Coventry Cathedral 1975

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http://the-archive-plus.blogspot.com/

To mark the occassion of the 33rd anniversary of TD's concert at Coventry Cathedral I've added two reviews to my blog

for those without access, here's one of the reviews:

Dream-not wholly Communion
Tangerine Dreaming again, the start of a 12-date tour including three in cathedrals. and I have to stop and remember about three albums back ,when I first heard "Zeit": minimal music that never really seemed to start, but just insinuated its presence, leaving opaque memory traces.

Obviously they had to either go somewhere from there or disappear entirely. The two Virgin albums have shown them hesitating on several new thresholds at once, making some very beautiful music but delaying that next crucial step.

I had hoped that Saturday's gig at Coventry Cathedral would encourage them, if only on grounds of atmosphere, to make their move, but it was not to be so. Perhaps the insistent glare of the TV lights - Tony Palmer was filming it - introduced an element of self-consciousness, OK maybe the concrete wasteland of the cathedral itself was not conductive to the sort of mood Tangerine Dream feel so important to their music. Whatever the cause, they produced an extremely schizophrenic resume of the story so far.

The first 45-minute segment of the concert (the word "recital" seems more apt) showed just exactly what can go wrong when three keyboard players and Jodrell Bank are determined to improvise with no more than a few words muttered amongst themselves, minutes beforehand, for a framework.

Those flashes of common agreement were rare. More often they were in an electronic No-Go Area, which strained my credibility. When they came back after a ten-minute break the transformation was total. Starting with a shifting and mesmerizing computer-rhythm, they suddenly found a sense of direction, and the interplay between orchestral and electronic sound gathered a stately momentum perfectly suited to the sobriety of the surroundings. It was essentially a reaffirmation of the toughness and certainty shown in their Albert Hall appearance, being mainly a matter of giving the ideas they have developed over the past three years a more positive setting.

The third and final section was simply a continuation of the second in more of a minor tonality - spare and haunting, reminiscent of parts of "Phaedra," but incorporating the effects introduced earlier in the evening. For moments like that I could forgive the group.

Although Edgar and the others have as yet failed to complete the masterplan, they are nevertheless producing some of the most satisfying sounds around at the moment. Anybody who gets the chance to see them should take it, if only because it will probably all be down to the Houston Astrodome by this time next year. - GERALD O'CONNELL

Caught in the Act
Melody Maker, Oct 11th 1975. Page 14