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Gong (band)
Encyclopedia
Gong is a Franco-British progressive
/psychedelic rock
band formed by Australia
n musician
Daevid Allen
. Their music has also been described as space rock
. Other notable band members include Allan Holdsworth
, Tim Blake
, Didier Malherbe
, Pip Pyle
, Gilli Smyth
, Steve Hillage
, Francis Moze
, Mike Howlett
and Pierre Moerlen
. Others who have, albeit briefly, played in Gong include Bill Bruford
, Brian Davison
and Chris Cutler
.
—was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom
because of a visa complication. Allen remained in France
where he and a London
-born Sorbonne
professor, Gilli Smyth
, established the first incarnation of the band. This line-up, including Ziska Baum on vocals and Loren Standlee on flute, fragmented during the 1968 student revolution, with Allen and Smyth forced to flee France for Deià
in Majorca.
They allegedly found saxophonist
Didier Malherbe
living in a cave in Deià, before film director Jérôme Laperrousaz invited the band back to France to record the soundtrack of his movie Continental Circus. They were subsequently approached by Jean Karakos of the newly formed independent label BYG
and signed a multi-album deal with them (Magick Brother/Mystic Sister
, Camembert Electrique
and Allen's solo album Bananamoon were all released on BYG).
Gong played at the second Glastonbury Festival
in June 1971 (the performance being issued as a side-long track on the 3-LP vinyl festival record release, later re-mixed and re-edited and released by GAS in 2001), followed by a UK tour in Autumn. In late 1972 they were one of the first acts to sign to Virgin Records
, getting first pick of the Manor Studio
's time ahead of Mike Oldfield
. By that time, a regular line-up had been established, and Gong released their Flying Teapot
album in May 1973. The following year, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release, priced at 59p which was the price of a typical single, a promotional gimmick Virgin had done before in 1973 on an album by Faust
, and would do again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but this pricing made them ineligible for placement on album charts. The intention was that purchasers would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price.
Between 1973 and 1974, Gong, now augmented by guitarist Steve Hillage
, released their best-known work, the "Radio Gnome Trilogy", three records that expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology, Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg, and You. For about two months at the end of 1974, Bill Bruford
played drums with Gong. At a gig in Cheltenham
, in 1975, Allen refused to go on stage, claiming that a "wall of force" was preventing him, and left the band. With both Smyth, who wanted to spend more time with her two children, and synth player Tim Blake
having jumped off in previous months, this marked the end of the 'classic' line-up. The band continued, touring the UK in November 1975 (as documented on the 2005 release Live in Sherwood Forest '75) and working on their next album Shamal with Jorge Pinchevsky on violin, but Hillage, who had been the band's de facto leader since Allen's exit, and his partner Miquette Giraudy
, who had taken over from Smyth in late 1974, left before Shamal was released in early 1976. They re-joined the band briefly for a 1977 live reunion in Paris.
, who had been persuaded by Virgin to rejoin Gong as a co-leader with Malherbe (after his spell with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions De Strasbourg) in 1975, gradually took over the band's leadership. When Malherbe, the only remaining founding member, finally left in 1977, Moerlen formed a new percussion-based line-up with American bassist Hansford Rowe
and percussionists Mireille Bauer and Benoit Moerlen. To avoid confusion, it became known as Gong-Expresso, and from 1978 on, as Pierre Moerlen's Gong
.
Allen, however, continued to develop the Gong mythology from the late seventies up until the nineties in his solo work, and with bands such as Euterpe, Planet Gong (which comprised Allen and Smyth playing with the British festival band Here & Now
), and New York Gong (comprising Allen and the musicians who would later become known as Material), while Smyth formed a separate band Mother Gong, with Jean-Paul Vivini from the band Can AM Des Puig (author of The Book of AM produced by Daevid Allen
), playing in Spain and England. Allen delighted in this proliferation of groups and considered his role at this time to be that of an instigator, travelling around the world leaving active Gong-related bands in his wake.
, violinist Graham Clark
and Didier Malherbe
. This morphed into GongMaison and by 1992, the name Gong was again in use, by which time early drummer Pip Pyle
had also rejoined. The band released the album Shapeshifter (subsequently dubbed Radio Gnome part 4), followed by extensive touring. In 1994, Gong celebrated its 25th birthday in London, including a performance by most of the 'classic' line-up, including the returning Gilli Smyth and Mike Howlett. This formed the basis of the "Classic Gong" band which toured worldwide from 1996 to 2001 and released Zero to Infinity in 2000 (by Allen, Smyth, Howlett and Malherbe plus new recruits Theo Travis and Chris Taylor).
However, 2003 saw a radical new line-up called Acid Mothers Gong, including Acid Mothers Temple
member Kawabata Makoto and University Of Errors guitarist Josh Pollock. Allen and Smyth's son Orlando Allen drummed on the album Acid Motherhood, but the drummer on most of the band's live dates was Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida.
The "Classic Gong" line-up retired from regular touring in 2001, but there were one-off reunions subsequently, most notably at the "Gong Family Unconvention" (Uncon), the first of which was held in 2004 in the Glastonbury Assembly rooms as a one day event and featured many ex members and Gong family bands including Here and Now, House of Thandoy, Thom the Poet, Invisible Opera, Andy Bole, Bubbledub and Joie Hinton. The 2005 Uncon was a 2-day affair featuring several Gong-related bands such as Here & Now, System 7
, House of Thandoy and Kangaroo Moon. The most recent Uncon was a 3-day event held at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on 3–5 November 2006, with practically all Gong-related bands present: classic Gong (with Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Hillage, Blake and Howlett, plus Miquette Giraudy, Chris Taylor and Theo Travis), System 7, Steve Hillage Band
, Hadouk, Tim Blake & Jean-Philippe Rykiel, University of Errors, Here & Now, Mother Gong, Zorch
, Eat Static
, Acid Mothers Gong, Slack Baba, Kangaroo Moon and many others. These events have all been compèred
by "Thom the Poet (now Thom Moon 10)".
