To say that Gong were a peculiar band would really be an understatement. They were originally founded in the late 1960s by ex Soft Machine guitarist Daevid Allen, who for various administrative reasons cited as ‘Visa irregularities’ but which I have always suspected were more to do with Daevid’s Situationist antics during the Paris Student protests of May 1968 which very nearly brought a successful revolution to Western Europe, he was not allowed back into the Mother Country to rejoin his Canterbury chums.

• Gong Paris Bataclan 1976 Blogspot 2017
• Bataclan Paris Attack
• Le Bataclan
• Gong Paris Bataclan 1976 Blogspot Album

So Daevid went down to Deya in Majorca where he, and partner Gilly Smyth began to assemble a loose-knit collection of musicians who began recording under the name Gong. One of these musicians was Didier Malherbe (latter dubbed Bloomdido Bad-De Grass by Daevid), a tremendously gifted saxophonist and flautist, who Daevid claimed to have found living in a cave on the estate of poet Robert Graves. The rest is history

Gong Paris Bataclan 1976 Blogspot 2017

Pierre MOERLEN'S GONG Paris Bataclan 1976 CD. Leave It Open CD (2006) (Import) Japan. Check Availability. Japanese limited edition special issue of the album classic in a deluxe, miniaturized LP sleeve replica of the original vinyl album artwork. Live In Sheffield CD (2013) (Import). Oily Way-Outer Temple-The Hippodrome De Pantin, Paris,May 28, 1977 12. You Never Blow Your Trip ForeverThe Hippodrome De Pantin, Paris,May 28, 1977 13. You Can't Kill Me-The Salle Bataclan,Paris,May,1973 14. I Am Your Pussy-The Salle Bataclan,Paris,May,1973 15. Fohat Digs Holes In Space-The Salle Bataclan,Paris,May,1973 16. Gong was formed in Paris in 1967 by Australian guitarist Daevid Allen. This gig is from 1974 when Bill Bruford from King Crimson was part of the Gong.

Daevid, both with and without various versions of Gong, has produced a peerless body of work encompassing folk, jazz, rock and prog (often all of these things and more at once), and his musicianship and compositional skills are legendary.

Put like that it all seems simple, but it was anything but. After releasing You (the third part of the Radio Gnome Invisible saga, and the least silly of the albums to date) Daevid left the band. Whether it was because of personal difficulties, musical differences, or – as he claimed to me many years ago – because one night an enormous psychic force field prevented him going on stage, neither I or anyone else who wasn’t there at the time will ever know.

Bataclan Paris Attack

Daevid went solo, and also teamed up with Here and Now as Planet Gong, and later with the band that would later become Material as New York Gong. Eventually he would reform Gong, but that would be many decades in the future. A few years later Gilli Smyth formed Mother Gong. According to an unsourced quote in Wikipedia “Allen delighted in this proliferation of groups and considered his role at this time to be that of an instigator, travelling around the world leaving active Gong-related bands in his wake.” There may not be a citation there, but that certainly sounds like the Daevid I used to know.

What of the rest of the band? Well, many people believed that the idea of Gong without Daevid was like the Rolling Stones without Keith Richards, but after a stint as Paragong they regrouped as Gong with guitarist Steve Hillage at the helm. The band recorded a new album, but Hillage left before its release. Gilli Smyth and Tim Blake had left at around the same time as Daevid, so the rump of Gong now led by the only surviving founder member Didier Malherbe aka Bloomdido Bad de Grasse, found himself in need of recruiting new members. He brought in noted French percussionist

Piere Moerlen as co-leader, and when de Grasse himself left in 1977, Moerlen was in charge.

The newly instated Pierre Moerlen’s Gong sometimes also known as Expresso Gong made some excellent and innovative records, and – amongst many other things – were responsible for this excellent live album. Propellerhead reason 4 free full version. So it all comes round in circles in the end. JON DOWNES.

Le Bataclan

Gong Paris Bataclan 1976 Blogspot Album