1975, April 02
London Royal Albert Hall

Details


Date	1975, April 02
Venue	Royal Albert Hall
City	London
Country	UK
Line-up	Edgar Froese, Chris Franke, Michael Hoenig

Records


Tangerine Dream: Official Releases
2003	The Bootleg Box Set Vol. 1 (Tracks 2-4 only)
2019	In Search Of Hades (Tracks 32-34 only)
Tangerine Dream: Fan Releases
2002	Tangerine Tree Volume 9: London 1975
Tangerine Dream: Bootlegs
1994	Coefficient Of Aural Expansion
1997	Phaedream (Tracks 1-2 only)

Set List

Main Set

London 75.1, Part One 70:30

London 75.1, Part Two 40:15

Encore

London 75.1, Part Three 13:45

(All times rounded to nearest 15 seconds.)

Notes

On April 2nd, 1975 Tangerine Dream performed in London again. The gig was introduced by John Peel and provided quadrophonic sound. Likewise to the Australia tour earlier the same year Peter Baumann was replaced by Michael Hoenig on stage. Peter Baumann was backstage during the entire concert, but never appeared on stage.

Most of the concert was recorded by BBC to be (partly) broadcast on April 14th, 1975. Interviewed by programme presenter Mike Sparrow a certain Steve Harvey (apparently a BBC employee) told about the recording: "[...] I've always been a fan of Tangerine Dream and the chance to actually record it was something quite astounding. I rang up Virgin Records and said 'Look, how about recording this Royal Albert Hall gig?' And to my amazement they said 'Yes'. Tangerine Dream because they are a band I think you have to listen to at home, preferably in a darkened room with a nice quiet atmosphere around you, with very little distraction and I think they're the perfect band to listen to... particularly if you've got a VHF receiver and can get a good, high quality reception. [...] We've got a stereo recording, but unfortunately we go out in mono. But all the same, I think it should be a very nice concert indeed. [...][The recording] was done by the Broadcasting House O.B. [that is, Outside Broadcast] engineers who normally work on Radio 3 and I think they were quite surprised in fact to work on a concert of this nature. They were a little dubious at first, but I'm glad to say that when they actually got down there and heard some of the music, they got very much into the spirit of things. [...]"

From 30 Years Of Dreaming

On 2nd April 1975, Tangerine Dream gave a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, which was completely sold out. I have heard some excerpts from the concert, which sounds like something in between the music from Phaedra and Rubycon -- with a lot of space for long improvisations.

The concert was also attended by the German music critic Manfred Gillig, who describes the event in the following way: "On stage there are mountains of amplifiers, loudspeakers, synthesizers and organs between a pair of palms -- all covered in s dim blue light. I am still tired. This can't go well, I think. But then the three from Berlin are seated behind their mixers and ethereal sounds penetrates the Royal Albert Hall. Quadraphonic sound waves first from the left then from the right and then from behind, from above, the front -- I relax. Unearthly noise -- a chorus with hundreds of voices covers me and fills up this venerable house. Somewhere was the well-known monolith from 2001 floating. From all directions came drum sounds, floating around in the room for at last gather in the front and a procession of complicated rhythms moving slowly between each other. The drum sounds spreading up against the walls in the giant hall and above it all a helicopter flying with tapping rotor blades -- then the noise of a Mediterranean night; Grasshoppers and cicadas fills Royal Albert Hall with their singing. The surf at the beach, waves chorusing against the stones rolling on the beach. Is it the sea or the banks of Rubycon?". (Träume von synthetischen Mandarinen?, Sounds, June 1975)

Later the same year, Tangerine Dream played a few more concerts in Germany and France -- once again in Reims; this time not in the cathedral, but in the opera house!