TRIBUTES TO PIERRE DE STRASBOURG - now on their own page

Steve Hillage Q & A Session Posted Wed 15 Aug'07
Here's a link to a Steve question and answer session from last December's Beatmag. So if you want to know what he goes for when the munchies strike, what football team he supports as well the answers to some rather more musical questions this is the place.

Brainville - Luc's photographs Posted Wed 20 Jun'07
Here are some very fine photographs of the awesome and mighty Chris Cutler backed by some passing musicians, (a Mr D. Allen, Mr H. Hopper and Mr D. Malherbe - I think), in the band known as Brainville at Le Triton on June 8th. Luc's Brainville pics.

Loy, Dider, Steve
Looks as if Didier is about to try and get a tune out of the award - he probably could.

The music business is so very bizarre. Hadouk's last album 'Utopies' sold over 16,000 copies in France last year and the band get this great acknowledgement from their peers. However because the album has no worldwide distribution to speak of it has sold 150 copies in the entire rest of the planet (about half of those via this website, the rest in Canada probably), and the band couldn't get arrested the UK let alone sell out a gig. Very odd. Still we love them and so apparently do France.

New Archive Posts Updated Wed 26 Sep'07
A tidy up of the old confuser usually reveals interesting bits and pieces that I meant to post on the site but somehow overlooked or never got round to doing. Here are some jewels from the depths of the hard drive - more very soon:-

Marc Blanc Interview Marc talks about the Bananamoon Band and early Gong. Translated from French, from the 'Je ne fume pas des Bananes' CD booklet.
Lars Fahlin Interview daevid talks in 2002 about 'Zero To Infinity' and alot more besides - well you try and stop him.
'Good Morning!' Lyrics To celebrate the return of this uplifting classic I've posted the complete lyrics - also because they have made a bit of a dog's dinner of them in the re-mastered reissue.
'Fish Rising' Lyrics Steve Hillage's words can also inspire raising the holy vibration within as well.

While I was working at the lyrics section I thought might as well start working on a few more albums. Squirrelling around un-earthed more lyrics on the computer already to post, plus I typed in some more...but I am absolutely totally open to receive any that you either have on your computers, or care to work out for everybody, type up, and e-mail to me. I used to have such long fingers - help save what is left of them and help complete the lyric library...library...library (that's the echo of my voice fading away as it sometimes seems as if I'm calling for help in an empty room here)...never mind, don't worry.

Here are some of the albums for which we have at least started to gather lyrics.
Gong - 'Magick Brother' Lyrics - thanks to daevid's handwritten originals from the GAS archives
Here & Now - 'Fantasy Shift' Lyrics - thanks to H&N '83 tour booklet from the GAS archives
daevid allen - 'Bananamoon' Lyrics - thanks to daevid's handwritten originals from the GAS archives
University of Errors - 'e2x10=tenure' Lyrics - thanks to Rob in Oz
Tim Blake - 'Blake's New Jerusalem' Lyrics - thanks to Tim himself

Here & Now - Coaxed Out From Oxford Posted Fri 07 Sep'07
"Coaxed Out From Oxford", one time Here & Now gig sales tape way back in the early '80s, tidied up and dusted down for our digital delight, is now available to pre-order in the Kasbah. The original release date of 24th September has been moved back to the 22nd October to accommodate the distributor's requirements, but that date will not move again. The release, at a very good price I may add, is limited to just 1000 copies and will be in rather splendid colourful didgi-pak with liner notes by Keith the Bass.

After a very productive and often thunderously creative rehearsal in Glastonbury over the past 3 days many H&N plans are afoot. One is to record a new album with the new line of Keith and Steffe, and Merv & Joie of Eat Static, Autumn recording dates have been penciled in - and to this end the band's share of the income from 'Coaxed Out' will go towards making this a reality. A new album also makes the desire and possibility to gig much stronger - feelers are out, not just for the UK, but also for Europe and even North America (!) - contacts and progress have been made. So the basic message is - if you want a new Here & Now album, and from what I heard of the new material - trust me you do, and the possibility of them gigging at the end of your road - wherever that road may be - buy "Coxed Out of Oxford". Simple really and dam exciting, creating what we want by having what we want.

I don't know whether this little tale is really true or apocryphal: On Wednesday Keith and I were sitting in the GAS office, him fiddling around with the Here & Now My Space page (well worth a visit), and me doing something else on the other computer (accounts probably!), when the phone rang. It was a Welsh type Gong/Here&Now-ster, who said he'd been watching Matthew Wright on UK TV, who announced a new slot in his magazine-type programme called "It's the Little Things". He then when on to say something along the lines of, "This is named after a song by a great band called Here & Now", and then something else about the eccentric or unique nature Gong. We know Matthew is a big Hawk-fan, and sometime backing vocalist for them, and he has in fact brought a couple'o bits and pieces from the Kasbah in the past, but if what was reported by our Welsh friend is true - it's odd, that's all I can say, very odd.

Moonweed Free! Posted Thr 30 Aug'07
Tim Blake's period of home incarceration officially came to end on Tuesday 28th - a Full Moon day of course (how does that stuff always happen?) - he is now a free man once more. After so many months out of circulation he is naturally keen and eager to get out there and work, play and generally perform, and I would imagine that after such a period at home and in his studio his 'chops' are in very fine fettle. He can be contacted via his web-site - http://moonweed.free.fr/

Sound of the Cities - Web Mag Posted Tue 14 Aug'07
The second edition of the Sound of the Cities web-mag is now available online and is packed with all sorts of fascinating goodies, top of the list for us folk here being a recent interview with daevid. Go have a look I think you will be very pleasantly surprised by all that you find there.

Hari Hari the 'Wicked' man Posted Wed 20 Jun'07
Rob 'Wicked' left the physical world behind in his sleep last night. He was the owner of that unique and very special place we had lovingly come to call the 'Gong Pub', The Fawcett Inn in Southsea. He was a true friend and supporter of the entire Gong family and had been so forever. There have been so many memorable free gigs at the Fawcett over the years, he put himself on the line for us all again and again and there was nothing he wouldn't do to help if he possibly could. Deep love and support to Jackie and all Rob's family and his hundreds of friends. He was special and had one of the biggest hearts.

I am so glad to have been there at the Fawcett with daevid and Mark Robson at the gig at the end of May to see Rob so happy and positive with Jackie in the newly re-vamped and focused Fawcett after a difficult couple of years. Rob was also such a supporter of the whole Stonehenge/Solstice/Festival ethos, he never missed going to the stones, where he would have been going - well today. Maybe he should have been known as Rob 'Wiccan', though he did have a wicked sense of humor. So sad for all left behind - but Rob, what a gracefully timed departure from the stage mate - one love. I can hear his chuckle now.

