Flamenco Zero / Why Do We Treat Ourselves Like We Do? / Tally And Orlando Meets The Cockpit Pixie / See You On The Moontower / Poet For Sale

Crocodile Nonsense Poem / Only Make Love If You Want To / I Am / Deya Goddess

Third solo LP recorded by Daevid Allen from Gong, with an advance from Charly Records in 1976. 

Released on the Charly affiliated record label Affinity in 1977, this was also the year that Daevid Allen and Gilli Smythe were to go on tour with west London squatters, Here And Now, touring and recording under the name of Planet Gong. The gigs performed and records produced by Planet Gong that year, as well as the Here And Now  gigs in 1978, helped to inspire a much younger breed of followers that would continue to support the free festival, squatting and traveller movement throughout the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.

Text below ripped from Wikky P…

In 1960, inspired by the Beat Generation writers he had discovered whilst working in a Melbourne bookshop, Daevid Allen travelled to Paris where he stayed at the Beat Hotel, moving into a room that had recently been vacated by Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky. While selling the International Herald Tribune around Le Chat qui Peche and the Latin Quarter, he met Terry Riley and also gained free access to the jazz clubs in the area. After meeting up with William S. Burroughs, and inspired by philosophies of Sun Ra, he formed the free jazz outfit, the Daevid Allen Trio, and performed at Burroughs’ theatre pieces based on Burroughs’ novel The Ticket That Exploded.

Allen travelled to England, renting a room in Canterbury where he met his landlord’s son, 16 year old Robert Wyatt. They formed the band Soft Machine in 1966 with Kevin Ayers and Mike Ratledge. Ayers and Wyatt had previously played in Wilde Flowers.

Following a tour of Europe, Allen was refused re-entry to the UK due to overstaying his visa on a prior visit. He settled in Paris where, in May 1968, he took part in the protests which swept the city. He handed out teddy bears to the police and recited poetry in pidgin French, and now admits that he was scorned by the other protesters for being a beatnik.

Fleeing the police, he made his way to Deya, Majorca, with his partner Gilli Smyth. It was here that he recorded the first album under the name Gong, entitled Magick Brother (released on BYG Actuel in 1969). They were joined by flautist Didier Malherbe, who they claim to have found living in a cave on Robert Graves’ estate.

In 1970 Allen recorded and released his first solo-album, Banana Moon (sometimes spelled as Bananamoon). On this album he was aided by Robert Wyatt, amongst others.

In 1971 Gong released Camembert Electrique. They became somewhat of an anarchist commune in rural France between 1972 and 1974. In 1972 they were joined by electronics musician Tim Blake and later, by Steve Hillage to record the Radio Gnome Trilogy after signing with Virgin, consisting of Flying Teapot, Angel’s Egg and You.

Allen left this incarnation of Gong and recorded two solo albums, Good Morning (1976) and Now Is The Happiest Time Of Your Life (1977). In 1977 he performed and recorded as Planet Gong, and rejoined the early-70s version of the group for a one-off show at the Hippodrome in Paris. Portions of this concert (which was several hours long) was released on a double-LP entitled Gong Est Mort? Vive Gong.

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