In November 2007, Daevid Allen held a series of concerts in Brazil, with a branch of Gong, which was called Daevid Allen and Gong Global Family (Daevid Allen on vocals and guitar, Josh Pollock on guitar, megaphone and percussion; Fred Barley on drums and percussion; Fabio Golfetti on guitar, bass Gabriel Costa, Marcelo Ringel on flute and tenor saxophone), along with his other band University of Errors (Allen, Josh Pollock, Michael Clare, Fred Barley). The presentations took place in Sao Paulo on 21 and 22 November and San Carlos on November 24. These musicians - less Marcelo - recorded some new songs in the studio Mosh, in Sao Paulo. The Sao Paulo concert - 21 november - was then released only in England as DVD and CD by Voiceprint Records.
More recently in June 2008, Gong played two concerts in London: Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank (opening Massive Attack's Meltdown festival) and the Forum, with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett, Taylor and Travis among the lineup. This line-up then released new album 2032 in 2009 and toured in support. They played the Glade stage at Glastonbury Festival
with Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy. Gong played at the Big Chill festival in the UK between on 9 August 2009 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Sturt, Taylor and Travis in the line up, at the Beautiful Days Festival in Devon, 23 August 2009, and at the Lounge on the Farm festival near Canterbury in the summer of 2009.
Gong played four UK live shows in September 2010 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Sturt, Taylor and Ian East: O2 ABC Glasgow (9th), Manchester Academy (10th), HMV Forum London (11th) and HMV Institute Birmingham (20th). Support for these shows was provided by Nik Turner's
Space Ritual
.
and Gong and to a lesser extent the early works of Steve Hillage
. The story is based on a vision Allen had during the full moon of Easter
, 1966 in which he claims he could see his future laid out before him. The mythology is hinted at through all of Gong's earlier albums but is not the central theme until the "Radio Gnome Trilogy" (1973–1974).
The story begins on the album Flying Teapot
(1973) when a pig-farming Egyptologist called Mista T Being is sold a "magick ear ring" by an "antique teapot street vendor & tea label collector" called Fred the Fish. The ear ring is capable of receiving messages from the Planet Gong via a pirate radio station called Radio Gnome Invisible. Being and Fish head off to the hymnalayas of Tibet
(sic) where they meet the "great beer yogi" Banana Ananda in a cave. Ananda tends to chant "Banana Nirvana Mañana" a lot and gets drunk on Foster's Australian Lager
.
This latter development mirrors the real-life experience of band members Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth
who met their saxophonist, Didier Malherbe
, in a cave in Majorca.
Meanwhile, the mythology's central character, Zero the Hero, is going about his everyday life when he suddenly has a vision in Charing Cross Road
. He is compelled to seek heroes and starts worshipping the Cock Pot Pixie, one of a number of Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong. These pixies are green with propellers on their heads, and they fly around in teapots.
Zero is soon distracted by a cat which he offers his fish and chips
to. The cat is actually the Good Witch Yoni, who gives Zero a potion. This concludes the first album of the Radio Gnome Trilogy.
(1973) begins with Zero falling to sleep under the influences of the potion and finding himself floating through space. After accidentally scaring a space pilot called Captain Capricorn, Zero locates the Planet Gong, and spends some time with a prostitute who introduces him to the moon goddess Selene
.
Zero's (drug-induced) trip to the Planet Gong continues, and the Pot Head Pixies explain to him how their flying teapots fly (a system known as Glidding). He is then taken to the One Invisible Temple of Gong.
Inside the temple, Zero is shown the Angel's Egg—the physical embodiment of the 32 Octave Doctors (descendants of the Great God Cell). The Angel's Egg is the magic-eye mandala that features on much of the band's sleeve-art. It is also a sort of recycling plant for Pot Head Pixies.
A grand plan is revealed to Zero. There will be a Great Melting Feast of Freeks which Zero must organize on Earth. When everyone is enjoying the Feast, a huge global concert, the Switch Doctor will turn everybody's third eye on, ushering in a New Age on Earth. The Switch Doctor is the Earth's resident Octave Doctor, who lives near Banana Ananda's cave, in a "potheadquarters" called the Invisible Opera Company of Tibet (C.O.I.T.) and transmits all the details to the Gong Band via Bananamoon Observatory.
(1974), Zero must first return from his trip. He asks Hiram the Master Builder how to structure his vision and build his own Invisible Temple. Having done this, Zero establishes that he must organize the Great Melting Feast of Freeks on the Isle of Everywhere, Bali
.
The event is going well, and the Switch Doctor switches on everyone's third eyes except for Zero's. For Zero is out the back, indulging in Earthly pleasures (fruitcake
).
Zero has missed out on the whole third eye revelation experience and is forced to continue his existence spinning around on the wheel of births and deaths and slowly converging on the Angel's Egg in a way which, to a certain extent, resembles Buddhist
reincarnation
.
under mysterious circumstances.
The last installment in the album Zero to Infinity
(2000) sees Zero's spirit enjoying a body-free and virtual existence. During the course of this he becomes an android spheroid
Zeroid. With the help of a strange animal called a gongalope, he learns that all the wisdom of the world exists within him and practices Lafta yoga
and tea making. At the end he becomes one with an Invisible Temple and has a lot of fun.
