Tangerine Dream Festival of Perth President Emeritus Professor Fred Alexander, C.B.E. Chairman Professor Robert Street Director David Plenkinsop Administrator Will Quekett Press and Publicity Officer Sherry Hopkins Accountant Phylis Gregory Secretariat Kay Inges, Sheryl Nicholls, Elizabeth Paige The Perth Concert Hall Under the direction of The Perth Theatre Trust Mr. S.W. Woods A.M. (Chairman) Mr. R.J. Basham Mr. H. Bluck A.M. Cr. J.D. Burston Mrs. J. Samson Cr. W.A. Silbert AM., DFC Cr. J.E. Watters Mr. N.I. Prescott (General Manager) Concert Hall Manager Naomi Bourne Assistant Manager Andrew Holland Head Electrician Bill Young Head Mechanist Les Floyd Festival of Perth By arrangement with Peter Korda and the Peter Stuyvesant International Music Festival Presents Tangerine Dream Edgar Froese Christoph Franke Johannes Schmoelling Perth Concert Hall 26 February 1982 If the chart success of people like Gary Numan, Johnny Warman and Ultravox is any indication, then electronic rock is the sound for the 80s. And Tangerine Dream is way ahead of their time. Edgar Froese - trained artist and sculptor - formed Tangerine Dream in 1967 after the failure of his band The Ones. Initially, Tangerine Dream was a rock and roll outfit, although not afraid to experiment. They gathered a strong underground following- mainly politically-minded students rebelling against the establishments against the past, in fact, against anything conventional. This set the pace for the band, and they developed their 'free' music. Their first gig was in Berlin in January 1968 following four months of solid rehearsal. The student uprisings of that year were an important factor in determining the band's direction. They performed frequently for five or six hours a night at the Berlin Zodiac Club, where one room was totally white and the other was totally black. In such an atmosphere it was comparatively easy to shed all one's conditional preconceptions of music. However, despite a strong underground following, Tangerine Dream was not exactly a commercial success and the band split up in March 1969. Froese persisted with two more formations, but these were also short-lived. Then in November 1969 Froese teamed up with Klaus Schulze (drums) and Conny Schnitzler (cello, flute and violin). They made an experimental tape spiced with sound effects, and to their great surprise this landed them a recording deal with Ohr Musik in Berlin. The first fruit of this relationship was 'Electronic Meditation', released in 1970. Schulze then went his own way, and Froese recruited a guy who had a reputation for being one of the best young jazz drummers in Germany. His name was Christoph Franke. Froese, Franke and Steve Shroyder (who had replaced Schnitzler) then recorded 'Alpha Centauri', their first vague commercial success in Germany. Soon Shroyder left, and Froese came across Peter Baumann playing on the Berlin club scene. The line-up was now to be fairly stable, at least on vinyl, for the next six years. In early 1972 they recorded Tangerine Dream's most experimental work - 'Zeit'; without doubt this double album represents their furthest departure from rock. Paradoxically in the same time period they released their first single 'Ultima ThuLe Parts 1 and 2'; this was essentially high energy driving rock. Tangerine Dream was always a group of contradictions. Tangerine Dream's next album, 'Atem', was crucial in terms of gaining recognition outside Germany. British DJ John Peel chose the import as his album of 1973, In the meantime Tangerine Dream severed what had become very bitter connections with Ohr Records, and signed with a new British record company- Virgin. In early 1974 'Phaedra', their first international release, appeared. It must rank as one of the strangest albums ever to reach the Top Ten in Britain. The album received no airplay except for John Peel and Tangerine Dream had as yet not performed in Britain nor even given any British press interviews. 'Phaedra', success inevitably led to U K concert appearances. Their first was in London in June, and Britain was introduced to Tangerine Dream's tradition of not even acknowledging the audience, and of performing in almost total darkness. This phenomenon, which was unbroken until 1977 except for the occasional use of film or video synthesizer, was particularly bizarre at, say a French Festival with an audience of 50,000. Tangerine Dream did a major UK tour in late '74 establishing a strong popular base. It is interesting to note that at this time the band's space-age equipment travelled in a battered fifties Berlin furniture removal truck with a top speed of 40 mph! Every concert at this time consisted of total improvisation. Only in 1977 did a little preconceived structure start to develop in their live performances. The end of the year saw Tangerine Dream's most notorious performance - at Rheims Cathedral. The group's last appearance in France had been in July 1973 at a small club near Lyon; forty people were in the audience! At Rheims however 6,000 crammed into the ancient building with a 2,000 capacity. The overcrowding resulted in chaos and a certain lack of respect for the historic place; international outrage ensued. The Pope decreed that Tangerine Dream would never play in a Catholic cathedral again, and that Rheims itself would have to be purified! All of this provoked a wealth of publicity around the world for Tangerine Dream. Rheims also marked what was to become something of a trademark for Tangerine Dream; to try and transform selected performances into events rather than simple concerts, particularly by the use of unusual venues. Thus over the next two years they played at the Roman amphitheater in Orange in Southern France, the French communist-part sponsored 'Fete de L'Humanite', Coventry Cathedral, Liverpool Cathedral, York Minster, and two concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall. 