GONG LIVE, ETC

this is the classic GonG live in 77 and doing the Radio Gnome Invisible thing and does it ever rock. The fourth side is full of rather strange and obscure stuff. It has most of the tracks that outline that trilogy, and can be considered a good intro to the neophyte, but confirmed fans will not consider this option satisfying as too many essential tracks are missing; Delicious cut-out cover with interchanges scenes with the inner sleeves.

For the connaisseurs, The Sheffield 74 and GonG Est Mort have mostly the same material from the Radio Gnome Trilogy . The choice is yours but this one existed as a vinyl.

Live Etc is an erratic ensemble of live cuts, sessions and some studio out take tracks, or at least under developed studio cuts including the ridiculously titled "Obby-Sccoby Doomsday Or The D-Day DJ'S Got The D.D.T. Blues", which was to be issued as commercial type singles as if the band needed that to tarnish their image and make some money by such endeavors. While the Daevid Allen line up is regarded as the definitive Gong, I personally get more satisfaction for the last side of this double album. The Steve Hillage line up which played tight funky fusion and without the zany and at times annoying lyric assaults of Allen which were distracting at the best of times. Sure singing about gnomes, pothead pixies and flying teapots is fun, but it's also fun to hear some good grooves without any outrageous drug influenced nonsense. "Isle Of Everywhere", recorded live at the Marquee, is free from any vocals and is all the better for it. It groves on for just over 10 minutes and is more entrancing and hypnotic than any of the so called lysergic which fuelled Allen's lyrics, "Mater Builder" also from the same Marquee gig gets included. But then most of the You album, from which this also originally appeared, was strong, well constructed material which could be seen as the bands peak as they soon started to fragment. Much of the sound quality is average, lacking a dynamic which only diminishes the talent and textures of the band and though Live Etc does come across as a half thought out mess. It is still worth a listen and for Gong first timers it gives an account of changes the went through regarding line ups and development from the early days right though to 1977.

The prestigious AMG calls this album "essential". And I agree with them: anyone interested in Daevid Allen's Gong can find here a great introduction to the strange world of Allen and his Gong. Picking up most of the highlights from the Planet Gong Trilogy and featuring some obscure tracks, "Gong Live Etc." serves both as an introduction to newcomers, and a great document to fans. Surely this album isn't for everyone, but it has enough great moments to please open-minded prog-rockers interested in unconventional tunes. The version of "You Can't Kill Me", which opens this album, is a true rarity: a live track that sounds better than its studio version. "Flying Teapot" features a marvellous guitar solo by Steve Hillage, "Radio Gnome Invisible" shows Didier Malherbe (A.K.A. Bloomdido Bad De Grasse - a great nickname)) at his best, and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" spots Tim Blake playing harmonica on a tune which is surprising bluesy. The percussive talents of Mireille Bauer and Pierre Moerlen are shown at the fantastic "Isle of Everywhere". In a word, this album is plenty of everything that made Gong so beloved by some prog-rockers: musicianship (very few bands had so much great musicians at the same time - Malherbe, Moerlen, Hillage, Blake, Howlett), poetry (the major fault of "Gong Live Etc." is the lack of song's lyrics) and fantasy. I will not give 5 stars to this album, since Gong is a difficult band to most prog-rockers. But 4,5 stars is really a great rating.

"Live Etc" of GONG released in 1977. It is a work that puts live Tac and an unpublished tune before Daevid Allen and Steve Hillage secede together. The work from "Camembert Electrique" to the Radio Gnomes Invisible trilogy is chiefly put. The content has been very enhanced. It goes mad and the highest performance.

What a great album! The band plays better and more exciting here than on the studio-records. Of course, you need to like the weird vocals and the aggresive guitars-drums-and saxes, but this surely can be considered as "The best of the classic line-up" with David Aellen in powerful live-versions. It's a long ride, but definately an interesting one! Only Pierre Moerlen's drumming is worth the (low) price of this cd. Challenge to listen to.

This is a collection of live gong tracks and covers a large period of time. Most of this Lp is essential to any gong fan and some of it is likely to appeal to most fans of good music. As always Gongs silly middle class and pretentious view of what hippies should be is to the front and its very hard to like the extremely silly lyrics. However Gongs music is often brilliant and very complex jazz influenced rock. Sadly the last side is post allen blake gong, as these are the only cuts from the You LP on this release it is a disappointment. Saying that the version master builder is exciting and showcases Hillages guitar perfectly.

The tracks are a real mixture Flying Teapot suffers from a poor vocal.."radio o bgnome" Sung by some annoying female far to loudly in the mix. Which is shame because this material comes from the BBC and has the best sound quality on the disc. I have not heard the CD but the LP is fairly mixed in sound quality.

Athough interesting, I would certainly recommend to start with some of the excellent Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy studio albums - because this one is a bit messy. Nothing particularly wrong with it - all the GONG ingredients are here - long trippy jams, spacey keys, sax solos, space whispers and psych vocals. But I'm missing the magic of captured moments on studio albums: this one is madness half-revealed. There's a lot to be appreciated, but at the end it lacks the story. Listening to someone playing stoned could be amusing but it could be also annoying; Gong could certainly do much better.

Not bad, at the moments brilliant, but avoid it if you're not familiar with the studio albums.

Live Etc is one of the only live albums of Gong and works as a kind of 'Best of Gong' encompasses three years in the life of the band. Angel's Egg highlights are here as well as tracks from You and Radio Gnome Invisible, the three best studio Gong albums in my opinion. The live versions of Going material encapsulates the high strangeness that we know and love about the group, sometimes they border on the satirical, at other times try to be serious, without success. Throughout we are treated to the driving rhythms that are present, notably from Hillage's guitar and Malherbe's saxophone and flute. This is definitely worth a listen and features some of the weirdest versions of beloved Gong tracks, for instance there is the lyric-less version of 'The Isle of Everywhere', and 'Oily Way' sounds even better than the original, with kookiness unprecedented on a stage, since Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention days.

