From: malcolm@wrs.com (Malcolm Humes)
Subject: Re: Gong, again
Organization: Wind River Systems, Inc.
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 23:42:56 GMT

dpg4m@kelvin.seas.Virginia.EDU (David Paul Gervais) writes:
>(esp. what's the Gong underground
>I heard references to mean) etc.

I suspect this might be a refernce to the grass roots network in the US
booking tours by Gong related artists. Looks like Richard Sinclair of
Hatfield and Caravan is the next one coming through. 

>Anyway you could either e-mail me or, gong me here for the rest
>of the group to read--- let's talk GONG.

I'm pressed for time right now, and I think I already brushed off responding
once by email, but here's a quickie and some old mail about a specific part
of Gong's history - their peak in the 70's before splitting into different
bands and directions. 

The band was started by Daevid Allen, a wild australian beatnik who helped
found Soft Machine and who hung out with William S. Burroughs and Terry
Riley in teh early 60's. He and Didier Malherbe are the only original 
members in the current Gong92 lineup, though Pip Pyle is with them now and
was in the band about 20 years ago too. Allen used to hang out with Hendrix, 
John & Yoko, and Pink Floyd in the early Soft Machine days and he learned
his glissando guitar style from Syd Barrett. The band went through many
personel changes. The Trilogy lps, Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg, and You, 
are to me a sort of guided trip - concept lps that tell a story, and create
a mythology blending hippieness with zen. Fun stuff. Other elements of the
group leaned toward jazz-rock and so when the band split Pieer Moerlen, the
drummer, decided to continue using the name gong, and went on to do fusion
jazz/rock stuff. Daevid contiued with a string of other Gongs, NY Gong, 
Planet Gong, Gong Maison, and Gong92. He ex wife started Mother Gong. 

Here's some old post I have trying to answer the question of "When was 
Bill Bruford with Gong, and did he record with them?"

> I read this in the YesYears (box set) discography:
 
>     "With King Crimson, Bill Bruford recorded Larks Tongues in Aspic,
>     Starless and Bible Black, Red, and USA.  There was also a compilation:
>     The Young Persons Guide to King Crimson.  He subsequently drummed on
>     albums by Gong, Roy Harper, Pavlov's Dog, Steve Howe, Chris Squire."
 
>Either this is a big mistake or we need to look more closely and the
>Gong collection.  Seems to me Gong's albums credits are somewhat crytic,
>maybe he's really there.  Can someone post a Gong discography and identify
>the albums where he could plausably show up (ie. the right time frame)?
>On these albums, who is listed as personel (presumably weird aliases).
 
I have *every* Gong lp from that era and can assure you Bruford isn't 
credited on any of them. I don't think it's likely that he appears uncredited
and I don't hear anything that sounds like him. I've cross referenced a couple
different band histories and family trees, plus I know the founder of Gong, 
Daevid Allen. Here's what I put together for soemone else curious about this, 
and I don't feel like totally re-editing it or including a complete right now
so it includes some other Gong history too.  

Basically what I got from talking to Daevid and reading various sources like
Soft Machine, Gong and Daevid Allen solo liner notes is this: After "Flying 
Teapot" Allen and Gilli Smyth left for a while. I think Gilli had a kid then. 
That was around March to May 1973. The bass player, drummer, and guitar player
from Teapot split. Hillage and Blake hooked up with Moerlen and Howlett. I 
think it was around this time that they played a bit with Kevin Ayers, not 
really performing Gong material. Allen and Smyth came back and the band 
recorded "Angel's Egg" (released 11/73). Between June 1973 and July 1975 
Pierre Moerlen was at various times replaced by 5 other drummers including 
Bill Bruford. Basically Moerlen left after Angel's Egg and returned to 
record "You" (released 11/74). 

Bruford is listed as being one of five drummers with Gong between 1973-75. 
Since he was in King Crimson until around July 74 I assume he hooked up
with Gong between 7/74 and 7/75 when drummer Pierre Moerlen came back and
took over the group.  I have heard a live tape of Gong supposedly with
Bruford in Lemans France in 11/74 but the quality of the tape is such that
you really can't tell if it's Bruford or not.  I am going under the 
assumption that Bruford did not play with Gong while still in King Crimson,
which ended their tour in 7/74 but still did some studio recording after 
that ("Red") before disbanding. If anyone else has any other info to add 
to this please let me know. I'll try to ask Daevid more specifically about 
Bruford's work with Gong when he's in San Francisco in two weeks. 

