Gong

28947 Joy Rd., Westland, MI 48185-5523

TIckets: https://www.ticketweb.com/event/gong-the-token-lounge-tickets/13702153?pl=token Back in the 1970s, being a ‘freak’ was a way of showing your individuality, and Gong were one of the freakiest and most original bands of the decade. Formed by Soft Machine founder member, guitarist and vocalist Daevid Allen, the Anglo-French musical commune blended jazz, psychedelia and progressive rock into a unique musical mix, which incorporated quirky songs and elongated space-rock excursions. Gong were typically clad in flamboyant hippy garb – including hats with propellers – and went by assumed names like Hi T Moonweed and Bloomdido Bad De Grasse, while Allen’s surreal lyrics charted out the story of the mythical Planet Gong. But beneath these rather goofy trappings, Gong were also inspired and formidably talented musicians. When Allen, an Australian national, was refused entry back into the UK from France in 1967, his tenure in Soft Machine had effectively ended. He formed a new group, Gong, and the first album under that name was Magick Brother, released in 1970. Allen and his partner, the poet Gilli Smyth, intoned their pithy observations and countercultural calls-to-action like ‘Change The World’, over an organic stew of largely acoustic instruments and percussion. Didier Malherbe (aka Bloomdido Bad De Grasse) – who would go on to become one of the group’s longest-serving members – featured on sax and flute.