The short version
- On 8 November 1976 Tangerine Dream played the Albert Hall in Nottingham, out on the road with Stratosfear.
- On the 16th they played the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, their second night in that city that year.
- Jean-Michel Jarre was finishing Oxygène in a Paris kitchen. The record arrived the following month in France.
- Schulze's official concert list is empty for this month. His last date of the year was 5 October in Berlin.
On the night of 8 November 1976, at the Albert Hall in Nottingham, a band played one date of a tour behind a record that had come out a month earlier. A tape of that night passed through fans' hands for 25 years, became the first entry in a fan distribution series in 2001, and was issued officially by the band's own camp in 2004. Nobody wrote down how many people were in the hall.
- What
- fifty years ago this month, November 1976, around the five
- 8 November
- Tangerine Dream, Albert Hall, Nottingham. The Stratosfear tour
- 16 November
- Tangerine Dream, Ancienne Belgique, Brussels. Their second night there that year
- All month
- Jarre finishing Oxygène in his Paris apartment kitchen (August to November)
- Next month
- Oxygène released in France on Disques Motors, December 1976
- Charts
- Vangelis, Albedo 0.39, still on the UK albums chart. It peaked at 18
- Schulze
- no November date in the official concert list. His last of the year was 5 October, Berlin
Two nights
8 November in Nottingham, 16 November in Brussels. The English Wikipedia carries an entry for each.
Nottingham was a date on the Stratosfear tour. The recording came out as the first volume of the fan distribution series Tangerine Tree in 2001, and in 2004 the band's own Bootleg Box Set gave the same concert an official release. It is a rare case of something fans had been passing around turning into the official version.
Brussels sits differently. The band played the city twice in 1976, at the Université Libre auditorium on 9 February and at the Ancienne Belgique on 16 November. An unauthorised CD from 1992 holds an hour of the first night and ten minutes of the second. Both concerts were properly released through the fan series in 2003.
The record itself is covered in the Stratosfear review. Four shorter pieces, with guitar and grand piano arriving, and this tour was the first lap that carried it onto a stage.
The last month in the kitchen
In Paris the same work had been going on in the same room for four months. From August to November, Jarre recorded Oxygène in a studio he had set up in his apartment kitchen. November is the last of those four. The record came out the following month, December, on Disques Motors in France, with Polydor handling international distribution the year after. The kitchen is described in the Oxygène review.
What became of that record is well known. In November 1976, though, nothing had happened yet. It was a kitchen with an 8-track machine and a few synthesizers in it.
Still on the chart
In London, Vangelis's Albedo 0.39 was still on the albums chart. It had arrived in September, entered in October, and peaked at 18. That record has its own review.
An empty month
Klaus Schulze's official site keeps a concert list by year. Run down the 1976 column and the last date on it is 5 October. That night at the Metamusik festival in the Neue Nationalgalerie in West Berlin closed his year, and there is no November and no December. That concert is in last month's piece.
No dates does not mean nothing happened. As far as the concert record goes, though, his place this month is blank.
How to hear this month
- Play Stratosfear from the top. It is the record the two November nights were carrying.
- Then put on Oxygène. That sound was still being built in a Paris kitchen the same month. One month sits between the two records.
- Go to the last piece on Albedo 0.39 and the three of them land in the same autumn.
Where to get it
All three records are still available on CD and LP.
