Philzone.org - Philzone Phansite Community Discussion Board: Setlists and Reviews: Non GD Related Reviews: Archive: Planet Gong / Here and Now June 28th

This gig at London's Dingwalls was a one-off, and also mooted as the last-ever Planet Gong gig. Small venue, not the greatest place, full with 500 tickets sold. Messrs Hillage and Howlett showed up to watch also.

First set was an hour of Here and Now, a hard-core free festival band from the 70s who are still going. I havent ever made the effort to get into them, so they were a revelation of spacey music which took me back to the days of yore.

Second set, Daevid Allen came out to lead them into their Planet Gong material from that specific era which they both encompass (the punk era in which they tried to point out that hard core hippies had much in common with punks, sowing the seeds for the 80s free festival/Peace Convoy movement).

Setlists can be found on the Planet Gong website.
The set was just over an hour and felt a bit short, but hell, Daevid must be 68 now, which imposes its limitations on leaping around...

Main thing - it was a wonderful set. As ecstatic in its own way as the Brainville gig, if not quite so mindblowing.

We managed to co-ordinate 4 cameras and the soundboard, so we should put together a record of it all at some point :-)

Last memory - seeing Daevid leave the stage by kicking over mike stands and so on...here's another man growing old disgracefully :-)

Wow.>>Cheers to u.>HAve interviewed Daevid a few times for radio over the years.Sat nxt to him n others in NYC as I grew into a man.As a child my buddy's hippie step dad turned us onto gong at a young age.Always a inspiration to me as players.The om riff should be as famous as smoke on the water.
What does last ever gig mean? That kinda scares me a bit. Saw Daevid in NYC over the winter reading poetry and was thrilled.. Anyway..

IF yr in the NYC area I usually host a psych jam once a month or so with group participation.>Lots of moogs and keys.>Sax and crazed guitar n bass..Leaping hippies n the like



WHere u live brother?

Ozric Tentacles in NYC in July with the eat static folks. I sometimes think I am on the wrong side of the so called pond

Thanx for the view of the gong planet

Who the hell is Daevid Allen....??..

Googled him a month ago to find I might have seen him play when Soft Machine opened for Hendrix

SM album got lots of play in my basement..ground Zero for music in West Rogers Park ~ Chicago ~ circa 1966-1968

Thanks for the review Paddieu..

You seen the documentary film following Robert Moog around..??..

../52555/3988 67.html?1183220998#MT

hey, nice replies :-)

GDad, that's not an easy question to answer in a para or two ;-)

Dingo Alien, to call him by one of his many names/selves is one of the musical/non musical geniuses of our era. Although I've followed his progress since around 1971, I think that it was in 1988 that it dawned on me how remarkable his prolific body of work truly is. Since then that feeling has just grown and perhaps reached its apogee at the Melkweg Unconvention last year and
in this year's 3/4/5 musical incarnations.

Let me see, how many artistic incarnations come to mind right now :

Acoustic Alien (solo, Stroking the Tail of the Bird etc)

Space-folk Alien (Magick Brothers variants)

Avant Garde Alien (Acid Mothers Gong, New York Gong, Brainville, University of Errors etc)

{the above contain Soft Machine 1 era ditties}

Punk Alien (Planet Gong)

Techno Alien (Gong Maison)

Spiritual Alien (various incarnations, working around the glissando guitar)

Space/Prog/Euro rock Alien (Gong itself)

I'm sure there's more, but that's just a start in trying to encompass it all !

Then there's the poet Alien, the Self-Initiation workshop Alien, and more...

The range of material naturally varies in quality, but does remain remarkably high.

Back in the day you would have seen SM without Daevid, as after the first album, following a tour of France, he wasnt allowed back into the UK, and that was the end of his time with Ayers, Wyatt and co... Impressive you caught those gigs though !

Planet Gong website is the place to check out more
:-)

Hi Tom !

Wow I am impressed that you've had such close contact...

Are there any recordings of those interviews ?

I live in London, so it'll be a while before I can take you up on the offer, but gnomic bows for that, thanks !

As for 'last ever' gig, that would relate just to the Planet Gong incarnation for now - ie the punk Alien [see above]. The guys [maybe that means Daevid ?] seem to feel that it needs too much energy to pull off those kind of gigs...

But more likely it has to do with Daevid being on the other side of the world most of the time, and wanting to keep his options open. After all, it's not as if this incarnation have played much together in recent decades :-)

Yup..I do got thoise interviews ..I could probably get u a copy..Email me yr coordinates Love the gong n related family

HAve u seen Dream Machine in the UK..I wonder if they are any good.

Peace !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You Can't Kill Me

You can kill my father
You can kill my son
You can kill my children
With a gun...
You can kill my family
My family tree

You can kill my body, baby...
You can kill my body, baby...
But you can't kill me
My lord, I love you...
My lord, I love you...

Now you're here...
Then you're gone...
Night and day...
Right and wrong...
You can do what you want
You can do what you want
You can do what you want
You can do what you want...

I'll be seein' you again
I'll be bein' you again
I'll be dreamin' you again
Again and again and again

I see you sittin' there on your old back veranda
You got your shady lady and waltzing Matilda
You're really only me if you'd only remember

double post

dream machine is like the synth side of ozrics