I have to admit, sorry though I am, that I never heard of theGathering until I got the DVD 'End of Innocence' by Nightwish. Up to then, nada. Really wretched, ain't I? Of course, where I work is about seventy miles into the wilderness from any known civilization so without the Internet I wouldn't know anything, period. No Tristania, 3rd and the Mortal, Green Carnation, Theatre of Tragedy, Trail of Tears, After Forever, Stream of Passion, Epica, Nightwish, WT or TG.
So I checked out youtube.com and liked what I was hearing and the very first Album I got was 'The West Pole;' not knowing much if anything about the history of the musicial group and their reportoire. Believe me, I've met only one other person in twenty years that has even heard of Nightwish and Kamelot, etc. So the pickings around here are pretty slim. And that's within a hundred mile radius; as far as I know.
So, without knowing anything else I though I'd experiment and purchase another, just for the fun of it, I'm curious let's say, not really knowing what to expect since I've not been exposed to anything else up to this time. 'How to Measure a Planet?' came next. O.K. I'm blown away. Sure, I grew up listening to Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver, The Grateful Dead, The Doors, the Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Spooky Tooth, Iron Butterfly, Country Joe & The fish, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, etc., and this is very, very impressive. Next, I rush out and garner the three DVDs: In Motion, A Sound Relief, A Noise Severe. What else? The Albums I generally purchase I strive to get copies of the original releases, if at all possible. It may cost more but that's the way I am, a throw back to my old coin collecting days I guess, but I don't get off on re-issues with Singles combined with the original, etc. I can get the Singles, EPs separate. Now I want the studio productions of what I got on DVD (hell, now I got someone to download bootlegs off the Internet since I don't have access to doing so on the computer I work on nor on four others around the area. Which is great, at least I found a way for that). Just got three bootleg DVDs in the post today and as I write I'm eagering awaiting to get back and check them out: concerts @ Weeze, Bizarre Fest 19/08/00; Bochum, 11/21/00 & Paradiso 03/02/04. Still looking for a decent copy of the 'entire' concert @ Krakow 1997.
During all of this time buying the DVDs I also got original copies of Mandylion (autographed copy form a vendor in Rotterdam through musicstack.com), Nighttime Birds and the Single Strange Machines. A Mystic Empire 2007 copy of Superheat and EP Blacklight District on order and hopefully in transit. It's really disappointing the sounds I've missed over the years; but I'm catching up a little. Talk about a newbie.
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