where is the love for GONG?

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ok it wz me, i had the love for gong

you could get camembert electrique for 99p actual real full price for years

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 26 February 2005 01:15 (8 years ago) Permalink

I think they're pretty dreadful. This was one of many prog. bands I followed up on after first being exposed to their music (and sometimes just as importantly, the DJ's reverent patter about them) only to keep wondering where the good stuff was. Maybe there isn't any good stuff (in the sense of stuff I would like) in Gong's case. The phrase "floating anarchy" sounded very cool to me at 13.

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Saturday, 26 February 2005 01:18 (8 years ago) Permalink

i wz totally straight-edge also!

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 26 February 2005 01:19 (8 years ago) Permalink

I was discovering Arabic music during my brief heavy pot-smoking phase.

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Saturday, 26 February 2005 01:21 (8 years ago) Permalink

(Which came long after I discovered most of this stoner music. That happened in high school, pre-drug use.)

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Saturday, 26 February 2005 01:22 (8 years ago) Permalink

the flute loop on nas's "oochie wallie" is a gong sample: i hate flute generally but i like didier malherbe's (or liked it)

in fact i think he wz what i liked abt them

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 26 February 2005 01:24 (8 years ago) Permalink

i'm not sure that there wz any sustained good stuff (ie anything as long as a song)

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

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 26 February 2005 01:30 (8 years ago) Permalink

how could you not love a band that had album cover art like that?!

― geeta (geeta), Saturday, 26 February 2005 01:51 (8 years ago) Permalink

all their covers were badly drawn cartoons!!

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 26 February 2005 01:52 (8 years ago) Permalink

they are flying in a TEAPOT!! how punk rock is that!

― geeta (geeta), Saturday, 26 February 2005 01:56 (8 years ago) Permalink

i like the covers better than a lot of the music. i don't know why gong never did it for me. i'll listen to anything.

Hi, Geeta!

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 26 February 2005 01:57 (8 years ago) Permalink

they were (a bit) punky in a VERY whimsical way (one of the choruses is a mantra that goes "ave a cup of tea - ave a cup of tea"

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)

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

And Daevid Allen made a CD with Kramer of Bongwater, which I actually own, oddly enough.

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:02 (8 years ago) Permalink

and knew terry riley b4 he wz famous! (in fact gave him his first tape recorder, if i remember the story right)

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:06 (8 years ago) Permalink

I think he made 2 with Kramer. I have one of 'em, too, but haven't really listened to it very carefully.

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.

― Joe (Joe), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:13 (8 years ago) Permalink

all u haterz is crazy. the teapot trilogy (especially part 2 - angel's egg) is amazing, so is Magick Brother / Mystic Sister (probably my first choice) - i love gong

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:14 (8 years ago) Permalink

Scott listen to the Gong collaboration with Acid Mother Temple. It will do it for you!!!!

― Kenneth Rung-Sprat, Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:15 (8 years ago) Permalink

I dare someone to start a Jade Warrior thread.

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:18 (8 years ago) Permalink

I love Jade Warrior. All the love for them that you will ever need exists within my person.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:19 (8 years ago) Permalink

Yes, Jade Warrior was cool.

― Joe (Joe), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:22 (8 years ago) Permalink

The only one of theirs I ever had was "Gazeuse", but it was that period that I liked when I was younger. I heard some of "You" again a few months ago, and found my memory of it to be just as vivid as it was completely wrong. For some reason, I remember it being a sparse, disjointed album with big, echoey spoken word parts and hardly any rhythms. What the hell happened?

― Pangolino again, Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:22 (8 years ago) Permalink

I just did a search for them and laughed when I saw that you were one of the only people to have posted about them. I don't think I like them any more, though it's been a while since I've listened to anything by them, and all I have are bad cassette copies of other people's vinyl. (I do remember that they changed their sound a little on the last recordings I heard from them--a little edgier or something.)

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:23 (8 years ago) Permalink

x-post

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:24 (8 years ago) Permalink

(That was to scott obv.)

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:24 (8 years ago) Permalink

Jade Warrior have that great 3 album split thing going on: the 3 vertigo albums, Jade Warrior-Released-Last Autumn's Dream which are the heavier/tribal/prog/flute epics and then their next three that form a kinda proto-newage ambient stoner trilogy with Floating World-Waves-Kites.

