The beginnings of Gong can be traced back to several yearsbefore the band actually started to exist as such. Easter 1966, to bemore specific. In the Gong mythology, this was the point whenDaevid Allen had his 'seed vision', during which, legend has it, heforesaw his future career with both Soft Machine and Gong.This subject is largely covered by Allen himself in his recentautobiography, 'Gong Dreaming'.

Following his forced departure from Soft Machine in 1967, DaevidAllen settled in Paris with his partner Gilli Smyth, and for the nextcouple of years worked with several different line-ups, the moststable of which was Bananamoon (whose recordings, unreleased at thetime, were published by Legend Music in 1993). The name Gongwas first used in 1969, by which time the group of musicians gatheredaround Allen included former free-jazz saxophone player DidierMalherbe (nicknamed 'Bloomdido' after the famous Charlie Parkercomposition), and session musicians Christian Tritsch (guitar/bass)and Rachid Houari (drums/percussion), previously in the backing bandof variety star Claude François. Together, they recorded thefirst Gong album (although the initial pressing was apparentlycredited to Allen and Smyth alone), "Magick Brother/MystickSister". The music was still very raw compared to the classicmid-70's albums, but Allen 's typical style and sense of humour werealready well at the fore.

1970 was again a year of mostly confidential activity. The tapesrecorded during that period were only released in 1994 on the"Camembert Eclectique" CD. Gong was still not a stable,regularly gigging unit. This only became true after the arrival ofPip Pyle in early 1971. Pyle had been introduced to Allen by RobertWyatt during the recording of Allen's solo album, "Banana Moon", andended up playing on one track of that album. With the now settledline-up of Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Tritsch and Pyle, the band retiredto the Château d'Hérouville (near Pontoise) to record"Camembert Electrique", which was only released in France (byByg). This was the first classic album of Gong, with songslike "You Can't Kill Me", "Dynamite/I Am Your Animal" or "Fohat DigsHoles In Space" which have remained in the band's setlists to thisday.

In the autumn of 1971, Gong toured France and England extensively,reinforced by Kevin Ayers, Allen's old pal from the Soft Machinedays, who had his solo section in each concert (Robert Wyatt, havingjust left the Softs, also appeared at selected gigs). Again,following "Camembert Electrique"'s confidential release, morethan a year would pass before Gong made it back to the recordingstudios, so this period is not well-documented, with the exception ofa couple of BBC sessions. By December 1971, Pyle had gone back toEngland and had been replaced by Laurie Allan, who by coincidence hadalready been his successor in Delivery the previous year!

Later in 1972, major changes affected Gong's line-up.Christian Tritsch decided to concentrate on guitar; Bill MacCormickof Matching Mole was added briefly, then replaced by ex-MagmaFrenchman Francis Moze following Giorgio Gomelsky's suggestion.Meanwhile, Tim Blake was added on synthesizer, which brought a wholenew dimension to the band's sound. Following a jam in Fontaineblauwith Kevin Ayers' band, which then included Steve Hillage as leadguitarist, Didier Malherbe offered the latter to join, which he didin replacement of Tritsch. With this new line-up (reinforced byRachid Houari on percussion), Gong recorded what was the bethe first instalment of the 'Radio Gnome Invisible' trilogyfor which Gong is most fondly remembered by its fans."Flying Teapot" introduced the characters of the Planet Gong(Zero The Hero and The Yoni Witch, aliasses for Allen and Smyth, ThePot-Head Pixies and The Octave Doctors) as well as the variousdevices used by its inhabitants to travel and communicate (RadioGnome Invisible, the Flying Teapots and the Crystal Machine) and,musically speaking, marked a transition to the fuller and moresophisticated sound of the next albums.

The sessions were almost immediately followed by a new split. Mozeand Allan left, the first to do session work in Paris and the secondto go back to England (where he briefly rejoined Steve Miller'sDelivery). A new rhythm section of Didier Thibault (formerly ofMoving Gelatine Plates, a very good Soft Machine-influenced band) andPierre Moerlen (straight out of the Strasbourg conservatory wherehe'd studied classical percussion extensively) was recruited. Thiswas the time Allen and Smyth chose to temporarily leave the band,presumably to leave them rehearse on their own and feel comfortabletogether, which they eventually did thanks to a French tour under thename of ParaGong, in the spring of 1973. Meanwhile, Thibaultwas replaced by yet another British exile, Mike Howlett.

