Notes For Absent Friends (Pt 2) - Gong Unconventional Gathering

Jeremy Dunn

Well I left you on Saturday afternoon, and so to continue, Saturday evening began with a wedding ceremony, which I won't dwell on, and then the tributes for Pip/Pierre. A piper played (Craig, aka Haggis - Jonny) whilst the audience followed on behind, covering the length and breath of the Melkweg and finally out onto the street. I was very moved to see that Steve Hillage had joined in for this ritual.

Didier told us he had an unrecorded song of Pip's which he wanted to play for us on flute, adding that he thought it sounded very Canterbury. He played the piece and it was a lovely way of paying tribute, it was a great tune, and it did sound very Canterbury, which is pretty extraordinary because I always associate the Canterbury sound as featuring keyboards and a particular vocal style! Daevid and Keith Missile and Hillage next told funny stories about Pip, and then we were all invited to bash out a percussive tribute on various drums and whatever we had brought along. This was great because we could all participate, it kind of brought to mind the old San Franscisco acid test sessions too.

On with the musical entertainments, the main hall hosted some techno dj's followed by Eat Static and System 7. In the smaller hall I caught bits of Zorch, Sacred Geometry and Stroking the Tail of the Bird, it was a good contrast to walk between both rooms and feel the difference of sounds and atmospheres. I should say Thom the Poet did a fantastic job of linking and announcing all the performers in his own surreal poetic style. Sunday kicked off with House of Thandoy which for me did not really seem to gel, this may have something to do with the fact I kept comparing them to the original Thandoy of the 70's/80's who always turned out long, wild inspiring sets. I should say the audience liked the performance. I forgot to mention I hassled Jonny Greene for about two days about the archive Gong film footage. When I arrived on the Sunday he said; " Go in there (small hall) sit down and don't move " Projected onto a screen was some utterly devastating magic Gong footage from France 1973. It was so fresh and original and extraordinary that I very nearly cried? Hard to explain, but it was such a beautiful bit of film. This will be put out, so this is why I don't give you too many details, the first time you see it, you will just smile inside. Absolutely beautiful.

And so next Kangaroo Moon charmed the audience with their songs and warm ambience. I was not prepared for University of Errors, and from here on things really kicked off. Daevid played with them and they did a set of early Soft Machine songs which were just so dynamic and so fresh and contemporary, and David himself was just completely devastating. The way he commands a stage, his confidence and abilities, he really is a consumate showman, I'm telling you he threw himself into this set and held nothing back. It was extraordianry, the best so far by miles. Daevid put a lot of energy and guts into his performance and I was glad to see him coming out from his quiet gentle and un-assuming type personna, which dominated all his sets up to this point. This was more like Elvis Presley on acid! Unexpected and wonderful.

There was a bit of crazy music and theatre peformance in the other room, and I also used this time to eat, wander about, and strike up conversations. Next up, Steve Hillage Band. I never thought I'd see the day with Hillage on stage, with guitar,playing whole chunks of Fish Rising,with the old original back projections screend behind the band.The sound and the playing and the audience, the historical aspect,the moment,the atmosphere , and that guitar sound.I mean we'd seen Steffe Sharpstrings, we'd seen Steve "Thandoy"Higgins, but this was the master onstage reminding us who invented that sound,and played only the way Steve Hillage can play.It was probably just like every 1970's performance of his you had ever seen, but with crystal clear sound and with huge emotion and intensity.Grown men around me were hugging eachother, smiling and laughing at the absolute uniqueness of the occasion. He said, "I think it's time we all went on a little fishing trip", and naturally launched into Salmon Song. It seemed people had waited some twenty years for such a moment.

Arnold had said to me he didn't think Gong would be able to pull it off when they played, and seeing Hillage go down a storm, you had to think "Oh dear, maybe it will be a let down", and then finally Gong took the stage at about 1 am. They turned "You Can't Kill Me" inside out, and from that moment they only got better and better with each number. To my ears and eyes they played the slightly silly, whimsical pieces first from Camembert and Flying Teapot, but then during the coda to the Salene song, Daevid did something very strange? He just got up to a part when there is a lovely guitar figure, it's a play on three notes, he fiddled with his guitar tuning and I thought he was just going to avoid those three crucial notes? He was wearing a particularly silly clowns silver hat, and I watched intently as he pulled this thing of his head and chucked away, put one foot on a monitor and played the three most beautiful and moving notes I have ever heard in my life. Then he flung his arms out and sang "SALENE". It's hard to describe but you had to kind of go into slight shock, it's the only thing I can compare it to. For about 10/15 seconds I was starting to hallucinate,imagine a performance so intense and so powerful that it can induce that? They played the Witches song from Flying Teapot and I turned to an old friend and said, "This is my favourite song", and he said "Mine too!". You know how this song is built in sections, with the middle section a whole mesh of guitars turned up full, with all the other instruments backing up the riff, anyway, they just piled it on and on, it was real jaw dropping stuff, at this point I found myself think I wish Pink Floyd were in the audience to see this, they'd just go home in shame and embarassment.

I started to think of what a fabulous back catalogue this band has, and these people onstage in front of me were bringing all to life in the most profound and intense way. Back to the set, we are now on Angels Egg, and they play Oily Way with the audience joining in word for word, and then "I Never Glid Before", with each song they were just turning the notch up higher and higher. They closed the set by three readings of songs from "You" and the concert was now going into the realms of the sublime and started to feel like some kind of religious or mystical experience. I hoped for this, but I never thought I'd see the day when most of the surviving members of Gong would be onstage together playing "Master Builder", "Isle of Everywhere" and Daevid waving his arms aloft Syd Barrett style singing the IAO chant to very powerful effect. Naturally the set ended with band and audience singing, "You are I and I am You" and when it ended I thought they should just leave it like that. What could possibly follow that? Eventually Daevid remarked they had ten more minutes of free time, (it was ten minutes to three am at this point) and so they encored with a slightly ragged version of "Fohat Digs Holes in Space". The audience stayed behind too happy and too overwhelmed to do anything ordianry like go home or back to their various hotels and a wondeful atmosphere prevailed in the room. We'd all been part of an extraordinary experience. I came away with a re-knewed respect for Daevid Allen in particular and perhaps the first real full realisation of how important and how valuable and essential a figure he is. There is nobody like Daevid Allen, and nobody I can think of represents the same kind of values he does. Behind it all the man is an extrordianry musician and has inspired and written some of the most dazzling music on record or performed live in concert.

Unsung heroes? The guy who showered everyone with bubbles for three days (That was Duncan Tatlock, aka Buzz - Jonny), the guy who got onstage to show us his Flying Teapot tattoo on his back, I think he was called "And after that". All the Melkweg staff, Daevid Allen for giving his all, whoever provided the fabulous archive film, and whoever brought it over to A/dam, and Jonny Greene, this means YOU!