Gong's mythology is not universally serious. Great amounts of the story pertain in some way to the production and consumption of tea
(perhaps suggesting mushroom tea
, although the word tea has also long been a word to describe cannabis, especially in the 1940s and 1950s). The characters of the story are often based on or used as pseudonyms for band members.
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
/psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
band formed by Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
Daevid Allen
Daevid Allen
Daevid Allen , sometimes credited as Divided Alien, an Australian poet, guitarist, singer, composer and performance artist is co-founder of psychedelic rock groups Soft Machine and Gong .-Biography:In 1960, inspired by the Beat Generation writers he had discovered...
. Their music has also been described as space rock
Space rock
Space rock is a subgenre of rock music; the term originally referred to a group of early, mostly British, 1970s progressive and psychedelic rock bands such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd, characterised by slow, lengthy instrumental passages dominated by electric organs, synthesizers, experimental...
. Other notable band members include Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth is an English guitarist and composer. He has released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion...
, Tim Blake
Tim Blake
Timothy 'Tim' Blake , keyboards, vocalist instrumentalist and composer with both Gong, and Hawkwind. Blake is best known for his Synthesizer and Light performances as Crystal Machine, with the French Light Artist Patrice Warrener...
, Didier Malherbe
Didier Malherbe
Didier Antonin Malherbe is a saxophonist and flautist. He was one of the founders of the Canterbury sound band Gong....
, Pip Pyle
Pip Pyle
Phillip "Pip" Pyle was an English-born drummer from Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, who later resided in France...
, Gilli Smyth
Gilli Smyth
Gilli Smyth is a musician who performed with the bands Gong, Mother Gong and Planet Gong as well as several solo albums and albums in collaborations other members of Gong...
, Steve Hillage
Steve Hillage
Steve Hillage is an English musician, best known as a guitarist. He is associated with the Canterbury scene and has worked in experimental domains since the late 1960s...
, Francis Moze
Francis Moze
Francis Moze is a French bass player, best known for his work in Magma, Gong and Pierre Moerlen's Gong.Moze played in an early line-up with Magma. When he left the group, Giorgio Gomelsky introduced him to Gong. He played on the album Flying Teapot...
, Mike Howlett
Mike Howlett
Mike Howlett is a Fijian-born musician, Grammy Award winning producer and teacher based in the United Kingdom and Australia....
and Pierre Moerlen
Pierre Moerlen
Pierre Moerlen was a French drummer and percussionist, best known for his work with Gong and Mike Oldfield.-Biography:...
. Others who have, albeit briefly, played in Gong include Bill Bruford
Bill Bruford
William Scott "Bill" Bruford is an English drummer, percussionist, composer, producer, and record label owner. He was the original drummer for the progressive rock group Yes, from 1968-1972. Bruford has performed for numerous popular acts since the early 1970s, including a stint as touring...
, Brian Davison
Brian Davison (drummer)
Brian Davison , nicknamed "Blinky", was a British drummer, best known for his work in The Nice. He was born in Leicester and died in Horns Cross, Devon....
and Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of a number of other bands, including Art Bears, News from Babel, Pere Ubu and Gong/Mothergong...
.
Early years
Gong was formed in 1967, after Allen—then a member of Soft MachineSoft Machine
Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre...
—was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
because of a visa complication. Allen remained in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
where he and a London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
-born Sorbonne
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
professor, Gilli Smyth
Gilli Smyth
Gilli Smyth is a musician who performed with the bands Gong, Mother Gong and Planet Gong as well as several solo albums and albums in collaborations other members of Gong...
, established the first incarnation of the band. This line-up, including Ziska Baum on vocals and Loren Standlee on flute, fragmented during the 1968 student revolution, with Allen and Smyth forced to flee France for Deià
Deià
Deià is a small coastal village on the northern ridge of the Spanish island of Majorca. It is located about ten miles north of Valldemossa, and it is known for its literary and musical residents...
in Majorca.
They allegedly found saxophonist
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
Didier Malherbe
Didier Malherbe
Didier Antonin Malherbe is a saxophonist and flautist. He was one of the founders of the Canterbury sound band Gong....
living in a cave in Deià, before film director Jérôme Laperrousaz invited the band back to France to record the soundtrack of his movie Continental Circus. They were subsequently approached by Jean Karakos of the newly formed independent label BYG
BYG Actuel
BYG Actuel was a French record label specializing in free jazz. The label also released a small number of non-jazz recordings by artists such as Musica Elettronica Viva, Freedom and Gong.-History:...
and signed a multi-album deal with them (Magick Brother/Mystic Sister
Magick Brother
Magick Brother is the 1970 debut album from Gong, featuring Gilli Smyth and Daevid Allen. It has been rereleased on CD. It has also been listed as Magick Brother, Mystic Sister.- Track listing :Side one...
, Camembert Electrique
Camembert Electrique
Camembert Electrique is an album by Gong, recorded and originally released in 1971. The album was recorded at Château d'Hérouville near Paris, France, produced by Pierre Lattes and engineered by Gilles Salle...
and Allen's solo album Bananamoon were all released on BYG).
Gong played at the second Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
in June 1971 (the performance being issued as a side-long track on the 3-LP vinyl festival record release, later re-mixed and re-edited and released by GAS in 2001), followed by a UK tour in Autumn. In late 1972 they were one of the first acts to sign to Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, getting first pick of the Manor Studio
The Manor Studio
The Manor Studio was a recording studio in the manor house at the village of Shipton-on-Cherwell in Oxfordshire, England, north of the city of Oxford. It was the first residential recording studio in the UK...