"Flying Teapot" was among the first batch of releases onthe new Virgin label, with which Gong had just signed, andcoincided with Allen and Smyth returning for a headlining UK tour.Work soon started on the second trilogy album, Angel's Egg. Amusically more mature and consistent work, Angel's Egg was successfulin mixing together all the innovative musical elements brought byboth the new recruits and the old members, from Blake's synthesizerbubbles to Moerlen's tight and sophisticated drumming (withoccasional use of tuned percussion), from Malherbe's multicolouredsax and flute leads, displaying influences from both jazz and ethnicidioms, to Hillage's wild cosmic guitar soloing, not forgettingAllen's typical vocal delivery and superior glissando guitar layers,and Smyth's evocative space whispers.

There were however problems of a more social nature within theband, which led to the first of several departures of Pierre Moerlen,still hesitant whether to carry on with Gong or resume hisclassical activities. From late 1973, he was replaced by a variety oftemporary drummers including Laurie Allan, Rob Tait and Diane Stewart(Graham Bond's wife, also a vocalist). By now, Gong wasstarting to enjoy a high level of popularity in France, and giggedconstantly. Recordings of these later resurfaced as the "Live At TheBataclan" and "Live At Sheffield" CD's, not to mention those used onthe double live set, "Live Etc." from 1977.

With Moerlen eventually back in the line-up, Gong recordedwhat is considered as one of the ultimate space-rock classics, You(spawning such live favourties as "Master Builder" and "Isle OfEverywhere") which, although initially conceived as the third volumeof the 'Radio Gnome Trilogy', took an unexpected instrumentaldimension, with Allen's vocals confined to a minority of tracks. Atthat point, there was a growing conflict between Daevid Allen and theinstrumentalists, which would eventually lead to Allen's departurethe following spring, two dates into a major UK tour with GlobalVillage Trucking Company. Meanwhile, Moerlen left again and wasreplaced in September 1974 by Laurie Allan, then Bill Bruford(jobless following the breakup of King Crimson) and eventually (inFebruary 1975) Brian Davison, formerly of The Nice and Refugee.

With Gong developing to an instrumental band, not only Allen butalso Smyth and Blake grew dissatisfied and left as well. Smyth wasreplaced by Miquette Giraudy, Hillage's girlfriend. The position ofkeyboard player remained vacant for a while although Dave Stewart ofHatfield and the North (which broke up in June, 1975) helped out fora few gigs. The Virgin staff, meanwhile, was worried at the turn ofevents and demanded that a stable line-up and a new band concept bechosen. To this end, they asked Pierre Moerlen (who had signed withVirgin as a solo artist, for an album of percussion music) to rejoinand take over from Allen as the band's leader with Didier Malherbe,which he did. Still, there was hesitation as to whether the new bandshould abandon the Allen-era material. At first, Hillage and Giraudywanted to take over from Allen and Smyth, but their attempts provedunsuccessful and all references to the myths of stories of the PlanetGong were abandoned.

A new line-up of Gong resurfaced in the autumn of 1975,with Malherbe, Hillage, Moerlen, Howlett, and new recruits MireilleBauer (percussion, Moerlen's girlfriend at the time) and PatriceLemoine (keyboards, an acquaintance of Moerlen's from his Strasbourgdays). The repertoire was mostly instrumental-based. By the year'send, though, Hillage had lost faith in the band and, encouraged bythe success of his first solo album "Fish Rising", decided to leaveand embark on a solo career. He nevertheless took part in thesessions for the new album in December 1975. Also featured on"Shamal" were Jorge Pinchevksy, an Argentinian violin playerwho was previously in Clearlight, the French opening band for theautumn tour, and Sandy Colley (Lemoine's girlfriend), on vocals. Bothwere then added to the line-up, although Colley stayed only for a fewgigs.

"Shamal" was a superb album, which was quite successful inforgeing a completely new musical direction for Gong. As aresult of Allen and Blake leaving, it was predominantly instrumental(thankfully, considering the weakness of Mike Howlett's vocals) andleft behind the band's previous 'spacy' leanings. Stylistically, itwas a mixture of sophisticated rock ("Wingful Of Eyes"), complexprogressive ("Chandra", "Shamal"), ethnic/world experiments("Bambooji" and "Cat In Clark's Shoes") and the percussion-basedmusic ("Mandrake") which later became Moerlen's trademark. The band'ssound was more based on rhythm than ever (the Howlett-Moerlen pairwas indeed very solid), and made more frequent use of keyboards(Lemoine's style was close to jazz-rock, which made this line-uppossibly the most 'Canterbury'-sounding) and tuned percussion.Surprisingly, "Shamal" was an unexpected commercial success(well over 100,000 copies sold), which makes it probably thebiggest-selling Gong album ever.

