In 2014, Gong founder Daevid Allen’s most cancers analysis compelled him out of the band’s upcoming tour in help of that 12 months’s album I See You – their greatest, most forward-looking launch in years. He instructed Prog in regards to the work and his perception in all the time wanting forward as a substitute of again. Quickly afterwards he refused additional remedy, and died aged 77 on March 13, 2015.
“Hopefully the most cancers will recede to offer me a number of extra years of creativity, however at 76, I can settle for that my days are numbered,” observes Daevid Allen, with none trace of drama or mawkishness relating to the invention of a cancerous tumour in his neck.
Following remedy, Allen is on the mend, having acquired an nearly tangible present of fine vibes from followers around the globe since his sickness was introduced in June 2014. Although profoundly grateful, he stays philosophical. “There are such a lot of folks now affected by most cancers that it’s by no means removed from any of us and I want all of them nicely. As for me, I’m coping… simply.”
Speak to anybody who is aware of Allen or has performed with him in one of many quite a few variants of Gong, and the identical phrases and phrases maintain getting used: charismatic, energetic, sharp, brilliant, instinctive, humorous, free spirit, timeless, intense, extremely musical, unafraid to talk his thoughts. Ask anybody who has seen Gong at any level over almost six a long time and so they’ll level to Allen’s efficiency, which nonetheless has extra sparkle and stamina than most artists half his age.
Ever since he arrived in Canterbury within the early Sixties from his native Australia, he had a behavior of being fascinated about what different folks might do, then whipping up a inventive power that may make issues occur. He did it for musicians together with Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers and Mike Ratledge, who gathered round him to kind Smooth Machine.
Undaunted when he was denied re-entry into the UK following their European tour in 1967, Allen remained in France, ducking and diving between pop festivals, pupil unrest and confrontations with the police, accruing a ragtag, shifting ensemble that may ultimately coalesce into Gong. From being an obscure international import to a daily fixture on the polytechnic and municipal corridor circuit, the band added their very own idiosyncratic, dazzling splash of psychedelic color to the monochrome mid-70s United Kingdom as they toured albums corresponding to Flying Teapot, Angel’s Egg (each 1973), You (1974) and 1971’s Camembert Electrique (reissued in 1974).
Time will inform as as to whether 2014’s I See You shall be regarded in the identical reverential tones as these illustrious predecessors; however listening to its punchy tracks, wry humour and biting evaluation, it’s exhausting to keep away from the conclusion that that is no doubt the strongest and arguably probably the most coherent Gong report in a very long time. For a band typically perceived as having their heads within the clouds, what’s hanging in regards to the new album is its want to have interaction with the realpolitik right here and now, at a time when nobody else appears fascinated about discussing the place society is heading.
So why does Allen suppose there aren’t extra artists and albums railing towards exploitation and ideological extra in the best way Gong do? “Social media soporifics corresponding to style tailoring and mindset suggestions loops are presumably absorbing radicalism to some extent,” he replies.
”In my very own songwriting I attempt to strike a stability between political readability and absurdist non secular uplift. Artwork as a mirror versus artwork as transformer. What I see is a substantial amount of exercise, each inventive and harmful. Clearly change is throughout us. I suppose it relies upon whether or not we wish issues to remain the identical or whether or not we’re conservative or adventurist. Personally, I discover the longer term is all the time extra thrilling than the previous.”
Daevid requested me play guitar in Gong. I identified that he’d by no means heard me play. He mentioned, ‘I don’t have to’
Kavus Torabi
But when the album sounds forward-looking and really a lot positioned within the current with tracks corresponding to Occupy, When God Shakes Palms With The Satan, This Revolution and the title lower, it’s additionally flecked with samples and snippets of Gong’s musical previous; little self-referential bubbles percolating up from the leaves within the musical teapot. “They arrive from my son, Orlando, who’s taking my love of loopy collage to a different stage,” explains Allen. “He has an enormous respect for early Gong historical past and all its elements and he feels they need to be referenced as flashbacks from the previous – mirrored within the current second.”
To what does Allen attribute Gong’s longevity and attraction? “Firstly I might say not letting it get too commercially profitable. Virgin Data had exhausting go at it within the mid-70s, however as with Smooth Machine, because it began to peak, the improper folks have been being sucked in and it smelled suspicious to me. So, as all the time, I skedaddled until it got here again right down to earth.
