where is the love for GONG?

i wz totally straight-edge also!

in fact i think he wz what i liked abt them

they mutated into a weird tight little jazzrock outfit in the end: i owned gazeuse! for a bit, i'd like to hear it again for old time's sake but i can't imagine being impressed

Hi, Geeta!

also "floating anarchy", as RS said

also there wz a brief link-up w.mark perry, via Here and Now (which then links into the Crass mob and crustie culture)

The only Gong album I think that is far & away excellent is You, though I haven't heard Camembert Electrique. Also like Obsolete by Dashiell Hadeyat (has the Camembert lineup on it) and Gazeuse! though that's the post-Allen, fusion years.

I need a copy of Last Autumn's Dream if anyone has an extra. And I only bought a couple after Kites, but I know there are more. If I see them for a dollar, I will pick them up someday.

I like them loads, though there are lots of annoying stupid bits that fuck up yr mood just when you get into what they're playing. I think "Camembert Electrique" is the best one, b/c it actually sounds pretty tough/driving/lean/sparse. Agreed abt "you can't kill me", though "Fohat digs holes in space" is even better.

it's from "bambooji" on shamal

and one of the deeper elements of their "floating anarchy" wz how they refused to kowtow to the authoritarian concept of the "song" eg they'd do a good bit, then a rubbish bit, then a good bit

i don't think many of their songs are w/o a rubbish bit

Yeah, I agree. Case in point, the last Gong-related thing I listened to was Daevid Allen & The Magick Brothers Live at the Witchwood 1991. They follow-up a really tasty, acoustic version of "Why Do We Treat Ourselves Like We Do?" (strangely, in my head, I always picture Shane MacGowan/The Pogues doing this) with the excruciating "I Am My Own Roadie".

On second thought, that's not true. The last thing I listened to was Mother Gong's Eye, but that was zzzzzzzz.

I love Gong, listened to them in the 70s in college (slightly embarrassed about all the hippie imagery), forgot about them for years, then re-discovered them about '99, just before they came through L.A. on tour. The hippie stuff I now find kind of charming. Turned out the re-formed band was just as good as the 70s one, and the Zero to Infinity album is pretty good too. You is the definitive Gong album, though, if you don't like this one you don't like Gong.

the wire conducted an entertaining invisible jukebox w/ allen a cpl of years back, where he talked abt terry riley, his love of thelonious monk, prog, punk, psychedelia, releasing an alb on BYG/Acteul etc. and didn't charles hayward play in an incarnation of gong?

allen is a charmer, def, and - given the apparent pervasive fluffy dippiness - you have to admire how long he has sustained his RIGOR!!

That Flying Teapot album is one of the best jazzy/hippy/acid rock freakout albums that's out there. I love it when they just get into a groove and squonk away for ages. I wish I had seen them live but like lots of other people I turned my nose up at them for decades because of all the hippy stuff.

Haven't heard that one yet, but I love Camembert Electrique. That's the only one I actually own, but Magick Brother's not bad either.

I think I rate it above even Camembert Electrique and You, which is saying something 'cos those are great albums too.

My favourite band at age 12/13, finally got to see them in 2001, still nurse a lot of fondness. Camembert the obvious peak, Flying Teapot and Angels Egg deeply adorable, "Blues For Findlay" on the Continental Circus soundtrack the hidden gem. Hillage's incipient megalomania spoilt You, but blow me if the first post-Allen album (Shamal} didn't turn out to be great. It inhabits its own musical micro-universe.

i always feel hillage is more all over 'angels' egg than 'you'. they were pretty much my favourite band aged 13 too and i totally agree vis a vis 'blues for findlay'. so great!

you dudes must've been weird at 13.

"Magick Brother" is my fave

Gong's one of those bands I've wanted to get something by for a while. I'd always thought it would be a progression from having explored the work of two other fellow ex-Soft Machine members, Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers. Of course, Wyatt's and Ayers's work are quite different. And I imagine Gong's similarly unique. All the talk on here of prog rock is likely to make one run away. "One" being me.

just get magick brother and work forward, it'll be quite painless and worth the effort. it's not super-prog.

I suppose "Magick Brother" isn't really a Gong album

gong ain't prog.

