GENTLE GIANT
LONDON, ENGLAND
DRURY LANE - THEATRE ROYAL
MAY 2, 1976

01 Intro 1 / Just the Same
02 Proclamation / Valedictory
03 Interview
04 On Reflection
05 The Runaway
06 Experience
07 So Sincere
08 Intro 2 / Cogs in Cogs
09 Excerpts from Octopus
10 Give It Back
11 Timing
12 Free Hand
13 I Lost My Head (incomplete)

PERSONNEL
Derek Shulman
Ray Shulman
Kerry Minnear
Gary Green
John Weathers

original wave file received from taper ->
track markers and slight volume adjustments made with Audacity ->
converted to flac8 with Trader's Little Helper ->
.md5 created with Trader's Little Helper

A while back, I became friends with a guy who seemed to remember taping Gentle Giant a couple times back in the day, but he had no idea where the
tapes might be. Well, recently, he contacted me again and said he found them and would be happy to digitize them for me. Would I be interested?

Uuh, lemme think about that for a while....

As it turns out, I *was* interested, so he sent me this. It's never been heard before and, best of all, it's the very first tape from Giant's
Spring 1976 UK tour ever to surface, and the first one featuring material from their brand new Interview album. It sounds pretty good and it's
*almost* complete (more on that in a minute).

There are a couple unusual things about this show. First, they took a little break after So Sincere and actually left the stage for a few minutes.
While they were gone, a pre-recorded tape was played over the PA, eventually leading into their next song, Cogs in Cogs. This "intermission tape",
which I'm calling Intro 2 here, was an odd mixture of different sounds taken from different sources, including previously recorded bits of their
drums and glockenspiel sounds, as well as some of Intro 1 used to start the concert, and an earlier pre-recorded tape they had used to start their
late 1975 concerts. These various sounds were all jumbled together, sometimes played frontwards and sometimes backwards.

Why they took a break in the middle of the show is not clear, although it was mentioned a in a Record Mirror review of the concert. I also don't
know if this happened at all of their Spring UK shows, or if it was a one-off thing. The only other time I ever heard that weird pre-recorded
"intermission tape" was on a recording of their July 16, 1976 concert in Santa Barbara, California. If you have access to that show, take a listen
right before Excerpts from Octopus.

The other unusual thing about this gig happened at the very end. Throughout all of 1976, the band's standard encore would be part of Peel the Paint
segueing into Part 2 of I Lost my Head (the louder part with Derek singing lead vocal). However, at this early 1976 show, they actually played the
entire I Lost My Head, including the gentler Part 1 with Kerry singing the lead vocal. That appears on no other tape. I was so excited to hear Kerry's
voice, but was crushed when it ended after less than a minute! I checked with the taper and, sure enough, his tape ran out at that point. Very
disappointing, of course, but Kerry does get through all of verse 1 and I think it's a gem to hear.

My sincere thanks to Graham who taped the concert and allowed me to share it here. He has another one, so we should all stay tuned.

And if you like Gentle Giant, feel free to visit me at my GENTLE GIANT TOUR HISTORY website at

ggconcerts.on-reflection.org