Born January 13th 1938 in Melbourne, Australia to parents Walter and Helen Allen.

Was a child radio actor on 3DB. Trained as a cadet executive and interior decorator where he met David Tolley (of whom more later). Daevid attended national Art Gallery School whilst studying electric guitar with Bruce Clark and acting in a review at Now Theatre in Flinders St. Joined ABC TV as a scene-painter. Trained as a TV graphics artist and Studio Floor assistant.

Moving to London in 1960, Daevid met 14 year old Robert Wyatt while lodging with the Wyatt family - he was eventually suspected of being a 'bad influence' in Robert's life, intoducing him into 'beat' sensibilities. Met and jammed with George Niedorf in Paris Clubs and brought him back to England to teach Robert to play drums Daevid married Art Groupie Kay Calvert and moved to Paris to live on the houseboat he'd just bought from Gilli Smyth.
 
In Paris Daevid met and experimented with tape-loops with Terry Riley and also performed with William Burroughs as a part of the 'Machine Poets' exhibition at the ICA and the American centre in Paris and also at the Paris Bienniale '63. Daevid wrote and performed in dramatisations of 'The Ticket That Exploded' in Paris at La Boheme.

Jammed free Jazz with the Daevid Allen Trio - early recordings released as 'Live '63 (Voiceprint VP112 CD). Other recordings were made of these early bands but are sadly lost in the mists of time, as are the legendary 'Musical Theatre of the Pacific Rim' recordings Daevid made whilst busking the length of Europe with Painter/Musician John Howley in 1964 (see later). Daevid had turned down the chance to work on 'Chappaqua' in its favour.

Daevid was commissioned to make a tape work/collage for the BBC Radiophonic workshop in 1965 - whilst writing Poetry in Deià (Book of Chloroforms) - this was not broadcast until '67 as 'Switch Doctor' .

  In Easter 1966, Daevid had a vision which was to change his, and many other people's lives. He saw his whole life mapped out before him and had an experience that put him in touch with a brotherly Inner voice and past life in which he had played Atlantlantean Temple Music. This vision spawned the entire mythology around which the band was based. Within hours of this vision Wes Brunson, a millionaire cowboy spectacle dealer from Oklahoma who had taken far too much Acid, put up the money to form Soft Machine. The concept of playing anything as remotely fashionable as 'Pop' music was a radical step for Daevid –He says he would never have considered playing pop songs if he hadn't heard the Yardbirds 'Still I'm Sad'. Daevid perfected the art of Glissando guitar, which involves stroking the strings with something like a scalpel handle and processing the sound through an echo box and other effects. Daevid claims to have been inspired by watching Syd Barrett playing at early Pink Floyd Gigs. Using the combination of Daevid's glissando guitar and Gilli's space whisper, they began to realise the concept of total space music that they had been hearing in their heads, with a loose line-up that was to form the prototype for Gong. In the aftermath of the l968 riots Daevid and Gilli fled France pursued by police who considered them to be Insurgents. They returned to Deià, narrowly avoiding expulsion from Spain due to a provocative interview Gilli did with the Barcelona Tabloids.

Once the heat had died down they smuggled themselves back to France with Banana Moon Band briefly, to fulfil commitments they had with the 'Living Theatre'. Banana Moon recorded demos - 'Je ne fume pas des Bananes' - for Pathe Marconi and Barclay but turned dawn the deals offered on the grounds that the terms were too old fashioned.

Daevid and Gilli spent two months in Deià, working on material that became "Magic Brother..." There they met Didier Malherbe who was living in a goatherd's cave on the side of a mountain in Robert Graves' back garden, which had a miniature reproduction amphitheatre next door in which they staged poetry readings involving local poets and musicians. Gilli wrote 'The Mind Book' at this time.

Film-maker Jerome Laperrousaz gave them the excuse they needed for their official return to France, by inviting them back to make a series of film music's. Gilli and Daevid bought a ruined Millhouse with an adjoining plot of land in Montaulieu with money that Daevid had been given by his parents. One of their visitors that summer was swashbuckling entrepreneur Jean Karakos who had started an anti-music biz record company called BYG. He advanced the money to record 'Magic Brother' , and 'Banana Moon' before hearing a single note! . The latter was purportedly recorded after several cases of Fosters and 'loads of black hash'.

Daevid wasted no time in pulling together a team of virtuoso musicians to form the first proper Gong band. They acquired the services of Bob Benamou as Manager alongside Karakos, who also managed Magma, who seemed to be Gong's shadow or flip-side in the French alternative scene. Karakos set up the Amougies Jazz Festival where Gong played their first gig, billed as the first-ever French festival, it was actually held ten miles across the border not far from the historical site of the Battle of Waterloo. Laperrousaz gave them free use of his haunted Normandy Chateau, built, oddly enough, by the inventor of the Curling Tongs –where Gong lived, wrote and rehearsed.

Daevid finally left Gong in April '75, having experienced a wall of force which prevented him from going an stage, he hid in the bushes most of the night and then tried to hitch home in the rain still wearing medieval jesters costume and running stage make-up! Fortunately a van full of hippies who'd just been to the gig took pity and gave him a lift

Daevid and Gilli retired to Deià once more and teamed up with Majorcan Band Euterpe whom Allen discovered playing versions of 'Stairway to Heaven' and 'Thick as a Brick' alongside their own songs.

Virgin Records offered Daevid a solo contract with which he bought his own studio equipment and set up the Banana Moon Observatory in Deià. Virgin released one very obscure promo single 'Fred the Fish/It's the Time of Yr Life' (Virgin VS123) '75. Daevid finally gave up smoking Dope and Cigarettes

With 'Tubular Bells' droping out of the charts Virgin plunges into crisis and drops Daevid sharpish. He then re-connected with Jean Luc Young once of BYG and his new Charly Records company.

At this time Daevid also produced 'Licors' by Pau Riba (Movieplay 171178/9) and 'Brossa d'ahir' by Pep Laguarda and 'Tapineria' (Ocre BOL003). With the lucrative advances thus received from Charly Records, Daevid begins recording 'Now is the Happiest Time of Your Life' .

Mike Howlett gave Daevid a tape of a squat punk band from London, who had formed at Watchfield Free Festival earlier in the year. They had begun to make a name for themselves, attracting people like Reebop Quaku Baah (ex Traffic) and Arthur Brown to jam sessions.
They provided Daevid and Gilli with a riotous four bar monotone crash course in anarchy in action!

The band gave up all chemical and herbal stimulants at Daevid's insistance, and plunged into a free tour of Engand. No fees were charged and the hat was passed round at evey gig. Daevid collapsed on the eve of the second tour, so Here & Now carried on as before...

Daevid returned to Deià and got into excessive partying and drinking, bringing the entire structure of his life upon his head.This was the last straw in their relationship for Gilli, so she split back to England to get on with her own career.
Amongst all this chaos Daevid managed to record n'existe pas Charly (Charly CRL5015) '78, one of his finest and most poignant albums. It was a radical plunge away from anything remotely fashionable. The only favourable reaction it got was from US reviewers, so off to the states it was...

More information on the early period covered here is available in Daevid's book - Gong Dreaming part 1 - Soft Machine '66-'69
continued...