My only exposure to Gong was seeing the Acid Mothers Gong show at Victoriaville this year - which is a collaboration between Gong and Acid Mothers Temple members (and this incarnation featured Yoshida Tatsuya on drums). I have to say it was a bit of a disappointment, not least because the Gong members seemed to tend to spoil whatever forward motion was generated by stopping for lengthy "spoken word" interludes about politics, Bush, terrorism, etc. I would have rather seen Acid Mothers Temple by themselves.

Too bad. Sounds like a dream ticket otherwise. Maybe this will excuse them. As one comment says this is mother fucking off the hook!!!

wow!

anyone got that david allen + euterpe 1977 cd? how is it, etc?

The Daevid Allen/Euterpe album (Good Morning) is a thing of great loveliness. Recorded in Deya, Majorca with a local band, as I recall. Some acoustic pastoral/whimsical stuff, some trippy glissando-guitar psych-out stuff, but generally a light, amiable, playful, contented feel. The title track's my favourite: episodic, seemingly unconnected fragments, but it all works as a whole in the oddest way.

thanks! i'll probably buy it... couple of tracks on history & mystery of them that are really good.

Been playing it this morning, following a happy Googling accident. Utterly charmed, all over again. It's an ideal indolent summer morning album.

The 11:30 space-rock/space-whisper "Wise Man In Your Heart" is at odds with the rest (and the only track to feature drums) but I mind that less now than I did then.

you dudes must've been weird at 13.

Agree. Was Gong the band of choice for the school intellectual elite at this time?

I think I'm a close contempoarary of m t-d, so this would have been smack in the middle of punk?

French TV appearance + interview, January 1971

Not as good as the 1972 clip linked above, this is the Allen/Smyth/Malherbe/Tritsch/Rachid Hourai line-up. Interesting for two reasons: they play "Perfect Mystery" from You, over 3 years before its release, and - quite a major shock, this - one of Malherbe's comments in the interview will be VERY familiar to anyone who knows Camembert Electrique.

No, Bob - Gong were my fave raves in 1974/75, and I came to them quite alone, via a re-issued Camembert being on sale with a rrp of 50p.

Ok thx - that makes more sense. 74/75 were desolate years at my school; I remember Genesis and Status Quo were big then, with the inner circle of alleged hip kids like myself into David Bowie.

The hip kids at my school were aware of Gong but more into Hawkwind, with a significant SAHB sub-faction. The lumpen masses were into Yes, Genesis, ELP (or "Yelpesis" as Peel dubbed them), Santana, Floyd, Oldfield and Deep Purple. Led Zep not so much. Bowie and Roxy were neither here nor there, really. Sha Na Na were oddly popular for some reason, and Tangerine Dream had a certain intellectual cachet.

like m-t-d i was intrigued by a very cheap 'camembert' in the record shop though this was a few years later for me (circa 1980) when it was on sale for £1.99 (still very cheap for the time). i didn't meet anyone else who had heard of them for another 5 or so years.

That sounds like me - lumpen mass or at best inconsequentially neither here nor there, thinking I'm a hip kid.

It's making me nostalgic...In those days you used to take an album into school to show people (there was no means of playing it), and there'd always be a crowd of interested people to handle it as a significant object d'art.

And music was one of the rare and acceptable ways in which you could cross the otherise rigidly observed age divide.

Daevid Allen played a free show with his new band (can't remember name) at this tiny bar in my neighborhood a few years ago and they played Soft Machine's "Hope For Happiness"! It was great, and he seems like a nice guy.

Bob, good point about the music/age divide thing. When I was 18 I hooked up with a local radio station and became friends with people twice my age.

I listened to Yes and King Crimson in 1980, but it took me a long time for Gong.

In those days you used to take an album into school to show people (there was no means of playing it), and there'd always be a crowd of interested people to handle it as a significant object d'art.

flashback!

Sleeve, that was probably University Of Errors; they do tend to play some of the very early Soft Machine material, and I've seen them cover solo Ayers and Wyatt stuff as well.

Rejoice, for they are back!

Two Gong Concerts in London this June and the release of the special
Gong UNcon Limited Edition Double DVD.

