where is the love for GONG?

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.