LOVE FROM THE PLANET GONG (THE VIRGIN YEARS 1973-75)

Well, here's the big one, at last: the entire RADIO GNOME TRILOGY finally together in an impressive box set, beautifully remastered, lovingly designed, coupled with SHAMAL (also newly remastered) and with no less than eight discs full of BBC radio sessions and assorted live performances. Shows that were hitherto only represented in bits (on albums such as LIVE ETC and LIVE AT THE BATACLAN) now appear in full (or as fully as possible) and two of the discs included (London - The Marquee Club Live, 9th and 10th Sept 1975) feature almost all of Steve Hillage's FISH RISING, immaculately recorded and spectacularly performed.

So was it worth the wait and is it worth forking out for? Here in the UK, where I'm typing these words, the box will set you back almost £100 - no small matter these days when most listeners prefer to acquire their music for free. It all depends on how big a Gong fan you are, really.... If, like me, you are keen to get your hands on the first proper remaster of FLYING TEAPOT and you never owned LIVE AT THE BATACLAN or the crystal-clear 2004 remaster of YOU, this set may look like an attractive proposition, especially when you consider that it includes notes on the recordings by Mike Howlett and Steve Hillage, an attractive hardcover book full of band pics (the box set is almost LP-sized; three quarters, I guess) and inner sleeves magnificently illustrated with Daevid Allen's original Pothead Pixie drawings.

Of the twelve CDs included some of the live ones only run for 30-40 mins. and some people may feel short-changed by that, but the music is generally of high quality, at least if you don't get annoyed by Daevid's cod-French on pieces such as 'Ooby-Scooby Doomsday', by Didier Malherbe's clowning during 'Flute Salad' (I suppose you just had to be there!) and by Gilly Smith's (rather infantile sounding) 'I-am-a-witch-coming-to-get-you' interventions. Time after time I was struck by the inventivity of Steve Hillage's guitar solos, the liveliness of Didier Malherbe's sax improvisations and the sheer brilliance of Pierre Moerlen's drumming. Or maybe you'll be swayed by the DVD, which contains 'quad remixes' of the entire YOU album? It's a shame they couldn't include CAMEMBERT ELECTRIQUE as well; fortunately its most celebrated tracks are represented by electrifying live versions.

Anyway, I can tell this set will give me many, many hours of listening pleasure. As far as I'm concerned, the old RADIO GNOME TRILOGY remains completely enjoyable, even in 2019. It's time I dug up the Gong badge (featuring a 'Banana moon') which I bought in Dublin, back in 1977. Perhaps I'll even wear it to work!

This is a lavish boxed set covering the Radio Gnome Invisible years of Gong, as well as the Shamal album - arguably the last album from their Virgin run where their original psychedelic whimsy was still in evidence, before the more buttoned-down fusion style of Pierre Moerlen's Gong started to predominate on Gazeuse.

Not only do you get lavish remasters of the relevant albums from the original master tapes produced by Mike Howlett, but the overall presentation is overseen by Steve Hillage, and if you're aware of Steve's fantastic Searching For the Spark boxed set of his solo albums you know that Steve is no slouch when it comes to this sort of thing. Even better, you also get a wealth of live material here, including at least one complete concert corresponding to each studio album release, giving you a deep look at the other side of Gong during this era. (The embarrassment of riches on offer here makes the old Live Etc. double album rather redundant, in fact, because everything on there is on here, and found in its original concert context too.)

Buyer beware: DO NOT confuse the Charly Records Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy boxed set for this magnificent offering! Charly are only able to put out that set due to the legal confusion over who actually had the rights to Gong's work during this era - a question about which many arguments have been had, but to which a 100% definitive answer in court has (to my knowledge) never been arrived at. Charly do not have access to the original tapes from the Virgin vaults, and therefore any remasters of this material they put out will inevitably be inferior; what's more, the boxed set doesn't include any of the excellent live material included here, and perhaps worst of all the band don't get any royalties from Charly, whereas they DO get their well-deserved royalties from the sales of Love From the Planet Gong. If you are going to splash out on a boxed set of the Radio Gnome material anyway, you may as well get the boxed set which does it right - rather than one which will shortchange both you and the band!