GONG
After completing a successful East Coast Tour last Fall GONG is
coming back to the USA this June for a 4 weeks West Coast tour, the first West
Coast tour in 25 years.
909The ever-metamorphosing entity that is GONG launches,
as ever, into unknown - and unknowing - territory with new tours destined to be
talked about, discussed, and argued over, up and down the land. From its beginnings in a French commune in 1967,
through the Virgin Records years, mismanagement, court cases, break-ups and
re-joining's, deaths and rebirths - there has always been a continuous thread
of beautiful, dangerous and extraordinary music.
The current holders of the flame have come together over the last eight
years; sinuous bass player Dave Sturt joined just as the album 2032 was shown
to the world; Ian East (Sax, Flute) was the next to blow in through the portal;
Fabio Golfetti brought his guitars from Brazil (after working with Daevid Allen
for many years); Kavus Torabi (lead vox and guitars) appeared to Daevid in
a vision; Cheb Nettles (drums) just sort of turned up.
In 2015, Daevid Allen passed away. His influence and legacy were
honoured on the band's subsequent album, Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016).
In recent years GONG has performed with the Steve Hillage Band
(himself a former member of the 1970s GONG line-up) and released the critically
acclaimed album The Universe Also Collapses (2019) and a
stunning new live album Pulsing Signals (2022) captures the
band at a creative peak with tracks drawn from their 2019 tour. Their new
studio album, Unending Ascending, was release in November 2023.
GONG's musically diverse world includes shades of
psychedelia, space rock, jazz, avant-garde, krautrock and surreal soundscapes.