Gong: I See You

[proggy_jazzer]

Gong is new to me, and now in my field of view completely because of Kavus's involvement. I love I See You and also the two after. What I've heard of the 70s group has caught my ear as well, and I plan to dig into that over time. I love when a band's newest material causes me to want to do this kind of "backwards" listening! The same thing happened to me with Nik Bärtsch, Mike Keneally, and Porcupine Tree, along with many jazz artists over the years.

[polmico]

Just in case:

GONG - ‘PULSING SIGNALS’ THE NEW LIVE ALBUM ON KSCOPE - 18TH FEBRUARY 2022
Available on 2CD, 2LP and digitally
Pre-orders available now - https://gong.lnk.to/PulsingSignals

Very much looking forward to this.

[Nashorn]

Gong is new to me, and now in my field of view completely because of Kavus's involvement. I love I See You and also the two after. What I've heard of the 70s group has caught my ear as well, and I plan to dig into that over time. I love when a band's newest material causes me to want to do this kind of "backwards" listening! The same thing happened to me with Nik Bärtsch, Mike Keneally, and Porcupine Tree, along with many jazz artists over the years.

I would recommend to start with „You“, if you haven’t heard it yet. Not only is it my favourite Gong album ever, it also has a perfect mix between the earlier song-oriented stuff and the later jazz-rock material.


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[Piskie]

^^^ Just buy everything and be done with it. (and yes - You is probably the best!)

[happytheman]

^^^ Just buy everything and be done with it. (and yes - You is probably the best!)

Certainly the trilogy..

[Enidi]

It's not unusual for a number of Gong fans to be disappointed over the realization that Daevid Allen is gone. It's easy to comprehend their disappointment. Allen was the writer of the Gong mythology.
It's an on going situation throughout the history of Rock and Jazz. When Coltrane left Miles Davis a number of fans were disappointed.

My huge letdown was waking up and realizing that the Northettes rarely performed with Hatfield And The North. 😔

[Enidi]

Although I haven't purchased anything by the new Gong ...I'm sure to once I can get used to the idea. I started collecting Gong in 74'. I was a late bloomer. All of that experience can be attributed to leg work and hustling through the big cities to find Gong albums. Contacting mail order services . The most vital being Wayside Music, Jem Records, and Greenworld.

Wayside Music I discovered in 1980 . Most serious collectors of underground European Progressive Rock were deprived of retail sources and Wayside put an end to that!!! It was like being a kid in a candy store. ...and Procedures for the consumer differed greatly . For example...you'd have to write Wayside a letter to ask if they had a specific item in stock and if they did would they hold it for a few days.

You would include a self addressed stamped envelope and Wayside would mail you a response. So instead of making trips to the big cities...Wayside gave the old school collectors the comfort of staying at home and awaiting the arrival of their LP's and cds. Thanks for that extra special glimpse into the "old school " ways of life.

I believe that Sherman Hemsley would have been an ideal candidate for investing in Gong. In the 70s it was difficult to buy their music. The availability was scarce and even in N.Y. you might search through record shops finding a section on Gong, but not the specific title you wanted. Sometime in the early 80s Daevid Allen walked into the basement of Third St. Jazz And Rock record shop in Philadelphia carrying stacks of Gong albums ...and said to the manager "Here's my music...please sell it" I spent a lot on Gong albums that day. ...a beautiful experience

[Udi Koomran]

I started collecting Gong in 74'.
I was a late bloomer.

Wayside Music I discovered in 1980 .

In the 70s it was difficult to buy their music. The availability was scarce and even in N.Y. you might search through record shops finding a section on Gong, but not the specific title you wanted.
Sometime in the early 80s Daevid Allen walked into the basement of Third St. Jazz And Rock record shop in Philadelphia carrying stacks of Gong albums ...and said to the manager "Here's my music...please sell it" I spent a lot on Gong albums that day. ...a beautiful experience

Thanks for sharing this
Quite a few parallels with my experience

I discovered Gong in 1.1.75 listening to a wonderful Progressive Rock program on public radio here in Israel
I was 12…
They played A Sprinkling of Clouds - for some reason that piece of music really caught me and I just had to find that album
Decades later It is still my favourite piece of music…
I remember buying it and rushing home to give a first listen and being in total shock at the first moments cause I was expecting this to be instrumental like Sprinkling and so that enigmatic atmosphere with Bloomdidoo’s weird vocals and Gilli mysterious whispers and then suddenly Daevid’s clear loud voice “in case you din’t remember”