Other highlights include 'You can kill me', 'Zero the hero & the witch spell', 'Flying Teapot', 'Ooby-scooby doomsday or the D-Day DJ's got the D.D.T. blues', 'Radio gnome invisible', and 'Inner temple'.

Gong are eternally surreal cosmic adventurers who always strive to produce the wackiest spaced out music on the planet and once again a live stage is the perfect venue for unleashing experimental music and bizarre lyrics, that have cemented the band's reputation as essential for prog rock fans. They have notably been referred to as 'an invisible ideological empire' more than a band and the live versions of their repertoire is no exception, approaching the improvisational at times, spiralling wildly out of control yet maintaining a calm insanity, if that were possible. Notably 'Ooby Scooby Doomsday' and 'The D-Day DJ's got the DDT Blues' are finally available after years in the aborted can, and were worth the wait in every respect.

If you are into Gong or prog that is totally off-kilter but brilliantly executed by virtuoso musicians don't bypass this CD.

If I am not wrong, "Live Etc." was the only official live set released during the band's career in the 1970s. It is a very good collection of stage performances focusing on the most important aspects of the "Radio Gnome Invisible" trilogy + two important tracks from "Camembert Electrique" - "You Can't Kill Me" and "Dynamite/I am Your Animal".

The original double LP set was perhaps too loaded with crazy psyche jams and D. Allen's extravaganza that is not meant for average listener, even not for average GONG fan. The entire package may be difficult to digest at first listen, particularly if you are not prepared by having earlier tasted a portion of RGI trilogy for a starter. However, the live renditions of the tracks taken from "Flying Teapot" and "You" albums in particular are simply amazing. If you are a fan, get this album, if you are not - try first to listen to studio albums.

PERSONAL RATING: 3,5/5

P.A. RATING: 3/5

In truth, Gong were always two bands in one and 'Gong Live Etc.' is, conveniently, two albums, one by each of them.

The first half is recordings from the pixie side of things. Well-intentioned dope-heads doing what well-intentioned dope- heads do and, frankly, a bit "so what". If you are from the age when chilling out to Gong in a room full of smoke was your bag then you might enjoy this. To be honest, I can't see how it would appeal to anyone else at all.

The second half, a BBC session from the 'Angel's Egg' era and four live tracks from the 'You' era is a vastly superior beast. A great band on top, top form. Very tight, very prog and very, very good. All tracks are infinitely superior to their original counterparts in almost every way, enough to convince even the casual observer that one is not just listening to a band consisting of stoned idiots.

First half: two and a half stars. Second half: five stars.

A slightly disjointed affair.

The first Gong live album out of many live albums consists of various live recordings from around Europe. This is a kind of the norm when it comes to live albums. Made In Japan consists of songs from three live recordings, remember.

When it comes to this live album from Gong though, this method becomes a problem. This album feels a bit split, spliced and jumbled together for the purpose of making one album. One track from the LP version has even been removed so this could be made into one CD instead.

The overall live performance is very good though. Gong is a very whimsical band with one foot in spaced out jazz rock and the other one in primitive children rhymes like pop rock. In short, the music here is whimsical and weird. In my view, the difference between the whimsical pop and the hard rocking jazz rock is a bit too big on this album. I get the feeling of listening to a split CD with Gong in one performance and Steve Hillage in his own performance. Hence my opening line in this review.

This album is in my view a good live album, but nothing more. The cover art work, iconic as it is now, is not the most inviting either. But nevertheless, this is an enjoyable live album.

3 stars

I think this is the place to start with Gong....I believe this is the first time I realized the power of this group. I was sitting in a dark room with the first track blasted on an actual record and intensity of the drumming just swept me up. Thereafter I listened to all of the Gong records and found them to be extremely good, but none of them really capture the excitement of the group's loud sound which is why i feel this is an essential record of theirs. The first half is live in '73-74 if I'm not mistaken - the classic years. Just the first half is worth the price alone. Gong Est Mort doesn't seem to come close to the intensity of this record. Excellent CD!

This is one of those archival releases which was a must-have back when it was first came out but whose star has somewhat faded next to subsequent archive releases. Back when it came out, there was a scarcity of officially-released live Gong material from the Radio Gnome Invisible period out there, plus the two studio tracks here (Ooby Scooby Doomsday and Where Have All the Flowers Gone?) were floating around without a particular home.

However, with the Love From the Planet Gong comprehensively hollowing out the Virgin vault, Live Etc. is now a bit redundant. In particular, that boxed set has the complete recordings available from the concerts this set is drawn on. That's particularly important because Gong concerts incorporated a large amount of improvisation tied closely to the mood the band was presently in and the atmosphere at the venue, so you get more out of listening to the live sets in the form they were originally delivered, rather than cherry-picking songs from a great swathe of live performances.

The fact is that Live Etc., drawing from as many sources as it does, ends up feeling a bit disjointed, an issue exacerbated by the fact that major lineup changes were happening all across the period covered. (Hell, Daevid Allen himself isn't on some of these tracks, hailing as they do from a 1975 Marquee appearance from after his exit.) If you just want a glimmer of what the band from this era were like live, it'll still do the job - but if you want a better idea of the live Gong experience, the Love From the Planet Gong boxed set (or, if you can't shell out for that, the bonus discs on the new deluxe editions of the albums from Flying Teapot to Shamal, which offer extracts from concerts from the era of the album in question) will do a substantially better job.