THE CONCERTS

For the latest transmission from the luminous green planet Gong
dada 'hymn-self', Daevid Allen, is joined by co-founder Gilli Smyth,
the motherbeat bass of Mike Howlett, master drummer Chris Taylor,
incomparable jazz saxophonist Theo Travis - and for the first time in
the UK since 1975 - Steve Hillage & Miquette Giraudy!

New energies are in the air – new recording plans are being
discussed – a new DVD from the legendary 2006 Amsterdam Uncon event
is being released – and these two June 2008 London shows are an
important step along a new pathway.

Saturday 14th June 7.30pm – GONG at Massive Attack's Meltdown
Queen Elizabeth Hall (Seated Venue)
South Bank Centre, London, SE1 8XX

Sunday 15th June 7.30pm – GONG
The Forum (Standing Venue)
Kentish Town, London, NW5 1JY
(supported by Slackbaba)

There was a song I really liked by these guys and of course I don't remember what it was. I know what tape I put it on roughly, but I'm not sure if I have that tape anymore. In fact, I don't think I do.

They were fantastic at The Forum on Sunday. Steve & Miquette slotted back into the line-up as if they had never been away, and there was much tangible warmth/mutual respect (and oh joy, GLISSANDO GUITAR DUETS!) between Steve & Daevid. A brand new Allen/Hillage composition "Digital Girl" was aired ("we only wrote it last Thursday") - it was one of their quirky whimsical staccato numbers, and would have fitted well onto RGI Pt.1: FT. Nicest surprise was "Wise Man In Your Heart" from Allen's Good Morning (as covered by latter-day Gong on Zero To Infinity), which sounded just sublime. Old age suits Allen well - he's rocking that mystic Merlin look - but Gilli Smyth markedly less so (she looked frail, dithery, nervous, unsure of herself). The first half of Side Two of Angels Egg was played in sequence and sounded great, and the trancier/more intense You material was left until the latter part of the set, which was where they *really* went into orbit. Lovely atmosphere, never seen so many unreconstructed hippies in one place, every freelance scented candle maker in the country must have been there, bless 'em all!

so jealous. sounds wonderful.

Oh, man. Would kill to see Gong with Hillfish.

They're back! Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett and Malherbe are all on this track. New album in September.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&v=Pw8ZESzpL3M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw8ZESzpL3M

Thanks for posting. I enjoyed that.

surprisingly great. surprisingly groovy. thanks for posting!

in fact, i officially love this.

Yes, the Hillage/Giraudy/System 7 re-injection seems to be working out rather well for them....

More info here: http://www.noblepr.co.uk/Press_Releases/gong/gong2032_album.htm

Preview clips of the new album here (45 seconds of each track): http://www.planetgong.co.uk/bazaar/cd/2032.shtml

early gong slays fuiud

more a fan of later gong tbh

Daevid Allen's Magick Brothers are playing a free gig 20 seconds walk from my workplace on Saturday night, I suspect I'll last 10 minutes then go home but we'll see.

xpost. well, 1979 to be exact. Pierre Moerlen's "Time Is The Key" and "Expresso II" are amazing. imagine steve reich minimalism with heavy, funky drums and proggy guitar solos

my friend warren (also of citay, 3 leafs, ex-tussle) plays drums in daevid allen's band, go see him!

warren's a bro

Haha, had never seen that "How To Stay Alive" vid til just now. So trippy.

that new gong was terrible! wtf. stop rapping and stop sounding like Phish

they sound just like they've always sounded in it.

Ermmm, well... the rapping wasn't floating my boat either. Backing track was pretty much like I remember them sounding last I checked.

Magick Brother rules.

i think it was more the rapping than the music that i hated. but also, like i said upthread, i don't love earlier "silly" gong. i like "you" but i think they dropped most of the silly stuff by then, no? been a minute since i've heard it.

I think Magick Brother only occasionally gets "silly." And I have a much lower tolerance for silly than most. Magick Brother is more whimsical, and occasionally even breaks out into some harsh free-jazz shit. The other ones are indeed silly.

apart from the very short skits, there's very little silliness on "camembert electrique" either.

Compiling a Gong Spotify playlist for that other thread project thingy: harder than I thought it would be! Need to revisit Magick Brother in more detail. It's a drag that Shamal ain't there. Have found quite a decent live version of "Blues For Findlay", though. It might make the final cut.

Was all set to see Daevid Allen's Magick Brothers in Leicester last week, then got sick, BAH.