GONG - RARE EARLY 70'S FILM ONLINE Posted Wed 04 Jul'07
Loads of French television archives are available on-line and thanks to an eagle-eyed Gongster who recently contacted me I can point you at some extremely rare Gong film footage. The link - www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/ - will open a page on the French web-site where you will see in the centre two small images. These are samples of an early 70's half-hour rock music programme called 'Pop Deux'.

The most readily accessible Gong footage is in the 1972 programme as it is the first item and starts only a minute or so into the free sample provided. I have known about the existence of this film for some time and we believe there is more in existence somewhere. It was shot on 26 April 1972 at Nanterre University and the Gong band is daevid, Gilli, Didier, Christian Tristch, and with Mac Poole on drums (not Laurie Allen as I mistakenly wrote before).

You will recognise the music as being the same as the Glastonbury Fayre '71 opener. It's interesting to see a fetchingly face-painted Bloom deftly providing back-up rhythms to Laurie Allen, as he uses drumsticks on a pair of Morrocan pottery drums. After the pounding drums/rhythmic-gliss/space-whisper section daevid, in his best stripey flares, springs into action in a manner which would not be out of place fronting Acid Mother's Gong now - who said things weren't like they used to be?

The footage in the 1971 programme, which is a completely new to all of us, is filmed in crisp, sharp colour and features the same line-up as the 1972 film, but with Rachid Hourai on drums! This makes these images incredibly rare, there are very few photographs of Rachid even in the GAS archives. Unfortunately the Gong film is near the end of the free sample so fades out before the end. Apparently the live Gong footage is followed by an interview with daevid, but you have to use the buy or 'hire' option provided and download the complete programme to see that.

There is a powerful risk-taking urgency and a wonderful primal source energy in the early Gong music and it's great to actually be able to see this in action. For convenience we have in recent years fallen into habit of calling the later 'Trilogy' band, "classic" Gong, which I've always felt does a disservice to what went before, and of course afterwards - every era of Gong has at times been "classic". One could argue that as the mid/late-seventies band has become more frozen our memories or record collections that the 'true', vibrant and creatively changing Gong spirit, as represented by the adventurous pathways individual members have taken since 1975, has become obscured. Perhaps something was inevitably pickled by Virgin's big budget expenditure and the comodification of that creative ideal physical form, in vinyl? Ah,the old Catch-22.

SYSTEM 7 GIG POSTER BY DAEVID Posted Tue 13 Mar'07
Now here's a interesting and rather unique combination. Daevid was commissioned by Dewi, the promoter, to produce a gig poster for the Sunday May 6th 'Bindi Slippage' event in Talybont, near Bangor, N. Wales featuring System 7 and much more in benefit of the Colin Reid Countryside Trust.

You can see a larger version of the poster, which has fetching and remarkably lifelike alien renditions of Steve & Miquette in the top right-hand corner, via the daevid commissions Kasbah page.

STEVE HILLAGE 'INDEPENDENT' INTERVIEW + MORE Updated Thr 18 Jan'07
To publicise the release of the first four remastered Steve Hillage albums there was a short but entertaining interview with the man himself in Saturday's Independent newspaper. The online version can be read here:- The Independent Online Edition.

Other things to look out for are:- Features in Classic Rock (07.02), Beat Mag.net (Dec - Feb)

Confirmed Reviews: Record Collector, Classic Rock, Birmingham Post, Mojo (Feb), Q, Uncut Lead Review + Q&A (Feb), DJ (17.01), Drummer (Feb), Sunday Times Culture Reissue Of The Week (14.01).

Confirmed Reviews Web: Yahoo! Launchcast, Get Ready To Rock.com, Subba Cultcha.com

'PLANET FOR $ALE' CD Posted Wed 03 Jan'07
'Planet for $ale' Music composed/produced by Nigel Mazlyn Jones. Original art Pete Loveday. Includes remixes by Steve Hillage, Banco de Gaia and Guy Evans of Van der Graaf Generator. Produced by Dr Keith Halden.

In 1998, Dr Keith Halden created for BBC 2 Scotland, a powerful visual montage based on the words of the song 'Planet for $ale' by songwriter/composer, Nigel Mazlyn Jones. The song is a series of questions - "Planet for $ale in need of renovation, who'll give us two pence for a dead old globe" and "Why are the rich so bloody greedy, Why are governments so corrupt right to the core?" ... and answers - "It needs a change of thinking, if we"re to go on living, bringing up our children on this planet green and blue, yes it needs a change of living, to keep the garden beautiful, we're only the caretakers, and we're only passing through"

Shortly available only through Nigel's website www.isleoflight.co.uk.

PIP PYLE 1950-2006 Updated Fri 07 Sep'06
Terribly sad news, Pip Pyle died in a Paris hotel at 2.00am on the morning of 28th August. He had stopped off while returning from a Hatfield & the North gig in the Netherlands by train.

We all loved Pip, everybody did. A big spirit, a big heart and a big musician. No-one who ever toured with him or counted him among their friends will ever forget the sheer joie de vivre with which he launched himself at life, and which so often sucked you along as well, I know they will all be devastated. As one of the Gongmaison musicians told me through the tears when I broke the news to him, "I had some of the best times of my life with Pip." He was at the centre and the heartbeat of so many bands and worked with so many musicians, it's like some mighty oak has fallen.

Although Pip's appearance at the Unconvention was never formalised between us (I kept putting off speaking to him because we didn't have the budget to do justice to what the Hatfields deserve), a Gong gathering without him being there was absolutely inconceivable. He was the outstanding mainstay of the 25th Birthday Party concerts in 1994, playing with nearly every band, hours of top-class drumming each day. No doubt, knowing the stature and nature of the man, he would have become central to the Melkweg event as well. Like all of us Pip had some real up and downs in his life, the past few years had seen joy of the birth of a new son and the difficulty of a very serious major back operation, but throughout it all he remained just Pip, a great musician to his fingertips, always straight with you and always genuinely a brother. It is impossible to overstate just how much he will be missed. Love to all he leaves behind.

Tributes are being posted in the Forum in the Planet Gong section, that was mine. Jonny

Calyx web-site - Great Pip biog in the musicians pages.
The Independant newspaper carried an almost full page obituary of Pip on Thursday 31st Aug which you can still read on-line.