'Phaedra' meanwhile had gone gold in Australia, and Tangerine Dream toured there in March '75 with Michael Hoenig temporarily replacing Baumann. Here the band was plagued by equipment problems, not the least of which was that Franke's main massive synthesizer had been irreparably damaged during transit. Audience reaction was mixed. Nonetheless Tangerine Dream's first tour outside Europe was a considerable experience, especially a nine-hour flight across the Australian desert in an eight seater plane necessitated by an airline strike. The next two years saw a steady build-up in Europe with extensive touring interspersed with the aforementioned special events and of course further albums - 'Rubycon' and 'Ricochet'. The latter recorded live - was titled after the group's obsession with an electronic game during a French tour. In this period Tangerine Dream developed a reputation for being one of the loudest groups around, often reaching 130 DB. This fact was not totally unrelated to the absence of any outfront mixer. 'Stratosfear' appeared in late 1976: it was a radical departure from previous albums as it employed recognisable instruments and melodies. To promote the album in North America Tangerine Dream toured there in March and April. Almost all concerts sold out, although, as usual, the group received essentially no airplay. This tour also marked the first time that Tangerine Dream worked with a live visual accompaniment - laser effects by Laserium. A lot of hopes of reaching a wider audience in the USA hung on a movie called 'Sorcerer' (in Europe it was titled 'Wages of Fear'), directed by William Friedkin whose track record included 'The Exorcist' and 'The French Connection'. At his request Tangerine Dream had recorded the soundtrack before filming actually began so that he could shoot in relation to the music. Unfortunately the movie did not emanate the success of Friedkin's previous efforts - in fact it was a box-office disaster, although critics now agree that the film and the music had very considerable merit. The soundtrack album is interesting as it consists of short pieces, showing Tangerine Dream at their most disciplined. Another blow was the sudden curtailment of Tangerine Dream's second North American tour in July '77 after only two concerts, when Froese suffered an equestrian accident. Shortly thereafter Baumann left the band to pursue a solo career. Froese and Franke, who still remain the nucleus of Tangerine Dream, added Steve Jolliffe (vocals, keyboards and wind instruments) and Klaus Krieger (drums) thus the band was a foursome again. This line-up recorded 'Cyclone' which was followed in March 1978 by a massive soldout European tour, once again featuring Laserium, but also incorporating exclusive lighting effects. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this tour was that it marked Tangerine Dream's final breakthrough in terms of popular recognition in their own country, Germany. The addition of vocals however was very much a mixed success, and the experiment has not been repeated. 1979 was largely a year of solo projects and experimentation, excluding the release Force Majeure, a more traditional album than its predecessor. In February 1980, after over a year of negotiations, Tangerine Dream became the first western rock band ever to play live in East Germany. It was particularly significant given that Tangerine Dream is from West Berlin. The band played two concerts in the Palast de Republique in East Berlin. Tickets were changing hands for up to $100 on the black market. The East German concert introduced Tangerine Dream's new member Johannes Schmoelling, who is also featured on 'Tangram', the last album in their long and distinguished career. 'Tangram' marks the band's entrance into its second decade of recorded music. The album features just the title track over the two sides and continues Tangerine Dream's facility for making sensuous symphonic electronic music. Popular music is notorious for elevating, before tearing down its artists within a short time-span. Tangerine Dream, in turn the darlings and scapegoats of the media, have more than survived. They have continuously proved themselves innovative and prepared to operate with a high element of risk. Always single-minded in the pursuit of their own musical direction, Tangerine Dream are far beyond the whims of fashion.