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.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:33 (8 years ago) Permalink

The only Jade Warrior I've ever heard was the song in the Lee Van Cleef western "Bad Man's River", but I've meant to try listening to them for years.

― Pangolino again, Saturday, 26 February 2005 03:23 (8 years ago) Permalink

it's been awhile since i pulled out my copy of camembert electrique but even remembering how it goes in my head, "you can't kill me" is The Shit.

― joseph (joseph), Saturday, 26 February 2005 04:14 (8 years ago) Permalink

wait, is mark right about oochie wally???

― dave k, Saturday, 26 February 2005 04:15 (8 years ago) Permalink

i'd like to smash your face.

― rockaction (rockaction), Saturday, 26 February 2005 10:41 (8 years ago) Permalink

I always wahted to hear Gong's music(k) covered by the fall. "what's that in the sky there-uh/teapots that can fly there-aah"

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.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 26 February 2005 10:49 (8 years ago) Permalink

Last Autumn's Dream is the only Jade Warrior lp I own, or have ever heard for that matter. but I do love it!! and i don't want to part with it, sorry scott. Yoo will find one at thrift in doo time, of this I have no doubt. What a weird, schizophrenic record. They really had no frickin' idea what they wanted to be.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Saturday, 26 February 2005 10:50 (8 years ago) Permalink

at *that* point, anyway

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Saturday, 26 February 2005 10:51 (8 years ago) Permalink

i am right about oochie wally dk!

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

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 26 February 2005 11:53 (8 years ago) Permalink

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.

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.

― Joe (Joe), Saturday, 26 February 2005 13:13 (8 years ago) Permalink

Am I the only one amazed by how much that album cover looks like it belongs in "Samurai Jack"?

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Saturday, 26 February 2005 18:24 (8 years ago) Permalink

Also C/D, S/D.

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.

― nickn (nickn), Saturday, 26 February 2005 19:48 (8 years ago) Permalink

They were CRAP

― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Saturday, 26 February 2005 20:45 (8 years ago) Permalink

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, 27 February 2005 12:38 (8 years ago) Permalink

haha gong = gone is totally my fave claim so far: i am so stealin it ajl!!

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

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 27 February 2005 13:16 (8 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

"You" is the best one.

― charleston charge (chaki), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 22:20 (8 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

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.

― everything, Wednesday, 4 July 2007 19:39 (5 years ago) Permalink

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.

― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 4 July 2007 19:51 (5 years ago) Permalink

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

― everything, Wednesday, 4 July 2007 20:15 (5 years ago) Permalink

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.

― mike t-diva, Wednesday, 4 July 2007 23:05 (5 years ago) Permalink

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!

― stirmonster, Wednesday, 4 July 2007 23:43 (5 years ago) Permalink

you dudes must've been weird at 13.

― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Thursday, 5 July 2007 09:35 (5 years ago) Permalink

"Magick Brother" is my fave

― Tom D., Thursday, 5 July 2007 09:36 (5 years ago) Permalink

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.

― J Kaw, Thursday, 5 July 2007 15:31 (5 years ago) Permalink

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

― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Thursday, 5 July 2007 15:38 (5 years ago) Permalink

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

― Tom D., Thursday, 5 July 2007 15:42 (5 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 12 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

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.

― mike t-diva, Sunday, 8 July 2007 13:03 (5 years ago) Permalink

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.

― stirmonster, Sunday, 8 July 2007 13:08 (5 years ago) Permalink

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.

― Bob Six, Sunday, 8 July 2007 16:12 (5 years ago) Permalink

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.

― sleeve, Sunday, 8 July 2007 16:23 (5 years ago) Permalink

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!

― stirmonster, Sunday, 8 July 2007 17:14 (5 years ago) Permalink

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.

― mike t-diva, Sunday, 8 July 2007 23:07 (5 years ago) Permalink

9 months pass...

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)

― mike t-diva, Saturday, 19 April 2008 18:52 (5 years ago) Permalink

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.

― Bimble, Saturday, 19 April 2008 20:47 (5 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

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!

― mike t-diva, Thursday, 19 June 2008 09:42 (4 years ago) Permalink

so jealous. sounds wonderful.