An assortment of Gong tour stickers, some incredibly old, were sent to adorn Pip's coffin. I sent them on behalf of all who loved the man and his music. His funeral took place on 19th September in Essex, stickers and all.

"AHH PIP" - daevid Posted Fri 01 Sep'06
"Ahhh Pip! Yes our old mate came back to Paris from a top gig & died in a girl's arms. A heroic way to go but please.... better not to go just yet! He was a totally original drum warrior & golden jester, very much loved by all of us. His contribution to the Gong band & so many of my projects was without parallel. I loved him like the true brother he was. His unfinished music & inspiring physical courage, honesty & outrageous escapades will be HUGELY missed. I'm still laughing at those mad moments through the tears. Feeling deeply particularly for old pal Pam & son Sam & for all his familiars & allies. We all send him huge THANKS!!!" - daevid

MOONWEED RISING:-ENAMEL BADGE Posted Sat 12 Aug'06
In times of trouble and travelling naked (even with a small see-through plastic bag), as always there is nothing to fear but fear itself. Every day can be the day of the Favourite. And whether or not you choose to embrace the concept that if we all quietly become our own 'favourite' things will transform, you can still do your bit for another favourite.

In the Gong panoply of archetypes Hi-T Moonweed (the favourite) has been determindly struggling along with the 'catastrophic stone' until very recently - time to lighten the load. The end is in sight, the tide has turned and the music is flowing - Go see him at one of the gigs, and if you can't do that, wear the badge with pride.
Gong Aid:- Gong Mandala Enamel Badge

dAEVID'S RHIZOMAZE DRAWING Posted Mon 14 Aug'06
Hi Jonny,

Here's the link to my website -
www.big.com.au/thaishenry/surrealism

If you follow the witchy-poo symbol you get the not-essay as originally printed - when you get to the Rhizomaze, (which Daevid said he has put on his website as an example of his work), click the witchy-poo again for the lead into the main body of the essay.

I did, in fact, design the map & its pathways, and choose the fonts for the different characters and movements - Daevid merely (but surely) did the illustrations and altered the "surrealism" font, for which I am grateful, as it adds to the overall effect.

Apart from the witchy links, there is an embryonic section on Futurism, and an essay I did on the Internet back in 2001 (which I'm still proud of) under Appendix B.

Cheers, and hope you enjoy the read - Andrea.

NEW DAEVID FILM Posted Wed 09 Aug'06
'Arrest Me' short film of a daevid poem by stefanie petrik with music by josh pollock and das has been added to his web-site at www.daevidallen.net/. There are now four films to view, download, absorb, ridicule, ponder upon and enjoy.

HADOUK'S 'UTOPIES' MP3 SAMPLES Posted Wed 09 Aug'06
Luc Pilmeyer has added some animated mp3 samples of the fantastic new Hadouk CD 'Utopies' to Didier's site www.didiermalherbe.com/.

There are three in total, all great stuff and the last featuring Jon Hassell. The direct links are:-
www.didiermalherbe.com/touptb.html
www.didiermalherbe.com/toupie.html
www.didiermalherbe.com/wparas.html

Apparently it's selling like hot cakes in France, has had loads of radio play, was made FNAC's world music No.1 CD and is nearing sales of 10,000!

DAEVID on SYD Updated Fri 28 Jul'06
"His solo stuff was for me some of the most emotionally touching and psychologically observant writing ever in the music world....Barrett burned short & hard like a phosphorescent SOS flare that left an enduring/endearing imprint on us all. At the Ally Pally gig in 1966 he unwittingly taught me the invaluable skill of glissando guitar & then the myth took over. As a creative force he died in the late sixties yet his youthful image became a lightshow thrown over the shadow of his lifelong mental illness. Lets hope his wish to be left alone is now fulfilled. I wish him peace on the other side of the sky."

A version of this story told by daevid is in the latest issue of Mojo (Sept) along with stories/tributes from Dave Brock, Cpt. Sensible and many others in the magazine's Syd article.

DAEVID 'n' SYD Posted Wed 12 Jul'06
Legend has it that daevid was inspired to develop the glissando guitar technique, so beloved and central to the sound of Gong, after seeing Syd apply a similar approach to the guitar at an early Pink Floyd gig. Thereafter daevid attached a picture of Syd to the front of his amp in homage till it fell off...or so the story goes.

Our man on the spot way back then, stepping deftly around the 'icon' to see the man he knew, says, "Syd was around for about a year and a half, then he was out of his box. I think he may have 'died' in about 1968."

Too close perhaps, too much of real a person back then for daevid? For me, and many others Syd Barrett was totally unique and inspirational, an archetype even. And though it is over 30 years since his last public creativity it is always sad when your one of your main men checks out and the world feels a little emptier. Go well.

STEVE HILLAGE REMASTERS - MORE Updated Wed 04 Sep'06
Steve's solo albums from the 70's in remastered, bonus-tracked and expanded booklet form will be released in the new year. And the best news is that it's all being done with his blessing and hands-on input.

A couple of old 1/4" tapes of Steve Hillage material to be considered as bonus tracks were sent off to Virgin the other week. They ended up with GAS via David Id, who had stored them in his mum's attic for 25 years. Steve didn't know, or had forgotten about them as they were trying to source the tracks from a very old and slightly mangled cassette - yikes!.

One tape, my favourite, is known in Gongland as the 'power trio' version of 'Fish Risng', and contains wonderfully, powerful raw backing tracks of that album played by just Steve, Mike and Pierre and perhaps a wee bit of Dave Stewart. Mike Howlett tells a story, probably apocryphal, of them hearing the finished mixes of 'Fish Rising' while tripping, Steve deciding it was all way too powerful for people to take, so he went back in the studio and eased it all back a bit to create the album we know nowadays. I don't know if that's true or not, but these rough mixes may be some of evidence that it possibly is.

The tape box was labelled 'Manor Sept. '74 Rough Mix' and the tracks written on the box, are 'Pentagramme S.B.', 'Salmon Song', 'Aftaglid' 'I.L.I.H.M' (I Love It's Holy Mystery), and 'Beginning To See The Light'. The tracks have no overdubs, vocals or other instruments, but they often make the hair on the back of your neck stand up with their energy. 'Pentagramme S.B. is obviously 'Pentagrammaspin' released on the Virgin 'V' sampler and the unreleased 'Beginning To See The Light' is a great riff in search of a home, or a solo, or something. For a real devotee (thee 'n' me?) it is a pity that all these tracks probably won't be released, perhaps one day we can organise downloads or somethiong of those that don't make the cut?

