Miquette Giraudy / Steve Hillage interview: System 7
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ค. 2018
- Miquette and Steve talk about how they met with Gong about it and Daevid's importance in being a link to the 1st Summer of Love and then how the 2nd led to their electronic project System 7.
Steve Hillage's involvement in the 1st-ever official Glastonbury Dancetent in 1995, favourite gigs and the spiritual channeling of music.
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I remember going to Steve's house in about 1960 and being surprised to see a guitar (acoustic) on the floor. None of his school friends knew he was musical, except for his brilliant performances on the maracas in the primary school band. His mum seemed very proud of Steve's musical talents, while we had no idea about him having lessons. He was a "dreamy" child....which must have been a sign of exceptional talent.
I had that in common with Steve. In my case undiagnosed (till recently) late-in-life-diagnosis autism/ADHD situation, which can lead to traumatic meltdowns when not supported well enough. But, boy oh boy, does it juice up the creative batteries a right treat!
In Steve's case? So dam exceptional one could scream!
And, it is both Miquette and Steve's humility that keeps their shows a constant delight even now in what will soon be approaching the middle of the 21st century, where most of their styles of sound seemed already designed from.
In fact, should have been the band in renegade dive bars in Star Wars!
As a bass player the thought of being jn a studio with Steve Hillage, Miquette Guirardy and Nick Mason would be very special. 😊
... ideally with Richard Wright as well. My god that guy was gifted. The more you listen to Floyd the more you realise its Richard setting the mood for the song.
‘You’ is one of my favourite albums ever. And the guitar work is brilliant. When I was a young teenager I wanted to be Gong. ‘Gong is One and One is You’ 😂
Rainbow Dome Musick by Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy is my musical drug to endure the madness of the politicians in this Corona time.
Way ahead of its time.
Where would we be without Steve hillage and miquette. You blew me away last night in Liverpool... xx
This relationship is so sweet. When the love is the music, the music becomes the love. Closer open green kinetic ohm!
Steve has an aura of peaceful bliss and positivity that is infectious. And how could one not feel that way having lived and help create that history. I was interested in synths since I stole my brother’s Switched on Bach LP (Wendy Carlos still went by Walter then) when I was 13. In an attempt to keep me out of trouble - away from the acid so to speak - my parents bought me a Minimoog for Christmas in 75. (It didn’t work.) I used to seek out albums/artists that used synths. But I bought Green on a lark having no idea (imagine no internet search) about Steve and Miquette. It must have been the UFO references. So the first Hillage song I ever heard in great white reaches of US northern tier was Palm Trees. Boom!! What a time to have lived and to have experienced the evolution and re-evolutions of electronic MUSIC, synthesis, music technology, MIDI, etc… All good things to the dyad that is Hillage/Giraudy. We’re taking off now and it’s not a physical spaceship….
Love this comment.
Great musicians, amazing couple, and a wonderful story.
Two amazing musicians.
Charming couple. Lovely people. My childhood here.
Thank you very much for sharing this interview! Steve is one the best guitarist of all time! All of their work has been terrific.
Miquette Giraudy is a wonderful synthesist. I'd love to see some videos of her working methods.
Absolutely
Steve will you always be on my bucket list? Please visit the USA - we love all of you
Love them both beyond description! ❤️
me too. such sweet people
steve is an amazing guitarist too
Great to see him back gigging. Remember him with Gong at City Halls and Kelvin Hall Glasgow in the early 70s. Afghan coats and patchouli. Listen on Cambridge St on a Friday afternoon. Halcyon days.
So much love for these two special humans. ❤️
Great to hear all the backstories of one of my fav guitarists.
Amazing Steve with his glissando guitar 🎸 and both are awesome talents ....GonG
I love these two. Thanks ❤
Just found out about their music. Came across the album Power of Seven while digging through cd's in a thrift shop. Bought it for just one euro! That album is great, just great. Been listening to it over and over again. It brings back the nineties! But seriously, that is some ingenious stuff.
I remember when Daevid Allen couldn't come out of the dressing room to go on stage because of a "force field" :) Newcastle Uni maybe ..Steve is one of the most underated guitarists I've had the pleasure of seeing and listening to .
@Rhizosphere :) he's a lovely fella too
🌜🌛😂👍
An unlikely and most underrated genius!
I have to agree. I knew the name since the 70ies, knew many of the album covers from my record store sessions back then, but never actually listened to any of their music till: yesterday. And I was mildly shocked how good he was in the (incredible) 70ies. Actually I listened to some system 7 tracks in the techno years/ the 90ies...
Saw classic lineup of Gong at Glastonbury, total serendipity as we'd just abandoned Prodigy on the Other Stage after about two songs (not a pleasant experience) headed back towards the Green Fields via The Glade and BINGO! They were just starting :-)
Great to see Gilli Smyth and Daevid only a few years before they passed.
