Clarky Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 In response to a request on the Hawkwind thread, how's about an appreciation thread for Gong, Steve Hillage, Daevid Allen's bands and their multiple spin-offs? I know silddx will be in like flynn here! So to get things going, here's Steve Hillage with the Salmon Song and Gong's Flying Teapot (MIke Howlett on bass IIRC) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24NQR8gRqXY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfd4c2xDOUE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tut Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Shamal . . . . my all time favourite album! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyfisher Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Ha! I've just posted an identical thread for Van de Graff Generator. Looks like that Hawkwind topic has stirred up some old memories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickeyboro Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 The Om Riff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted October 28, 2011 Author Share Posted October 28, 2011 [quote name='Mickeyboro' timestamp='1319838527' post='1419309'] The Om Riff! [/quote] all yours: http://video.mail.ru/mail/alexin_spb/1000/1007.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeftyBiskit Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Ali Baba,chicken and cheese......If your going to sneeze Opium for the people I Saw planet Gong mid 70's at the Bolton Institute of technology,on a school night too-happy days they all travelled around in that beat up single decker bus, Free admission to the gig -they just passed the hat round afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vibrating G String Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 I'm a big fan of Fish Rising and Khan, Gong I prefer the Pierre Moerlein stuff but I still enjoy the pothead pixies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahpook Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 we all on the jazz fags tonight ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molan Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 I had a real Gong 'thing' going for a while around '75, perfectly timed for the Shamal era Saw Sham '69 at Reading Festival in '78 and Steve Hillage appeared out of nowhere to solo over the top of their final number whilst surrounded by a stage full of skinheads. They didn't know whether to lamp him one or stand well back because he was too much of a freak for them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 [quote name='molan' timestamp='1319843792' post='1419387'] Saw Sham '69 at Reading Festival in '78 and Steve Hillage appeared out of nowhere to solo over the top of their final number whilst surrounded by a stage full of skinheads. [/quote] Dear God, I remember reading about that at the time. I'm sure there was a photograph to record the culture clash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RhysP Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 I'm a huge fan of Hillage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earbrass Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Big Gong fan here. My favourite album is Angels Egg, with I Never Glid Befoa as probably my all-time favourite Gong track. Very fond of side 2 of Camembert Electrique too. I first saw them in 1975, just after Shamal had come out. I also saw Hillage a couple of times - once soon after Fish Rising and again a year or so later. I saw Daevid Allen with Euterpe for the Good Morning album promotion tour, and then saw him again teamed up with Here and Now, who I used to go see fairly regularly round Essex in the late 70s. Happy daze. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Did a gig with them in Perugia.... I remember the Tea pot song and Dave Allen surprised the hell out of us but going on morning runs and being a health freak, by all accounts. Surprised the hell out of me. Really nice gig, AIRC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legion Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Gong was never something I really got into (not enough mushrooms?) but the Orb was one of Hillages projects that I really liked, Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld is my album of the 90's. Love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xilddx Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 [quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1319853742' post='1419453'] Dear God, I remember reading about that at the time. I'm sure there was a photograph to record the culture clash. [/quote] Mr Hillside got on well with Jimmy Pursey. Jimmy ASKED Steve to play with Sham 69 at Reading when they met a few months earlier. There's some hippie-punk on the 4th side of Live Herald, and some on Open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer of the Bass Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 [quote name='silddx' timestamp='1319879396' post='1419528'] Mr Hillside got on well with Jimmy Pursey. Jimmy ASKED Steve to play with Sham 69 at Reading when they met a few months earlier. There's some hippie-punk on the 4th side of Live Herald, and some on Open. [/quote] I have a copy of Planet Gong's Floating Anarchy 1977, a post Gong Daevid Allen project. That's pure hippy-punk too! I guess Gong and co