The second tape, also dated 'Manor Sept. '74 Rough Mix', contains, 'Hole in the Sky', which I presume became 'Light in the Sky', 'Dither Blues', which became 'Don't Dither Do It' and 'Electric Gypsy'. I don't remember actually getting round to hearing this tape ever, perhaps it was a 'squeaker' and in need of baking to rescue it, so we didn't play it. One question that comes to mind is if the date on the tape box is correct then some of the tracks, or at least the ideas were around years before they saw the light of day in released form.

After a little initial reluctance Steve is quite taken with this whole project and has quite a few bonus track ideas and surprises which I won't spoil by revealing now - but I know you're going to enjoy it all.

FACELIFT LIVES Updated Wed 14 Jun'06
After a gap of almost 7 years, Phil Howitt's excellent and much missed 'Canterbury & Beyond' magazine has resurfaced on the net. You can have a look at the contents of the various issues as well as order back copies. It was always a joy to receive a copy of Facelift, packed as it was with interesting interviews, reviews and views on all things Canterbury. I can totally recommend it. As there are already quite a few things from the Facelift archives on the site such as a good 1998 Didier Interview. Perhaps we are seeing the birth of a vital new Canterbury site? I do hope so. Facelift

WHEN DAEVID MET TERRY Updated Thr 13 Jul'06
Last weekend daevid travelled up Brisbane to meet up with old friend Terry Riley who was performing 'In C' with a host of musicians at some high-class artistic bash. An accordingly fine old time was had by all, plans laid to record together (now booked in for mid-in Nov on daevid's way home from the Gong Uncon) in the future and intriguing ideas gleaned perhaps to be put in place at the Gong Unconvention by the Glissando Ensemble. For anyone struggling to keep up daevid and Terry first met in 1960 while earning a crust selling The International Herald Tribune in Paris.

ELTON DEAN 1945-2006 Updated Mon 13 Feb'06
Elton Dean passed away on the night of 8th Feb in a London hospital. Love and supportive thoughts to his nearest and dearest at this hard time for them.

Elton jammin with Gong, Paris, Oct '96. You wonder what they're playing? "You Can't Kill Me" - natch. The physical being is no more - the spirit, music and love continue. Celebrate that man, he did it so well and made it home once more. (L-R) Steffe, Didier, Elton, Mike, Gilli, Daevid - also there but not visible are Pip and Tim. Thanks to Aymeric for the picture and the memory.

FRED FRITH Posted Thr 26 Jan'06
Spotted this part of an interesting little interview with Fred Frith on the BBC web-site. Fred, extrodinary guitartist that he is, of course has his own site www.fredfrith.com/ and label.

"But my big electric guitar heroes were all on the rock side, and I learned from all of them... George Harrison for his formal restraint, Pete Townsend for his approach to chords, Syd Barrett for the abstract sound-world, Daevid Allen for continuous textures; I think of myself as being more in that tradition than an avant-garde one."

Even though it is possibly more expected than David Bowie siting Daevid as an influence, as we had the other year, I sort of enjoy the fact that Fred was also inspired by him more.

CURIOUSER & CURIOUSER - FAR EAST TEAPOT CULT Posted Mon 18 Jul'05
Thanks to Basil Brooks for this odd bit of BBC World News. And I thought we were the only Teapot cult.

dAEVID INTERVIEW IN PORTUGESE Posted Mon 27 Jun'05
If Portugese is your mother tongue there's a new Daevid interview at www.beatrix.pro.br/mofo/daevid.htm, and a page on the history of Soft Machine, also in the language at hwww.beatrix.pro.br/mofo/soft.htm.

'GIVING IS GOOD' - CHARITY CD FEATURING MOONIES, NIK T & DAEVID Updated Thr 18 Jan'07

Now here's a great way to begin the year. Dave Sheppard of the 'Triple Cuppa' gigs in deepest Kent has released a CD, 100% of the proceeds of which are being donated to the global charity the 'Meningitis Trust'.

It features live recordings from the 'Garden Party at Rawlinson End' on 19th Aug last year, with 6 tracks from Nik Turner's Galaktikos, 3 from Kangaroo Moon and a specially recorded gig intro by daevid sent over from Australia - sort of his first 'virtual' gig. The CD is strictly limited to 500 copies only. It's available from Dave - price: £10 plus £1 p+p (mainland UK) - ring +44 (0)1303 863474 for more details.

'Mojo' is devoting their regular 'Now To Buy' piece to Gong in the November issue (on the streets Oct 4th). This requires choosing 10 currently available Gong CDs and putting them in a 1-10 order. What would you choose? There is a thread in the Forum, in the 'Gigs and Reviews' section should you care to add your selection. The 'Mojo' article also includes 'One to Avoid', so what's the worst Gong CD?

"Entering down a long narrow, darkened, rubbish strewn and graffiti bombed hallway one emerged into a room sparsely littered with an array of different people converging on a bizarre psychedelic multi-media anti-spectacle. Was this an underground meeting place for aliens to pass out coded passwords to insurgents or was there a flip side to the Pope's own death? In any case, I had the sensation of encountering upon a deeply private and ancient ritual, devoid of any dogma, extravagantly illicit and not shy of provocation...."
Robert Lort's Review

What a strange coincidence, less than 12 hours before a certain death in Rome another 'death' unfolded in Australia...

ahoy tharrr!!!!

daevid's first gig for one year
was friday april 1 2005:

daevid alien
death ritual
610 studios
brisbane australia

see endgame one: death ritual for manifestoe

More images from Max

The function of art is to make that understood which in the form of argument would be incomprehensible.
No matter how bad things get you got to go on living, even if it kills you.
We do not stop playing because we grow old
we grow old because we stop playing.
thang you & goodnight
my remains
yours deciduously
dada alien
aka: jesu ali om

endgame two:rebirth and endgame three will take place in the near future - more news as and when.

© 2003 In These Times

Knowing What's Nice
by Kurt Vonnegut
November 6, 2003

Author's note: I'm working on a novel, If God Were Alive Today, about a fictitious man, Gil Berman, 36 years my junior, who cracks jokes or whatever in front of college audiences from time to time, something I myself have done. Here are excerpts from some of what I myself said onstage at the University of Wisconsin in Madison on the evening of September 22, 2003, as we touch off the last chunks and drops and whiffs of fossil fuels.

K.V.
September 24, 2003
Sagaponack, New York

It must be kind of spooky to be a student or teacher in a university as great as this one, with its libraries and laboratories and lecture halls, while knowing it is within the borders of a nation where wisdom, reason, knowledge and truth no longer apply.

