Gong (band)
Gong is a band founded in 1968, which is counted on the Canterbury scene . In its eventful history, the group offered various musical styles such as progressive rock , fusion , space rock and jazz rock . Among the most famous of the band's numerous changing musicians are the founder Daevid Allen , the drummer and later musical director Pierre Moerlen and the guitarist Allan Holdsworth and Steve Hillage . Numerous follow-up and side projects such as Planet Gong , Mother Gong , New York Gong , Gongmaison and Gongzilla arose from the core group Gong .
history
Early years with Daevid Allen
Daevid Allen (1938-2015) was the guitarist for the British group Soft Machine in 1967 . When his visa and residence permit expired during a soft machine tour in France and he was denied re-entry to Great Britain, he stayed in France. At the time of the student unrest in Paris , he founded the band Gong with his then partner Gilli Smyth (1933-2016), who sometimes performed futuristic space whispering as a singer . A little later, Allen and Smyth left France and temporarily moved to Deià on Mallorca , where they met the flautist and saxophonist Didier Malherbe (* 1943).
Back in France, the group received a record deal with several albums with the BYG Actuel label and recorded their debut album Magick Brother in 1969 with bassist Christian Tritsch (* 1940) and percussionist Rachid Houri . Then the former delivery drummer , Pip Pyle (1950–2006), joined the band, who created the soundtrack of Jérôme Laprrousez's film Continental Circus and, in rapid succession, the second album Camembert Electrique and Allen's solo album Banana Moon (alongside Tritsch and Pyle, among others also with Robert Wyatt from Soft Machine ). Gong played at Glastonbury Festival in 1971 and then toured England.
As with many bands that are counted on the Canterbury scene , there were also frequent personnel changes at Gong, which were due to the chaotic creative environment and the internationality of the musicians. The albums were recorded partly in France and partly in England. After the BYG label went down, Gong was one of the first bands to sign with the new Virgin Records label in late 1972 . For the BBC, the band played a series of sessions between 1971 and 1974 with Kevin Ayers (1944-2013) as the second guitarist.
Radio Gnome Trilogy 1973/74
In 1973, Daevid Allen's lead with guitarist Steve Hillage (* 1951), keyboardist Tim Blake (* 1952), bassist Francis Moze ( Magma ) and drummer Laurie Allan (* 1943) produced the album Flying Teapot , which is a complex and humorous mythology about flying teapots, green men, benign witches, hallucinogenic drugs and the like, which had already been hinted at in previous publications.
With bassist Mike Howlett (* 1950) and drummer Pierre Moerlen (1952–2005) the albums Angel's Egg and You were created in 1973/74 , which together with Flying Teapot form the so-called Radio Gnome Trilogy , which became the central motif of the group as well as later Side projects was.
In 1973, Allen and Smyth temporarily withdrew to Mallorca, while the rest of the regular cast completed a tour of France as Paragong . In spring 1974 Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy (* 1953) also joined the band, who initially supported Gilli Smyth and then replaced her, as Smyth withdrew from the band for family reasons (two children together with Daevid Allen). After Tim Blake left the band, Giraudy also partly took over his keyboard parts.
Daevid Allen took his leave in the spring of 1975. The remaining band continued to perform and worked on new material for the Nick Mason- produced Shamal album , but in the spring of 1976 Hillage and Giraudy also left the band. Steve Hillage had released his first solo album in 1975 with the participation of several gong musicians and was aiming for a solo career. Drummer Pierre Moerlen also turned away from the group to go on tour with the percussion ensemble Percussions de Strasbourg .
Pierre Moerlen's gong
Virgin Records convinced drummer Pierre Moerlen to return to Gong and take over the musical direction. The style of the group then changed to purely instrumental jazz rock with a strong percussive note, since in addition to drummer Pierre Moerlen only his brother Benoit Moerlen and Mireille Bauer (* 1951) remained on percussion instruments and bassist Mike Howlett. Allan Holdsworth (1946-2017) was hired as the new guitarist . After bassist Howlett also left the band in May 1976, the album Gazeuse was created in 1977 with bassist Francis Moze, who had been part of the band for a number of years before, still under the name Gong . From 1978 the bassist Hansford Rowe was part of the permanent cast.
Under Moerlen's leadership, several albums were subsequently created under the group name Pierre Moerlen's Gong . Mike Oldfield , Steve Winwood and Mick Taylor could be heard on these albums . The group was active until the beginning of the 1980s, released another album in 1986 and then only appeared sporadically.
Bassist Hansford Rowe, percussionist Benoît Moerlen and guitarist Allan Holdsworth formed the group Gongzilla in the 1990s, which ties in with the percussive style of Pierre Moerlen's Gong and has since released several albums. After his time with Gong, Pierre Moerlen was particularly active as a drummer in musical ensembles, completed another tour with Gongzilla in 2002 and died in 2005.
Daevid Allen's gong
After leaving the original group, Daevid Allen used the name Gong for future projects . In 1977 he formed the live band Planet Gong with musicians from the English festival band Here & Now , with which he also recorded a studio single. In 1980 he released an album with Bill Laswell and his band Material under the band name New York Gong .
Gilli Smyth, who had separated from Allen in 1978, appeared as Mother Gong from 1979 , supported by her new partner Harry Williamson and initially by Didier Malherbe and Nik Turner ( Hawkwind ). Allen, Smyth and Williamson spent most of the 1980s in Australia. In 1987, Smyth and Williamson formed an all-Australian line-up of Mother Gong , who recorded several albums and performed numerous concerts until the end of their relationship in 1991.
In 1988 Daevid Allen returned to England and founded the project Invisible Opera Company of Tibet with Gong veteran Didier Malherbe , the name of which refers to a motif from the Radio Gnome Trilogy . The formation called itself Gongmaison from 1989 and Harry Williamson was part of it for a time.
In 1992 they called themselves gong again . The reunion was joined by other former band members, including drummer Pip Pyle, bassist Mike Howlett and singer Gilli Smyth. The cast also included younger musicians such as violinist Graham Clark (* 1959) and saxophonist Theo Travis (* 1964). With the albums Shapeshifter (1992) and Zero to Infinity (2000), the group once again followed up on the Radio Gnome trilogy and completed numerous tours as Classic Gong from 1996 to 2001.
Since then, the “classic line-up” has only been seen occasionally. Drummer Pip Pyle died in 2006. Daevid Allen continued to appear with various formations, including his group University of Errors , with whom he interpreted titles from Soft Machine , and with Acid Mothers Gong to the addition of Kawabata Makoto from Acid Mothers Temple and Gilli again Smyth and occasionally their son Orlando Allen counted. Together with Mikey Cosmic and various gong musicians, Allen has also recorded several albums with meditative music since 2000. Daevid Allen died in 2015 of complications from cancer, the other members are still active. A new studio album was released in September 2016.
Members
Some of the musicians who have played at gong include:
Discography
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Filmography
- 2015: Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales (DVD)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gong: Rejoice! I'm dead! Retrieved July 12, 2016 .