On Tue, 20 May 2003, Neil Shilladay wrote:
> I'll just add my thoughts to Mark's.
> First off - an absolute blinder of a gig. I was stood behind the sound
> desk, and Simon's violin sounded fine for 90% of the gig. Everyone else
> sounded fine, with Dave's guitar to the fore, but not swamping the sound.
> As Mark said, the setlist was pretty much the same. The new rocker that
> Jon refered to in his Cambridge review started off sounding like a Ron
> Tree number - very heavy bass.
<snip>
> Overall - Ozrics played a loong and very well received support, almost a
> double headliner. I really enjoyed them, although I did see Night of the
> Hawks on the sound man's list that never made it (maybe this was due to
> Ozrics overunning, for which they did apologise).
> The Hawks were on fine form tonight, and seemed to really enjoy it. Dave
> ribbed the crowd for being quiet, and introduced Simon who would play some
> Paganni (sp?). The band played tight and reminded me why I love their
> music so much.
That was a fabulous gig. I was really pleased to have made it to
that one after the Cambridge one, and see all the potential allowed out by
a decent sound system. They did all seem to have fun, though Arthur
still couldn't keep his Phoebus mask on and dance at the same time. Great
performance. It was `The Watcher' that really bit the friend I'd taken
along, but I still enjoyed the whole `Assassins -> Where Are They Now'
segment the most of all. They should play more extended sequences like
that.
Worth giving a bit of review space to the Ozrics, too, I thought
as they were if anything on better form than Hawkwind. Had Hawkwind not
had the signal advantage of being one of my all-time favourite bands I
might have thought the Ozrics turned out the better show. John thanked the
Hawks for having them, and told a story about why Hawkwind liked them so
much: apparently, once when they were on the same bill at some gig or
other when the Ozrics were new at it, they came back in from the stage
and found they'd been given Hawkwind's money instead of theirs. Rather
than scoot, they gave it back and that's how, as he told it, they got
this gig... John's version of relaity is probably quite special
though. Lovely bloke though, Kirsten and I found him in the crowd at the
Here'n'Now gig a week or two later and had a long chat with him.
Anyhow, as I wrote it down (took me ages to find this, I seem to
still have the last four Hawkwind setlists before this gig in my pocket
too), the Ozrics played:
Stretchy/ Vita Voom/ Papyrus/ Neurochasm [not sure about this; I often
only realise I have Ozrics titles down wrong when they play the song I
thought it was later in the set, this is the trouble with instrumental
bands... ]/ Citadel Jam/ Oakum/ Pyramidion/ Sultana Detri/ Astro Cortex/
White Rhino Tea/ Sunscape/ Dissolution/ Sploosh!
They did play for ages, it was great. Particular note to the two
recent singles, `Oakum' was fantastic, a blistering blend of hard trance
at top speed and festie beat magic, and `Pyramidion' was still far far
better than the weak single vesion of it they released. Fantastic head
music and the crossover territory they plough seems to get more exciting
every time I see them. Must invest in a recent album or two and see how
true this is there. But everything they did was tip-top especially the
changes and pauses during `White Rhino Tea', though you'd expect them to
have that right by now.
Anyway, the two bands together did a very nice job of getting
across to my friend what this whole spacerock thing was about and I went
back to hers very happy with it all. Yours,
Jon
ObCD: The Alchemysts and Simeon - _Simeon and the Alchemysts_
--
"If you are rich, throw away your documents.
If you are poor, do so also." (Egyptian proverb)
Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College