OFF: Mind Your Head- Act 1

[Alastair Lee Sumner]

For anyone going to see Faust at the RFH on Friday 12th October be aware
that there is a tube strike scheduled for that day and you may have to find
an alternative route. You can ring London travel on 0207 222 1234 and they
can give you alternatives by bus or overland rail. According to
http://www.faust-pages.com/ this will be their last UK tour and the RFH is
their 100th show so I reckon it might be a good one.

Alastair.

On Sun, 7 Oct 2001 02:08:41 +0100, Nick Medford <nick at HERMIT0.DEMON.CO.UK>
wrote:

>[cross-posted to alt.music.planet-gong]
>
>How my jaw dropped when I heard the Royal Festival Hall was to host a
>series of psychedelic gigs under the banner of "Mind Your Head". It's
>extraordinary to think of some of these bands treading the boards at this
>particular venue, but it's gratifying that after years of mainstream media
>indifference and derision, some of this music is getting belated
recognition
>from the world of "serious art" (snigger).
>
>So this gig was the first in the series and this is what we got:
>
>Acid Mothers Temple: Japanese guitar'n'electronics freakout collective.
>Imagine early Hawkwind mixed with Hendrix at his wildest, with bits of
>thrash metal, early Floyd and Damo-era Can thrown in, and, well, that's the
>kind of noise they make. Pretty good but pretty unremitting- they could
>have done with a bit more melody amidst the racket, although this was
>probably not the right setting for them. They might be amazing in a small
>club.
>
>Gong: who were on form. I had wondered if Daevid might tone down the
>absurdist antics a bit, given that many in the crowd would have been there
>mainly for the Orb and might not take kindly to a sixtysomething hippy
>beanpole acting the merry prankster, but I needn't have worried- he came
>on dressed as Madonna  in a pointy bra, huge shaggy hat and ludicrous
>shades. A fine start. They had promised a "short and intense" set and lived
>up to that with:
>
>Zero the Hero
>I Am Your Pussy
>Radio Gnome Invisible
>Magdalene
>Flute salad
>Oily way
>Outer Temple/Inner Temple
>You Can't Kill Me
>Master Builder
>
>Line-up was Daevid, Gilli, Mike Howlett, Didier Malherbe, Theo Travis,
>Chris Taylor, Gwyo Zepix. GZ was far more prominent than when I saw
>them earlier this year, applying real-time effects to Gilli's voice to
good,
>erm, effect. The sound was excellent apart from not being quite loud
>enough!  They got a rapturous reception and it seemed harsh that they
>couldn't return for an encore but I guess the evening was running on a very
>tight schedule. Which brings us to:
>
>The Orb: With the Doors' "The End" coming through the PA the lights
>very gradually dimmed, and two anonymous figures half-hidden behind huge
>banks of machinery gradually merged the music into huge- and I mean
>HUGE- swirls and slabs of electronic sound. Then the mother of all
>lightshows kicked in and the RFH went into Orb-it. I've loved their music
>since the first album, but never seen them live before. The first hour or
so
>was superb: a dizzying torrent of images came and went on five big screens
>while the duo conjured massive soundscapes set to irresistible beats. They
>pulled off the not inconsiderable feat of infusing this staid venue with
the
>atmosphere of an underground rave. They had a few "real musicians" joining
>in at various points- a guitarist, a bassist and an excellent tabla
player. The
>second half wasn't quite as good- the beats became less insistent and one
felt
>the need for a bit more variety in the sound- shame they didn't do a couple
>of their more melodic pieces. But overall it was very impressive and I
would
>definitely see them again.
>
>Next up at the RFH: Hawkwind! ...and Faust a couple of days after that.
>Will the South Bank ever be the same again? See some of you there
>hopefully.
>--
>Nick Medford
>
>--
>Nick Medford