Since there were 6 drummers with Gong during the period of 6/73 to 7/75 and 
only one of them appears on the lps released 11/73 and 11/74 I assume that 
none of the other drummers was there very long. Bruford is not credited on 
Angel's Egg or You, which are the only two lps recorded around the time he
was with the band. The other drummers with Gong during 1973-75 besides 
Moerlen and Bruford were Laurie Allan, Rob Tait, Di Bond, and Brian Davison.

Daevid and Gilli left in April 75, right around the time Fish Rising was 
released, and which was essentially a Gong lp without Daevid and Gilli. Then 
they did Shamal, with Tim Blake gone and a new keyboard player and a violin 
player added. Shamal was released 2/76 but Hillage had already split by 
12/75 to go solo even though he was on the Shamal recordings. Bassist
Mike Howlett also left around that time and went into producing stuff for
Virgin. The new keyboard player and violinsit for Shamal also split, making
the lineup for Gazeuse (also released as Expresso) and Expresso II the 5th
totally different lineup of Gong, and leaving it with no original band members
after Didier left. IMHO Moerlen should have renamed the band since Gong was 
really Daevid's trip. (Actually, quite literally since the whole Gong story
was "received" by Daevid once while he was tripping in the late 60's.)

It's my perception that Allen and Smyth got off drugs and into zen and they 
started getting uneasy with being onstage for audiences of thousands that were
out of control, and also uncomfortable with being onstage and backstage with
people out of control. Tim Blake was supposedly into getting as blotto as he
could by drinking and smoking and tripping before and during shows. Moerlen
supposedly was anti drugs originally and then ironically became a cokehead and
a junkie. Suitcases full of coke were appearing backstage and making Allen
a bit uncomfortable. By the recording of You the band was being pulled into
different directions and Moerlen wanted to get away from the mythology of it

I transcribed a poem by Daevid Allen that he read last summer that seemed to 
sum up the anarchy of the group and why Bruford left: 

------
"Poem To Bill Bruford:

`You look quite young,
 except your hands.
 You have old hands. '

 I look at my hands...
 They look like I died last Saturday.

`I couldn't stay in this band,
 you all think differently than me,
 you drive me mad. ha ha ha.'
`I just couldn't do it' he added joyfully.

 Bloomdido says, hopefully, last angle,
`We are a community of hermits' *

`I like your playing' he said, gay-ly zooming in on Bloom,
`It's binging fantastic!' " **
----

By Daevid Allen, as read 8/91.

* = pronounced with exaggerated french accent
** = it sounded like "binging" but may have been some other word...

------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's some details from the Canterbury music discography in the 
discography ftp archives:

Gong: Radio Gnome Invisible Part 2-Angel's Egg, 1973 (Virgin) [#,CD]
  Didier Malherbe: sax  <Shakti Yoni> Gilli Smyth: vocals
  <T. Being esq.> Tritsch: gtr, bass  Steve Hillage: gtrs
  <Hi T. Moonweed> Tim Blake: synth  <Dingo Virgin> Daevid Allen: gtrs,voc.
  <Mireille de Strasbourg> Mireille Bauer: Percussion,
  <Pierre de Strasbourg> Pierre Moerlen:drums
 [Note, some members had several aliases, notably Didier, who was Bloomdido
  Bad de Grass (a play on his name, in French Malherbe translates literally
  as 'bad grass'), Bloomdido Bad de Glis (glis being a Steve Hillage word for
  the musical term 'glissando' ), Bloomdido Glid de Breeze, Bloomdido Glad
  de Brass, Gnome Pipo Bal de Glass.]
Gong: Radio Gnome Invisible Part 3-You, 1974 (Virgin) [CD]
  Mike Howlett: bass  Pierre Moerlen: drums  Steve Hillage: gtr 
  Didier Malherbe: sax  <Hi T. Moonweed> Tim Blake:synth  
  <Dingo Virgin> Daevid Allen: gtr,voc.  <Shakti Yoni> G.Smyth: vocals
  <Bambaloni Yoni> Miquette Giraudy: voc.  Mirielle Bauer: perc.
  Benoit Moerlin: perc.
Gong: Shamal, 1976 (Virgin) [#] [CD]
  Mirielle Bauer: perc.  Patrice Lemoine: kybds  Pierre Moerlin: drums
  Miquette Giraudy: voc.,kybds  Steve Hillage: gtrs  Mike Howlett: bass
  Didier Malherbe: sax  Francis Moze: bass  Jorge Pinchevsky: violin

Discography excerpts courtesy of Richard Todd. Thanks Richard!

Hope this helps settle this one. Got any more Gong trivia questions? Just
ask and I'll see what I can find...
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