My mind was blown

Actually it was quite easy to find Gong stuff in the 70 in Tel Aviv but being so young initially the guy at the best shop in TLV was reluctant to sell me a copy saying “boy you are tok young for this hippie drugged shit”
But i was so determined i did walk out with that Lp and totally dug it
Both Virgin and later Charly and Affinity’s distributions worked quite well
Additionally i visited London in 76 so
I was even able to find Continental Circus and Obsolete
But failed to find Glastonbury Fayre and Live at Dingwalls
But i never ever saw anything on Byg those early 70’s records were rare and anyway were re released by Virgin


Anyway i too discovered Wayside Music in 1981 through an american guy who befriended my best friend and discovering that catalog was incredible
A year later I discovers the Recommended Records mailorder
Both of these were my source for decades

You had to see my face when I got hold of About Time heh heh again what a shock

[Enidi]

Thanks for sharing this
Quite a few parallels with my experience

I discovered Gong in 1.1.75 listening to a wonderful Progressive Rock program on public radio here in Israel
I was 12…
They played A Sprinkling of Clouds - for some reason that piece of music really caught me and I just had to find that album
Decades later It is still my favourite piece of music…
I remember buying it and rushing home to give a first listen and being in total shock at the first moments cause I was expecting this to be instrumental like Sprinkling and so that enigmatic atmosphere with Bloomdidoo’s weird vocals and Gilli mysterious whispers and then suddenly Daevid’s clear loud voice “in case you din’t remember”

My mind was blown

Actually it was quite easy to find Gong stuff in the 70 in Tel Aviv but being so young initially the guy at the best shop in TLV was reluctant to sell me a copy saying “boy you are tok young for this hippie drugged shit”
But i was so determined i did walk out with that Lp and totally dug it
Both Virgin and later Charly and Affinity’s distributions worked quite well
Additionally i visited London in 76 so
I was even able to find Continental Circus and Obsolete
But failed to find Glastonbury Fayre and Live at Dingwalls
But i never ever saw anything on Byg those early 70’s records were rare and anyway were re released by Virgin


Anyway i too discovered Wayside Music in 1981 through an american guy who befriended my best friend and discovering that catalog was incredible
A year later I discovers the Recommended Records mailorder
Both of these were my source for decades

You had to see my face when I got hold of About Time heh heh again what a shock

Fascinating story! Thanks for sharing it ! Greasy Truckers at Dingwalls Dance Hall I didn't find till 1984. Glastonbury I paid a hundred for. It included all the original posters and artwork.

[strawberrybrick]

I discovered Gong via my love of Soft Machine and Caravan. My father travelled internationally for his work. He told me he was going to Paris, so I asked him to pickup any albums he could find by "this French band Gong." Must have been late 70s. Imagine, my dad, a guy in a business suit who spoke many languages (English was 4th or so) walks into a record shop and asks "My son wants albums by the band Gong". He bought out the bin. One of my best memories of him, a guy that always complained "why you spend money on these records.. you save it!"!

[groon]

Great stories. My introduction to Gong occurred when I walked into the Virgin Records store in Brighton (England) in, I guess, late '74 and they had a big promotion on: Camembert Electrique for something like 49p and a PHP tee-shirt which they may have been giving away. I spun the disc and was instantly hooked, went down to the Cottage, Brighton's second-hand record store, and bought the trilogy. Then to London's Portobello Road to score Continental Circus, the Glasto album and Greasy Truckers, which you could do in those days without totally emptying your wallet.

I wore that tee-shirt so much it literally fell apart; thankfully, the music has been more enduring and still feels remarkably fresh. Although Camembert may not have been their most accomplished album, it remains very special to me.

To bring myself back on topic, may I add that the post-Daevid Gong are doing a wonderful job maintaining the essence of what made the band so special, both musically and spiritually. The last gig I attended before lockdown was Gong and -- dv -- they'll be the first band I see live since then, in a few weeks' time.

[Enidi]

I discovered Gong via my love of Soft Machine and Caravan. My father travelled internationally for his work. He told me he was going to Paris, so I asked him to pickup any albums he could find by "this French band Gong." Must have been late 70s. Imagine, my dad, a guy in a business suit who spoke many languages (English was 4th or so) walks into a record shop and asks "My son wants albums by the band Gong". He bought out the bin. One of my best memories of him, a guy that always complained "why you spend money on these records.. you save it!"!

That's a great dad!

