TANGERINE DREAM
VENUE THE LONDON PALLADIUM, LONDON
DATE 08/11/2023
The godfathers of kosmische playing at London’s mecca of light entertainment might seem like a mismatch on paper, but once Tangerine Dream are in full flow it all begins to make sense. Light entertainer Bruce Forsyth’s ashes are buried under the boards of the Palladium’s stage, and everyone from Arthur Askey to Zsa Zsa Gabor look down from the walls of its Edwardian corridors. The Tangs, too, carry ghosts with them, not least of all Edgar Froese, who led the good (space)ship TD for 48 years until his death in 2015.
Any concerns about the current trio fitting in are soon allayed when Thorsten Quaeschning takes to the stage. The custodian of the group in Froese’s absence has the aura of an old-school magician, genteel in his style of presentation and dressed in a suit that wouldn’t look out of place at The Magic Circle, and he bows respectfully and addresses the audience as if one of the Saxe-Coburgs is in the Royal Circle: “We’ll be playing some old tracks, some new tracks and some very old tracks,” he informs us.