I realize that some of you may have come in hopes of hearing tips on how to become a professional writer. I say to you, "If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be a homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts. But do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites, standing for absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college."

But actually, to practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it. Dance on your way out of here. Sing on your way out of here. Write a love poem when you get home. Draw a picture of your bed or roommate.

And hey, listen: A sappy woman sent me a letter a few years back. She knew I was sappy, too, which is to say a lifelong northern Democrat in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt mode, a friend of the working stiffs. She was about to have a baby, not mine, and wished to know if it was a bad thing to bring such a sweet and innocent creature into a world as bad as this one is. I replied that what made being alive almost worthwhile for me, besides music, was all the saints I met, who could be anywhere. By saints I meant people who behaved decently in a strikingly indecent society. Perhaps some of you are or will become saints for her child to meet.

And now I want to tell you about my late Uncle Alex. He was my father's kid brother, a childless graduate of Harvard who was an honest life insurance salesman in Indianapolis. He was well-read and wise. And his principal complaint about other human beings was that they so seldom noticed it when they were happy. So when we were drinking lemonade under an apple tree in the summer, say, and talking lazily about this and that, almost buzzing like honeybees, Uncle Alex would suddenly interrupt the agreeable blather to exclaim, ''If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.''

So I do the same now, and so do my kids and grandkids. And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."

That's one favor I've asked of you.

Now I've got another one, a show of hands. How many of you have had a teacher at any point in your entire education who made you happier to be alive, prouder to be alive than you had previously believed possible? Now please say the name of that teacher out loud to someone sitting or standing near you.

OK? All done? "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."

I'll be 81 on November 11. What's it like to be this old? I can't parallel park worth a damn anymore. Please don't watch when I try to do it. But no matter how bad things may get for me, the music will still be wonderful. My epitaph, should I ever need one, God forbid: "The only proof he ever needed of the existence of God was music."

You and the police are entitled to know, since I am going to spend the night near you, that I am both a Humanist and a Luddite. I may hold a Black Mass in the parking garage of the Best Western Hotel, if I can find a neo-conservative baby to sacrifice.

Do you know what a Humanist is? I am honorary president of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in that functionless capacity. We Humanists try to behave well without any expectation of rewards or punishments in an afterlife. We serve as best we can the only abstraction with which we have any real familiarity, which is our community.

We had a memorial services for Isaac a few years back, and at one point I said, "Isaac is up in Heaven now." It was the funniest thing I could have said to a group of Humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, "Kurt is up in Heaven now." That's my favorite joke.

Do you know what a Luddite is? That's a person who doesn't like newfangled contraptions. Contraptions like nuclear submarines armed with Poseidon missiles that have H-bombs in their warheads, and like computers that cheat you out of becoming. Bill Gates says, ''Wait till you can see what your computer can become.'' But it's you who should be doing the becoming. What you can become is the miracle you were born to work - not the damn fool computer.

Now you know what a Humanist and a Luddite are. Do you know what a Twerp is? When I was in high school in Indianapolis 65 years ago, a Twerp was a guy who stuck a set of false teeth up his rear end and bit the buttons off the back seats of taxicabs. (And a Snarf was a guy who sniffed the seats of girls' bicycles.)

And I consider anybody a Twerp who hasn't read the greatest American short story, which is "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," by Ambrose Bierce. It isn't remotely political. It is a flawless example of American genius, like "Sophisticated Lady" by Duke Ellington or the Franklin stove. "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," by Ambrose Bierce.

I consider anybody a Twerp who hasn't read Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. There can never be a better book than that one on the strengths and vulnerabilities inherent in our form of government.

Want a taste of that great book? He says, and he said it 168 years ago, that in no country other than ours has love of money taken stronger hold on the affections of men. OK?

And many of you, if not most, have surely at least dipped into that great book. But I can hardly call you Twerps, or even Snarfs, if you have never even heard of the next book I want to celebrate. Practically nobody has, since it is basically a medical text: The Mask of Sanity, first published in 1941 and written by the late Dr. Hervey Cleckley, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Medical College of Georgia.

Some people are born deaf, some are born blind or whatever, and this book is about congenitally defective human beings of a sort who are making this whole country and many other parts of the planet go completely haywire nowadays. These are people born without consciences. They know full well the pain their actions may cause others to feel but do not care. They cannot care. They came into this world with a screw loose, and now they're taking charge of everything. They appear to be great leaders because they are so decisive. Do this! Do that! What makes them so decisive is that they do not care and cannot care what happens next.

Now then, there's a good news and there's a bad news tonight. The bad news is that the Martians have landed in New York City, and are staying at the Waldorf. The good news is that they only eat homeless man, women and children of all colors, and they pee gasoline.

But seriously, if you read the supermarket tabloids you know that for the past 10 years a team of Martian anthropologists has been studying our country, the only country worth a damn on the whole planet - forget Brazil and Argentina. Well, they went back home last week because they knew how really awful global warming is about to be. Their space ship wasn't a flying saucer. It was more of a flying soup tureen. And they're little, only six inches high, but they aren't green. They're mauve.

By way of farewell, their little mauve leader said there were two things about American culture no Martian could ever understand. "What is it," she said in that teeny-weeny, tanny-wanny, toney-woney little voice of hers, "what can it possibly be about blow jobs and golf?"

That is stuff from a novel I've been working on for the past five years, about a standup comedian at the end of the world. It is about making jokes while we are killing all the fish in the ocean, and touching off the last chunks or drops or whiffs of fossil fuel. But it will not let itself be finished.

Its working title - or actually non-working title - is If God Were Alive Today. And hey, listen: It is time we thanked God that we are in a country where even the poor people are overweight. But the Bush diet could change that.

And about the novel I can never finish, If God Were Alive Today: The hero, the standup comedian on Doomsday, not only denounces our addiction to fossil fuels, with the pushers in the White House. Because of overpopulation, he is also against sexual intercourse. His name is Gil Berman, and he says to audiences like this one, "I am a flaming neuter. I am as celibate as at least 50 percent of the heterosexual Roman Catholic clergy. Celibacy is not a root canal, and it is so cheap and convenient. Talk about safe sex! You don't have to do or say anything afterwards, because there is no afterwards."

Gil Berman goes on: "When my tantrum, which is what I call my TV set, waves boobs in my face, and tells me that everybody but me is going to get laid tonight, and this is a national emergency, so I've got to rush out and buy pills or a car or a folding gymnasium I can hide under my bed, I laugh like a hyena. I know and you know there are millions upon millions of good Americans, present company not excepted, who aren't going to get laid tonight."