There's a big article in the new Record Collector mag.

Oooh, ta for the tip!

np

Gilli Smyth is 77!

so, went to see them tonight. they were good. ok in parts, great in others. infinitely better than the shambles they were when i saw them in the early 90s. the "silly" bits annoyed me a bit but "selene", "dynamite", "you can't kill me", "i've bin stone before", "iao chant" and "master builder" were wonderful. the drummer was no pierre moerlen but the didier malherbe stand in was great and miquette giraudy and steve hillage ruled. but really, it's the daevid allen (and gilli smyth) show all the way. if i live to that age, i hope i have 50% of their energy.

well, tbh gilli smyth didn't have much energy but daevid allen is still a wild man.

Just back from seeing them tonight and I thought it was all out incredible for 2 hours! Awesome!

Not attending this tour, alas, but I've seen them three times since 2001 (including twice with the current line-up in 2008 & 2009) and to be honest, they've got better each time. The Hillage/Giraudy injection has definitely re-focused and re-energised them, and Hillage's presence seems to bring out the best in Allen - there was a tangible warmth and connection there. Gilli seemed frail and doddery in the extreme at the Forum in 2008, but was in much better shape in Sheffield last year. I thought the You and Camembert material worked best of all, and "Master Builder" was transcendent...

Whilst contemplating "What is the most stoned album of all time" thread, I came across this clip of Gong I had never seen before. I think more than cannabis was fueling the pothead pixies in this one. Amazing performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiy5K81qvbg

when i dropped out of the hardcore scene in 1984, THIS was what i gravitated to next. i was too young to pick up on this kind of stuff as a teen as it was all out of print and it was just not popular listening amongst my peer group. thank g-d for friends with older brothers! i dropped a lot of acid to this record. and can. and hawkwind. and amon duul.

easylistening77 2 weeks ago

back when i was a straight-edge hardcore kid i wld always sneer at gong albs while searching for gregg ginn's gone albs in the virgin megastore - of course the joke is on me cos in fact both groups are functionally THE SAME

the wire conducted an entertaining invisible jukebox w/ allen a cpl of years back, where he talked abt terry riley, his love of thelonious monk, prog, punk, psychedelia, releasing an alb on BYG/Acteul etc. and didn't charles hayward play in an incarnation of gong?

― ajl, Sunday, February 27, 2005 7:38 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i wz totally straight-edge also!

― mark s (mark s), Friday, February 25, 2005 8:19 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Gong: killing the hardcore scene dead for 40+ years.

Touring the UK this autumn, but in a new "re-incarnation": Daevid, Gilli, Daevid's son Orlando, and bunch of new members.

i'm surprised (but pleased) to hear gilli is still touring. she was looking really frail last time i saw them although she hadn't lost her magical space whisper at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU1ZZW0oyqY

I've never followed Gong very closely, but for me Hillage earned his place in music history for helping Rachid Taha put together Made in Medina. Songlines' reviewer said when he heard it, he glimpsed what Page and Plant were going for w North African musicians. Yeah, seems like this is the realization and then some, to put it mildly. Anyway, more on Made.. should prob be for another thread--what's the deal with New York Gong? The genesis of Material, right? Is the album good?

i've grown to really like the new york gong album over the years after completely dismissing it when i first bought it but whether you'll like it or not really depends on whether or not you dig daevid allen's schtick. the laswell hook up came via the notorious jean karakos who moved his celluloid label from france to new york and had gong connections going way back. material probably took the name from the "materialism" track on it and put their first album proper out on celluloid shortly after this came out.

:(

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/05/gong-founder-daevid-allen-has-six-months-to-live

Oh no! Somehow thought he'd still be going well past his 90s, perhaps becoming the oldest pixie ever.

fuck

saw him maybe 10 years back with his band (Universal Error?), they were so good

there's an interview w/Terry Riley that was linked in the Riley thread, it had a lot of great detail about Allen's early days in paris

I can only hope that during this journey, I have somehow contributed to the happiness in the lives of a few other fellow humans.

You contributed to mine, sir, and I thank you. So sad I was never able to see him.

beautiful dude, godspeed good buddy

fuck

I had just put "Cos You Got Green Hair" on a mix CD that I'm giving to someone today

Sad news. Gong put out an album last year called I See You, and it did feel like a valedictory statement. Glad I got to see Daevid performing on the last Gong UK tour.

