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

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!