― stirmonster, Thursday, 19 June 2008 10:51 (4 years ago) Permalink

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

― ellaguru, Thursday, 19 June 2008 15:50 (4 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

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

― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 18 August 2009 18:01 (3 years ago) Permalink

― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 18 August 2009 18:02 (3 years ago) Permalink

Thanks for posting. I enjoyed that.

― everything, Tuesday, 18 August 2009 23:32 (3 years ago) Permalink

surprisingly great. surprisingly groovy. thanks for posting!

― stirmonster, Tuesday, 18 August 2009 23:44 (3 years ago) Permalink

in fact, i officially love this.

― stirmonster, Tuesday, 18 August 2009 23:49 (3 years ago) Permalink

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

― mike t-diva, Wednesday, 19 August 2009 08:21 (3 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

early gong slays fuiud

― i am legernd (history mayne), Thursday, 2 September 2010 13:21 (2 years ago) Permalink

more a fan of later gong tbh

― jaxon, Thursday, 2 September 2010 15:17 (2 years ago) Permalink

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.

― the same relation to machines as that which machines have to man (Matt #2), Thursday, 2 September 2010 15:20 (2 years ago) Permalink

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

― jaxon, Thursday, 2 September 2010 15:21 (2 years ago) Permalink

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

― Dominique, Thursday, 2 September 2010 16:32 (2 years ago) Permalink

warren's a bro

― jaxon, Thursday, 2 September 2010 17:10 (2 years ago) Permalink

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

― All 10 songs permeate the organs (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 2 September 2010 17:20 (2 years ago) Permalink

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

― jaxon, Thursday, 2 September 2010 18:19 (2 years ago) Permalink

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

― stirmonster, Thursday, 2 September 2010 18:39 (2 years ago) Permalink

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

― All 10 songs permeate the organs (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 2 September 2010 18:42 (2 years ago) Permalink

Magick Brother rules.

― filthy dylan, Thursday, 2 September 2010 18:56 (2 years ago) Permalink

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.

― jaxon, Thursday, 2 September 2010 19:32 (2 years ago) Permalink

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.

― filthy dylan, Thursday, 2 September 2010 19:48 (2 years ago) Permalink

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

― stirmonster, Thursday, 2 September 2010 20:03 (2 years ago) Permalink

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.

― mike t-diva, Friday, 3 September 2010 08:53 (2 years ago) Permalink

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

― Mark G, Friday, 3 September 2010 08:55 (2 years ago) Permalink

Oooh, ta for the tip!

― mike t-diva, Friday, 3 September 2010 08:56 (2 years ago) Permalink

― Mark G, Friday, 3 September 2010 08:57 (2 years ago) Permalink

Gilli Smyth is 77!

― It dreamed to Tom D. of the Caucasus (Tom D.), Friday, 3 September 2010 08:59 (2 years ago) Permalink

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.

― stirmonster, Thursday, 9 September 2010 22:19 (2 years ago) Permalink

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

― stirmonster, Thursday, 9 September 2010 22:34 (2 years ago) Permalink

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

― krakow, Thursday, 9 September 2010 23:13 (2 years ago) Permalink

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...

― mike t-diva, Friday, 10 September 2010 09:02 (2 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

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.

― Blue Doggie Sweater (Dan Peterson), Monday, 31 October 2011 16:48 (1 year ago) Permalink

11 months pass...

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

― borscht and bikinis (how's life), Sunday, 14 October 2012 11:41 (7 months ago) Permalink

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

― borscht and bikinis (how's life), Sunday, 14 October 2012 11:41 (7 months ago) 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

― borscht and bikinis (how's life), Sunday, 14 October 2012 11:42 (7 months ago) Permalink

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

― borscht and bikinis (how's life), Sunday, 14 October 2012 11:43 (7 months ago) Permalink

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

― mike t-diva, Sunday, 14 October 2012 11:57 (7 months ago) Permalink

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.

― stirmonster, Sunday, 14 October 2012 22:47 (7 months ago) Permalink

― stirmonster, Sunday, 14 October 2012 22:48 (7 months ago) Permalink

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, Monday, 15 October 2012 00:11 (7 months ago) Permalink

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, Monday, 15 October 2012 00:27 (7 months ago) Permalink

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