HERE & NOW

I will join to the 14% of collaborators that quoted this album with only 2 stars (Collectors/fans only). And I want say, that, even if PSYCHEDELIC/SPACE ROCK is not my favorite style of progressive music, I already checked good quotations for disks of the style, as for instance ELOY "Coulors" (4 stars), "Ocean" (4 stars) and INSTANT FLIGHT "Coulor & Light" (3 stars). However I cannot make the same to HERE & NOW (Give & Take"), although the disk presents great musical moments as for instance the guitar solo in the track 6 "Improvisation" that begins approximately 4 min, 48 seconds, however in this same track the passage that precedes the mentioned solo with a repetitive rhythm and with a vocal one feminine without t melodic sense, left me simply "displeased", as well as the initial passage of the track 1 "What You See Is What You Get ", only to mention some moments that didn't please me!. Although it recognizes the musicians' competence , I cannot give more than the already mentioned 2 stars.

Ah the days when live music really was a gathering of like-minded souls determined to share their political frustrations and let it all hang out. What better soundtrack than Here and Now to the late 70's reaction against the new era of Thatcherdom, and anarchy as peace rather than the manufactured chaos of the Sex Pistols. Originally released in 1979 and newly reissued by Esoteric, it is a live album from 3 gigs on Here and Now's August 1979 tour. In those days they never charged admission to gigs, believing people should pay what they could afford, sometimes with amazing results according to the excllent and informative sleevenotes.

Their brand of `Floating Anarchy' was brought to a wider audience with a brief but brilliant dalliance with the Gong-meister Daevid Allen in 1977 before they took the ball and ran with it alone. This is a high energy live album very much in keeping with the new wave/punk spirit of the times. Songs about thinking for yourself, the crimes of the state against the individual are carried forth with gusto with the Hillage influenced guitar of Steffy Sharpstrings, and synth lines of Gavin Da Blitz to the fore, with spacy high energy jams their brand of dope rock found parallels with Steve Hillage's high energy approach to the end of the seventies' new found urgency.

With the band tight after "God knows how many tours of England" this is a reminder of just how central live music was to the cultural fabric of the UK at grass roots level a long way from the nightmares of corporate sponsorship. The music is direct, well played and the lyrics heartfelt. There's a sophistication beyond punk's 3 chords, a belief in self expression and communal living and search for a soloution to living in a country going through irrevocavable changes. It speaks of an alternative lifestyle of cheap dope, squat living, not having a television and helping each other through dark days by creating good times for yourself on a dole budget. It will of course be very nostalgic to those who were there living it, and really is a snapshot of the times. "It's the little things...like getting busted on the street" indeed.

This new issue comes with a bonus pair of 7" tracks, a studio version of stand out track `End Of The Beginning' and the obligatory studio jam `Choke A Koala'. Ozric Tentacles would make a career out of carrying on the bloodline here, while Here and Now would continue to have their ups and downs, but as Keith Missile says "it really did change the people inside the bubble,and that is priceless".

Only 3000 copies ever pressed, I bought my copy of Fantasy Shift at a brilliant Here and Now gig at Oxford Poly in 1983, just after they made the album, and where they played it to an audience of around 500 students.

This was the second time I'd seen them - the first was in a field ! - and there was a real feeling (wrong as it happened) that they were going to break into the big time.

Fantasy Shift was a departure from previous recordings - much less punky and with stronger reggae influences. You could - if you were so minded - call it more commercial and lighter weight, almost frivolous. It still sounds fresh and quite simply put together compared to the much more processed music of today. Keith da missile Bass, Gavin da Blitz, and Dino Ferrari all feature and there are guest appearances from the inimitable Steffi Sharpstrings - and they are pretty good musicians, even despite the clown names.

What saves Fantasy Shift from being the failed commercial album are some brilliantly subversive lyrics, and some first rates tunes and beats. The Mega Number and Ways to be Free are simply fantastic, there is a surprising cover of The Man who Sold the World and not a single bad track.

24 years on, it has become an old friend and makes for happy evenings with happy memories. I've not rated it 5 simply because there's no point - you wont find it so it cant be an Essential for any collection and also because it's not quite serious enough in a genre (prog) where taking yourself too seriously is essential !! But it is an easy 4.5 and you'll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers.