[Enidi]

Great stories. My introduction to Gong occurred when I walked into the Virgin Records store in Brighton (England) in, I guess, late '74 and they had a big promotion on: Camembert Electrique for something like 49p and a PHP tee-shirt which they may have been giving away. I spun the disc and was instantly hooked, went down to the Cottage, Brighton's second-hand record store, and bought the trilogy. Then to London's Portobello Road to score Continental Circus, the Glasto album and Greasy Truckers, which you could do in those days without totally emptying your wallet.

I wore that tee-shirt so much it literally fell apart; thankfully, the music has been more enduring and still feels remarkably fresh. Although Camembert may not have been their most accomplished album, it remains very special to me.

To bring myself back on topic, may I add that the post-Daevid Gong are doing a wonderful job maintaining the essence of what made the band so special, both musically and spiritually. The last gig I attended before lockdown was Gong and -- dv -- they'll be the first band I see live since then, in a few weeks' time.

The U.S. should have taken an example of that. England being somewhat like a small island and I can imagine the culture being so cool there. In the U.S. I would travel in the music business from state to state and people would ask me.."What kind of music do you like?" I'd say..."Gong"... .People would generally respond like this..."Who?" It was so commercialized here in the U.S. We were lucky to hear Gong on an after hours radio program. ...but of course never in the daytime.. and never promoted in any sense of the word to make Gong relevant to American youth.. at least not on the East coast. The place to be was England. Europe!

[Enidi]

I have an interview with Daevid Allen on cassette tape which took place shortly after the release of Good Morning.

The interviewer says..."Tell us about when you left Gong" Allen responded: Well, that's a rather strange story , ya see we were starting a new tour and we would open the show with the "Om" riff.

One of us would enter the stage and begin playing the "Om riff" and then we would all join in one at a time...and on this particular occasion I was the last to enter the stage. And when I tried to get on stage there was this kind of invisible rubber curtain that stopped me. I just couldn't get through there. Everybody else had already started and when it came time for me to enter...I just couldn't get through there. It was like an invisible force field that was preventing me. That's actually how I left Gong because I couldn't get on the stage ya see?

Now this is a story that I totally misunderstand. I don't understand too much about it and have always been curious if it was a metaphor or maybe even an LSD trip. ...but he did claim it to be true and he did leave Gong after this experience. Is anyone familiar with this story? Would anyone be so kind as to explain what he meant by all this? He seemed to take the experience seriously as if it were a sign. Does anybody know the meaning behind this?

[Progatron]

I find this to be a mighty fine album, and I reach for it on the shelves a little more often due to it standing out physically (it's a sturdy digibook and a bit taller than the surrounding CDs). Good enough reason as any!

My first experience with Gong came from a friend of mine who was not into them at all. He gave me a tape that his friend had made for him, but he hated it as it didn't align with his rather narrow classic rock FM radio tastes. On one side his friend had written 'Angel's Egg', and on the other '...Now you're here and now you're GONG...' with little musical notes. I was hooked immediately. So whoever that guy was, I owe him a debt of gratitude!

[Udi Koomran]

As far as I know this really happened to him at Cheltenham April
1975

His last few days of that tour including that fatal gig are well documented and described in his book Gong Dreaming 2

[Enidi]

As far as I know this really happened to him at Cheltenham April
1975

His last few days of that tour including that fatal gig are well documented and described in his book Gong Dreaming 2

Udi Koomran...thank you !

[chalkpie]

Great story brother Udester

[soundsweird]

I like a lot of this album, but I miss the synths/keyboards (guest keyboards on only 1 track).

[Udi Koomran]

I like a lot of this album, but I miss the synths/keyboards (guest keyboards on only 1 track).

mmm
I love the synth on the trilogy albums
Tim Blake’s contributions were pure magic and along with the foundations of the glissando guitar and space whisper was the additional crucial element to Gongs eternal celestial sound
But with the exception of Planet Gong Live 1977 that sort of sound was never bern possible to recreate in a convincing manner

And none of the post 70’s albums boast any significant synths or keyboards

[Munster]

mmm
I love the synth on the trilogy albums
Tim Blake’s contributions were pure magic and along with the foundations of the glissando guitar and space whisper was the additional crucial element to Gongs eternal celestial sound
But with the exception of Planet Gong Live 1977 that sort of sound was never bern possible to recreate in a convincing manner

And none of the post 70’s albums boast any significant synths or keyboards

I totally agree about the synths, glissando guitar and space whisperings being the crucial elements to Gong's 'eternal celestial sound'. Pure magic. I am not so sure that none of the post 70s albums boasts any significant synths, though. There are prominent synths on The Universe Also Collapses, 2032 and Acid Motherhood, for example. But I do agree that the sound of the trilogy band was never recreated in a convincing manner. I think that this is because of the inevitable switch from analogue synths to digital synths in the late 1970s (Yamaha developed a prototype digital synthesizer in 1974); the warmth and depth of the original instrument is not replicated in the digital synths.

