This week we take the encore concept literally and do a tour of live TD from the years 1975 through 1982, playing only encores. Tangerine Dream encores were, according to Froese, not based on audience reaction but rather whether the band felt there was anything further they needed to express musically that night. And we'll take him at his word!
Earlier TD concerts were often more improvised, and as time went on different themes would start to recur and there was increasing structure. We get some taste of both eras of the band and a number of different line-up configurations.
All of these selections except the last come from official bootleg box sets, that take live recordings of differing initial legality, and were cleaned up and sanctioned by the band for official sale.
| Royal Albert Hall, 2nd April 1975, Part Three Tangerine Dream - Bootleg Box Set Vol. 1 - Reactive |
| The opening track was from the short-lived line-up of Froese, Franke, and Michael Hoenig (Agitation Free), which did a tour of Australia before coming back and doing this show. Hoenig was a last minute replacement for the tour when Baumann flaked on them; he did return to the band afterwards of course and remained until 1977.
The next track is from one of the concerts that was the source of the Ricochet live album. |
| Croydon Fairfield Halls, 23rd October 1975, Part Three Tangerine Dream - Bootleg Box Set Vol. 1 - Reactive |
| Another track from the late 75/early 76 tour, this one is in Spain and is a more atmospheric, Mellotron-heavy piece of the type they would sometimes do. |
| Bilbao, 31jst January 1976, Part Four Tangerine Dream - Bootleg Box Set Vol. 1 - Reactive |
| Next up is a concert from late 1976 which was their closing show of that tour. It is a very strong show throughout and both encores are compelling. Some of the material in the first encore would recur on the live album Encore as a theme on Side A (Cherokee Lane) while some of the material in the second encore ended up being used on the soundtrack to Sorceror (both released 1977). |
| Mozartsaal, Mannheim, 31st October 1976, Encore Part One Tangerine Dream - The Official Bootleg Series Vol. 1 - Reactive |
| Mozartsaal, Mannheim, 31st October 1976, Encore Part Two Tangerine Dream - The Official Bootleg Series Vol. 1 - Reactive |
| The Paris 1978 concert is interesting because it involves the short-lived Cyclone line-up of Froese, Franke, Steve Jolliffe, and Klaus Krieger. As was typically the case in the period, rather than replicate the album live they would improvise the concerts. This has an interesting effect with a multi-instrumentalist and a drummer added to the two synthesizer wizards, and even in the liner notes of the box set Jolliffe admits it sometimes didn't work. On this particular night it seems to have been working, and it's crazy and different... |
| Palais des Congrès, Paris, 6th March 1978, Encore One Tangerine Dream - The Official Bootleg Series Vol. 2 - Reactive |
| The East Berlin show was the first with the new line-up of Froese, Franke, and Johannes Schmoelling. They had little time to prepare (15 days) so a number of themes from Tangram were used in the concert. It also was behind the Berlin Wall, which was rather a big deal in the day. Much of the equipment used is sequenced analog synths and it sounds different from both the typical TD concert that predates it, and the later Schmoelling-era material that is often more digital and structured. This concert was originally released on the Amiga label as "Quichotte", and later reissued as "Pergamon", but both are edits. The original concert is included in the box set, and this is its encore!
(But first, a few bonus minutes from the second Paris encore because I have extra time!) |
| Palast der Republik, East Beriln, 31st January 1980, Encore Tangerine Dream - The Official Bootleg Series Vol. 2 - Reactive |
| Finally, we get to use an official release, as it turns out the concert from which the live album Logos was constructed (London, Dominion, November 6 1982) is available in the Tangerine Tree series, and the track Dominion was actually the encore... so we'll close with that. I hope you've enjoyed this look at the seminal German band; it probably won't be the last one :). |
| Dominion Tangerine Dream - Logos - Virgin |
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excellent show
8:10 PM, February 24th, 2017