As soon as the Elemental Forces epic was done and dusted, I was straight off into another musical world altogether. 2006 is the 40th anniversary of the birth of that wonderful musical entity called Gong. To celebrate there was a three day "Unconvention" of gigs by about a dozen bands at the Melkveg in the middle of Amsterdam. This was to culminate in the first performance of Gong with Steve Hillage, its celebrated guitarist from the early 1970s in 32 years. Also Steve Hillage was to perform a set of his classic tracks from his 1970's albums such as Fish Rising for the first time in 27 years. I could only make one day of rehearsals the day before we set off so on Weds 1st Nov I made my way to a studio in Shepherds Bush to run through the set. The version of Gong I played with have not got together for nearly 5 years when we last did a 55 date tour of Europe and the UK in Autumn 2001. It was great to see everyone again. There is a real family feeling in the band and connected people. I missed what were probably the really crazy days of Gong when they all lived together in a commune in France, living what might be called an alternative lifestyle, and ..err..experimenting with things. They are certainly unique characters and Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth are undoubtedly "the real thing"! I had not met Steve Hillage before and since his Gong days he has become a successful producer of artists such as Rachid Taha and Khaled - North African/Arabic/French crossover artists. He also has a band System 7 which is techno music and "clubby" but with lots of other influences too.

So the rehearsal went smoothly and the music came back to me surprisingly quickly. On the Thursday two massive coaches in Acton picked up about 40 musicians and all the technical crew for our magical mystery tour to the late ferry and over to Amsterdam. A serious party atmosphere ensued- and I caught up with lots more people I haven't seen for years. The journey was a bit rough but we made it and we all piled into a hotel near the venue at about 2 am and rooms were allocated (including several, strangely, without any windows).

I was playing with "Classic" Gong, Daevid Allen's solo set (on the song "Wise Man in your Heart") and with Mike Howlett's House of Thandoy Band but got asked to play with another 4 bands too(!) - Kangaroo Moon, Toolshed (Graham Massey and Graham Clarke), Zorch and Sacred Gemmetry. Needless to say - there was no rehearsal for any of these other sets and it was very much a case of playing by the seat of one's pants, and using my ears! I think I got away with it (just about anyway). The Thandoy set was completely improvised and went into some really interesting areas - from club like grooves to psychadelia to freeform jazz to song like improvs. Great fun and pretty "out there". There were so many bands and styles going on over the weekend - it was a huge musical feast. It was interesting listening to bands that otherwise I probably would not have seen live. For example System 7, Eat Static, Hadouk, and Kangaroo Moon. For me, other than the Gong set, I have to make special mention of the Steve Hillage band set and also the quite wonderful Hadouk trio featuring Didier Malherbe. A sort of world music trio of subtlelty, groove, beautiful melodies, joy, fun and sublime improvisations. A really special band that should be HUGE!

On the Sunday night, I joined the Gong set after a few numbers which Didier had done on his own (after all - the gig was billed as "Classic Gong" and I only joined in 1999!). The band sounded better than I have ever heard before and the atmosphere in the venue was quite unbelievable - a warm glow filled the room, people were ecstatic, totally into it and very excited. I have already heard of people saying that people said the Steve Hillage and Gong set which ran as a single three and a half hour set - was the best gig they have ever experienced in their entire lives! I could see people in tears. It was certainly a seriously special night at the end of an amazing weekend. If you were there - I sure hope you enjoyed it! If you missed it - I think a DVD or two may be coming out sometime in the future.

Current playlist -

Radiohead - Amnesiac
Jakko Jakszyk - The Bruised Romantic Glee Club
Robert Fripp - Love Cannot Bear
John Martyn - Bless the Weather
Hadouk trio - Utopies