"And we neuter vote! And I look forward to a day when the President of the United States, no less, who probably isn't going to get laid that night either, decrees a National Neuter Pride Day. And out of our closets we'll come. And we will go marching up main streets all over this great land of ours, shoulders squared, chins held high, and laughing like hyenas."

What about God, if He were alive today? Gil Berman says, "God would have to be an Athiest, because the excrement has hit the air-conditioning big time, big time."

© 2003 In These Times

28.9 - The very best of news! All remaining doubts about Tim Blake being able to appear at the Unconvention because of his court case are now gone - he will most definitely be there with J.P. Rykiel and of course with the THE Gong band.

08.9 - Funktion-One is bringing in a full-on 'Resolution' system to demo in the Max at the Melkweg over the week including the UnCon. We (Gong, Steve Hillage, David Id) go way back with these folks! This is widely regarded as the best, most 'transparent' live sound reinforcement system on the planet, so there is every chance of this being far and away the best Gong sound of all time. Many thanks!

If you are of a audio-technical bent you won't need telling just what fantastically good that news is (and that it will include the 'Ambisonic' surround-sound system), if you aren't, no matter, just know that your ears are in for some seriously good sound.
www.funktion-one.com

03.9 - It's now exactly 2 months till the first day of the Unconvention. The family's eyes and efforts are now all focused, the tickets continue to flow out around the world, expiry dates of passports are being checked, the time to take care of the details has been reached - there has never been a Gong event so carefully planned.

30.8 - Our plans to celebrate Pierre Moerlen at the Unconvention are now sadly being expanded. We will be gathering the Gong musicians Pip played with (Camembert Gong, Gongmaison, early/mid 90's Gong) together sometime during the event to sound Pip on his way.

12.8 - Planning & discussing rehearsals seem to have been uppermost of late as we move through August. Master planner Steve Hillage has the task of dove-tailing the Gong & Steve Hillage Band musicians into 10 days of rehearsals, quite a jigsawing act what with everyone's busy schedules.

28.7 - A deep and frivolous, or deeply frivolous meeting was held with Steve and Miquette on the Mayan Calender's 'day out of time' (look it up it's interesting) chez Greene, where all manner of expanded Gong Unconvention dreams 'n' schemes were scattered to the breeze to take root and grow. We'll see what has flowered come November. And I've nearly added all the attendees? Ungongsters? booked up so far to the 'Line-up' pages. Are you there? Are you there and you don't know how you got there? Spread the word - there's a planet coming.

05.7 - We are planning to have some very rare, unseen films of Gong, Daevid, etc showing in a corner of the the 'Old - "phew a chill out space" - Hall'. There is some amazing, quality footage from way back which will simply blow your socks off - if you are wearing any that is.

19.6 - Very cheap flights are still happening with BMI - www.bmi.baby.com and all the other budget airlines. Check wit your local airport. The smaller the airport the cheaper it is.

15.6 - FREE FLIGHTS TO AMSTERDAM! Right now (Thursday 15th June), it is possible to get free return flights to Amsterdam for 3rd-6th November from British Midland, certainly from Birmingham, Nottingham, I've not checked other airports such as Gatwick. There will of course be airport tax to pay. BMI's website is www.bmi.baby.com. Maybe it works from other UK airports as well.

14.6 - Perhaps the only Unconvention advert, well the only one we have planned at present, appears in the new issue of Festival Eye, along with a few words on the event.

19.5 - Just over a quarter of tickets have now gone, but we would still love (and need) your help to bring the whole event into being. If you want to help you can download, print out and display an A4 Poster for the Unconvention in your favourite pub, record shop, scout hut, café, indian take-away or anywhere else that will allow.

15.5 - The artists list and ticket sales reveal that so far people from at least 17 different countries will be participating in the Unconvention. I wonder how many will be represented in the end?

14.5 - We are delighted to announce two recent additions to the Unconvention melting pot. All the way from Australia Harry Williamson, Mothergong's co-pilot for so many years. And it looks as if a certain Monsieur Venux de Luxe will be bringing his incomparable Gong experience and undoubtedly still green pointy ears to the gathering.

As the 2005 Glast-bash tickets go on sale very soon perhaps this timely reminder of what it once was, news of which arrived yesterday, is the required antidote. Photographer and Spirit healer Paul Misso has just launched a lovely website full of his work. Not only are there more than 150 photographs of the '71 Glastonbury Fayre, most of which have never been seen before, but there are also some very evocative pictures of trip he made in 1972 to see the Master Musicians of Jajouka in Morocco. www.c-image.com/paulmisso/

While you're there, if you feel like it, you could also go on to www.healing-spirit.com and buy Paul's rather wonderful, high-quality '71 Glastonbury 'Pyramid of Light' poster, which I can whole-heartedly recommend, and support an original generous spirit.

Udi Koomran, our man in Israel, has been working on three 6 hour programs on Daevid and Gong. Here is the link to the homepage: Udi's Gong Show. The programs which I think include some interviews, are downloadable via the Israeli ProgFreaks hub.

'Tuning up at Dawn' a book by Tomás Graves (son of the poet Robert Graves) was read as last week's BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. In the first part (broadcast on Monday 22nd Nov) Daevid and Gilli featured as visitor's to and eventually residents of Deia, the village in Majorca where Robert Graves "kept open house for the itinerant international hippy set - a bunch of rock and folk musicians, actors, poets and other cultural luminaries".

Tomás tells me that Lady June, Ollie Halsall, Archie Leggett, Didier also appear in the book, so I think this, plus it sounded like a good read anyway, makes it a must for the Kasbah - whenever I can get hold of some copies. Guardian Review of 'Tuning up at Dawn'

Steve Hillage was interviewed for ITV UK's The South Bank Show about his production work with Rachid Taha and Khaled. The programme will be broadcast on Sunday March 13th. Steve also made a guest appearance on guitar at Rachid's recent London gig.

Friday, Feb 4th, Graham can be heard on BBC Radio 3's 'Mixing It' playing in a stunning improvised violin duo with leading American jazz violinist Mark Feldman (who has played with John Abbercrombie, John Zorn among many others).

