Steve Hillage
born 2 August 1951, England. Guitarist Hillage played with Uriel in December 1967 alongside Mont Campbell (bass), Clive Brooks (drums) and Dave Stewart (organ). This trio carried on as Egg when Hillage went to college. He returned to music in April 1971, forming Khan with Nick Greenwood (bass), Eric Peachey (drums) and Dick Henningham. Dave Stewart also joined but they had little success and split in October 1972. Hillage then joined
Kevin Ayers’ touring band Decadence, before linking up with French based hippies Gong, led by Ayer's ex- Soft Machine colleague Daevid Allen. Hillage injected much needed musicianship into the band's blend of mysticism, humour and downright weirdness. In 1975 he released his first solo album FISH RISING, recorded with members from Gong, which marked the start of his writing partnership with longtime girlfriend Miquette Giraudy.On leaving Gong in 1976, Hillage developed his new age idealism on the successful L, produced by Todd Rundgren, and featuring Rundgren's Utopia. MOTIVATION RADIO utilized the synthesizer skills of Malcom Cecil, of synthesizer pioneer group Tonto's Expanding Headband, and included an inspired update of Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away. LIVE HERALD featured one side of new studio material which developed a funkier feel, an avenue that was explored further on OPENIN 1979. RAINBOW DOME MUSICK was an instrumental experiment in ambient atmospherics. In the '80s, Hillage moved into production work, including albums by Robin Hitchcockand Simple Minds. 1991 saw Steve returning to recording and live performance as the leader of System 7, a loose aggregation of luminaries including disc jockey Paul Oakenfield, Alex Paterson of the Orb and Mick MacNeil of Simple Minds. As the line-up would suggest, System 7 produce ambient dance music, combining house beats with progressive guitar riffs and healthy bursts of soul and disco.
