Tangerine Dream - Glasgow Royal Concert Hall 1st November 1997
For those going to a UK show, get there for the starting time
shown on the ticket ! They started on the stroke of 7:30.
I was impressed by their musical skill, their sonic clarity and
their punctuality.
Joking apart, the PA boys done good. The sound was loud enough
to get immersed in, yet you could still make out every
instrument and (more importantly) my hearing was back to normal
the following morning.
Emil played some nice drummy type things (probably hooked up to
trigger samplers) and cymbals.
Zlatco played some nice guitar (especially on the mystery last track
of set 2) and seemed to show a bit more restraint than usual (ie he
only played 10 notes for every one, rather than 20 notes for every
one). He DID bugger about too much with Beach Scene though, playing
a fairly 'generic' solo in place of Edgar's most excellent melody.
Jerome stood in front of his keyboards and made a pretty good job of
miming his way through the set. He may even have genuinely played
one or two lines.
Edgar sat on his stool all night and didn't even try to look like
he was playing. Still, he is The Man, and can afford to rest on his
laurels and get paid for it.
The computer visuals were very nice. Interestingly, they seemed to
draw a lot on the style of FSOL's Lifeforms visuals.
The Vintage Set was OK in places, very good in others (Streethawk,
Warsaw In The Sun and Stratosfear stuck out in particular). I just
wish they'd stick to the original sound - it's what the people
want. Pink Floyd were prepared to run through the whole of DSOTM
on stage and people raved about it. How about a run-through of
Encore or Logos for the vintage TD fans ?
Set 2 was quite pleasant. It was interesting to note that the
tracks from Goblin's Club almost always led to applause - perhaps
the crowd is becoming '90s TD fans, rather than a bunch of '70s
fans come to pay homage (I include myself in the latter category).
A good job was made of Two Bunch Palms, Lamb With Radar Eyes and
Rising Haul In Silence (VERY nice visual accompaniment).
Of the encores, I enjoyed Towards The Evening Star immensely and
ended up humming it intermittently for the rest of the night and
the next morning.
I hung around after the show to get autographs. Jerome signed
his nude piccy on the inside of Epsilon and Edgar grumpily
signed my vinyl copy of Rubycon. Jerome seemed to want to stay
and talk but Dad hastily got on the bus bound for the hotel.
Shame, as Jerome struck me as a decent bloke ("Do you vant me
to write on de legs or de fedder or de breast ?").
Also met Conrad Gibbons, Armin Theissen and their friends. There was
definitely a good atmosphere about the whole night. As Craig said,
will this be Edgar's Last Stand in the UK ???
I'm interested to see what Jerome will do with TD once he takes over.
Edgar was definitely looking like he wasn't enjoying himself anymore,
yet Jerome seemed to have a LOT of enthusiasm. I don't feel quite so
pessimistic about their future as I did a few years ago.
Gearhead report : Ed and Jerome had three generic black box keyboards
and a computer-in-a-box each. Don't ask me what they were. They DID
have a killer DAT player, though.
Reviewed by Grant Middleton
(
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