Stuart

Pleas note that Fantasy Shift has been digitally remastered from the original tape masters and has now been re-released by Chic Records. It is available at www.chicrecords.com at a cost of £11.95.

A few cassette albums were in circulation before this or the 1977 floating anarchy LP but only among Gong fans perhaps one of these will surface in due coarse ( I must go through my old cassette collection) Certainly this represents their first studio LP. However this is a disappointing recording in many respects. As they moved away from free form space rock jamming around a theme and tried to become a more professional unit they lost a lot of their edge in my opinion. There are way to many vocals on this album and as they did not have a vocalist worth his salt this is a major problem. Kif Kif just doesnt do a good job. That aside the music is Ok here with some memorable moments"what you see " is almost a catchy number with a pretty good set of hooks. "nearer now" is quite a sad number but why I feel that way about it may not be obviouse on the surface. Here and Now are a very Niieve band at this point and still have illusions about a revolution and a alternative life style, this also makes this Lp quite hard to listen to in some respects. "fire of London" is a stab a doing a more gong like track but simply falls flat on its face. The vocals are OK but the sytnth was not good enough to achieve what they really wanted which was a Tim Blake like sound as it is the poor quality oscillators make the sound harsh and unpleasant."This time" This time I wont take no for an answer this time I wont take no LSD this time I'll try to work it out for myself man..This track may be the best number in so much as it starts the long road back down to reality that was so needed at the time. More punky and aggressive than anything else here it remains my favorite track on this LP. The rest of the record just seems to pas me by and is disappointing. As an example of an enthusiastic but armature band Here and Now certainly were one of the best of the working class groups on the Hippy circuit. More real in ever sense than Gong they shared a similar philosophy but instead actually live it out and played many free festivals and free tours. The strain of touring and living on a bus eventually got the better of them and later line up produced far more polished material. This record is worth buying as an example of the music of Here and Now at the time and a social document of Britain at the Start of the Thatcher era. Oh the LP also has a great little gimmick on the center label but I'll leave you to find out what I mean...buy it !

Not A Studio LP.

The Here and Now side brings together live versions of all of their Charley records single releases. Starting with the rather twee "What You See Is What You Are" Tis starts off with a some rather un-together girls singing but finally takes off and becomes a rather powerful pop song, There is of course an excellent and spirited guitar solo by Steffi and a rather badly delivered vocal by Keith the Bass, all held in place by some plodding but sound bass work. " Dog In Hell" how much is that doggy in the window the one that cries bonafide tears Kif Kif continues to wallow in his moment of stardom and wrecks yet another otherwise competent space rocker. this time the lyric is quite interesting and its only by bellowing it out that he manages to kill the feel. "addicted" end this poorly produced and disappointing side of here and now's music. I caught Here and Now many many times over the years and its true to say that at times they played some scorching space rock, most notably when given the opportunity to play through Hawkwinds PA at Stonehenge. When ever Kif Kif shut up and they just jammed they certainly would have given gong or hawkwind a run for their money. Later Kif kif left and they improved immeasurable as a live act playing sensible space rock with just a little prog twist. Other low points of this recording are the synthesizer burps pops and weals live they sounded OK but on this recording they are almost always miss-timed. Possible this was due to the home made nature of their synth. Steffi sharp-strings really was a great guitarist but the rest of the musicianship is only a littel above awful. Kif Kifs drumming is terrible throughout possibly because he was singing most of the time. The bass playing is a little better and that sexist on sax is actually quite good who ever he was. The ATV side is utterly unmemorable and is also badly produced into the bargain. A strange release in any case this is worth buying as a document of this period of Here and Now sadly it is neither there best period or the best recording. The Charley singles of this time are incredible hard to find and worth seeking out as they bring the material presented above into focus and although they also suffer from Kif Kif they are not half bad a must for serious Gong collectors as well as Here and Now fans.

I must say that a previous reviewer gave the break-down of this album in detail, and I agree with what was said, but I dislike giving an album a rating without some banter.... The very first offering by Here and Now (that I know of) was actually 1977's 'Floating Anarchy' - a collaboration with Gong, where Space-Rock meets Punk. 'Give and Take' is H&N's debut release and really enjoyable. Very crisp production, and the musicians involved are bursting with energy ; the drummer is really good and he has a great sound, and the overall music incorporates Gliss guitar and fiery Hillage-like leads, bubbling synths, energetic bass and a sort of rebellious humour that works fine, not unlike Daevid Allen's ideals. A very consistent effort, with honourable mentions for 'What You See is What You Are' , 'Grate Fire of London' and 'Improvisation'. And for sure the Ozric Tentacles picked up something from this bunch of Space-Heads. Quite essential. 4.5 stars.

