The 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.
DAVID CROSS is an English electric violinist and keyboardist best known for playing with progressive rock band King Crimson from 1972 to 1974. Cross appears on their studio albums Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (1973) and Starless and Bible Black (1974), as well as “Providence”, a live track on Red (1974), in addition to numerous concert recordings that have been released by Robert Fripp’s Discipline Global Mobile label in the decades since.
After leaving the band, David was a senior lecturer in Music Education at the London Metropolitan University and besides several projects and recording sessions, he kept alive his own band since 1994 releasing 10 albums. In recent years David Cross has toured all around Europe, Latin America and Japan with Stick Men (with other King Crimson alumni, Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto, plus Markus Reuter), vexing featured on albums Midori and Panamerica; as well with David Jackson, the legendary sax player from Van Der Graaf Generator. In 2023 David toured with his band all around Europe celebrating the 50th anniversary of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic album.