's time ahead of Mike Oldfield
Mike Oldfield
Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...
. By that time, a regular line-up had been established, and Gong released their Flying Teapot
Flying Teapot (album)
Flying Teapot is an album by Gong, originally released by Virgin in 1973. A later edition was issued by BYG in France and Japan in 1976. Co-titled "Radio Gnome Invisible Part 1", it is the first of the Radio Gnome Trilogy of albums, and was followed by Angel's Egg and You...
album in May 1973. The following year, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release, priced at 59p which was the price of a typical single, a promotional gimmick Virgin had done before in 1973 on an album by Faust
Faust (band)
Faust are a German krautrock band. Formed in 1971 in Wümme, the group was originally composed of Werner "Zappi" Diermaier, Hans Joachim Irmler, Arnulf Meifert, Jean-Hervé Péron, Rudolf Sosna and Gunther Wüsthoff, working with record producer Uwe Nettelbeck and engineer Kurt Graupner.-History:Faust...
, and would do again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but this pricing made them ineligible for placement on album charts. The intention was that purchasers would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price.
Radio Gnome
Steve Hillage
Steve Hillage is an English musician, best known as a guitarist. He is associated with the Canterbury scene and has worked in experimental domains since the late 1960s...
, released their best-known work, the "Radio Gnome Trilogy", three records that expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology, Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg, and You. For about two months at the end of 1974, Bill Bruford
Bill Bruford
William Scott "Bill" Bruford is an English drummer, percussionist, composer, producer, and record label owner. He was the original drummer for the progressive rock group Yes, from 1968-1972. Bruford has performed for numerous popular acts since the early 1970s, including a stint as touring...
played drums with Gong. At a gig in Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
, in 1975, Allen refused to go on stage, claiming that a "wall of force" was preventing him, and left the band. With both Smyth, who wanted to spend more time with her two children, and synth player Tim Blake
Tim Blake
Timothy 'Tim' Blake , keyboards, vocalist instrumentalist and composer with both Gong, and Hawkwind. Blake is best known for his Synthesizer and Light performances as Crystal Machine, with the French Light Artist Patrice Warrener...
having jumped off in previous months, this marked the end of the 'classic' line-up. The band continued, touring the UK in November 1975 (as documented on the 2005 release Live in Sherwood Forest '75) and working on their next album Shamal with Jorge Pinchevsky on violin, but Hillage, who had been the band's de facto leader since Allen's exit, and his partner Miquette Giraudy
Miquette Giraudy
Miquette Giraudy is a keyboard player and vocalist, best known for her work in Gong and with her partner Steve Hillage. She and Hillage currently form the core of the ambient band System 7.-Film:...
, who had taken over from Smyth in late 1974, left before Shamal was released in early 1976. They re-joined the band briefly for a 1977 live reunion in Paris.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong and other off-shoots
Drummer Pierre MoerlenPierre Moerlen
Pierre Moerlen was a French drummer and percussionist, best known for his work with Gong and Mike Oldfield.-Biography:...
, who had been persuaded by Virgin to rejoin Gong as a co-leader with Malherbe (after his spell with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions De Strasbourg) in 1975, gradually took over the band's leadership. When Malherbe, the only remaining founding member, finally left in 1977, Moerlen formed a new percussion-based line-up with American bassist Hansford Rowe
Hansford Rowe (musician)
Hansford Rowe is a fusion bass guitarist.Basically a self-taught musician, Rowe played bass in a local New York City band in jazz clubs until he met drummer Pierre Moerlen...
and percussionists Mireille Bauer and Benoit Moerlen. To avoid confusion, it became known as Gong-Expresso, and from 1978 on, as Pierre Moerlen's Gong
Pierre Moerlen's Gong
Pierre Moerlen's Gong is a jazz fusion outfit which is very different from the first incarnation of Gong, the psychedelic space-rock act led by Daevid Allen...
.
Allen, however, continued to develop the Gong mythology from the late seventies up until the nineties in his solo work, and with bands such as Euterpe, Planet Gong (which comprised Allen and Smyth playing with the British festival band Here & Now
Here & Now (band)
Here & Now are an English psychedelic/space rock band formed in early 1974. They have close connections with the band Gong and in 1977/1978 worked with Gong's Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth under the name Planet Gong...
), and New York Gong (comprising Allen and the musicians who would later become known as Material), while Smyth formed a separate band Mother Gong, with Jean-Paul Vivini from the band Can AM Des Puig (author of The Book of AM produced by Daevid Allen
Daevid Allen
Daevid Allen , sometimes credited as Divided Alien, an Australian poet, guitarist, singer, composer and performance artist is co-founder of psychedelic rock groups Soft Machine and Gong .-Biography:In 1960, inspired by the Beat Generation writers he had discovered...
), playing in Spain and England. Allen delighted in this proliferation of groups and considered his role at this time to be that of an instigator, travelling around the world leaving active Gong-related bands in his wake.
Reunions and Acid Mothers Gong
After spending most of the eighties in his native Australia, Allen returned to the UK in 1988 with a new project, the Invisible Opera Company of Tibet, whose revolving cast included the likes of Harry WilliamsonHarry Williamson
Harry Williamson is a British musician, producer and inventor.He is the son of noted author Henry Williamson and his second wife Christine Duffield. Divorced, one daughter Bee Williamson...