The sessions, which were recorded at the end of September last year just before the Gong Un-convention, (maybe why Graham was the star of that event?), simply should not be missed. Graham had a CD of the recording on his visit to me back then, and I can testify that they are quite wonderful and totally engrossing, probably one of the very best things he has ever been involved with. If the usual BBC pattern is followed it should be available to listen to for 7 days after the broadcast.
BBC Radio 3:Mixing It

Dear Chums,

Well this is a sad communication because I have to tell you that the autumn GONG tour of 2004 is not financially viable.

Our overheads are too great & the income is too little. The tour is already making a loss before we even leave home & that is without budgeting for unforseen expenses.

With Voiceprint Records already way way over its original budget, all our royalties still unpaid by Charly Records & no other commercial backing, there is simply no money behind us to absorb any losses.

Unlike many other industry funded outfits, we of GONG are totally dependant on making a profit for our own survival.

Perhaps traditional touring has become a dinosoar activety in 2004. It could be that the future lies in long weekend parties, more of the mini festival idea. A sort of GONG 25 event but with onsite camping & also comfortable accomodation, healthy food & zany drinks & smart bar.

On the bill: several variations on Gong & its circle of bands plus experimental sounds, spoken word, specialist recording, creative improvisation & music workshops plus DJs & all night dancing.

So instead of transporting a large number of bodies with compex equipment at huge expense across the map, tis obviously better to do two or three large & memorable events & invite the Gong family to join us for the weekend.

I believe this is the future.

This year there may still be good news for Japanese fans. It is still feasible for us to play two gigs in Japan. On Sun 10th & Mon 11th October. Stand by for more news on this.

Finally let me say how sad I feel to witness the death of touring. I have been doing it all my life & for all the hardships it is enormous fun.

It makes for a heavy heart to think of all the time energy & good work that has been put into these tours by Nigel Morton, our agent who has worked long & hard for virtually no reward.

Lets hope we can soon reverse this trend with larger more concentrated & less time consuming projects.

Love,

daevid allen.

After number crunching all the projected figures for the tour, the Moneypenny Agency and the band realise that the huge expenses, like international air fares, big tour bus, sustaining 10 people, etc. come to much more than the income from gigs.

After looking at all the possible solutions, the Agency has reached the conclusion that, within the limited time frame available because of the AMT tour, it is simply not viable to do the Acid MotherhoodGong tour. Changes in the music industry have knocked out a lot of live venues and it is much more sustainable to set up weekends in one place where the band plays several times.

Gong realises they will have to change their manner of touring and concentrate on such events, which apart from the band will have visiting musicians, workshops, fire eaters, camping, staying in cabins, dancing, celebrating.

This is anticipated to take place in March/April next year.The Gong story has always included such gatherings, and circumstances seem to have presented them again, as a viable way to communicate with all the Gong friends, play the music we love, share energies, and make it possible to come from the other side of the world.

Hopefully we will be playing at a two day Festival in Japan, 8th October on. We feel very sad to disappoint all our gong friends who have participated in the long Gong story with us, and helped in so many ways. We feel sad for ourselves too, not to be playing that new music we were looking forward to, and connecting again with those friends, fans, clowns, buskers, performers, and multi-coloured people, who make all the gigs so heartfelt.

We are visioning the spring.

love gilli

Oh triple rats! The second tour of the year spirals gently downstream Eyore-like into what might have been land, legs sticking skywards humming quietly to itself. After so much effort from all involved to save the tour we retire to the pavilion for tea to plan a more oblique and perhaps more interesting look at the future.

The just published Australian magazine 'xochi23' has one of the best interviews with Daevid I've read for years. 31 of the magazine's 100 pages are devoted to the interview which took place in Australia in September last year. It's a highly entertaining and informative in-depth examination of Daevid's time in Paris in the early '60's, the early Gong years and more.

'xochi23' is limited to just 100 copies and is a very well printed b/w, 17.5cm x 25cm perfect bound volume which I would decsribe as a book rather than a magazine. Copies are available from Australia for £8.00 pounds plus postage or €11.50 Euros plus postage. Send an e-mail to Michael and Marisa the producers at xochipub@hotmail.com to find out more. Very highly recommended.

Becoming visible - the websites of two Invisible Opera Co. of Tibet members and their multi-dimensional musical activities - visit Brian Abbott and Tim Hall online.

STEVE HILLAGE LIVE '78 DOUBLE CD Updated Wed 20 June 2004
A new live double CD of the Steve Hillage Band at the 1978 Deeply Vale Festival released on 31st May is in stock in the Kasbah right now. It's almost the complete concert recorded direct from the mixing desk. The band, including the late Christian Boulé in the line-up is in stunning form. Not to be missed.

A great streamed smoothly grooving tabla-driven techno remix of 'Selene' by Psyquest has been posted. If the You Remixes were your thing then don't hesitate. Selene Remix

Also check out Stof's other psytrance and no-age work here. I think you'll enjoy it. Stof's site

Blaidddwyn has been beavering away in the photo gallery. Some of the new pictures from April's gigs include Tony Rainbow's Here & Now Exeter pics and some of Acidmothergong in Japan

More good Acidmothergong Japanese experience pictures here as well: Osaka 1 / Osaka 2

The pace of Gong Family releases is such that we have expanded and modified the release info. There are now 3 separate pages divided up thus:

Recent Releases All the releases of the past 6 months
Future Releases Forthcoming releases with a release date
Planned Releases Releases under 'construction' & discussion

Any changes to release schedules and additional information will in future be posted on these pages and of course on an album's Kasbah page (if there is one) rather than in the news section. I will however continue to post basic news of new releases of new here and on the Home page.

Daevid and Gilli spin some tales of a strange, tiring but enjoyable Japanese time. Some photographs will be posted in the Gallery in the next couple of days.
Acidmotherhood Japan Tour

There is a new brief interview with Daevid on the forthcoming Bananamoon Obscura Series in the Archives and while you're there more work has been done the Gong Family gig history - still a huge amount to do, but base camp has well and truly been established.

The Damo man in all his splendor .
www.damosuzuki.com

Fabulous University of Errors photographs found by Arnold from Poland.
www.lib.cas.cz/tichy/uoe.html

New address and a new look for Mike Howlett's web-site.
mikehowlett.co.uk/ photographs

Pictures of the infamous (?) Acidmothersgong RFH concert - posted by Basil Brooks, taken by partner Tracey.
http://community.webshots.com/user/gongpix

WMV clips of AMTers Makoto & Cotton in action.
Rob Wicked's archive

Kif Kif's essential delving into Here & Now's history - I think he's reached 1976 (come back KK!)
www.herenow.be/

Review of Here & Now's 'Gospel of Free' CD and a look at the Acid Mothers Temple.
www.astro-zombie.com

Stof's Quicktime Psyquest showcase - needs QT6 for full glory.
www.newomlab.free.fr

A certain Mr D. Bowie, formerly of Bromley, England, was asked to choose his top 25 albums from is record collection in this month's Vanity Fair (apparently a special music issue of this high fluting fashion magazine). Among his selection was Daveid's 1971 Bananamoon album, which he thought had a wiff of the beginnings of Glam rock about it. Like I was saying to the cat only this morning - Strange times.