were genuinely underground and far enough outside the mainstream that punk didn't seem like a threat to them. I think my favourite actual Gong album is Camembert Electrique, as it's somehow a bit spikier sounding than the later stuff, though I love the Radio Gnome trilogy as well. I saw them live last time they were touring, and it was great. I like the way Daevid Allen is still really going for it, but doesn't try to look like a young man. A good example for other aging musicians to follow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul torch Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Big fan of all things Gong. My bro' gave me Live Floatin' Anarchy for my 12th birthday and I've never looked back, thanks mate. I've seen Gong in various guises plenty of times over the years, some better than others. Was fortunate enough to meet Mr Hillage a few years back when he was doing his System Seven thing (not a huge fan apart from the first album) at the Wickerman Festival. I was DJing and he asked if he could play a set on our system, I went on after him and was a bit daunted by the task. Met him again at Floating Anarchy 30th anniversary (he was in the audience)and he was quite open to talking about his music and said that he was really keen on getting back to playing with Gong, what do you know next time I saw Gong there he was back with them, excellent. I missed the chance when i wsa younger to see the Steve Hillage band but took my daughter to Lounge on the Farm a few years back where the Steve Hillage band werer warming up for Gong. They did not dissapoint after so many years of waiting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncbassgit Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 I'm mad on Mike Oldfield. I got the Gong connection through Pierre and Benoit Moerlen who used to tour with Mike. Started buying Gong albums. I have Camembert Electric, PMG Live, Gong Live etc, Expresso 2, Downwind ,Shameuse.....all excellent stuff but I prefer the Hillage, Daevid Allen stuff of old. Hansford Rowe what a great bassist!! From the Planet Gong they say.....cos everything goes wrong today.....down the oily way! Long live flying teapots! Dunc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Len_derby Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 [quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1319881384' post='1419554'] I saw them live last time they were touring, and it was great. I like the way Daevid Allen is still really going for it, but doesn't try to look like a young man. A good example for other aging musicians to follow! [/quote] I saw them on that tour too, at a packed Leadmill in Sheffield. Yep, it was inspirational to see a man in his seventies 'leading the line'. One story I've heard is that the slides Daevid and Steve H. use for the glissando guitar technique are surgical steel implements designed for use in male uro-genital procedures, Eye-watering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basszilla Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 'Have a cup of tea, have another cup' I don't know why, but that line has stuck in my head all these years from my dad playing so much Gong when I was a kid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthurhenry Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Hillage is one of the best guitarists to come out of this country, no question. He's also responsible for some of the best music ever, especially Motivation radio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul torch Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 What do people think about his vocals though? (Hillage that is, not Allen) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bottomfeed Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 (edited) [i](We will have to stop meeting like this!.... 1st Hawkwind, now Gong!)[/i] ....I was a huge[b] Gong[/b] fan... in fact the combination of Lemmy on 'Space Ritual' & Mike Howlett on 'You', inspired & nurtured my humble beginnings with all things bass.... .Perhaps with a side order of [b]Here & Now[/b] - 'All over the Show',[b] Van Der Graff Generator[/b] - 'Vital',[b] Amon Duul II[/b] - 'live in London',[b] Henry Cow[/b] - 'Concerts' & [b]Faust[/b]'s 'The Faust Tapes'...[i] etc etc yadda yadda yadda..... (prolly be threads on all these band too soon!)[/i] My contibution here will be 'The Isle of Everywhere' A great track.... Howlett & Moerlen make for an awesome rhythm section. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9knIlUc5Cs&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9knIlUc5Cs&feature=related[/url] Edited October 29, 2011 by bottomfeed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanbass1 Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 (edited) Another big fan of Steve Hillage here - I remember buying L and playing it several times over non stop - that must have been around '76. Wnet to see him the same year at Hammersmith Odeon. I kinda liked the first Gong album, Camembert Electrique, which had lot's of wacky parts and a few really good songs Edited October 29, 2011 by alanbass1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Saw Gong at the Zap in Brighton in the early 90's, superb gig, very, errr laid back, as it were Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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