Manuel Gottsching Live in Glasgow - See you there?

I've just had confirmation that Manuel Gottsching is to play live in Glasgow on Saturday 11th December 2010. Tickets are apparently available from Tickets Scotland, Resident Advisor, Mono, Rubadub, Ripping Records (Edinburgh) and Grouchos (Dundee). For more information about this event see here.

The influential Manuel Gottsching

As a fan of both The Orb and David Gilmour I was delighted to watch a mini-documentary about their latest collaboration album Metallic Spheres in which production legend Youth cited none other than Manuel Gottsching as an influence on the project. You can watch the short clip here.

Happy Birthday, Manuel Gottsching!

Wishing a very Happy Birthday to Manuel Gottsching, born 9th September 1952.

Manuel Gottsching Live @ Metamorphose 2010

Although sadly it was not possible for me to attend Manuel Gottsching's appearance playing Inventions for Electric Guitar on 4th September at the Metamorphose Festival in Japan I have been able to watch some clips posted on Heiko Neumann's Tribute to Ashra website. On the evidence supplied it certainly seems as if Manuel, with a little assistance from Steve Hillage, Elliott Sharp and Zhang Shouwang has managed the unmanageable by delivering an uncompromised version of an extremely complicated, multitracked masterpiece in a live setting.

Congratulations are in order for a fabulous performance! Now we can only hope that further concerts and a CD and/or DVD release will allow more fans around the world to see and hear this wonderful show. For those interested the full setlist for the Japan concert was: Echo Waves, Pluralis, Quasarsphere, E2-E4 (guitar version) and for the encore the as yet unreleased piece Fights.

As regards progress with the book I have recently been filling in some gaps in the narrative. My writing has been focusing on some of Manuel's collaborations, alongside notes for live performances by Ash Ra Tempel in Paris (1974) and Ashra in Brussels (1977). Harald Grosskopf has very kindly helped me with his recollections of the latter show, whilst Lutz Ulbrich has generously shared some memories that have been useful when discussing the second CD in the Belle Alliance Plus package. Once these little sections are completed I will be moving on to Manuel's 55 and Still Alive birthday celebration and the latest Ashra appearances: live in Japan in 2008 and at the Schallwelle-Preis Award Ceremony in Germany earlier this year. Bit by bit the second draft of the book edges towards completion. Watch this space....