By mid-1976, Malherbe and Moerlen were the only members of the'classic' line-up still in the band. Under their influence,Gong's music became even more complex and jazz-oriented thanpreviously, with new recruits like Allan Holdsworth, Francis Moze(already a member at the time of "Flying Teapot" - remember?), MinoCinelu (a good friend of Moze's whom the latter brought into theband, later a sideman for Miles Davis) and Benoît Moerlen allprimarily jazz players. They recorded "Gazeuse!" (1977), aless consistent album than "Shamal", relying more on theparticipants' chops than melodies or contrasts. Surprisingly,Malherbe didn't contribute to the writing, the compositions beingshared among Moerlen, Holdsworth and Moze.

The line-up was shortlived, breaking up immediately after thesessions, in late 1976. Moerlen and Moze couldn't get along together,which caused conflicts inside the band, leading to its breakup, withMoerlen ultimately going back to Strasbourg, forming a new line-upthere with Mireille Bauer and his brother Benoît. At thatpoint, we are already in the Pierre Moerlen's Gong story, butduring the period 1977-78, the band was still officially calledGong, or sometimes Gong-Expresso, referring to thetitle of the US release of "Gazeuse!".

In the 80's the Gong name was not used as such, althoughPierre Moerlen's Gong, Daevid Allen's Planet Gong, New York Gong andGongmaison, and Gilli Smyth's Mother Gong were active at varioustimes. Although a one-off reunion took place in 1990 as part of theBedrock TV concert series (with Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, DidierMalherbe, Pip Pyle, and Here & Now members Steffi Sharpstrings,Keith Missile and Twink Electron Flo appearing), it was during thesessions of Gongmaison's second album that Gong waseffectively reborn when Pip Pyle, the original drummer in the band(1971), was asked to overdub drum parts to the recordings made byGongmaison, which at the time included Daevid Allen (guitar/vocals),Didier Malherbe (sax/flute), Graham Clark (violin/guitar), KeithBailey (bass) and Shyamal Maitra (percussion). The result was thealbum "Shapeshifter" (released only in Europe at the time,should come out in the US in late 1996 in a slightly differentversion) in September 1992. This was followed by a tour, the setlistof which included some Gong classics from as far back as"Camembert Electrique".

In October, 1994, Gong celebrated its 25th Birthday with anevent of giant proportions, which not only saw most of the 'classic'line-up of the band (Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Didier Malherbe, TimBlake, Mike Howlett, with Pip Pyle and Steffi Sharpstrings replacingPierre Moerlen and Steve Hillage respectively) together playing thewhole 'Radio Gnome' trilogy, but also countless Gong-related groupsand artists performing one after the other on the same stage. This'festival' was documented on the Voiceprint/GAS release, "TheBirthday Concert" (1995).

It was thereafter decided that Mike Howlett would rejoin the bandon a permanent basis, and subsequent tours (also involving Allen,Smyth, Malherbe, Pyle and Sharpstrings), saw them perform their'classic' material. Notable was Gong's first proper tour ofthe US, in March 1996, followed by yet another one to celebrate theAmerican release of Shapeshifter. In November, Gong was backtouring Europe. After a pause of a few months, a slightly alteredline-up (with Pierre Moerlen returning to the fold), Gong hitthe road again in August 1997 for a tour of Japan, North America andBritain. A French tour followed in May 1998.

With a view to releasing a new studio album in the year 2000, anew line-up of Gong hit the road in June 1999. Joining Daevid Allen,Gilli Smyth, Mike Howlett and Pierre Moerlen were new recruits MarkHewins (guitars) and Theo Travis (sax/flute). Moerlen quit only twodates into the European tour and was replaced by Chris Taylor, andDidier Malherbe rejoined for the subsequent American tour, includingappearances at prog festivals in San Francisco and Mexico City. Bythe time Gong entered the studio in September 1999, it was decidedthat Malherbe would only join Gong for special occasions, and bothTravis and Taylor were confirmed as new members. The band premieredmaterial from the upcoming album at a couple of gigs in October, mostnotably an appearance at the Nancy Jazz Pulsations festival withMagma and Soup Songs.

"Zero To Infinity", presented as the fifth installment ofthe 'Radio Gnome Invisible' saga, was released in March 2000,followed by the band's most intensive touring schedule for manyyears. A new member, keyboardist Gwyo Zepix from the electronic trioZorch, joined the group in time for a release party at London's Subterranea Club (later released on DVD and forming the basis of the Live 2 Infinitea CD). This line-up toured throughout 2000 and 2001. Since then 'Classic Gong' has been inactive as Daevid Allen concentrates on University Of Errors and the latest incarnation of Gong is Acid Mothers Gong, involving Allen (and, occasionally, Gilli Smyth and Didier Malherbe) in conjunction with members of the Japanese band Acid Mothers Temple.