LIVE IN SHERWOOD FOREST '75

This album is bloomin' cracking - a missing link in the Gong story. Sure, no Daevid Allen or Pot Head Pixies, but Hillage, Moerlen, Howlett, Malherbe are still there, and musically fabulous - delivering hippy-dom, trance, space and jazz.

Including tracks from You, Fish Rising and Shamal - it's great to hear Afterglid and the Salmon Song under the Gong banner as well deserved - this is a fascinating little piece of Gong history. It's also great to hear tracks from Shamal plussed with Steve Hillage's guitar.

This was actually Steve's last gig with Gong (aside from the '77 Paris reunion) before re-linking in recent years. Fascinating!

I'm so glad this was found after so long being lost! Considering, the recording quality is pretty reasonable - sometimes sounds a bit tinny though bizarrely the bass sounds very good (Mike Howlett performs brilliantly). The glockenspiel is a bit over-loud here and there and the sax can be somewhat low in the mix.

Surprisingly, my favourite track here is the last - Shamal - the band really get into the groove here - cracking!

This really grows on you - be patient with it. The first listen is taken up with wondering how good the sound quality is. Once you get over that, the 2nd time around is really really good.

I won't quite give it the full 5, because I wouldn't want anyone to start Gong listening with this, and the quality though good isn't perfect. However, I love it and highly recommend it!