gong

 

percussion instrument consisting of a disk, usually with upturned edges, 3 ft (91 cm) or more in diameter in the modern orchestra, often made of bronze, and struck with a felt- or leather-covered mallet or drumstick. Of ancient origin—representations of the gong date back to the 6th cent. A.D.—it has also been called the tam-tam. First used in Western music in the funeral march of Gossec's Mirabeau (1791), the gong has since been a regular member of the European-type orchestra, but it is used sparingly. It is commonly used in East Asian music and in the gamelan music of Bali and Java.

Gong
Origin	France
Genre(s)	Progressive rock Psychedelic rock Space rock
Years active	1967–present
Associated acts	Pierre Moerlen's Gong
Website	Official Website
Members
Daevid Allen Gilli Smyth Orlando Allen
Former members
Steve Hillage Mark Hewins Mike Howlett Didier Malherbe Pip Pyle Laurie Allan Christian Tritsch Tim Blake Pierre Moerlen Mireille Bauer Miquette Giraudy Shyamal Maitra Graham Clark Theo Travis Gwyo Zepix Chris Taylor Kawabata Makoto Josh Pollock Gabe Rogasner Cotton Casino

Gong is a progressive/psychedelic rock band formed by Australian 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, Mike Howlett and Pierre Moerlen. Others who have, albeit briefly, played in Gong are Bill Bruford, Brian Davison and Chris Cutler. The various incarnations of Gong, its spin-offs and related bands, such as Pierre Moerlen's Gong, have become known as the Gong Global Family.

History

Early years

Gong formed in 1967, after Allen—then a member of Soft Machine—was denied entry to the United Kingdom due to 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 fragmented during the 1968 student revolution, with Allen and Smyth forced to flee France for Deya in Majorca.

They found saxophonist Didier Malherbe living in a cave in Deya, 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 the newly formed independent label BYG and signed up for two albums (Magick Brother, Mystic Sister and Bananamoon).

Gong played at the first Glastonbury Festival and were subsequently one of the first acts to sign to Virgin Records, getting first pick of the studio-time ahead of Mike Oldfield. By 1971, a regular line-up had established itself and Gong released their Camembert Electrique album. The UK release, put out by Virgin Records subsidiary Caroline Records in 1974, was priced at 59p (that is, the price of a typical single rather than an album), ensuring that sufficient numbers were sold for the album to chart had it not been barred from the charts for being so cheap.

Radio Gnome

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. At a gig in Cheltenham, in 1975, Allen refused to go on stage, claiming that a "wall of force" was preventing him. He left the band, as did Smyth, who wanted to spend more time with her two children. The band also lost keyboard player Tim Blake, replaced by Patrice Lemoine. 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, but Hillage and Miquette Giraudy left before Shamal was released in 1976. They re-joined the band briefly for a 1977 live reunion.^[1]

Pierre Moerlen's Gong and other off-shoots

Gong continued, under the control of drummer Pierre Moerlen (died 2005) and without their two principal members, because of contractual obligations. They morphed into the jazz-rock outfit Pierre Moerlen's Gong, in this time the guitarrist Allan Holdsworth came into the band and contributed to give gong the new jazz-rock sonority.

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 and Planet Gong (which comprised Allen and Smyth playing with the British festival band Here & Now), while Smyth formed a separate band: Mother Gong.

Reunions and Acid Mothers Gong

In 1992, Allen and Malherbe reformed Gong and released the album Shapeshifter, subsequently dubbed Radio Gnome part 4. In 2000, a fifth installment, Zero to Infinity was released, featuring Smyth and classic line-up bassist Mike Howlett. However, 2004 saw a radical new Gong line-up, sometimes called Acid Mothers Gong, including Acid Mothers Temple current member Kawabata Makoto and former member Cotton Casino. Allen and Smyth's son Orlando Allen joined on drums for the album Acid Motherhood and there were also live dates.

The classic Radio Gnome line-up have reunited on a number of occasions in the past. However, it was recently agreed that touring is unprofitable, so they organise an "unconventional" gathering in November each year instead. The first "Gong Family Unconvention" (Uncon) was held in 2004 in the Glastonbury Assembly rooms as a one day event. The 2005 Uncon was a 2-day affair featuring several Gong-related bands such as Here and 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, 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.

Discography

• 1969 - Magick Brother
• 1971 - Bananamoon (Daevid Allen solo)
• 1971 - Glastonbury Fayre (Gong contribute one side to this live triple album, including a piece that is interrupted by "the generator packing up".)
• 1971 - Camembert Electrique
• 1971 - Continental Circus
• 1971 - Obsolete (Dashiell Hedayat & Gong)
• 1973 - Flying Teapot (Radio Gnome trilogy, part 1)
• 1973 - Angel's Egg (Radio Gnome trilogy, part 2)
• 1973- Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall (Gong contribute one side to this double album along with Henry Cow, Camel and the Global Village Trucking Company. The Gong tracks are not in fact 'live' performances.)
• 1974 - You (Radio Gnome trilogy, part 3)
• 1975 - Shamal - Produced by Nick Mason (Pink Floyd).
• 1977 - Gazeuse!, also known as Expresso
• 1977- Gong est mort, vive Gong! (French live album)
• 1977- Gong Live Etc (UK live album)
• 1978 - Expresso II
• 1979 - Downwind (as Pierre Moerlen's Gong)
• 1979 - Time is the Key (as Pierre Moerlen's Gong)
• 1980 - Pierre Moerlen's Gong: Live
• 1981 - Leave It Open (as Pierre Moerlen's Gong)
• 1986 - Breakthrough (as Pierre Moerlen's Gong)
• 1989 - Gong Maison (Gong Maison)
• 1992 - Shapeshifter
• 2000 - Zero to Infinity
• 2001 - Live to Infinity (UK live album)
• 2003 - The World of Daevid Allen and Gong (a 3 CD collection with no original material, but which includes almost all of the Radio Gnome trilogy, tracks from early albums including four each from Camembert Electrique and Bananamoon and selections of Daevid Allen's later work with Planet Gong and New York Gong.)
• 2004 - Acid Motherhood
• 2005 - I Am Your Egg (Mother Gong)

References

1. ^ Planet Gong: Tribal Heart: Gig History: 1977. Retrieved on 2006-09-20.

Further reading

Daevid Allen's first volume of memoirs Gong Dreaming 1 have been reissued in January 2007.

• Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 1 (SAF Publishing) ISBN 0-946719-82-9

External links

• Official web site for Gong, GAS & Gliss
• JEZALAND - Original archive photos of Gong, Nik Turner, Here & Now, Free Festivals from Jeza
• The Archive - Archival photos of Gong,Mother Gong,Steve Hillage, Nik Turner, Here & Now,Hawkwind and many Free Festivals from the 60s-80s

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