THE STEVE HILLAGE BAND & THE UTOPIA STRONG
Epic psych-prog from one of the originators.
Lee Harper
Last night, I was here at Epic for a band I know and love, Stiff Little Fingers. Tonight, I am here out of curiosity, to see Steve Hillage, someone I know by reputation but with whose music I am mostly unfamiliar.
Opening proceedings are THE UTOPIA STRONG, featuring the shamanic Kavus (Cardiacs, Gong) Torabi on vox, synths and guitar, former snooker champ Steve Davis on modular synth and Michael J. York on synths, bagpipes, woodwind and percussion.
Kavus Torabi
Steve Davis
Michael J. York
The set of ambient-synth-prog is intriguing if not necessarily entertaining, ending up on the fine line between bollocks and brilliance far too often. At its best – mostly when beats are introduced and Torabi is singing or playing his guitar – I love it but there are long stretches when I am, not to put too fine a point on it, BORED. For me, The Utopia Strong work at home, through headphones and in a darkened room. It just doesn’t do it for me live. And please believe me when I say I hate to be negative as I have a HUGE amount of respect for Torabi and Davis seems to be a thoroughly good chap.
Tonight sees Torabi playing two sets as he returns to the stage as part of THE STEVE HILLAGE BAND. Hillage himself is one of the originators of the prog sound, having started out in the legendary Canterbury scene. Since those days, he has remained active in experimental music running the gamut from rock to rave, having been a member of Khan, Gong, System 7 and Kevin Ayers’ Decadence, alongside working with Mike Oldfield, Todd Rundgren, Ozric Tentacles, Hawkwind, the late, great Rachid Taha and even William (Captain Kirk) Shatner.
Hillage’s band consists of his System 7 partner Miquette Giaraudy on keys, Torabi (guitar) and Torabi’s compatriots in Gong, Fabio Golfeti (guitar), Dave Sturt (bass), Cheb Nettles (drum) and Ian East (sax/flute). From what I can see, the entire band provide harmony vocals with the exception of Nettles and East.
Steve Hillage
Back in the 80s (or maybe even the 70s), the Steinberger “cricket bat” headless guitar was seen as the future. Of course it wasn’t and it has been a long time since I’ve seen one wielded in anger. Surprisingly (or perhaps not given System 7), that style of guitar is Hillage’s weapon of choice and he makes some wonderful noises with it, from jazz-inflected noodling to massive riffs and fiery solos.
It's All Too Much includes some jaw-dropping guitar interplay between Hillage and Torabi. There’s some wonderful, heavy, Middle Eastern sounding guitar work on The Golden Vibe. The Dervish Riff lives up to its name and could easily have induced some wild spinning dancing in the audience. A good cover doesn’t have to be better than the original, just different. The takes on Hurdy Gurdy Man and second encore certainly fulfil that brief.
Miquette Giaraudy
Cheb Nettles
Kavus Torabi
Most of the audience are, ahem, on the mature side. It’s not all oldies though. There are more teens and twenty-somethings than I expected. And whilst the rave generation are no longer young, there’s a posse of them down the front – who I suspect got into Hillage through System 7 – busting out the big-fish-little-fish-cardboard-box moves.
I’d be lying if I say I love every moment of The Steve Hillage Band. Not unexpectedly, there is a fair amount of noodling and moments of musicianship for its own sake, rather than in the service of the song but then everyone on stage is a superb musician. Hillage’s voice is not the strongest but wrapping it up in the backing vocals is a genius move and he is an engaging, endearing frontman.
And, as always at Epic, the lights, visuals and sound are superb.
Full picture gallery HERE
