mINtSOUTH.com

Legendary, psychedelic rock band Gong are celebrating their 40th anniversay of live touring this year with core members of the original line-up reuniting for an extremely rare UK tour in November that calls in at Brighton Corn Exchange on November 29th.  Daevid Allen, Steve Hillage and co have also recently released the latest album of the Gong mythology: "2032" - a forward looking album and a major chapter in the continually evolving Gong mythology.

Gong originally formed in 1967, after Allen, a member of Soft Machine, was denied entry to the United Kingdom because of a visa complication.  Allen remained in France where he and a London-born Sorbonne professor, Gilli Smyth, established the first incarnation of the band.  They played the second Glastonbury Festival in June 1971, which they followed up with a UK tour the following autumn. In late 1972 they were subsequently one of the first acts to sign to Richard Bransons Virgin Records, getting first pick of the studio time ahead of Mike Oldfield.  It was Branson who helped put Gong in the public eye (even if it was by re-releasing an earlier album at a budget price).

Between 1973 and 1974, Gong, now augmented by guitarist Steve Hillage (producer of The Charlatans self-titled album and curator of ambient dance kings System 7) released their best known work the "Radio Gnome Trilogy", three records that expounded upon the Gong mythology, "Flying Teapot", "Angels' Egg", and "You".

The new album, "2032", continues the Gong mythology with an exhilarating and compelling return. It's the first time Daevid Allen has worked with Steve Hillage since the 1974 "You" album and and together they have crafted a rich and fresh sounding powerhouse of an album that is a more than worthy successor to the legendary Radio Gnome trilogy.   "2032" is the year that Planet Gong makes full contact with the Planet Earth; and a major new chapter in the continually evolving mythology"

The premise of the new album is that Gong exists in our solar system as an evolved and peaceful planet operating as a unified field of high frequency matter which renders it virtually invisible to Earth.  It's representatives, the Octave Doctors, first visited Earth during the late sixties when hopes were high for a shift towards world peace.  Upon their return, they have opted to survey our progress and have made an offer of assistance at this decisive time in our planetary history.  The year 2032 is thought to be the time when the existence of Planet Gong will be officially recognised by astronomers on Earth and will signal the first public arrival of hese space visitors.

mINtSOUTH's Jodie Copeland caught up with Daevid Allen to chat about the new album, their headline performance at Glastonbury earlier in the year and some other general randomness.

Hi Daevid, Hope all is good. Firstly I just wanted to say it's great to see you touring again

"I bow!"

I'm ashamed to say I've never seen Gong live, so I am really looking forward to seeing you in November.

"Ooo! That's brave of you to admit that! So shhh! we'll keep that a secret between us shall we?"

So, it's been 9 years since the last tour? What have you been up to? I'd heard you'd retired to Oz, so it's great to see you back.

"Thank you for your generous welcome mat! Actually I have been secretly touring in other countries regularly with my three other bands ( University of Errors , Brainville, and Magick Brothers) so in fact I havent been spending as much time in Oz or the UK as I really should have. This is wrong & bad....sigh."

Gong headlined Glastonbury Glade stage earlier this year, and my friends who chose to see you said I missed the best performance of the weekend. How was it for you?

"Hey! That's a really sympathetic response. There is definitely an art to being a successful audience. Give and you will get!   The audience was totally with us from the start. For me it felt like a big hit of seriously evolved love-energy and also a lotta fun! Sometimes I can see with my psychic eye a huge cone shaped temple of changing colour form over the band and audience and then I know it is probably a Magick gig."

You used to live in Glastonbury didn't you? What was it like being back? Did you get to meet up with any of your old friends? (or foes?!!)

"We have deep roots in Glastonbury Fayre. Our first UK gig was there in 1971 and GONG HQ (aka GAS) is in Glastonbury town. Yeah, in a place like Glastonbury there is a such a divergence of friends and sub-cultures co-existing its not difficult to tread on some accidental foes toes. I have some great friends in Glastonbury but nobody has challenged me to a midwinter midnight duel on the Tor yet!"

There used to be a cafe in Southampton (in Onslow Road, near Lennons - for you youngsters!) , called The Flying Teapot, which was run by hippies with no shoes who used to play Gong all day. Did you ever visit it?

