "Green" and "Open" albums being favourites out of the brilliant L.P.s he made under he's own name . The recordings he made with Gong stand out too . A real hippie pot head pixie , a great guitarist and one of the best musicians from that great decade the 1970's .
daft bugger, go listen to the stuff he does today, massive electronic dance music, thank god he saw the error of his ways doing this electro hippy crap and changed direction
Just saying exactly the same thing on a Gong on French tv vid..I worked out that Gong / Hillage & Hawkwind ( a little less so) have been my fav hands for 39 yrs!! I wonder even in 9 yrs who will remember the b@llocks they pass off as music today ?lol Shit I sound ancient..lol.ancient with a decent taste in music though !.lol.
Interesting that Steve embraced progress in electronic music, but his videos attract old codgers who think his early guitar stuff is his peak output. Anybody who can't praise a musical performance without having to denigrate another form of music elsewhere has failed, pretty much. It isn't a competition. The music made when boomers were in college is not the best music ever created.
Christ, I'd forgotten about this. Last time I listened to this was at university. These guys will take you on a head trip and, after all, that's what you're at university for.
This is great to see. I was probably the only high school kid in Denver Colorado listening to GONG and Steve back in the '70's but the music is still incredible. When Steve came through Denver supporting ELO I was ecstatic to have a chance to meet my favorite guitarist and my favorite reed instrument player, Didier Malherbe
@@written12 at 16, i was working at Casa Bonita restaurant next door was independent records. I bought anything that came out on Virgin label at the time, including Gong and other prog rock, but Gong was my favorite. I also bought Kraftwerk imports before Autobahn as well as Tangerine Dream. That record store saved my life.
Just wonderful. Back in '77 I was a teenage hippie wannabee - the cheerful hairball, obsessed with Gong and Steve & Miquette. When I wasn't scouring fields for shrooms, I would try to make every gig poss. One such was the Manchester Uni Students Union around this time. I remember hanging about for the soundcheck etc in the afternoon and being gobsmacked at the synths - especially Steve's guitar set-up... Great memories! Fantastic upload mate
A mate of mine saw them in Leeds the same year.He got chatting to the band afterwards, and sort of came down in the back of the band's van a couple of days later after the Manchester gig. He's not got much memory of the intervening time. He told his mate to let his Mum know he'd be late home - but she didn't think he meant two and a half days later. I saw them several times around then. Always a great gig.
Okay ,so mind officially blown! Steve Hillage on The Old Gray Whistle Test?!?!?! You lucky so and so's! I had to make do with a few albums that were available in Australia, circa '82. Mind you, one of those albums was GREEN , which my friend introduced me to while under the influence of two tabs of very strong acid; I'm sure you can relate! But to think of someone so avant guard and psychedelic, on tv! Did you notice in the credits that Peter Grant and Led Zep were on the same show?!?! While you're all eating your dinner on a Sunday night!!!!
@@melbman43 Same here....Barnes Wallis Building Saturday Rock disco 1980. Rubber ink Stamp on the back of your hand (RUSH). After 7.00, the Boddingtons turned into piss. Best years of my life. Met the wife there. Still together.
It's still about, but hard to find unless you know someone. A friend of mine gets good import from Lebanon and the like, and top quality acid is about too which we did a load of the other night
I come back to this time and time again; The nostalgia is incredible. I missed very few OGWT , not only is the music unbelievable (given the sound engineers had to cope with the many different musical divergencies in short time live) but every time I watch I feel myself anticipating watching a new show this week! (knowing I watched them a 'few' years ago lol).
For such an ethereal band, he was the powerhouse. I saw this band live in 1976, and have their albums, L, and Fish rising. Love to Steve, Miquette, Gong family and System 7. All started with the Canterbury scene.
I saw this Steve Hillage line up open for ELO, on the US tour, winter, 1977. I was at that gig to see Steve Hillage, and CLIVE BUNKER, EX Jethro Tull drummer, extraordinaire!!
this is great!! the first 2-3 minutes of glorious atmospherics immediately reminded me of what the late Manuel Göttsching was doing with Ashra during the same period, but the rest is pure Hillage. Whether with Khan, Gong, Kevin Ayers' Decadence, System 7, and beyond, Hillage is a true master.
I saw you mention Colin Bass (subsequently long time Camel bassist). So I looked more closely and ... Yup, there he is playing bass. Wow ! Thanks for mentioning him cos I would never have noticed him here.
Thank you very much for posting this. I saw it when first broadcast in '76 but have never met anyone who remembered it going out. It didn't turn up on the OGWT box sets and I was beginning to think I'd dreamt it.....What a great performance.Shame there's so little film of Steve Hillage and band from this period.
OMG this is an aural/visual treat. When was the first and last time you saw a hurdy gurdy in a rock video clip? Mr Hillage is a great unsung hero in the annals of contemporary music - a feast for the eyes and ears, regardless of whether you've had a spliff (of two...or three!).
