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1996, November 30
London Shepherds Bush Empire



Details

Date1996, November 30
VenueShepherds Bush Empire
CityLondon
CountryUK
Line-upEdgar Froese, Jerome Froese, Linda Spa, Gerald Gradwohl, Mark Hornby


Records

Tangerine Dream: Fan Releases
2003Tangerine Leaves Volume 10: London 1996
Tangerine Leaves Volume 11: London 1996


Set List

Vintage Set

Barbakane (4:30)
A short atmospheric intro built around Morpheus effects (evident, for instance, on the re-recorded Zoning soundtrack) and bell sounds leads into an excerpt of the album track, starting approximately three minutes into the track as presented on Poland.
Sundance Kid (5:45)
The body of this track is essentially the same as the "live studio" version on 220 Volt Live. (As discussed in the 1992 N.A. tour, on 220 Volt Live the opening section of this track is a studio fabrication.) Here, the track starts with the rhythm part.
Hyperborea (Section 2) (5:00)
The second half of the track only (with the "deep" percussion) is all that was played. Faithful otherwise to Hyperborea.
Warsaw In The Sun (5:00)
Faithful to the Poland CD.
Exit (4:30)
Beginning tones and the closing notes are altered, but otherwise the same as the studio version on Exit.
Stratosfear 1995 (8:00)
Essentially the same as the version on Tyranny Of Beauty, but with very spirited guitar soloing by Mark Hornby and Gerald Gradwohl.
Dolphin Dance (5:30)
Same as studio on Underwater Sunlight, but with an extra, subtle atmospheric layer that gives the track more "presence".
Melrose (6:45)
Same as the studio version on Melrose, with Linda Spa on sax.
Le Parc (L.A. - Streethawk) (4:30)
Like Dolphin Dance, this track is faithful to the studio version on Le Parc, but with a few dramatic chord touches to beef up the sound.
The Blue Bridge (3:45)
Same as on 220 Volt Live, with Linda Spa on sax.
Oriental Haze (5:00)
Same as on 220 Volt Live (Linda Spa on sax), but with guitar work bolstering the track too.

Modern Set

Piano Solo 96 (4:15)
An extended piano solo. Edgar Froese plays an excerpt from Ricochet, Part Two; Linda Spa follows with some Mozart.
Nomad (2:15)
A track that stayed officially unreleased until 2020, but was already given a name in the official web-page release of the tourlist. This is a brief, upbeat track in the style of Oasis, but with quirky percussion and a repeating electric-piano motif. Live, the back-projection showed a flyover panorama of snow-capped peaks, which fit the music well.
220 Volt (8:00)
Basically the same as on 220 Volt Live, but it sounds like the bass was upped considerably (though, granted, 220 Volt Live is notoriously thin-sounding bass-wise compared to the actual '92 tour anyway). Also, during the quiet interlude in the middle of the track, the lead is played differently, here with a bell-like patch.
Dreamtime (4:45)
The short version of the track without the Hamlet lead-in, as on the Dreamtime CD single.
Catwalk (9:00)
Extended to accommodate some excellent Spanish-guitar soloing. The bridge leading into the track clearly presages the Catwalk themes, combined with all-too-short, rousing percussion and sequencer interplay.
Firetongues (8:00)
Same as studio version on Turn Of The Tides, but with even better guitar soloing by Mark Hornby and Gerald Gradwohl.
Girls On Broadway (5:45)
Same as the studio version.
Rising Haul In Silence (7:45)
Same as the studio version.
Lamb With Radar Eyes (7:45)
A slightly altered groove at the middle of the track radically improves this version over the studio version on Goblins Club.
Touchwood (Forest Mix) (7:45)
The bridge preceding this track is a stunning amalgam of techno percussion and some vaguely Phaedra like sequencing. Pity it's less than a minute long! Otherwise, however, the track is same as the studio version.
Towards The Evening Star (6:15)
The bridge leading into this track uses some distinctive chanting sampled voices that are clearly presets. (They've been recognized in songs by several other bands, as well as in an American automobile commercial.) The track itself is the same as the studio version.

Encores

Hamlet (8:15)
Starts suddenly in the midst of the sequencer part which presages the guitar solo. Essentially gave Edgar his venue for an axe solo, though it's been pointed out by several tape aficionados that the solo he rehearsed during the pre-show soundcheck (of which a fantape exists) was far more spirited than this one!
Thief Yang And The Tangram Seal (5:30)
A technofied mix of brief themes from Force Majeure, Tangram, and Thief that brought the house down live. Same as the version on the Shepherds Bush CD single.
Eleanor Rigby (6:15)
Cover of the Beatles classic. The live version is a bit shorter than the studio version provided on the Shepherds Bush CD single.
Elf June And The Midnight Patrol [not played]
This encore was planned (according to the web page tracklist), but not played at the Shepherds Bush venue's insistence because of the London Underground's shut-down time.