"Look up in the air, the Octave Doctor's there ..and when he strikes his gong, your middle eye comes on"
Chose that gig also that night at the glade over the prodigy, with a little liquid psychedelic assistance, bumped into stevie p (heathens all) mark robson (kangaroo moon) and jim invisible (invisible opera company of tibet) and nominated daevid and gilli as my spiritual god parents, luminaries all. bumped into steve (apologised:)) at the recent gong and ozrics double bill at the cheese and grain, dec 1st 23 had a lovely wee chat, was able to tell him i listented to 'green' the great aum riff as we took off for india in 1990, i think he quite liked that, lovely fella.
Met Stevie P at Twyford down when they drove a huge ravine through its heart and have known Mrk Robson for at least 30 yrs (being a fellow didjeriduist) met Mike Howlet round a fire behind the Tadpole stage (now Toad Hall) at Glastonphant several years ago, wouldn't be surprised if I've met you, all the best to you :-) @@natureisnoisy
@@BaddaBigBoom Small world, its quite a tribe of seekers to be amongst, good to hear some tale, i popped once to twyford down what a gorgeous glade/glen/down swam the river, participated in a little 'action' sugering some engines, was one of the cool tan residents at the time until i eloped down west to join the rainbow circle, been in somerset since 96, are you down this way?
@@cameronpatrickscott Cool tan in Brixton? I had my drum tuition there.
@@cameronpatrickscott Nope, SW London but been down that way quite a lot. Do you know the folk from Heathens All and Spacegoats?
Love his playing and output....
Aren't they great together, great people, great music from the very begining.
Hello Steve and Miquette and all other cosmic eternal peoples, the recent midsummers eve/day Stonehenge free festival gathering 2024, was a cosmicly amazing successful event , I was there and pleased to see all the free natural eternal peoples of the infinite wild natural eternal cosmos enjoying themselves, there WILL DEFINATELY soon be the return of the Stonehenge free festivals FOR ETERNITY , REGULARLY, and ALL other free festivals also FOR ETERNITY , the IMPORTANT thing is, the more the natural wilderness returns back to the northern side/edge of Stonehenge (where the small "barrow hills" and traditional pyramid stage/ main festival site area is), i.e. the tarmac, roads, fences, artificial things e.t.c. being taken up, and the natural mud, turf and other plants growing back,, the sooner the better, and the Stonehenge free festivals Will DEFINATELY return even MORE sooner
it is PRIMARILY NECESSARY for the northern plains tundra/fields ( i.e. where the main free festival, pyramid stage , small" barrow hills" usually is) to become completely natural wilderness again , there will still be a route to the south of Stonehenge for traffic travelling east to west/ west to east, and yet that route will eventually have the tarmac removed e.t.c. also , and then just become a flat dry smooth natural mud route that vehicles can STILL use 100% safely o.k. at the same speeds as before, (that southern only (east to west/west to east) road re-naturalisation (eventually back to a vehicle safe flat dry mud road) is in the more distant future, but to the sides and northern edges all around Stonehenge ,re-naturalisation back to completely natural tundra is VERY DEFINATELY IMMINENT and IMPORTANTLY it is better NOT to actually scorch/burn the actual turf/grass soils e.t,c. in any way , we are elf minimalist-tech eco-friendly(primarily) peoples, Stonehenge is here for ETERNITY , and so are we ALL, and so is all our eco friendly cosmic eternal music equipment e.t.c. any planes, helicopters, U.F.O. , other craft e.t.c. e.t.c. in the sky and space is ONLY Soviet Union Russian, so rest assured EVERYTHING is o.k. and 100% ECOFRIENDLY, see you soon and a DEFINIATE eco friendly free festival ETERNITY ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEED
great interview
"We've obviously worked a bit at the techniques of channelling spiritual energy through music. We are...a little bit good at that." A perfect description.
I love them both.
🌈🌈🌈❤️❤️❤️ I never once lost touch with this days.
What a lovely couple. Best "point" is Miquette at 43'50" min.
Legends.
Miquette ❤️
Excellent
I play the " L " album from time time..Yeah Steve !
He was way ahead of the times with system 7
Is that a Sherman filter, or a clone above to the right end of the bottom midi keyboard?
If so, it explains a lot of the tones in, especially the Hawtin remix, System 7's Alphawave.
I always feel a lot of learning curve from Om Riff went into, especially, the Hawtin remix.
I've a feeling that's a ''homing'' groove for Steve and Miquette now. It's certainly one of their soul-centres in their sound.
Steve Hillage : electronic guitar slinger!
Tim Blake had 2 EMS synthi in 1973. I carried them on stage for him once.
