Daevid Allen

This tight, strong musicianly band is the ultimate expression of 10 years musical association between original GONG member, singer/lyricist GILLI SMYTH and composer, keyboard and guitarist HARRY WILLIAMSON. MOTHER GONG has had three line - ups since it's inception in 1979 to promote Gilli's solo album "MOTHER", and last played in the U.K. at GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL 1981, followed by a six week U.S. tour after which Gilli and Harry moved to Australia, where they now live. There they met ROBERT CALVERT (saxophones) who is also an ex - patriate Pom, and worked with JOHN STEVENS "AWAY" in the 70's. He has a strong view of the role of the MOTHER GONG band - "Many of our best pieces have been created by what I call "spontaneous compositional method. It requires self discipline, a commitment both personal and musical to the whole, and solid musical ideas expressed with sensitivity." ROBERT GEORGE has been drumming in Melbourne bands since 1970, and group improvisation is his favourite musical form. He was happy to come over to the U.K. when DEMI MONDE suggested an L.P. and tour visit by MOTHER GONG. Rob is also an inventor of a revolutionary drummers time evaluating computer using bio feedback. His goal in life is "complete four limbed independence" and loves playing things that no drum computer can play. CONRAD HENDERSON (bass), originally from Kharagpur, India, knew ROB CALVERT from playing in Afro bands in Australia, and met HARRY WILLIAMSON in his Melbourne studio. He has played with all different kinds of jazz, ethnic¸ and rock bands including BRODERICK SMITH and KALIMBA.

HARRY WILLIAMSON, co - composer of the recently released orchestral workx "TARKA" says "musically this band is the most interesting I have ever worked with. Our improvisations create musical masterpieces in seconds which would take me days to orchestrate and with combinations of nuances that I doubt any individual could imagine alone. Gilli's verbal imagery is a crucial component of this process, creating the landscapes that we populate with our collective imaginations. In a time dedicated to the cult of the individual, we as usual go the other way, looking to the collective future, addressing the longterm, transpersonal." Gilli's role in the origional GONG was to express the female side of things, which she did through the colourful archetypes coming throughd her lyrics, the witch, the prostitute, the catwoman, the mother. These were dramatised through her costume changes and stagecraft. In an increasingly "green" conscious age she speaks of people restored through contact with nature, Mother Earth and a reciprocal need to nurture this, albeit expressed with a quirky humour that deflects the seriosness of such subjects. She deals in the same way with the systems inbalance between men and women, the need for all of us to be in touch with the feminine side of our natures as a positive and rejuvenating thing in an increasingly fragmented and polluted world. While opposing the "pitiless old men" at the centre of all power structures, she loves, lives and works with men, but sees women as a natural power source.