, violinist Graham Clark
Graham Clark (violinist)
Graham Leslie Lionel Clark is an English jazz violinist based in Buxton, Derbyshire. He also plays guitar, and double bass; a freelance violinist in most styles of jazz, rock, blues and pop, he specialises in improvisation...
and Didier Malherbe
Didier Malherbe
Didier Antonin Malherbe is a saxophonist and flautist. He was one of the founders of the Canterbury sound band Gong....
. This morphed into GongMaison and by 1992, the name Gong was again in use, by which time early drummer Pip Pyle
Pip Pyle
Phillip "Pip" Pyle was an English-born drummer from Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, who later resided in France...
had also rejoined. The band released the album Shapeshifter (subsequently dubbed Radio Gnome part 4), followed by extensive touring. In 1994, Gong celebrated its 25th birthday in London, including a performance by most of the 'classic' line-up, including the returning Gilli Smyth and Mike Howlett. This formed the basis of the "Classic Gong" band which toured worldwide from 1996 to 2001 and released Zero to Infinity in 2000 (by Allen, Smyth, Howlett and Malherbe plus new recruits Theo Travis and Chris Taylor).
However, 2003 saw a radical new line-up called Acid Mothers Gong, including Acid Mothers Temple
Acid Mothers Temple
Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. is a Japanese psychedelic band, the core of which formed in 1995. The band is led by guitarist Kawabata Makoto and early in their career featured many musicians, but by 2004 the line-up had coalesced with only a few core members and frequent guest...
member Kawabata Makoto and University Of Errors guitarist Josh Pollock. Allen and Smyth's son Orlando Allen drummed on the album Acid Motherhood, but the drummer on most of the band's live dates was Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida.
The "Classic Gong" line-up retired from regular touring in 2001, but there were one-off reunions subsequently, most notably at the "Gong Family Unconvention" (Uncon), the first of which was held in 2004 in the Glastonbury Assembly rooms as a one day event and featured many ex members and Gong family bands including Here and Now, House of Thandoy, Thom the Poet, Invisible Opera, Andy Bole, Bubbledub and Joie Hinton. The 2005 Uncon was a 2-day affair featuring several Gong-related bands such as Here & Now, System 7
System 7 (band)
System 7 are a British ambient dance band. Due to the existence of another band called System Seven, they were initially marketed as 777 in North America...
, House of Thandoy and Kangaroo Moon. The most recent Uncon was a 3-day event held at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on 3–5 November 2006, with practically all Gong-related bands present: classic Gong (with Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Hillage, Blake and Howlett, plus Miquette Giraudy, Chris Taylor and Theo Travis), System 7, Steve Hillage Band
Steve Hillage
Steve Hillage is an English musician, best known as a guitarist. He is associated with the Canterbury scene and has worked in experimental domains since the late 1960s...
, Hadouk, Tim Blake & Jean-Philippe Rykiel, University of Errors, Here & Now, Mother Gong, Zorch
Zorch
Zorch, who formed in 1973, were England's first totally electronic band, pioneering integrated performances of synthesizers and lightshow. Originally a four piece, by 1975 Zorch were performing as a duo: Basil Brooks and Gwyo Zepix played three monophonic EMS analogue synthesizers, but were...
, Eat Static
Eat Static
Eat Static is an electronic music project from Frome, Somerset, England formed in 1989 by Merv Pepler and Joie Hinton. Hinton left the group in February 2008 after 18 years to spend more time with his family.-History:...
, Acid Mothers Gong, Slack Baba, Kangaroo Moon and many others. These events have all been compèred
Master of Ceremonies
A Master of Ceremonies , or compere, is the host of a staged event or similar performance.An MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving....
by "Thom the Poet (now Thom Moon 10)".
In November 2007, Daevid Allen held a series of concerts in Brazil, with a branch of Gong, which was called Daevid Allen and Gong Global Family (Daevid Allen on vocals and guitar, Josh Pollock on guitar, megaphone and percussion; Fred Barley on drums and percussion; Fabio Golfetti on guitar, bass Gabriel Costa, Marcelo Ringel on flute and tenor saxophone), along with his other band University of Errors (Allen, Josh Pollock, Michael Clare, Fred Barley). The presentations took place in Sao Paulo on 21 and 22 November and San Carlos on November 24. These musicians - less Marcelo - recorded some new songs in the studio Mosh, in Sao Paulo. The Sao Paulo concert - 21 november - was then released only in England as DVD and CD by Voiceprint Records.
More recently in June 2008, Gong played two concerts in London: Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank (opening Massive Attack's Meltdown festival) and the Forum, with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett, Taylor and Travis among the lineup. This line-up then released new album 2032 in 2009 and toured in support. They played the Glade stage at Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
with Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy. Gong played at the Big Chill festival in the UK between on 9 August 2009 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Sturt, Taylor and Travis in the line up, at the Beautiful Days Festival in Devon, 23 August 2009, and at the Lounge on the Farm festival near Canterbury in the summer of 2009.
Gong played four UK live shows in September 2010 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Sturt, Taylor and Ian East: O2 ABC Glasgow (9th), Manchester Academy (10th), HMV Forum London (11th) and HMV Institute Birmingham (20th). Support for these shows was provided by Nik Turner's
Nik Turner
Nik Turner is a British musician, best known as a founding member of space rock pioneers Hawkwind. Turner plays saxophones, flute, sings and is a composer...
Space Ritual
Space Ritual (band)
Space Ritual are a British space rock band, formed in 2000 fronted by Nik Turner, and composed principally of former Hawkwind members. They play a mix of early Hawkwind material and their own compositions.-History:...
