Gong (band) - History - Reunions and Acid Mothers Gong

Reunions and Acid Mothers Gong

After spending most of the eighties in his native Australia, Allen returned to the UK in 1988 with a new project, the Invisible Opera Company of Tibet, whose revolving cast included the likes of violinist Graham Clark and Didier Malherbe. This morphed into GongMaison and by 1991, the name Gong was again in use, by which time early drummer Pip Pyle had also rejoined. The band released the album Shapeshifter (subsequently dubbed Radio Gnome part 4), followed by extensive touring. In 1994, Gong celebrated its 25th birthday in London, including a performance by most of the 'classic' line-up, including the returning Gilli Smyth and Mike Howlett. This formed the basis of the "Classic Gong" band which toured worldwide from 1996 to 2001 and released Zero to Infinity in 2000 (by Allen, Smyth, Howlett and Malherbe plus new recruits Theo Travis and Chris Taylor).

However, 2003 saw a radical new line-up including Acid Mothers Temple member Kawabata Makoto and University Of Errors guitarist Josh Pollock. Allen and Smyth's son Orlando Allen drummed on the album Acid Motherhood, but the drummer on most of the band's live dates was Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida. Members of Gong and Acid Mothers Temple later worked together under the name "Acid Mothers Gong".

The "Classic Gong" line-up retired from regular touring in 2001, but there were one-off reunions subsequently, most notably at the "Gong Family Unconvention" (Uncon), the first of which was held in 2004 in the Glastonbury Assembly rooms as a one day event and featured many ex members and Gong family bands including Here and Now, House of Thandoy, Thom the Poet, Invisible Opera, Andy Bole, Bubbledub and Joie Hinton. The 2005 Uncon was a 2-day affair featuring several Gong-related bands such as Here & Now, System 7, House of Thandoy and Kangaroo Moon. The most recent Uncon was a 3-day event held at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on 3–5 November 2006, with practically all Gong-related bands present: classic Gong (with Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Hillage, Blake and Howlett, plus Miquette Giraudy, Chris Taylor and Theo Travis), System 7, Steve Hillage Band, Hadouk, Tim Blake & Jean-Philippe Rykiel, University of Errors, Here & Now, Mother Gong, Zorch, Eat Static, Acid Mothers Gong, Slack Baba, Kangaroo Moon and many others. These events have all been compèred by "Thom the Poet (now Thom Moon 10)".

In November 2007, Daevid Allen held a series of concerts in Brazil, with a branch of Gong, which was called Daevid Allen and Gong Global Family (Daevid Allen on vocals and guitar, Josh Pollock on guitar, megaphone and percussion; Fred Barley on drums and percussion; Fabio Golfetti on guitar, Gabriel Costa on bass, Marcelo Ringel on flute and tenor saxophone), along with his other band University of Errors (Allen, Josh Pollock, Michael Clare, Fred Barley). The presentations took place in Sao Paulo on 21 and 22 November and San Carlos on November 24. These musicians - less Marcelo - recorded some new songs in the studio Mosh, in Sao Paulo. The November 21st show was then released only in England as DVD and CD by Voiceprint Records.

More recently in June 2008, Gong played two concerts in London: Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank (opening Massive Attack's Meltdown festival) and the Forum, with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett, Taylor and Travis among the lineup. This line-up then released new album 2032 in 2009 and toured in support. They played the Glade stage at Glastonbury Festival with Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy. Gong played at the Big Chill festival in the UK between on 9 August 2009 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Sturt, Taylor and Travis in the line up, at the Beautiful Days Festival in Devon, 23 August 2009, and at the Lounge on the Farm festival near Canterbury in the summer of 2009.

Gong played four UK live shows in September 2010 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Sturt, Taylor and Ian East: O2 ABC Glasgow (9th), Manchester Academy (10th), HMV Forum London (11th) and HMV Institute Birmingham (20th). Support for these shows was provided by Nik Turner's Space Ritual.

Gong will be touring Europe in the fall of 2012 with the lineup of Allen, Smyth, Sturt, East, Orlando Allen on drums, and Fabio Golfetti on guitar.