All respect to the good man, but I miss hearing that incredible guitar playing, his unique voice, all backed by class musicians. I respect all who enjoy System 7 & the more recent years of ambient music, but I'd love to hear him put out another band album. How could you not miss his zany vocals & lyrics along with that brilliant guitar work??
Hi Steve, fantastic quality video. Thanks for posting this. Amazingly I''ve been watching Steve Hillage & Miquette Giraudy as Mirror System at the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge just this afternoon. Steve showed some of his guitar techniques and they played tracks from the Green album
Great stuff - saw them at Cambridge Corn Exchange about this time in 1976. And bout the album from 'Andy's Records' stall in the market place. Fine memories, excellent music!
Under under under appreciated!! He spawned legions of trippy guitarists! Hell, Ozric Tentacles have made a career off of the teachings of Brother Hillage!!
Me and my late brother saw him at the kursal southend in 77 and whilst helping the roadies carry out the bands equipment after the gig I helped myself to a pair of Clive bunkers drum sticks which I still have somewhere.
@@Fexobs I remember taking home a huge monster of a poster. Steve and his guitar and a rippled reflection of both. Sadly left behind when I moved house
@@chain8847 🙂I saw him with Miquette pre-covid playing Mirror System stuff at Camden Cafe. Alex from the Orb played with them too. They did't look like they planned stopping! I reckon Steve's far from finished, even if he is a year older than me ;)
I saw & heard fountains of chocolate milk gush from her paradise, without laughing the stars began to chat and ceased to scroll and we to grab hold of their golds at dawn. The sun was dizzy and the moon, stirred, hid behind a section of clouds in the shape of a barbapapa 🦄🌺
This was the band in it's first touring incarnation I saw (may have been some before) such technical genius and timing, so many time signatures in a set. Awe inspiring today, not sure anyone could so this now.
Glad to help, and glad it brought back 40 year old memories...I didn't see it originally, but did get to see Hillage and National Health live in Redcar in 1978 and many times subsequently
I think he learned so much from Daevid Allen and vice versa...they were much like a mentor and protégé relationship...Steve fleshed out his ideas with Daevid vision...
I remember seeing Steve Hillage live at Portsmouth Student Union in 76. I'd never heard of him but went with friends who recommended him. The audience all sat cross-legged (and many probably a little spaced out). But I loved his playing - and got a crush on Miquette Giraudy. Had to go buy "L" album that weekend. Still an amazing album to listen to. Check out the Lunar Musik Suite on same album.
Ah yes, early Gong fan... and yes there are still great bands out there you just have to spend the time to find them. For example... Kavus Torabi is currently Gong's guitarist, formerly played with the Cardiacs... the greatest band of the 90s you've never heard of. There will ALWAYS be great new bands, always. If you have the patience, and the ears, try Major Parkinson... try their Solitary Home... or The Wheelbarrow.
This is fucking off the scale genius. What a band! Clive bunker? you gotta be kidding me - talk about the worlds most under-rated drummer. I tell you man - me and my pals at the time loved all the punk thing coming through and we were all part of it. But THIS was the true spirit of 76/77, Eddie van halen may well have been the guitarist the world was talking about in 78, But in 1976 we were all talking about STEVE HILLAGE man!!!!!!!!! if i am still alive in april 2023 i will be at that London gig NO MATTER WHAT!!!!
Steve, amazing thanks so much for posting this, I was convinced it had been lost in the archives somewhere. Is this a copy you had on VHS? Its funny how you remember things I was convinced there was a shot of me with my bare feet, but no. Anyway brings it all back, what a bunch of hippies we were! Great proggy music though!
Great to hear from you Basil! It makes my day when someone who was in the band gets a nice surprise and takes a trip back in time. To all intents I guess it WAS lost in the archives....the interns they have to compile these things for BBC4 always ignore the stuff that is not easily categorized, so I thought it should be seen...I took the liberty of liberating a few things when I worked at the BBC, purely for my own interest, but as it's extremely unlikely Auntie will ever dig it out again, what's the harm in making a few people happy.... as for the bare feet....well maybe you had a camera on you and the director decided it was against the idea of public decency :-) Hippies or not, what a great time to be young !
I think Steve Hillage by 1976 never took his multicolored wool cap off since the broadcast of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells on a TV special BBC from 1973...
Not sure if I saw that one,although I think I heard of the lineup and it seemed a bit dubious-how about the reaction Dave Evans got when BBC 4 put him on recently for an OGWT re-run(check out 'stagefright')People were shocked someone that good could be simply passed up so casually....and I still haven't figured out what the surgical instrument that plays the glissando actually IS.Perhaps Steve could tell us after all this time listening to it?
I think the fact that Steve's name rarely, if ever (or, let's face it, never) comes up in guitar greats polls is largely down to preferences being based not so much on the player but the band in which they play - I suppose you could say, selection bias. This clip perfectly showcases Steve's outstanding talent as an adventurous composer, more than capable singer, and last but not least, breathtakingly razor-sharp guitarist. I guess his music was too far left-field for many. Oh, well - I think he's up there with the other 'greats' on his very own special merits.