"Yep! I played lengthy acoustic gigs there on several occasions and I particularly liked their coconut tea.  Allegedly, I pranced naked on a table there at 2AM one sweet summer night whilst attempting to lend reality to the idea of a flying teapot. But I remember nothing I tell you! Nothin!"

My dad introduced me to you and your music and he took me along to a Daevid Allen gig at The Joiners when I was a teenager. I remember you got everybody to sit on the (sticky) floor whilst the room filled with the smell of cannabis smoke. There was plenty of audience participation throughout the set.....how does the live Gong experience differ?

"Te he! The Joiners hey? Well I promise we won't insist you stick to the floor this time! But the show is flexible enough to expect anything on the night....in fact you will probably find it very different to your expectations & I have no way of predicting this either."

The video for 'How to Stay Alive' is brilliant. Can you tell me a bit about it, who put it together?

"Wow I feel so lucky that such a skillful crew have brought my drawings so gracefully to life! The most spectacularly successful project due to the return of Steve Hillage has been this video. The “Manga” style Japanese animators had already created an elegant video for Steve & Mikki's System Seven project.  Somehow, almost immediately, the Japanese anime crew understood the mystical mechanics whole crazy universe of Gong & had come up 80% of the finished project. It was udderly magickal! They were SO clearly aligned with the Gong frequency."

There's potential for a full length film to accompany the album, 2032, there. Is that something you're considering?

"Oh, well I can but dream. Its not as though we can afford to pay for that! Bring on the aesthetically ethical investors, I say."

You're now a bit of a rapper too. It somehow brings the Gong sound up to date...but maybe you've just always been ahead of your time. It sounds good, but who's idea was it for you to rap?

"Jodie, I suppose it's a natural progression for me because I was a jazz scat singer in the 1950's. But my third son Toblerone has been a rapper from the eighties onwards. His childhood and thus my third fatherhood was a mix of heavy metal and rap at max volume so I would just sit on my amp between the speakers and jam along with his choices.  I absorbed a whole lot.  Rap is one raw & magnificent open source of contemporary poetry which is ignored only by abstract professorial myopics at their peril. But what i do here -by my definition- is called RAPSCAT.  Its an upwardly nubile wild & whimsical form of rap that ain't gonna do no harm."

The whole Gong mythology is based around a dream you had in Easter 1966 where you saw your life ahead of you laid out. What is going to happen in 2032?

"Well 2032 will be a great year for wine and cannabis enthusiasts. Also I can happily predict that the summer months will feel particularly optimistic and ecstatic for almost everybody in spite of prevailing conditions."

"Perhaps leading up to this year, things will not have been going so well on earth with humanity still foolishly at war with itself over illusory belief system differences and this year 2032 will be seen to usher in a new dawn where multi cultural respect may flourish in an environment of open experiment and exciting new ideas & solutions for peaceful & diverse cohabitation."

"Politically, perhaps the theory of music can be applied to create a radical new social organisation based on group leadership structures. This could avoid making one fallible human responsible for huge numbers of others which has proved to be far more than one individual can honorably handle."

"Then just when it is most needed, a huge vehicle will appear that looks strangely like a teapot and its curious passengers will emerge to guide and help establish a mutually beneficial new way of living together on this planet. I just hope some dumb American cowboy doesnt shoot on sight out of fear."

What's it like to be working with Steve Hilllage again? Did you miss each other?

"We have a very particular way of inspiring each other to new compositional levels and lyrical places for which 2032cd is the contemporary litmus.  Yeah. I missed Steve and Mikki HEAPS but Gong has continued evolving with other spectacular guitarists notably: Steffe Sharpstrings who was instrumental in some thrilling Gong gigs thru the 90's.   Then lately, as a form of conscious suffering, I have a had to reluctantly push myself in the direction of lead guitarist myself."

40 years of Gong. What's next?

"How about 90 minutes of lazy futuristic sex with a furry cyborg in deep space? ...or a Turkish delight, a bex & a cup of tea? There is always a choice!"

Can we expect another album, or is this it?

" This is it folks! Ain't it always! Am I serious?  We will see...."

Gong visit Brighton Corn Exchange on Sunday, 29th November, with support from The Steve Hillage Band.  Call 01273 709709 for tickets details