By Jim Rowland
With both bands releasing brand new albums on the same day in November, it makes sense for Gong and Ozric Tentacles to once again team up for a co-headlining tour across the nation, and tonight sees the tour hit the south coast of England at the 02 Academy in Bournemouth.
It’s almost exactly a year ago that Gong and the Ozrics last visited Bournemouth together, and this time they’ve upgraded to the O2 Academy, benefitting from this theatre’s beautiful ornate aesthetic and a superior sound system. Swapping roles, this time round it’s Gong who hit the stage first. Launching into the instant classic ‘My Guitar Is A Spaceship’ from the new album ‘Unending Ascending’,
Gong really hit the ground running with ‘Kapital’, ‘All Clocks Reset’ and ‘Rejoice!’ ensuring a blistering and explosive first half to the set. The second half of the set gets more spacey, atmospheric and cosmic with a long medley, featuring Saskia from the Ozrics, mixing the new with a touch of the old, and some projections of Gong founder Daevid Allen reminding us that his spirit lives on with this current incarnation. Upping the tempo again at the end, the set culminates with a superb ‘Master Builder’ and ‘Choose Your Goddess’ cementing the fact that the old Gong blends pretty seamlessly with the new Gong. The spirit most certainly lives on.
Like Gong, Ozric Tentacles have just released a great new album, in the shape of ‘Lotus Unfolding’. There aren’t many bands out there that can successfully blend genres as diverse as hard rock, jazz, prog, space rock, funk, reggae and dance, but that’s just what the Ozrics do, and have done so for a very long time now.
The musicianship is exceptional, with founder Ed Wynne’s sublime guitar skills leading the way through choice cuts from the new album like ‘Green Incantation’ and ‘Burundi Spaceport’, or older cuts like ‘Erpland’. At times during the set, with the projections of bright psychedelic patterns and magic mushrooms coupled with the relentless pummelling of the music at considerable volume, you felt like you were being transported back in time to the middle of a field in the 1980’s.
Both bands, who are also Kscope label mates, complement each other well in the live arena, hence these consecutive tours together, and both bands contributed to a top notch night of psychedelic rock and beyond tonight.
- Gong and Ozric Tentacles tour together again in March:
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