OFF: alt.music.planet-gong

[Chris Bates]

Hi,

> I need a little Gong advice from the Gong aliens.

Now I know some Gong freaks are a little wierd but I'm
not sure that *alien* is the right word here :-)

> Were they still good at this time?

Yeah. IMO pretty much everything they've done has been good
- some of the offshoots such as Mother Gong are more than I can
stomach. Personally I have a pretty low tolerance for
self-indulgent tweeness.

> Is it real psychedelic freak-out type
> stuff that a HW junkie would eat up?

I think that many people are *into* both Gong and HW and both
bands are difficult for non-fans to appreciate. However Gong are
exactly NOTHING like HW, if you're expecting driving space rock
you'll be disappointed. They're much jazzier, more experimental
and I think that they're more relaxed.


> _Shamal_ is from 1975, but leans more towards jazz than the regular
> fare served up by the Pot Head Pixies and the Octave Doctors.  It's
> certainly not "psychedelic freak-out type stuff".  I'm not sure, but
> Steve Hillage might have departed by then, leaving Pierre Moerlen and
> the jazz faction in control.  (Daevid Allen [the "Dave Brock" of GonG]
> was also gone.)

I'm fairly sure, no in fact I'm positive that it's Allan Holdsworth on
guitar on this. He played on the last two Gong albums and is also
on *Expresso 2* by Pierre Morelains Gong (very jazz-rock).

> Btw, another one to look out for is Steve Hillage's _Fish Rising_.
> Although it's officially a Hillage solo album, just about everyone
> in GonG plays on it.  "The Salmon Song" is wonderful, but check
> out the live version on Hillage's _BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert_
> for a truly stellar version!

An awesome album. Most of Hillages solo albums are excellent.
he was still in Gong when he recorded this, I believe he  left because
it was so successful. I prefer *Live Herald* to the BBC live album
but I think they were recorded around the same time and they have very
similar tracklists.

I'd also recommend the newish Gong live album *Birthday Party*
which was recorded at the excellent 25th anniversary shows last year.
Some very good Tim Blake on it, the only downside is that Steffi
Sharpstrings does not play as well as Hillage and sometimes gets
a bit boring.


Chris