Man. I hope there's an afterlife and it's floating anarchy.

Lived a long, interesting love and recorded tons of amazing music. I wish him the best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2nCvX8ciCY

It's being reported that he's just passed, according to the head of MoonJune records. RIP Daevid.

:-(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT6RXJ3gh7Y

RIP

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/13/gong-founder-daevid-allen-has-died-aged-77

boo to illness and death :-/

I read the news this morning while sipping tea from a Flying Teapot mug, which feels like an appropriately cosmic coincidence.

https://mikeatkinson.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/1503956_895831757104476_5877979512532075573_n.jpg

His last public appearance, last month - surrounded by his family, aware and accepting of what lay ahead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpySrjS5RCI

RIP, PHP

RIP Bert :(

see u in the ether, Daevid

have been listening to gong all day long: floating anarchy 1977, gong est mort, you, magick brother <3<3<3

i've been listening to exactly those same records! camembert next. mr. allen changed my life for the better.

I can't think of what possessed me to sell my copy of Gong est Mort years ago, but that's what's in my earbuds at work at the moment. Thanks youtube!

Didn't realize they'd released another new one just a few months ago.
RIP

RIP!

Neither did I. Is it any good? The Acid Mothers Gong album was pretty decent.

I respected more than liked what I heard of '2032' from '09. I haven't heard 'I See You'.

Idk really that much about Gong but Im gathering the Iimpression that Daevid was really prolific
Will probably try to find a way to listen to the New York Gong album this weekend

Always liked this video, Gong makes full hippie work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6IPIr8mQiE

YOU is a great album
RIP

I really like the live stuff from around '74 and the Gong Dreaming 2 book, wish I'd got hold of the 1st volume too.
Did Flying Teapot get remastered, or just the other 2 volumes of the trilogy?

Will probably try to find a way to listen to the New York Gong album this weekend

The album he did after that in New York, also with Bill Laswell - Divided Alien Playbax 80 - is worth hearing too and also the Alien In New York 12" where he approximates the Contortions and has a bash at doing mutant disco too.

Thanks for the heads up, stirmonster!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10251952_901115633242755_4798129672666044223_n.jpg?oh=1a2005a618f5ab39ad1aadf2ddbe5ee5&oe=55B4DB9B&__gda__=1434123693_7059305a85e1e9a95cd2b0cb898b3506

Hadn't realised the individual lps from the Flying Teapot trilogy were being released separately as 2cds as well as on the box set.
Somebody mentioned picking one up on another list so I looked them up and they came out last Friday.
Wouldn't mind getting the box set but it seems a bit too expensive for me right now.
But these have one cd of teh remastered lp and one of a contemporary live set.
Not sure what is left not released from the box set if you get things this way, presumably things like book and other visual stuff?
& that does cover the lp after Daevid Allen left too i think.

I'm streaming the new Flying Teapot deluxe edition on Spotify, and it's astonishing how much better it sounds than the previous remaster, which has always sounded like a murky third-generation cassette dub. Not expecting as much improvement on Angel's Egg and You, which sounded great on the Virgin CDs.

Oooh, I need to check it out

This is so great -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFmh3xihyNk

Recent post on Dangerous Minds had it that Sherman "George Jefferson" Hemsley was a pretty major Gong freak.

Yeah, we had that discussion several years back.

Also a huge Yes fan, right?

huge gentle giant fan for sure i know

He included a short Nektar clip as the soundtrack in the show once.

Who I note are back on tour now. Regrouped? Never broke up? Original lineup? I don't know.

Yes, that Bremen is so good, except for the bit about two thirds in when they fanny about a bit too long, but then I guess that is such a Gong-esque thing to do. It doesn't sound like Pierre Moerlen is drumming on this.

I don't mind the mucking about, I'm guessing what was going on was very visual anyway, the drummer was Laurie Allan who was only in the band for a short time, notably fucking up the squiggly sections of "I Never Glid Before", but even Bruford struggled with that.

Yes, you are totally right, I imagine it was very visual and either way I'd have loved every millisecond of it had i been there. Cheers for the Laurie Allen info.

