Playing Daevid Allen: Camembert Electrique at the Cube
On 19 May 2018, I had the enormous pleasure of playing the role of Daevid Allen for a one-off tribute to Gong’s 1971 album Camembert Electrique at Bristol’s Cube Cinema. Musicians from Asteroid Deluxe, Fantasy Orchestra and the Cube Orchestra came together to perform the album in full. The evening also featured a Gliss Orchestra of eight glissando guitars. It was a slightly bonkers thing to attempt, which seems entirely appropriate for Gong, and huge fun. We played a great set.
Gong were formed in the late 1960s around Australian musician Daevid Allen, formerly of Soft Machine, and Gilli Smyth. Their second studio album, Camembert Electrique, was recorded in France and released on BYG/Actuel in 1971. Its gloriously peculiar mix of psychedelic rock, freewheeling jazz, tape experiments, glissando guitar, Smyth’s “space whisper” and absurd humour helped establish Gong’s unmistakable sound and the beginnings of the Planet Gong mythology. It includes “You Can’t Kill Me”, “Fohat Digs Holes in Space” and “Tropical Fish”. Virgin brought the album to a wider British audience with a cut-price reissue in 1974, several years before this particular gang of Bristol musicians decided to tackle it in its entirety.