.
Mythology
The Gong mythology has been published on the Planet Gong website.Flying Teapot (1973): Radio Gnome Trilogy, Part 1
Gong mythology is a collection of recurring characters, themes, and ideas that permeate the rock albums of Daevid AllenDaevid Allen
Daevid Allen , sometimes credited as Divided Alien, an Australian poet, guitarist, singer, composer and performance artist is co-founder of psychedelic rock groups Soft Machine and Gong .-Biography:In 1960, inspired by the Beat Generation writers he had discovered...
and Gong and to a lesser extent the early works of Steve Hillage
Steve Hillage
Steve Hillage is an English musician, best known as a guitarist. He is associated with the Canterbury scene and has worked in experimental domains since the late 1960s...
. The story is based on a vision Allen had during the full moon of Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
, 1966 in which he claims he could see his future laid out before him. The mythology is hinted at through all of Gong's earlier albums but is not the central theme until the "Radio Gnome Trilogy" (1973–1974).
The story begins on the album Flying Teapot
Flying Teapot (album)
Flying Teapot is an album by Gong, originally released by Virgin in 1973. A later edition was issued by BYG in France and Japan in 1976. Co-titled "Radio Gnome Invisible Part 1", it is the first of the Radio Gnome Trilogy of albums, and was followed by Angel's Egg and You...
(1973) when a pig-farming Egyptologist called Mista T Being is sold a "magick ear ring" by an "antique teapot street vendor & tea label collector" called Fred the Fish. The ear ring is capable of receiving messages from the Planet Gong via a pirate radio station called Radio Gnome Invisible. Being and Fish head off to the hymnalayas of Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
(sic) where they meet the "great beer yogi" Banana Ananda in a cave. Ananda tends to chant "Banana Nirvana Mañana" a lot and gets drunk on Foster's Australian Lager
Foster's Lager
Foster's Lager is an internationally distributed Australian brand of 5.0% abv pale lager, It is a product of Foster's Group brewed under licence in several countries, including the U.S. and Russia...
.
This latter development mirrors the real-life experience of band members Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth
Gilli Smyth
Gilli Smyth is a musician who performed with the bands Gong, Mother Gong and Planet Gong as well as several solo albums and albums in collaborations other members of Gong...
who met their saxophonist, Didier Malherbe
Didier Malherbe
Didier Antonin Malherbe is a saxophonist and flautist. He was one of the founders of the Canterbury sound band Gong....
, in a cave in Majorca.
Meanwhile, the mythology's central character, Zero the Hero, is going about his everyday life when he suddenly has a vision in Charing Cross Road
Charing Cross Road
Charing Cross Road is a street in central London running immediately north of St Martin-in-the-Fields to St Giles Circus and then becomes Tottenham Court Road...
. He is compelled to seek heroes and starts worshipping the Cock Pot Pixie, one of a number of Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong. These pixies are green with propellers on their heads, and they fly around in teapots.
Zero is soon distracted by a cat which he offers his fish and chips
Fish and chips
Fish and chips is a popular take-away food in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada...
to. The cat is actually the Good Witch Yoni, who gives Zero a potion. This concludes the first album of the Radio Gnome Trilogy.
Angel's Egg (1973): Radio Gnome Trilogy, Part 2
The second album Angel's EggAngel's Egg (album)
Angel's Egg is an album by Gong, recorded and originally released on Virgin Records in 1973.It was recorded using the Manor Mobile at Pavillon du Hay, France, and mixed at The Manor, Oxfordshire, England...
(1973) begins with Zero falling to sleep under the influences of the potion and finding himself floating through space. After accidentally scaring a space pilot called Captain Capricorn, Zero locates the Planet Gong, and spends some time with a prostitute who introduces him to the moon goddess Selene
Selene
In Greek mythology, Selene was an archaic lunar deity and the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. In Roman mythology, the moon goddess is called Luna, Latin for "moon"....
.
Zero's (drug-induced) trip to the Planet Gong continues, and the Pot Head Pixies explain to him how their flying teapots fly (a system known as Glidding). He is then taken to the One Invisible Temple of Gong.
Inside the temple, Zero is shown the Angel's Egg—the physical embodiment of the 32 Octave Doctors (descendants of the Great God Cell). The Angel's Egg is the magic-eye mandala that features on much of the band's sleeve-art. It is also a sort of recycling plant for Pot Head Pixies.
A grand plan is revealed to Zero. There will be a Great Melting Feast of Freeks which Zero must organize on Earth. When everyone is enjoying the Feast, a huge global concert, the Switch Doctor will turn everybody's third eye on, ushering in a New Age on Earth. The Switch Doctor is the Earth's resident Octave Doctor, who lives near Banana Ananda's cave, in a "potheadquarters" called the Invisible Opera Company of Tibet (C.O.I.T.) and transmits all the details to the Gong Band via Bananamoon Observatory.
You (1974): Radio Gnome Trilogy, Part 3
In the third installment, YouYou (Gong album)
You is an album by psychedelic rock band Gong, recorded and originally released in 1974.Recorded at The Manor, Oxfordshire, side 1 was mixed at Pye Studios, Marble Arch, while side 2 at the Manor...
(1974), Zero must first return from his trip. He asks Hiram the Master Builder how to structure his vision and build his own Invisible Temple. Having done this, Zero establishes that he must organize the Great Melting Feast of Freeks on the Isle of Everywhere, Bali
Bali
Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...
.
