Memory:Michael Lawrence

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This fan memory was written by Michael Lawrence.

oddly enough, i played with gong/n.y. gong (zu festival, most notably), and national health, here in the states. my 1st exposure to gg was when i went to go see focus at the academy of music, on 14th st., for the "hamburger concerto" tour. i was a HUGE jan akkerman fan (i'm a guitar player, myself); and a fan of thjis van leer's writing, as well. anyway, outside the academy, before the show, i ran into an old mate, who asked if i had come to see the "giant." i'd never heard of them. turned out that my seats were in the first row!!! and that was my introduction to the giant. front bloody row, and they came out with guns blazing! mind you, i was already a big fan of egg, henry cow, and hatfield & the north, to name a few, so i felt right at home with the giant's style of music. but what REALLY impressed me was how tightly these guys played such complicated, multi-tiered music, AND WITH VOCALS!!! vocals that were every bit as torturous as the music! and they were not averse to having 2 different sets of lyrics going on at the same time!

you see, to me, the giant fell into the category of a "commercial" (which is kind of a joke!) prog-rock band, ala yes, genesis, king krimson. which basically meant that they were on a major label. but they were the most true to the art form, pandering the least (if at all) to any form of commercialism in their music. these guys were quite obviously in it for the love of invention. which is why they folded the soonest! in fact, i'm surprised the labels let them continue for as long as they did!

anyway, that night i was VERY bloody impressed! i was sitting right in front of gary green. the fact that he made his performance seem so effortless will forever be emblazoned in my memory! thanx for the site!