Psychedelic music fans, especially in the UK and Europe may know about Gong via bands like Ozrick Tentacles, and Steve Hillage's System 7, but I was there in 1977 and the reality of it was something else! Gong was doing what the Grateful Dead was doing on our continent, but different. They had a totally improvised format, and the concept of Free Floating Anarchy. This is the most beautiful political theory ever created, because it has NO RULES.
As far as the music goes, Tim Blake was sequencing Mini Moogs and Echoplexes to make the Crystal Machine, the basis for the Ozrick Tentacles sound, but on a much more primitive level. Steve Hillage strapped a massage vibrator onto his hand creating the style known as Glissando guitar! You had to be there to appreciate it.
Gong rolled in to Kent Ohio at 8 a.m. and me and my 17 year old buddies were there to meet the bus. busses, actually. It turned out there were more people on the entourage than there were who bought tickets at the college. There were all these cat people with whiskers painted on their faces, I knew this was going to be an interesting day. Gilly Smyth, AKA Shakti Yoni, was wearing a designer outfit made of garbage bags, kind of an elf, punk, christian dior thing. She was the first to approach me while everyone was milling around, we had a nice talk about the comparative boredome of the UK vs Midwest US.
First up was Daevid Allen's Gong. Steve Hillage on guitar, Diedier Malherbe on sax, Pierre Moerlin on percussion, Tim Blake on the Crystal Machine. and Gilly Smythe on space whisper. Next was Pierre Moerlin's Gong. Hypnotic percussion oriented Jazz. very nice. Gilly Smythe did a set after that, and Daevid Allen joined her for some songs from Magic Brother, Mystic Sister. This was one of the musical high points of my life. Then Hillage came on for a set of Submarine Captain Spillage songs, and Allen came back with the rest of the band to finish for Master Builder. Seriously, this was the formative musical experience of my life. Everything else was just gravy.
This kind of story is why I can't really do Twitter. I hope someone reads this and enjoys it. Peace in!
Steve
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