“Secondly, it has consistently modified its personnel, musical fashion, picture and angle, with out shedding that central present that made it nonetheless sound like Gong. Some attribute this mysterious present mistakenly to myself – however I really feel it’s mental laziness to take action. Gong has rejoiced in a solid of musicians of extraordinary brilliance and variety, from Pierre Moerlen to Tatsuya Yoshida, Steve Hillage to Kawabata Makoto, Invoice Laswell to Francis Moze, Didier Malherbe to Theo Travis to Ian East – and I might go on and on.”
Although possessing little in the best way of formal musical coaching, Allen’s antenna has all the time been finely attuned with regards to selecting up potential musical companions. The latest recruit to Gong, guitarist Kavus Torabi of Knifeworld and Guapo, remembers the second Allen approached him to affix the band.
“He was in London in 2013 enjoying with Marshall Allen from Solar Ra. We had Daevid as a visitor on the radio present I do with Steve Davis, and out of the blue he requested if I wish to play guitar in Gong. I instructed him I’d like to however identified that he’d by no means heard me play. He mentioned, ‘I don’t have to. I can inform you’re proper. I used to be like this about Mike Howlett. I simply know you’re going to be proper.’
“I’d heard Gong in my mid-to-late teenagers, beginning with Flying Teapot, and right away I used to be hooked. For me, Gong begins with Camembert Electrique and goes as much as You. These are the 4 important Gong data for me. With that in thoughts, I instructed him that I couldn’t play like Steve Hillage. He mentioned to me, ‘Kavus, I’m not fascinated about what you can’t do – however in what you can do.’”
He’s eager to say the present band is a democracy, that we’re all equal – however I believe he’s extra equal than others
Dave Sturt
Alongside Allen and Torabi, I See You options Dave Sturt (bass), Ian East (sax and flute), Fabio Golfetti (guitar) and Daevid’s son Orlando (drums). There are factors on the album which sound completely not like Gong, but on the identical time it couldn’t actually be anyone else, as on Shakti Yoni & Dingo Virgin, suffused with Allen’s eerily shifting trademark glissando guitar and Gilli Smyth’s echo-drenched house whispers. Whereas Allen’s presence is after all vital, it’s nonetheless the work of a collective course of, as Sturt factors out.
“The album comes from a mix of jams, in addition to swapping information remotely. It’s fairly shocking how homogenous the entire thing is; a extremely good mixture of formally composed and music made within the second. That’s undoubtedly one in every of its strengths, and I believe that’s what Gong’s all the time been about. The members who’re concerned now have all melded collectively very well – mixture of musicians and compositional concepts.
“As a participant, whereas the album comes collectively you deal with one monitor at a time. However Daevid is able to holding the overview, realizing what the entire completed album is about and what he needs to current.
“Since 2012 he’s been very eager to say that the present band is a democracy, that we’re all equal – however I believe he’s extra equal than others. Why? Properly, as a result of he’s been there since there have been riots occurring in Paris in 1968, when Gong got here collectively. He’s acquired the overarching imaginative and prescient as to what it’s all about, however he wants different folks to feed off.”
Whereas Allen’s sickness meant the cancellation of a tour that may have included Glastonbury and different high-profile occasions, the band shall be enjoying stay dates – albeit with out its founder. “We’re honouring the album and his music,” Sturt says. “We’ll be enjoying some outdated songs and a few of the new songs from I See You within the spirit of Gong. The hope is that Daevid will recuperate sufficient to have the ability to play once more with us, however there aren’t any concrete plans in the meanwhile. We simply need him to get nicely.”
When requested to decide on the Gong report on which Allen feels he acquired closest to realising what he needed to attain, he replies, “This one, after all! For me this album can be a grateful farewell – as you possibly can inform from Thank You.” He’s referring to a lyric that states ‘Thanks for the music, thanks in your cheers, thanks ’cos you’re right here now.’
“This present album and line-up makes me very proud. My biggest want is that Gong can grow to be a musical custom and proceed to offer pleasure, pleasure and constructive uplift for a very long time after I’m gone.”