I mean Allan, no relation. :-)

currently digging -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e5RvJ3lZG8

Who I note are back on tour now. Regrouped? Never broke up? Original lineup? I don't know.

the current lineup of Gong is pretty much all new guys, led by Kavus Torabi who I assume most people posting in this thread are familiar with

I've heard the one they released this year, it sounds like it could've come out right after You, though the sound quality is obviously better. the fact that there aren't any original members never really occurs to you, they've definitely done their homework

I was referring to Nektar.

You has impeccable sound quality.

Yeah, You is an amazing sounding record.

When I sold off most of my prog rock vinyl back in the punk rock daze, I kept You because it didn't really seem like prog to me. Cosmic hippie stoner space jazz rock I can hang with.

ok 'better' is definitely the wrong word, but you can tell they're more modern even if the music & instrumentation is similar

...and I had no idea there was a new Gong record this year. Checking it out now and it's pretty cool!

It is!

I was referring to Nektar.

― nickn

kavus torabi is probably in nektar now too

They really need a good documentary, like the Dead one from last year, to just lay it all out on the table for us to see, they're not an ordinary band and had such an unusual trajectory, so many brilliant rabbit holes. I've been looking into the GAS tapes of various kinds and they/he/she were so prolific.

listened to 'you' for the first time and the sound quality is amazing, doesn't sound like 1974 to me

Simon Reynolds on Gong in The Guardian. He’s talked to Howlett and Hillage for the piece. Some good stuff in here.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/nov/18/gong-daevid-allen-steve-hillage-prog-rock-psychedelia

soooo.... Tim Blake, what's good??

Dunno sorry

BUT I recently happened across this video of a concert where a group cover the whole of camembert electrique almost note for note and dress as them too, and it's all kinds of wonderful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6_JBMaExOo

I picked up The New Jerusalem recently and sold it again cos I found the vocals unbearable - and I think of myself as reasonably robust tolerator of Difficult Singing. Maybe I was found wanting here and should have persevered… but life is short.

Feel like I listened to the first one on Spotify around that time and it was (mostly?) instrumental and much easier to get along with.

The two new Kavus Torabi led records (one from 2023 and one from 2019) are both really good, they don’t really sound like classic Gong to me (much less wacky) but they are a trip all the same

i love The New Jerusalem vox n'all. (Lighthouse is all time). Crystal Machine also ace.

He is also behind this one off 7" by Saratoga Space Messengers which is a BIG hit in my house.

this one is pretty much vocal free. synth heaven!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sREVq5TPkYA

i adore this video where he is rocking the vcs3 and having the time of his life. being in gong in 1973 must have been just about the best job in the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSvW_O4V8Yo

Did the 2 volumes of Gong Dreaming by Daevid Allen get republished. I have the 2nd one which is the one where he forms Gong but never got the first one which is his life up to that point.
I thought I'd heard they were going to come out through another imprint at one point.

SAF the original publisher folded a few years ago i think.

thanks for that video stirmonster, that was indeed fantastic

(i passed on cheap copies of Crystal Machine, New Jerusalem and the self-titled Clearlight Symphony record yesterday, regretting it now! that tune off Crystal Machine that you posted definitely needs sampling btw if no-one's done it already?)

"forever reoccurring" is a major jam. twenty minutes fly by like nothing

Just thinking about the long interview with Kramer, was it, where he talks about Gong, iirc.

You was my gateway in the 70s, via a shortie in the CREEM back-of-the-book Rock-a-Rama section---not my usual fare, but oh my, lucky i.
BYG has reappeared on Bandcamp, where I finally heard and dug Magick Brother, also Banana Moon, which made several of my ballots---I said this on the main Wyatt thread:

Quite a few BYG albums now reissued and streaming on Bandcamp---I started with Banana Moon, because RW is in the core band with Daevid Allen and Archie Legget, ready for excellent guests. "Stoned Innocent Frankenstein" could be the title track, considering whole set's seemingly off-handed pop-rock flair through the crusty bits*, with attentive dynamics def. incl. Wyatt's drumming and harmonies.
He sings lead on "Memories," which could be a ringer, but fits with other songs' sincerity ("Get Me Outta Here," o yes), and the voice is distant, but persistent, also unmistakable, while the playing is bluesier than his otm "Rock Bottom" B-side arrangement, but sympathetically so. Here's the best audio of the B that I've heard, on Richard Sinclair's Bandcamp:
https://richardsinclairsongs.bandcamp.com/track/memories