I believe that that the forthcoming Acidmothersgong gig in the Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday 21st (only one week away!) is one of the most important Gong gigs in years. It is up there in importance with maybe 4 or 5 other gigs during my entire tenure at the helm of GAS (or is that clapped in irons in the bilges of GAS?). Gigs such as the 25th Birthday Party in '94 or Daevid's Invisible Opera Tabernacle gig in '88. It is simply a seminal concert. One which in the future will be seen as where a line was drawn under the past and a new direction embarked upon. That point of change in fact has already been passed, but the Royal Festival Hall is the first high profile public manifestation and celebration of that change - or it might be a complete sausage!

I'm hugely excited about the limited release live CD at present only available in the GAS Kasbah System 7 - Live Transmissions. The gig was recorded at the Tokiodrome, Liquid Room in Tokyo on August 17th 2002 and it's a stunner. It flows and grooves as classic System 7 themes expand and flower in new and unexpected ways. Steve and Miquette are clearly enjoying the whole affair, as I'm sure you will as well. Have a look: Pictures of the Liquid Room gig on the System 7 website.

This weekend Here & Now laid down tracks for their first studio album since 1995's 'UFOasis'. Steffe, Keith Missile, Steve Cassidy, with Eat Static's Joie Hinton worked through the weekend at the Glastonbury studios and have so far launched 5 or 6 tracks. There is still of course a long road to be travelled but a Spring birth is hoped for. All the news here as it unfolds.

And at almost the same time Daevid and the University of Errors were in the studio on the other side of the planet in San Francisco after their Saturday gig in Berkeley starting to record their 'Soft Machine' album. They plan to give the UofE de-construction/re-construction job to those old Soft Machine demo tracks that have been sold to us so many times. Perhaps an energetic reclamation of that material after all the years of re-packaged, no-pay, nonsense.

Add to those two juicy things to look forward to Gilli and Gong Matrice, who were finishing off an album in SF in the past week and Daveid's radical Acidmothersgong mixing and editing in Australia before his US trip and I think you could safely call this a Recording Moon.

The Fawcett Effect! I don't know what your relationship with bars and pubs is like, mine is ambiguous at best. However, having finally made it to one of landlord Rob Wicked's free musical events at the Fawcett Inn in Southsea (Daevid, Mark, Jerry and Zorch's Basil last month) I have decided that this esteemed establishment just has to be named the official GAS watering hole.

It's a true community aware psychedelic pub decorated with day-glo pixies and fairies (and that's only the staff!). Great attitude, minimal lurking gremlins, friendly staff. If only there were one in every town - but then that might make the Fawcett Effect not as special as it is.

The next Free Gong visitation is Sunday 3th August (not Tues 5th as previously posted) when Daevid and Nicolletta will Gliss and Theremin the evening away. Have a poke around their web-site to get a flavour - then go!
http://groups.msn.com/thefawcetteffect

Basil has posted some nice photographs of the Planet Gong Solstice Gig on the Isle or Wight on the Zorch website. Which looks as if it could turn out to be the one and only Gong gig of the entire year as much discussion is now in progress about the proposed autumn Gong tour - it may turn into a Spring 2004 tour. I'll keep you posted.
www.zorch.freeserve.co.uk/solstice.htm

Some more good pictures, this time of the University of Errors in action at the LA2 in London on 31st May
http://www.tyries.co.uk/Photos/uni.htm

I just received this e-mail from Max in Argentina:

"the violin player Jorge Pinchevsky died yesterday because of an absurd accident with a bike...He was 59... All Argentinian music lovers are truly affected by his death...LONG LIVE "PIN" (1943-2003)

The sound of Jorge's violin was an intergral part of the Gong album Shamal and he toured as a member of the band in 1976 before suffering the same fate as Daevid in 1967, when he was refused re-entry into the UK. Sympathy to his nearest and dearest.

These Spanish language sites have more general information on Jorge although the first two have not yet been updated to include news of his death, but the last one is a news site with an article entitled 'The March of the Lonely Violin' somewhere on it, which does.
www.rock.com.ar/bios/0/370.shtml
www.progresiva70s.com/
www.clarin.com.ar

Daevid features in the new issue (July) of the UK music magazine 'The Wire'. He was the subject of their regular 'Invisible Jukebox' feature where a musician listens to and expounds upon songs played to them by an interviewer. The music played to the subject is not necessarily current stuff, though it can be.

Daevid didn't say exactly what he listened to except to say that his true feelings about certain other 'space-rock' bands and their music may be revealed! I'm sure it's all bound to be very interesting and entertaining and I'll looking forward to reading it.
www.thewire.co.uk/

Just 10 minutes ago I returned from Glastonbury Studios where Here & Now were busy rehearsing for the UK tour with Daevid and The University of Errors. As I opened the rehearsal room door it was like having your atoms dispersed and being sucked across the galaxy. My ears instantly melded with the Mothership.

Steffe, almost encircled with a ring of effects pedals which he alternately tickled and stomped on, was caressing the most amazing deep space to scorching psychedelic sounds from his guitar. It does him and them a disservice to call it Hendrix/Hillage like, because the sounds are completely his own language. But those two names are as good a reference/launching pad as any for where Steffe has headed.

Joie Hinton was surrounded on 3 sides with layers of keyboards and analog synths with a big beaming smile on his face as he surfed a towering wave of synth sounds of his own creation. Steve Cassidy, sitting amongst the strange tubular bedstead that is a full electronic drum kit, tweaked and nudged his sound settings while maintaining pulsating rhythms from beyond. And like the Oak tree that he is, Keith the Bass, in front of his huge new Ampeg (?) bass cabinet which seems to be about 10 foot high, thundered out bass-lines so groundingly solid you could migrate to them and start up a new civilization. And this was them just warming up!

Good grief the Errors will have to respond in kind to stay the course with this Here & Now band - but the best thing of all is - They will! These two bands are going to encourage and complete, push and guide each other to some dizzying musical heights. You've got to go and be part of it - together there is no limit to what we may experience.

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