The Venue at Oran Mor isn’t my favourite gig. It’s always noisy. Whether this is down to the acoustics of the place or the clientele, I’m not sure, but wherever I stand in the place there’s always an unreasonable amount of chatter radiating from the bar area. Tonight’s no different!
Ozric Tentacles have actually been around for thirty years (there’s a clue in that this is the 30th Anniversary Tour).
Tonight, we, the Prog IV again, are back to full audient strength. We rendezvous with The Professor, WA and Mrs Bed – none of whom are gigging but just ‘meeting up’ to be sociable in The Curlers Rest beforehand and enjoy their considerably overpriced Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (Bill tells me later that the round that he bought was thirty seven quid for seven drinks, ouch!)
At Oran Mor, the music is, as expected, that curious blend of hippy/techno Bristol dance stuff. I was disappointed I hadn’t packed my glo-sticks! Meanwhile a psychedelic, fractal, paisley pattern screensaver was given free reign to scorch our retinas from the large backdrop projector.
Occasionally, they wore their influences on their sleeves (Gong, Hillage, David Gilmour) but after a while I found every tune melding into the next. This could well have had much more to do with my sobriety, having attended a colleague’s retiral lunch before meeting the rest in The Curlers, rather than the quality of the music!
Lighthouse Beacon Straight Ahead 