STEVE HILLAGE - LONDON 1974
January 14, 2023 – 5:55 amFifty years ago today, Beatle George told us that All Things Must Pass. Then he told us about Living in the Material World. For 36 years, BigO has been trying to keep the spirit and history of the music alive. Before all things pass, we still need your help to live in this material world. You can help us to do this with a kind donation. Please give what you are happy to give…
HOW TO DONATE
Our costs will always be there. So readers who can donate towards the cost of the site, please open a Skrill account. Readers who wish to contribute to BigO will now have to use Skrill (click here). We are no longer able to use PayPal to receive donations. Register an account at Skrill. To make a payment, use this e-mail address as recipient’s e-mail address in Skrill: mail2[at]bigomagazine.com. Looking forward to hearing from you.
JUST TO LET YOU KNOW
To reduce spamming, the BigO website is going through Cloudflare. What it does is scan your browser to ensure the visitor is not a spam. Do not be alarmed as this usually takes only a few seconds. Email us if you still have difficulty accessing the BigO site; or playing or downloading the tracks. If you know a better way of reducing spam, do let us know.
+ + + + +
STEVE HILLAGE
Performs Mike Oldfield’s Hergest Ridge
London 1974 [no label, 1CD]
Orchestral Hergest Ridge. Live at the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK; December 9, 1974. Very good soundboard.
Thanks to econeywaaa for sharing the show at Dime.
+ + + + +
Like The Orchestral Tubular Bells before it, The Orchestral Hergest Ridge was arranged and conducted by David Bedford. The BBC recorded the premiere, performed by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Steve Hillage (a member of the Kevin Ayers band) on guitar, on December 9 1974. This was broadcast on television in early 1975.
A performance by the Scottish National Orchestra at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow on May 5 1976 (also featuring Hillage, Andy Summers - later of The Police - took part in other performances) was recorded by Radio Clyde. Virgin purchased the rights to this recording, with the intention of releasing it.
The album was never released, possibly for several reasons. The Orchestral Tubular Bells was not a commercial success, and Mike Oldfield was absent from all recordings of the Orchestral Hergest Ridge. Watching the television broadcast of the 1974 performance, Mike laughed at Steve Hillage’s playing, and so he may have vetoed its release for this reason.
+ + + + +
Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (320 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.
Please Do Not Hammer The Links. Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. The tracks should still be around. Please try again later.
Kindly email us if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files. Also email us if you have any rarities you’d like to share with our readers.
+ + + + +
These tracks have been arbitrarily split for easier access.
Track 01. Hergest Ridge A - Part 1 7:22
Track 02. Hergest Ridge A - Part 2 12:33
Track 03. Hergest Ridge B - Part 1 8:05
Track 04. Hergest Ridge B - Part 2 9:08
38 mins
Click here to order Mike Oldfield releases.
One Response to “STEVE HILLAGE - LONDON 1974”
Thank you very much BigO.
By Derrick & the Dominos on Jan 14, 2023