And before I forget, here's the 2023 Banana Moon:
https://bygrecords.bandcamp.com/album/banana-moon (Gong's reissued Magick Brother is sounding pretty good on BYG BC too)

*wiki:

In 2003, David Bowie included it in a list of 25 of his favourite albums, "Confessions of a Vinyl Junkie", saying that "it's possible, just possibly maybe, that strands of the embryonic glam style started here."[7]

As for this:

I've never followed Gong very closely, but for me Hillage earned his place in music history for helping Rachid Taha put together Made in Medina. Songlines' reviewer said when he heard it, he glimpsed what Page and Plant were going for w North African musicians. Yeah, seems like this is the realization and then some, to put it mildly. Anyway, more on Made.. should prob be for another thread--what's the deal with New York Gong? The genesis of Material, right? Is the album good?

― dow, Sunday, October 14, 2012 7:11 PM (eleven years ago) bookmarkflaglink

i've grown to really like the new york gong album over the years after completely dismissing it when i first bought it but whether you'll like it or not really depends on whether or not you dig daevid allen's schtick. the laswell hook up came via the notorious jean karakos who moved his celluloid label from france to new york and had gong connections going way back. material probably took the name from the "materialism" track on it and put their first album proper out on celluloid shortly after this came out.

― stirmonster, Sunday, October 14, 2012

There is a compilation of appearances on French tv during the early 70s that I have seen crop up at the end of videos I've seen. Assume its still around though not sure when videos were upped to youtube.

I'm seeing copies of the volumes of the Gong Dreaming book going for massive prices. I did think I had heard about a reprint but not seeing copies cheap and current. Volume 2 was very good anyway.

I return to this clip of "I Never Glid Before" loads, Mike Howlett's playing especially is just so absurdly good, my wife likes to point out that Daevid has a little bit of Spin Doctors singer thing going on :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeHN_VmVfRI

they're embarking on a fairly extensive US tour soon, feel like it's gonna be good, honestly I like these new Gong records more than the old ones

I don't know about "more than", but I recently dipped my toes in with Rejoice! I'm Dead! and the Pulsing Signals live one, liked both way, way more than I expected I would.

kavus torabi works wonders

We saw Nu-Gong this year and they were sublime, strong recommend, plus all the Nu-Gong albums are great! They are very much not a tribute act, but something of the spirit persists.

Got the impression from Allen's and/or Gong site last year that he approved, maybe picked, all embarking members,though I suppose there might have been personnel changes since he died. No doubt they all have a sense of what has to be lived up to.

It was Allen's wish, if you seek out any Gong-related interview with Kavus, he explains how it went down.

Yeah, Kavus was the anointed successor and most if not all of the current line up played with Allen.

saw them yesterday, it was incredible. setlist was entirely new stuff until the end when they played a couple of old songs. the band was super tight but I gotta say the drummer in particular was amazing. judging by the chatter before and after the show I gathered most people didn't know the new lineup or any of the new material but I think they won over everyone by the end. which is cool because I don't think the new stuff sounds too much like old school Gong, it sounds way more like Knifeworld. in fact that's probably why it worked so well, they weren't trying to imitate the band of the past, they were just doing what they were good at.

got to meet Kavus after the show and he was really cool. he mentioned one of his favorite tracks was "Vilna" by Weidorje and suddenly everything made sense - THAT is what they were trying to sound like!

I don't think the new stuff sounds too much like old school Gong, it sounds way more like Knifeworld.

I checked out some of the most recent albums and this was my takeaway too. (A good thing imo! Never really been able to get into their earlier stuff.)

they only played two old tunes and come to think of it they're probably the only two that actually fit what this new band does. they also happen to be my two favorite, one of the coolest moments was them doing a long spacey ambient section which gradually morphed into an insane version of Master Builder

Holy shit, I would love to see Gong, had no clue they’re touring the Midwest. And “Master Builder” is probably my alltime favorite track of theirs.

If they're that different, should they be calling themselves Gong?

They do have Daevid's approval, in the "Gong is a spirit, not a bunch of people" sense.

