GONG!!!!!!!

[andrew Ivimey]

Forty five years or so after I first heard 'Camembert Electrique', totally overwhelmed with Pink Bloody Floyd, being a student in the early seventies, sex and drugs and rock and roll and sociology and my own inclinations towards hendrix, Mahler and Motown (ooooooooerrrr get him eclectic middle class yahoo poncy chap or what) it was at last a snip from dear old eBay, I was back in the groove.

Thence to 'The very best of Gong' way out on the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the hard disk drive I sync'ed - amazing stuff.

Have YOU listened to Gong?

You should - its a mental health issue. Highly recommended!

Then, in the university of Gong, you may find the meaning of Life. If you don't its a very cold and dreary, meaningless, drab, boring and dreadfully dull universe. You have my sympathy but I'm elsewhere.

And as for Isabella and hearing my bloody train a comin' (never thought I'd say this) - you can keep it! - Jazzzzzzzh - my arss.

[Nick]

And as for Isabella and hearing my bloody train a comin' (never thought I'd say this) - you can keep it! - Jazzzzzzzh - my arss.

In my book, Gong was always Jazz anyway.

[andrew Ivimey]

whereas our Jimi just isn't.

[shane]

Welcome back, brother.

[Nick]

whereas our Jimi just isn't.

Yep, I would agree with that.

[Greg]

whereas our Jimi just isn't.

Yep, I would agree with that.

.....although a couple of tracks on the newly released album sound spookily like jazz to me.

[andrew Ivimey]

That's not jazz, that's R&B; its the sort of thing Jimi Hendrix did for years on the 'chitlin circuit' before he came to Britain.

[Dave the bass]

Have YOU listened to Gong?

Yes.

Quite a lot actually, what would you like to know?

DTB

[Nick]

Yep, its only self defined pidgen holes on my part. But to me Jimi played R&B and clearly wanted to stretch out to the harmonic freedoms of Jazz, he often played with other players from a mainstream Jazz background, and had a Jazz drummer in fact. But it was always a "trying to play", wheras the chaos of Gong was always rooted in the Canterbury sound that gave us Soft Machine, and they always seemed to be coming from Jazz towards anything else instead of the other way around.

But any variant of "what is Jazz"! is always a problem.

but all very very IMHO.

[Dave the bass]

Gil Scott Heron pondered just exactly what Jazz was and put it to song. Dunno if anyones heard it here? (S'got a bass solo in it...so it must be jazz then... arf!)



DTB

[Dave the bass]

.... wheras the chaos of Gong was always rooted in the Canterbury sound ....

Not wishing to start a fight or nuthin' but.... according to Gong Dreaming (the book Daevid Allen has written about Gong, the band, the Foolosphy, the History, the people etc etc ) its chaos roots stem more Geographically from the student riots in Paris and musical/chemical experimentations in Paris which resulted in the development of space-whisper and glissando guitar combining in stoner jams.

Sure, Gong were often linked with the Canterbury scene/sound but their make up of musicians/PHP's was very international. Pierre Moerlen was French, Daevid Allen Australian, Mike Howlett Fijian, Didier is 'really proper French' (copyright JTS), Pip Pyle, Steve and Gilli English, Rachid Houari was (I think) Morrocan.

'World Music' ?

Good thread, one of my fave subjects.

DTB

DIET (found this timelineon a Canterbury website)

"1967
August

[24] At Dover, Daevid Allen is refused re-entry to Britain, because his visa has expired
September

After spending a short spell in jail, he settles in Paris
[11] An article on Soft Machine in the leading magazine 'Le Nouvel Observateur' makes him an instant celebrity
October

[early] Allen recites poetry and dances on stage with Soft Machine at the end of their concert at the Studio des Champs-Elysées
Allen works at the ORTF on contemporary music sound programmes with electronics composer François Bayle. He plays solo around the Rive Gauche bars, and starts working with an eccentric Turk called Tanner Celensu, who operates an echo chamber. Allen himself is evolving his "glissando" guitar technique, the eerie slide style he allegedly gleaned from watching Syd Barrett at the 14-hour Technicolour Dream the previous April. The duo is credited as 'Electric Cafe-Theatre Cabaret'
November

Gilli Smyth joins what is now called the "duo" Gong on "space whisper" (also known as 'Atlantean Temple Chants'), frequently in the company of her "soul sister" Ziska Baum, followed by a succession of, as Daevid puts it, "about eight of the maddest musicians imaginable". These include Loren Standlee and Natch Claire on the flute and one Daniel Laloux, who plays a large drum with cello strings attached to it, as well as a hunting horn. Allen later described this period as comprising of "a large number of people improvising around nothing for hours on end, completely stoned"
[19] Paris (France), Centre Américain ("Music - Pop Poets") [DA, GS & Mike Chapman, Etienne O'Leary, Mark Boyle, Beautiful Peoples]

[IslandPink]

'Angel's Egg' is lovely music and a lovely recording .

[Dave the bass]

Agreed. Knowing the lyrics off by heart of this album won me 2 tickets to Glastonbury in 2000. Really. <proud smiley>

Question was, If Gong are Instruments... who plays them?

Gong were playing in the 'Jazz' tent, "thanks for having us back....!" said Daevid Allen.... nearly 30 years after 1st playing there

DTB

[Nick]

Yep, no argument, early Gong, Magic Brother and Camembert was more spiky, though not that great a distance from Soft Machine 1, but by the time of Flying Teapot, I think its harder to deny the link to that middle England prog sound.

[IslandPink]

That Soft Machine track is truly excellent .
It also makes me sad, when you look at the (lonely) thread I launched the other day :
http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4755



It's also a shame how hard it is to find a copy of Soft Machine 1 on Vinyl .