The event is going well, and the Switch Doctor switches on everyone's third eyes except for Zero's. For Zero is out the back, indulging in Earthly pleasures (fruitcake
Fruitcake
Fruitcake is a cake made with chopped candied fruit and/or dried fruit, nuts, and spices, and soaked in spirits. A cake that simply has fruit in it as an ingredient can also be colloquially called a fruitcake. In the United Kingdom, certain rich versions may be iced and decorated...
).
Zero has missed out on the whole third eye revelation experience and is forced to continue his existence spinning around on the wheel of births and deaths and slowly converging on the Angel's Egg in a way which, to a certain extent, resembles Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
.
Continuations
In episode four in the album Shapeshifter (1992), Zero meets an urban shaman who agrees to take Zero to the next level of awareness on the proviso that Zero spends nine months on an aeroplane travelling where he wants but not using money or eating anything other than airline food. Zero eventually dies in AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
under mysterious circumstances.
The last installment in the album Zero to Infinity
Zero to Infinity
-External links:** at www.aural-innovations.com...
(2000) sees Zero's spirit enjoying a body-free and virtual existence. During the course of this he becomes an android spheroid
Spheroid
A spheroid, or ellipsoid of revolution is a quadric surface obtained by rotating an ellipse about one of its principal axes; in other words, an ellipsoid with two equal semi-diameters....
Zeroid. With the help of a strange animal called a gongalope, he learns that all the wisdom of the world exists within him and practices Lafta yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
and tea making. At the end he becomes one with an Invisible Temple and has a lot of fun.
Gong's mythology is not universally serious. Great amounts of the story pertain in some way to the production and consumption of tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
(perhaps suggesting mushroom tea
Mushroom tea
Mushroom tea is an infusion made by using psychedelic mushrooms, or medicinal mushrooms like Reishi. The active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms is psilocybin, while the active ingredients in medicinal mushrooms are thought to be beta-glucans....
, although the word tea has also long been a word to describe cannabis, especially in the 1940s and 1950s). The characters of the story are often based on or used as pseudonyms for band members.
Studio albums
- 1970: Magick BrotherMagick BrotherMagick Brother is the 1970 debut album from Gong, featuring Gilli Smyth and Daevid Allen. It has been rereleased on CD. It has also been listed as Magick Brother, Mystic Sister.- Track listing :Side one...
- 1971: Camembert ElectriqueCamembert ElectriqueCamembert Electrique is an album by Gong, recorded and originally released in 1971. The album was recorded at Château d'Hérouville near Paris, France, produced by Pierre Lattes and engineered by Gilles Salle...
- 1971: Continental CircusContinental Circus (album)Continental Circus is the original soundtrack album of the film of the same name, containing music credited to "Gong avec Daevid Allen", recorded in 1971 and originally released in 1972 in France on Philips 6332 033....
- 1971: Obsolete (Dashiell Hedayat)
- 1973: Flying TeapotFlying Teapot (album)Flying Teapot is an album by Gong, originally released by Virgin in 1973. A later edition was issued by BYG in France and Japan in 1976. Co-titled "Radio Gnome Invisible Part 1", it is the first of the Radio Gnome Trilogy of albums, and was followed by Angel's Egg and You...
- 1973: Angel's EggAngel's Egg (album)Angel's Egg is an album by Gong, recorded and originally released on Virgin Records in 1973.It was recorded using the Manor Mobile at Pavillon du Hay, France, and mixed at The Manor, Oxfordshire, England...
- 1974: YouYou (Gong album)You is an album by psychedelic rock band Gong, recorded and originally released in 1974.Recorded at The Manor, Oxfordshire, side 1 was mixed at Pye Studios, Marble Arch, while side 2 at the Manor...
- 1975: ShamalShamal (album)Shamal is an album by Gong, originally released in 1975. The album was written and recorded without the group's founder member Daevid Allen, and consequently sounds different with none of the hippy flavoured eccentricities of the previous albums...
- 1980: About TimeAbout Time (New York Gong album)About Time is a 1979 album by Daevid Allen and Gong-offshot New York Gong. The basic line-up of New York Gong would continue as Material....
(as New York Gong) - 1989: Gong Maison (Gongmaison)
- 1992: Shapeshifter
- 1996: The Peel Sessions 1971-1974
- 2000: Zero to InfinityZero to Infinity-External links:** at www.aural-innovations.com...
- 2004: Acid Motherhood
- 2009: 20322032 (album)2032 is an album by Gong, released on . This album is a further installment of the Gong mythology, the central part of which was formed with the Radio Gnome Trilogy of albums, comprising Flying Teapot in 1973, followed by Angel's Egg, 1973, and You in 1974...
Mother Gong albums
- 1979: Fairy TalesFairy Tales (Mother Gong album)Fairy Tales is Mother Gong's first album, released 1979. All three tracks are popular fables told by Gilli Smyth.-Track listing:*All Songs Written By Gilli Smyth & Harry Williamson...
- 1981: Robot Woman
- 1982: Robot Woman 2
- 1986: Robot Woman 3
- 1988: Fish In The Sky
- 1990: The Owl And The TreeThe Owl And The TreeThe Owl and the Tree is the 7th studio album of Mother Gong and was released in 1990.-Track listing:# "I Am a Tree" – 4:40# "Lament" – 3:36# "Hands" – 3:15# "Ally" – 4:11# "La Dea Madrí" – 7:05# "Owly Song" – 6:36# "I Am My Own Lover" – 14:31...