(All times rounded to nearest 15 seconds and include bridges following song, if any.)

Large parts of this section have been taken from the site What Dreams Are Made Of by kind permission of the authors John A. Burek and Mark Schaffer.


Notes

There were plans for a TD tour in autumn 1995, but these had been cancelled. Then there was an idea of perhaps touring in April 1996, but again this became not true. "Of course we are still interested in concerts", Julia Snyder from Tadream Production was cited in issue 13 of Dream Collector. But the band first wanted to confirm their new contracts with record companies all over the world, she explained. "The band should do such a tour with their new record company because this is very important for cooperation as well as for promotion." TD still take their former announcement for serious, Julia Snyder said. "We hope to be able to do some concert in the second half of the year." TD's former record contracts with Miramar (USA) and Virgin (Europe) had been fulfilled with the releases of The Dream Mixes and Edgar Froese's solo 2CD set Beyond The Storm.
 

 

Finally, in late November Tangerine Dream gave this one-off concert to promote the then new album Goblins Club. The concert was split in two parts: the vintage set, consisting at a large part of compositions of the eighties, and the modern set, featuring music from the nineties, including three tracks from the new album. This turned out to be a blueprint of the European tour that took place one year later and consisted of a setlist quite similar to this -- though there are enough differences to make this concert interesting to fans. Especially notable is the fact that this concert was the last one featuring Linda Spa on keyboards and saxophone for the next nine years.
 

 

Flyer for the London Concert

Thanks to Andy King for providing this scan.

(Click on the image to see a larger version of the flyer in a new browser window)


 

 

Tickets from the London Concert

Thanks to Andy King and Jupe Uriarte for providing these ticket scans.

(Click on the images to see a larger version of the respective ticket in a new browser window)


 

 

Backstage Pass for the London Concert

This pass provided access to the fan meeting with the band after the show.

Thanks to Andy King for providing this scan.

(Click on the image to see a larger version of the pass in a new browser window)


 

 

From Dream Collector #16, March 1997

A Look Back and a Step into Future

Between Classic Tracks And Modern Style: TD Live In London

A concert in Europe after some six years -- this of course turned Tangerine Dream's gig in London into an international meeting of fans from the whole continent -- and even from beyond. When this event took place, TD's spring tour of 1997 had not yet been announced, so spectators from many countries decided to spend the last November weekend in London, and some die-hard fans even did a short trip from the USA to Great Britain.

The reason for the band's one-concert-trip to London was their new contract with the British Castle Communications company. TD's new record company wanted to promote the band as well as their first new release on the label, Goblins Club. Thus, the concert was intended to be the starting point of a new cooperation which should mark a step into future, but it became as well TD's first extensive retrospective of the band history presented live on stage. Especially for most long-term-fans, the show in the old fashioned Shepherds Bush Empire theatre was delightful. The first 60 minute set included compositions like Poland, Hyperborea, Exit, Dolphin Dance and Le Parc (L.A. - Streethawk). Many of them have been heard live for the first time. TD's classic track Stratosfear was performed in the 1995 version adapted by Jerome Froese. This was also a main job for the young guitar player Gerald Gradwohl, and it indicated the musical direction TD were heading to this evening. The long second set marked TD's approach to their present style in music. The band played only tracks from their releases in the nineties. This was the field for Linda Spa to play saxophone as well as for Gerald Gradwohl and Mark Hornby on guitar. For those who had Linda in mind as a wind instrument player only, it was surprising that the concert saw her most time like if she were a member of a former three person line-up: on keyboards. She proved to fit into this musical role when she continued a piano solo opened by Edgar Froese.

The band had announced to play for three hours this evening and to the longest concert in their history, besides night-long improvisation sessions in their early days in Berlin. And indeed, after some two and a half hours of hard work, Edgar performed an exulted guitar solo during the first encore, Hamlet. For most of the 2,000 people in the hall this was the most impressing part of the evening, and some even felt reminded of the time of Coldwater Canyon.

The next encore turned to the TD-sound formed by Jerome, a rather fast mix version of Diamond Diary and Force Majeure, documented as Vintage Rave on the concert playlist, but released as Thief Yang And The Tangram Seal on the Shepherds Bush CD which had been sold exclusively at this concert.

The band ended the concert with a performance that has become some kind of custom during the last decade: an improvisation of a well-known track of pop and rock history. After The Animals (House Of The Rising Sun) and Jimi Hendrix (Purple Haze) at the end of earlier concerts, in London TD decided to play a famous Beatles song: Eleanor Rigby, a track which is also included on the 2-track CD released at this event.

After the concert, Edgar did not leave the stage immediately. He said thank you to a man who played an important role in TD's history 22 years ago in Great Britain and who helped the band to reach their success of the later years: John Peel.

© 1997 by Christian Horn, Siegfried Lindhorst, Rolf Sonnemann and Peter Stöferle

 

 

 
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