On the subject of synths - and Blake in particular - the recent Live At Longlaville album really captures his sound well. I don't think the version of Other Side Of The Sky is particularly memorable on Longlaville (there are better versions on Bataclan, Sheffield and Roanne) but A Sprinkling Of Clouds is excellent. Ironically, Blake never sounded as good on the synths as he did while playing with Gong. I would have thought his solo stuff would have been filled with 'eternal celestial sound', but, apart from Synthese Intemporel on Crystal Machine, he never came near to matching the sound he attained in Gong (IMO). Perhaps this is down to his inclination to sing, but it may also have something to do with synchronising his sound with the glissando guitars of Allen and Hillage.

[Sunlight Caller]

It’s really interesting hearing the tales of how you all first encountered Gong. My U.K. experience is somewhat similar to that of Groon above. It was the mega-cheap Camembert disc that enticed me, although timeline-wise I think it may have been out a while and there were residual copies hanging around the record shop. It must have been about ‘75 when I started buying albums in earnest as a teen, and having been introduced to this wonderful long-haired rock music, I was always enticed by a bargain disc that could swell the small collection. There were quite a few samplers and budget discs back then besides Camembert, we could get The Faust Tapes, Pictures At An Exhibition, 24 Carat Purple, and I recall a really good Focus compilation with a bright yellow sleeve, amongst others. However I was beguiled by Gong, and explored the margins and past releases with gusto. A friend subscribed to the GAS tapes and we had another avenue to explore, sadly I do not have any copies of these today, but I do still have my vinyl collection of most of the 70’s releases. I love them to this day.

When Planet Gong happened, they suddenly became far more accessible, and I met Daevid and the then band one Sunday afternoon when the circus rolled into town. They set up early and we all sat around listening to sound checks, noodling and laughter, and reading his hand drawn manifestos, it was a formative experience and cemented my love for the band.

I firmly believe the name is in very safe hands with Kavus and the gang, their music is of the highest quality and they carry the vibe forwards, and after all the magical Daevid decreed this was the way forward, so who are we mortal earthlings to challenge this wisdom?

[Piskie]

I bought the Other Side Of the Sky compilation of Gong- over 10 years ago and it got played occasionally, until a couple years ago something clicked and I realised how wonderful the music was. That lead to an awful lot of musical exploration!

[Udi Koomran]

I totally agree about the synths, glissando guitar and space whisperings being the crucial elements to Gong's 'eternal celestial sound'. Pure magic. I am not so sure that none of the post 70s albums boasts any significant synths, though. There are prominent synths on The Universe Also Collapses, 2032 and Acid Motherhood, for example. But I do agree that the sound of the trilogy band was never recreated in a convincing manner. I think that this is because of the inevitable switch from analogue synths to digital synths in the late 1970s (Yamaha developed a prototype digital synthesizer in 1974); the warmth and depth of the original instrument is not replicated in the digital synths.

On the subject of synths - and Blake in particular - the recent Live At Longlaville album really captures his sound well. I don't think the version of Other Side Of The Sky is particularly memorable on Longlaville (there are better versions on Bataclan, Sheffield and Roanne) but A Sprinkling Of Clouds is excellent. Ironically, Blake never sounded as good on the synths as he did while playing with Gong. I would have thought his solo stuff would have been filled with 'eternal celestial sound', but, apart from Synthese Intemporel on Crystal Machine, he never came near to matching the sound he attained in Gong (IMO). Perhaps this is down to his inclination to sing, but it may also have something to do with synchronising his sound with the glissando guitars of Allen and Hillage.

He did a great job on Fish Rising and Clearlight Symphony

So he was thriving on collaborating were other musicians laid the groundwork and he would intuitively spread his fairy dust
Solo is obviously not his forte

And I assume after 75 the drugs were not as potent….

Regarding the gear yes by New Jerusalem he expanded his rig adding more conventional weapons like Roland 100 System, Mini-Moog, ARP Omni and Korg Polyphonic Ensembles
Solo meant having to-play leads rhythms and harmonies with Gong there was an easier load and less multitasking

Coming back to his contributions on Angel’s Egg and You phenomenal stuff

[aith01]

I haven't yet listened to any of the more recent Gong, with Kavus. I'm gonna fix that tonight.

Just started Rejoice! I'm Dead!, and this opening track is killer.

if I'm being frank, and actually I am Frank.