where is the love for GONG?

this one is pretty much vocal free. synth heaven!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sREVq5TPkYA

i adore this video where he is rocking the vcs3 and having the time of his life. being in gong in 1973 must have been just about the best job in the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSvW_O4V8Yo

Did the 2 volumes of Gong Dreaming by Daevid Allen get republished. I have the 2nd one which is the one where he forms Gong but never got the first one which is his life up to that point.
I thought I'd heard they were going to come out through another imprint at one point.

SAF the original publisher folded a few years ago i think.

thanks for that video stirmonster, that was indeed fantastic

(i passed on cheap copies of Crystal Machine, New Jerusalem and the self-titled Clearlight Symphony record yesterday, regretting it now! that tune off Crystal Machine that you posted definitely needs sampling btw if no-one's done it already?)

"forever reoccurring" is a major jam. twenty minutes fly by like nothing

Just thinking about the long interview with Kramer, was it, where he talks about Gong, iirc.

You was my gateway in the 70s, via a shortie in the CREEM back-of-the-book Rock-a-Rama section---not my usual fare, but oh my, lucky i.
BYG has reappeared on Bandcamp, where I finally heard and dug Magick Brother, also Banana Moon, which made several of my ballots---I said this on the main Wyatt thread:

Quite a few BYG albums now reissued and streaming on Bandcamp---I started with Banana Moon, because RW is in the core band with Daevid Allen and Archie Legget, ready for excellent guests. "Stoned Innocent Frankenstein" could be the title track, considering whole set's seemingly off-handed pop-rock flair through the crusty bits*, with attentive dynamics def. incl. Wyatt's drumming and harmonies.
He sings lead on "Memories," which could be a ringer, but fits with other songs' sincerity ("Get Me Outta Here," o yes), and the voice is distant, but persistent, also unmistakable, while the playing is bluesier than his otm "Rock Bottom" B-side arrangement, but sympathetically so. Here's the best audio of the B that I've heard, on Richard Sinclair's Bandcamp:
https://richardsinclairsongs.bandcamp.com/track/memories

And before I forget, here's the 2023 Banana Moon:
https://bygrecords.bandcamp.com/album/banana-moon (Gong's reissued Magick Brother is sounding pretty good on BYG BC too)

*wiki:

In 2003, David Bowie included it in a list of 25 of his favourite albums, "Confessions of a Vinyl Junkie", saying that "it's possible, just possibly maybe, that strands of the embryonic glam style started here."[7]

As for this:

I've never followed Gong very closely, but for me Hillage earned his place in music history for helping Rachid Taha put together Made in Medina. Songlines' reviewer said when he heard it, he glimpsed what Page and Plant were going for w North African musicians. Yeah, seems like this is the realization and then some, to put it mildly. Anyway, more on Made.. should prob be for another thread--what's the deal with New York Gong? The genesis of Material, right? Is the album good?

― dow, Sunday, October 14, 2012 7:11 PM (eleven years ago) bookmarkflaglink

i've grown to really like the new york gong album over the years after completely dismissing it when i first bought it but whether you'll like it or not really depends on whether or not you dig daevid allen's schtick. the laswell hook up came via the notorious jean karakos who moved his celluloid label from france to new york and had gong connections going way back. material probably took the name from the "materialism" track on it and put their first album proper out on celluloid shortly after this came out.

― stirmonster, Sunday, October 14, 2012

There is a compilation of appearances on French tv during the early 70s that I have seen crop up at the end of videos I've seen. Assume its still around though not sure when videos were upped to youtube.

I'm seeing copies of the volumes of the Gong Dreaming book going for massive prices. I did think I had heard about a reprint but not seeing copies cheap and current. Volume 2 was very good anyway.

I return to this clip of "I Never Glid Before" loads, Mike Howlett's playing especially is just so absurdly good, my wife likes to point out that Daevid has a little bit of Spin Doctors singer thing going on :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeHN_VmVfRI