Not being very familiar with this group's history, outside being Gong-related because of Steffi Sharpstring's participation in both groups. Although the only recollection I had was of H&N's debut album, heard twice at a friend's house a lifetime ago, I had good expectations to this group. This album is all I could find at the library except an old VHS tape.

As a matter of fact, in terms of affinity I would link them more towards Steve Hillage's mid and late 70's albums (Green and Motivation Radio) than to the mothership itself. But likening this group to Steve H. and Gong alone would be a mistake. They are much more energetic (hard rocking) and Cassidy's drumming can sometimes make you think of Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The songs are rather concise and not really evolving through complex rhythm patterns or chord progressions and the siongwriting is straightforward. But there are some undeniable musical qualities to this music that the proghead cannot help but be lending a closer ear. From the lengthy and calm Tellysong to the almost hard rock tracks of Living Room War (Hawkwind-ish) and Love Thing to the Arabian-sounding instrumental title track (where Planet Gong is now quite close hence the UFO name), from the fiery Fire In The Sky to the spacey-dancey (almost disco beat) Secrets II, all songs are of a good calibre and make for a fairly even album with the title track clearly being the highlight with Nude Temple Dream.

Although Steffi's strong fellowship to Hillage and Tim Blake is generally a token of quality, some of the guitar solos and synth layers and ambiances are sometimes a little too close for comfort, this album is a relative enjoyment casual proghead searching for "space rock" and should (maybe) be an essential album for H&N unconditional fans.

The correct line up is :

Steffe Sharpstrings - Guitar/Vox Bernie Elliott - Slide Guitar/Sabre Rob Bougie - drums Gav Da Blitz - synths/EMS Keef Da Bass - Nuclearbass/vox

Recorded during the August 1979 Free Tour at several different venues, this set captures Here & Now and their punkiest and most energetic stage, thanks in large to Rob Bougies great drumming. Also of note here is Bernie Eillotts brief appearace on slide guitar with the band, before disappearing into the marshes of the fens. This slide adds a great dimension to the sound and its a shame there was no full studio album with this line up.

The set kicks off with the band "baking hot" and cracking straight into "Think For Yourself", a fast paced number with repeating synth and slide lines drawing you straight in from the off.

Then its into "Open Door" with its thunderous bass line and some great effects laden lead from Steffe who proclaims "an open door, a flaming love - shining like a beacon".

The only familiar number here is "70's Youth" from the Give & Take album, which remains prteyy true to the studio version.

"Surgeons Knife" rounds off side one and captures Here & Now's finest moment on vinyl, all 11.22 minutes of it, which incidentally later found its way into Ozrics set at Stonehenge a few years later in 1984. The synth driven track with a backbeat is pretty straight forward trippy space punk up to about 5 minutes in. The is when the best jamming aspects of the band come to the fore as the song breaks down into some sublime guitar and ems bubbles which slowly build to a crescendo as Keef and Rob start a great simple rhythm that continue interspersed with some amazing lead work from Steffe, simply stunning.

Side 2 bring things back again with "Little Things", a punky back beat affair with Keefy and Steffe ranting about little things that annoy him, featuring some tasy Synths from Da Blitz - sound very 70's Roxy Music in parts.

"Only Way" builds slowly from a melodic guitar line with gentle tribal tom tom work over the top - the mellowest track on the album.

A typical Jam follows built on a powerful punky bass line with phased guitar and all over the place drumming from Bougie - typical of the jams that later appeared on the Off The Cuff release from the same year.

The album rounds off nicely with "End of the Beginning" a simple two chord bash with loads of spcey guitar and synths and he crowd hanging for more.