System 7, great night at the Trades, Hebden…god..good few years ago 👌🎉
LOL, my nine YO just said after watching a 1977 recording that, "hey his lost all of his hair!" LOL I was 14 in 77 blasting out their tracks and annoying the neighbours.
💚
Hoping for a Hillage album with Rock Iron Line, Wonderful Land, Not Fade Away.
Steve Hillage !!!
Saw them at the Glasgow Apollo , was it the Open or Green tour ? brilliant concert---still got the pins I bought.
Open Tour. Was there too. Still got the LP somewhere.
really enjoyabe coughing out of frame but totally close up....
Its natural not a crime
Here in Colorado we know about steve ! Framton and steve are close to styles but not the same !
great guy, very experienced. just so sad that to my knowledge he never did another ambient album in the likes of "rainbow dome musick" - which to me is one of the best electronic ambient albums i ever had the chance to listen to. being a sounddesigner for hard/software synths myself, i am deeply into good electronic ambient albums and sadly there's an awful lot out there in that genre, but most of it isn't really good... so it's hard to find something like his "rainbow dome musick" album...
Have you listened to David Helpling and/or Jon Jenkins?
@@psevin2 - quite nice, thanks - but not what i meant. what i was about was, that hillage actually almost entirely used synthesizers for "rainbow dome musick" except the one guitar line he put ontop of the whole. which actually was what made it so good for me. it's the synthesizer stuff, the constant swirly arp 2600 filter arpeggio, the phased stringmachine and the stage piano, that made it special for me. not the guitar stuff. and he never did that again to that extent, let alone that he never again made an ambient album exclusively - it's all rather the prog rock thing he did. fair enough, that's where he is coming from anyway. so yeah.... but that excursion, the breakout of his usual stuff, using almost entirely synths - _that_ was what did it for me. i never was into that prog rock stuff too much, just _because_ of that guitar/drum/bass-band approach. and if i was into that stuff sometimes, then _because_ of the (more or less) occasional use of synthesizers.
If you haven’t heard it check out “power of seven” by system 7. Synth laden loveliness albeit a bit more beat driven with Steve’s signature lead lines over the top to embellish. Track 2 is my favourite guitar solo of all time - he’s got that thing speaking! Truly incredible album
Afterthought - for a truly ambient experience check out his pal Daevid Allen’s 4 track album Self Initiation... the 🌈 lives forever!
daevidallen.bandcamp.com/album/self-initiation
I’ve been having the same problem, not being able to find good music in the likes of RDM. To be honest, nothing really tops Garden of Paradise. There are some songs which come close to the same feeling though, like the album Oasis from Kitaro. Especially Moon-Light and Rising Sun are quite good and they resemble that arpeggiated synth sound which you hear in GOP. And Prism from Chris Spheeris gives me the same vibe as well.
Albums like “timewind”, “crystal machine”, and “new age of earth” by klaus schulze, Tim Blake, and Manuel Gottsching respectively are other incredible pre or proto ambient records with an intense psychedelic feel. But RDM has a special place in my heart.
Been listening to Steve and Miquette since the early mid-seventies - fab musicians.
But that's a bloody weird edit at 26:10 - what happened there? And what was the question that should have been there?
Massive influence on me.
do you dress like him?
@@titteryenot1136 maybe not, but musically and spiritually a big influence after Mike Oldfield
@@frankspears4597 loved green album
@@titteryenot1136 saucer surfing on motivation radio started my journey.
His lyrics opened me up eventually understand what he was singing about
Extract from the Japan concert: th-cam.com/video/Ttcb4MMR6aA/w-d-xo.html
Tubular Bells isn't an 'electronic' album. There are no synths on it at all.
What year was that interview, anybody knows?
Bernhard interview was last year 2018 just before the release of their most recent album: Cafe Seven :-)
Pot head pixies from the Planet Gong. Saw SH in the early 80's at Glasgow Apollow....
The man who Clapton could have been . .
Glasgow Apollo...the Open tour ....
1993 - 777 🔥
Who is that cougher?
@Rhizosphere Lucky it was a few years back and not now with all the loss of critical thinking and madness going around posing as a virus...
The rhythm section on Green always seemed to me to be…..definitive. Groovalicious sounded too cheesy…
Hello hello hello hello 😂😂
I met Steve hillage in Hebden Bridge. After the set he was sat down signing tickets an chatting. I had a one on one with him and I said I picked up a guitar because of Green. He said " What you mean all that shit before the techno stuff". I lost respect he was really dismissive about his music before system 7. Hey ho never meet your heroes.
How ever you can't take away how influential and incredibly insightful his music is.
Well, I think the parallels between Steve Hillage's earlier work and System 7 are very clear to me.
That’s a shame- fairly sure these days he’s more fond of it from what I hear in interviews
"What would you say Gong contributed musically...."
"I love that [System 7] song."
Editing while on psychedelics? Not advisable.