(with Daevid Allen) - 1991: Wild Child
- 1993: She Made The World Magenta
- 1994: Eye
- 1994: Tree In Fish
- 2005: I Am Your Egg
Pierre Moerlen's Gong albums
- 1976: Gazeuse!Gazeuse!Gazeuse! is an album by Pierre Moerlen's Gong, issued in 1976. In the U.S., it was called Expresso.The album is jazz fusion and has little to do with the psychedelic space rock of Daevid Allen's Gong, even though the bands share a common history...
, also known as Expresso - 1978: Expresso IIExpresso IIExpresso II is an album by Pierre Moerlen's Gong, issued in 1978.Like the other Pierre Moerlen's Gong albums, the album is predominantly jazz-fusion and has little to do with the psychedelic space rock of Daevid Allen's Gong, even though the bands share a common history.Expresso II is a companion...
- 1979: DownwindDownwind (album)Downwind is an album by Pierre Moerlen's Gong, issued in February, 1979 .Like the other Pierre Moerlen's Gong albums, Downwind is predominantly jazz fusion and has little to do with the psychedelic space rock of Daevid Allen's Gong, even though the bands share a common history...
- 1979: Time is the KeyTime is the Key-Personnel:*Pierre Moerlen – drums, gong, vibraphone, electravibe, marimba, glockenspiel, tympani, darbourka, synthesizers *Hansford Rowe – bass , acoustic guitar , bass synthesizer *Bon Lozaga – guitar with...
- 1980: Pierre Moerlen's Gong: Live
- 1981: Leave It OpenLeave It Open (album)-Track listing:-Personnel:* Francois Chausse – percussion* Delmelza – percussion* Brian Holloway – guitar, rhythm guitar* Charlie Mariano – saxophone* Pierre Moerlen – drums, gong, rhythm guitar, keyboards, vibraphone, synthesizer bass, polymoog...
- 1986: Breakthrough
- 1988: Second Wind
- 1998: Full Circle Live '88
- 2004: PentaninePentaninePentanine is an album by Pierre Moerlen's Gong, issued in 2004. The last album in Pierre Moerlen's life was recorded in 2002 at St.Petersburg with Russian musicians.-Track listing:#"Flyin' High" – 5:49#"Airway to Seven" – 4:37...
Live albums
- 1971: Glastonbury FayreGlastonbury Fayre (album)Glastonbury Fayre is a triple album released in 1972, comprising performances by acts who had appeared at the Glastonbury Festival in 1971...
(Gong contribute one side to this live triple album) - 1973: Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance HallGreasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance HallGreasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall is a 1974 live double album by various artists recorded at an October 1973 Greasy Truckers concert at the Dingwalls Dance Hall at Camden Lock in Camden Town, London...
- 1977: Gong est Mort, Vive Gong (French live album)
- 1977: Gong Live EtcGong Live EtcGong Live Etc. is a live album by Gong, recorded between 1973 and 1975 and originally released in 1977. It is a set of live recordings , studio out-takes and BBC session recordings spanning the years 1973 to 1975.- Track listing :Credits to C.O.I.T...
(UK live album) - 1977: Floating Anarchy Live (Planet Gong)
- 1990: Live At Sheffield '74
- 1990: Live au Bataclan 1973
- 1992: Live 1991 (Mother Gong)
- 1993: Live On T.V. 1990
- 1995: 25th Birthday Party
- 1995: Live Floating Anarchy 1991
- 1995: The Peel Sessions 1971/1974
- 2000: Live 2 InfiniteaLive 2 InfiniteaLive 2 Infinitea is a live album by Gong, recorded in April 2000 during Gong's European tour. - Track listing :# "Foolefare" – 0:46# "Zeroid" – 6:08# "Magdalene " Malherbe) – 2:15...
- 2002: Glastonbury 1971
- 2005: Glastonbury '79-'81 (Mother Gong)
- 2005: Live In Sherwood Forest '75Live In Sherwood Forest '75Live in Sherwood Forest '75 is a live album by Gong recorded in 1975, but not released until 2005 by Major League Productions.Recorded at Nottingham University on November 25th, 1975 for live radio broadcast....
- 2006: Acid Mothers Gong Live TokyoAcid Mothers Gong Live TokyoAcid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo is a live album by Gong in their Acid Mothers Gong format, recorded during April 2004 at the Doors Club in Tokyo, but not released until 2006 by Voiceprint, catalogue number VP382CD...
(Acid Mothers Gong) - 2007: Mothergong O Amsterdam (Mother Gong)
- 2009: Gong Global Family - Live in Brazil 2007
Compilation albums
- 1987: Wingful of Eyes
- 1995: The Best Of Gong
- 1997: The Very Best Of Gong
- 1998: Best Of Mother Gong
- 2003: The World of Daevid Allen and Gong (3 CD compilation including almost all of the Radio Gnome trilogy & early album tracks)
Further reading
- Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 1 (SAF Publishing) ISBN 0-946719-82-9
- Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 2 (SAF Publishing) ISBN 0-946719-56-3
- Brown, Brian. "Gong: Angel's Egg", (Crawdaddy!Crawdaddy!Crawdaddy! was the first U.S. magazine of rock and roll music criticism. Created in 1966 by college student Paul Williams in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music, Crawdaddy! was self-described as "the first magazine to take rock and roll...
) March 26, 2008
External links
- Official web site for Gong, GAS & Gliss
- The Archive - Archival photos of Gong,Mother Gong,Steve Hillage, Nik Turner, Here & Now,Hawkwind and many Free Festivals from the 60s-80s
- Acid Mother voted weirdest album cover of all time
- Gong at calyx.perso.neuf.fr, the "Canterbury website"
- "Not Just Another Gong Website" - comprehensive tapeography