This album is hard to categorize as it is an almost radical departure from the previous efforts, "Give & Take" and "What You See Is What You Are" and the biggest surprise upon purchasing the album was the lack of familiarity with all but one of the songs - not exactly typical for a live release. Apart from "70's Youth" the only other track to see a studio release was "End of the Beginining", which is a crying shame is this was such an energetic and creative line up that did many gigs during the short time it was together. After 1979, these songs virtually never showed up in their live sets, although Open Door made a brief appearance in the early 90's set. Shortly after this release, Bernie, Steffe and Rob jumped ship whilst Keef and Gav moved away towards a more reaggae/dub/pop sound for their next effort " Stolen Moments" in 1981.

Fear not though (!), as Steffe is currently working on remastering "Off the Cuff" from this and other 1979 shows - all improvised and mindblowing - could be out in 2006 or 2007 - see Planet Gong site for details.

An unusual LP, in that it is split between "Prog Space Punks" Here and Now and the underground punk of Alternative TV. Both bands are playing live, and this mix is taken from the mixing desk - and you can safely assume there are no overdubs or other nasty tampering, which makes this all the more incredible, as the presence of both bands is striking.

The sound quality is less than amazing, but once you've got over that, Here and Now deliver a performance with legs - Kieth's missile bass tighter than the average gnat's chuff wandering around Kif Kif's precise, yet somehow rock'n'roll loose drums, Steffi turning in some solid rhythm and lead guitar lines around Gavin Da Blitz's great impersonations of Tim Blake with more wobbly spacey synth lines than the average Hawkwind album, Jack Neat's solid sax solos, and the most solid jamming you are likely to hear this side of Amon Duul II, but with less of a retrospective look. I won't cover this song again, as I gave it a blow-by-blow in my review of "Give and Take".

"Dog In Hell" begins with some psychotic wierdness, then drops to a lazy gutter-reggae style with drugged out vocals taking the Percy out of that sort of individual. da Blitz's Tim Blake warblings hail a change into manic rantings about doggies in the window - I'm strongly reminded of Peter Hammill's "Nadir's Big Chance" with Johnny Rotten on vocals. There's another fantastic change into a hypnotic repetitive riff. This is deliberate "I am a Robot...", and there follows another ranting about how robotic human beings tend to become. The ambient musical development is minimalistic, and rather good - especially the drop-down section, which is strongly reminiscent of Hawkwind.

"Addicted" is a style change again this is a really unique hybrid of punk and reggae, with da Blitz flicking his oscillators all over the place... This song contains the wonderful line "I'm addicted to coffee, I'm addicted to tea - I think cigarettes are addicted to me", and some of the most inspired space rock jamming ever - and that includes Hawkwind - with a monster riff from hell... you may require imagination to hear what it would sound like with good production though. It puts me immediately in mind, sight, touch and smell of a hundred free festivals - the type that are specifically NOT organised and consequently have no-one at the top controlling musical content... and no toilets either.

Anyway, "Addicted" is worth getting this album for alone. "What You See Is What You Are" offers little over the "Give and Take" version except the sax solo, and "Dog In Hell" is very interesing.

Here and Now are a unique punk/reggae/space prog band - how many other bands combine all those styles? You need some in your collection, and "Floating Anarchy" with the Planet Gong band is a good start, "Give and Take" is good to graduate to, and "Fantasy Shift" is probably a complete culture shock.

This album would make a good single Here and Now E.P. to own - bearing in mind you'll probably only listen to a very small part of the "Alternative TV side" - if you can track it down.

A pity really, since this is the rare type of "intelligent" punk, where the "musicians" are very creative and take intriguing approaches to riff-writing. If you think punk is the Sex Pistols or Green Day, think again - this is closer in attitude to "Nadir's Big Chance" for the first couple of tracks, while "Fellow Sufferer" is actually closer to Here and Now in style, and another high point of this album, ATV creating plenty of hypnotic space and dark moodiness in a piece that many other bands would turn into a dreadful dirge. "Splitting In Two" has a quite wonderful fuzz bass intro - who says you need more than one note to create good music? Very much like the (later) Killing Joke, this is a raw, tribal-feeling, fuzz-drenched treat of ever-increasing intensity for scaring the neighbours.

Punks today? Hah! They don't know the meaning of the word!!

Three stars stands for "Good but non-essential", so I'm awarding 3.5 stars - Good, possibly not essential, but very worthwhile, progressive (in the literal sense) and enjoyable - certainly a good addition to any prog music collection, especially where the progger in question enjoys, say, the Stranglers, the Damned, Killing Joke, P/I/L or the Clash on the sly. ;0).