David Allen's final message to the musicians of Gong:

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Daevid Allen’s Farewell Message To GongPublished on April 11, 2015By Paul Sexton
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Daevid Allen, the founder of progressive trailblazers Gong, who died of cancer, aged 77, on 13 March 2015, sent his bandmates a farewell message. The email, which has now come to light, has Allen expressing his support for the group’s current line-up and reviewing his own contribution to their history.

Allen wrote that he was delighted to know, as he prepared for his own passing, that the Gong legacy was in good hands, with current frontman Kavus Torabi, saxophonist Ian East, guitarist Fabio Golfetti, bassist Dave Sturt and drummer Cheb Nettles.

As Prog magazine reports, Allen’s cancer was detected after Gong had played in Brazil early in 2014, while they were finishing the I See You album, released that November by Snapper. The band’s co-founder, aware of his own imminent demise, was in the unusual position to write a final note to the musicians who are carrying on his tradition.

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The email reads in full:

Can I just simply say that it is super clear to me that Kavus, you are the perfect fit with Dave, Ian and Fabio and that Cheb, you are the perfect fit with Kavus! I feel you are all equally on the brink of a whole new era of Gong, musically, lyrically and spiritually and that pretty much all you have each done until now has been a preparation for this time.

I want you to know I am 100% behind you with this project and I wish you huge success in every way you decide to measure that success. I am really proud of laying the foundation for the Gong tradition and have done my best to make it as multi layered, wide ranging and open ended as I possibly could so that almost anything was possible as a result.

At last I am free to let go of it so now it is up to you guys to carry it on into new unknown heights and depths far beyond anything I could ever imagine myself. Thank you for being there and going for it and may the rewards be unimaginably powerful for each!

Love and massive soulful hugs

daevid

... oops, only meant to post the email.

The Canterbury Scene: How Bookish Bohemians Became Prog Monty Pythons

If they're that different, should they be calling themselves Gong?

they also have a bit of history of this. 1971 gong bore almost no musical resemblance to 1975/6 gong.

the history they have a bit of that i like is how every few years miquette giraudy is back on-stage with them

also she and hillage have been an item for 50+ years aw

indeed! i have been hoping for a miquette giraudy solo album for around 40 years. still time!

She's so undersung, and such deep roots, life-long Pink Floyd fan and I didn't even know she was in La Vallée until recently.

i have a chance to see them both in a venue near here performing as System 7.
quite tempted to be honest.

I know Allen gave them his blessing, but, going by reports here, if they're only doing a few Allen-era songs, and are now greatly enjoyed by some listeners who didn't like Allen-era Gong, I'm inclined to stick to the older stuff, all its phases on all those records. Until I just want to hear something different, of course.

Saw them a week ago in a converted church in a tiny town in upstate New York. There were like 100 people there. They were fantastic and not at all offended that so few people were there. It felt like a really special night -- and then when we left the venue the northern lights were pumping in the sky. What a treat.

Awesome, and relatable, in my neck of the woods---I'll go see 'em if feasible, don't get me wrong---but meanwhile, got plenty Gong w Daevid to catch up on---also prowling for him w Soft Machine---not much exists, right? Or maybe he's just on some Canterbury tapes?

I don't know! But keep an eye on the Homer Center for the Arts. Tiny town but they are getting great acts and it is a really special place. Godspeed You Black Emperor was there not long ago for instance. Peace out!

dunno how many people were at the show I was at but it was probably less than 100. which was kinda awesome for us actually, I mean I was right there front and center, I could hear the scraping of the guitar strings

from what I could gather I think a lot of this is just reluctance to see a band with no original members, much less one whose newest members only go back to 2009...I mean, it's not like Yes where you at least have Steve Howe and the guy who played on Open Your Eyes. it's a tough sell. I think that's why they're touring so much, mostly just trying to get the word out, if nothing else they definitely seem to be winning over the old Gong fans

I hope these low turnouts don't make them reconsider their plan to tour the western US in 2025.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouMF2Dz0Bno

the Ex album is pretty good fun. been on my shelves for years but hadn't ever listened to it until now. daevid allen and his compatriot david tolley dicking around on drum machines and synths in 1983. getting residents vibes if they were slightly less weird (it is still plenty weird though!)