Month: November 2023

Gong are a few dates into their latest tour with Ozric Tentacles, resurrecting a double headlining tour from last year (as well as obvious close musical links over the years) and will continue through until early December before resuming again in the spring. There’s been a lovely bond between the two groups that has seen singer, dancer and multi-instrumentalist Saskia Maxwell flit between bands and I’m hoping to catch them both on their finest form in Liverpool on 2 December.

In the meantime, a sole Gong gig popped up at short notice in Sheffield. The back story is this:  the Sheffield O2 arena, where I saw the two bands last year (see here) has been affected by the crumbling concrete phenomenon which closed so many schools in the autumn (wracked by Raac, if you like) – the dual gig therefore cancelled, leaving a hole in the schedule after the previous night’s concert at the Ritz in Manchester. I got wind of a possible Sheffield replacement on the band’s excellent Radio 6 session the previous Monday https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001s2pb, where it appeared that Gong had negotiated a short-notice slot at a venue called Sidney and Matilda’s.

Sidney and Matilda’s turns out to be a rather friendly setup, with a basement hall accommodating around 150 punters, whilst at ground level there’s a roomy bar with sofas, Jonny’s GAS merchandise stall and a covered outside area enabled the usual likely looking types to mingle. The vibe was suitably earthy without the dinginess and sticky floors of the O2 – Gong had sold out the new venue almost immediately and there was an expectant vibe downstairs. No room for the light show unfortunately, and the nature of the standing room only was such that you were reliant on not being behind anyone taller to get a decent view of the band – ceilings were low enough that you could touch them with an outstretched hand, or park your drink on a steel girder above your head, this being steeltown, after all… The only way to really get a decent view was to get fully the front, which I duly did, to ongoing detriment of my right earlug…

The attraction of seeing Gong alone is that you get a much wider repertoire of the band’s current wares. These are the first live performances of the recently released album ‘Unending Descending’, which completes a trilogy of post-Daevid Allen releases. The first impression is that the band might be simplifying their approach a little: after the complex mass of styles of ‘Rejoice! I’m Dead’ and the stately opuses of ‘Forever Recurring’, their latest work is much punchier with the sixties drench of ‘Tiny Galaxies’ and the hard riffing of ‘My Guitar is a Spaceship’ (‘possibly the most Gong title ever’, as quoted Marc Riley on the recent BBC session).

Fabio Golfetti told me afterwards that the band had rehearsed practically all of the tracks from ‘Unending’ prior to the tour, and the advantage of this ‘solo’ concert was that they were able to air freely from it: highlights for me were the insane guitar interplay between Golfetti and Kavus Torabi on ‘All Clocks Reset’, as well as the truly marvellous ‘Choose Your Goddess’, which is quickly climbing the ranks within the pantheon of great Gong tracks: based on the same ‘Fohat-on-speed’ template of pounding drums and bass set vs glissando as ‘My Sawtooth Wake’, on ‘Goddess’ a memorable vocal line is peppered by startling interjections from sax and lead guitar – the accumulating tension perhaps being the unending ascending rush alluded to in the album’s title.

The likes of ‘Kapital’ and ‘Rejoice!’ and ‘My Sawtooth Wake’ and set closer ‘Insert Yr Prophecy’ are now engrained enough in the band’s setlists to be expected listening and merge seamlessly with the few remaining ‘standards’ – ‘Master Builder gained its usual mindboggling airing, preceded with a new ‘invocation’ from the latest album, at which point, even with one’s right ear obliterated by the speakerstack, time just seemed to stand still for a moment; whilst the encore, with a bit of gas still left in the tank, was an extended version of ‘You Can’t Kill Me’, complete with improvised middle section. Kavus Torabi maintained his usual easy rapport with the crowd – whilst I’ve never seen him not enamoured of his audience (and a quip about hating the O2 Sheffield anyway was an easy gain), there was a genuine buzz around the band, most notably from Dave Sturt on bass. Even though the sound was nowhere near as crisp as at the BBC, for once the balance seemed perfect between the instruments, to the benefit in particular of Ian East over stage left on saxophone. And, as I was close enough to the stage to be able to practically touch the guitar pedals, I got a bloody good view of Cheb Nettles, and can confirm he does indeed exist… although for some reason my camera never quite captured him…

Further Gong dates here: https://www.gongband.com/shows/

Gong Appreciation Society are at: https://www.planetgong.co.uk/

It’s scarcely believable that, despite having released two highly accomplished albums, this is Zopp’s first ever gig. The band burst into our consciousnesses with their debut album in 2020 (reviewed at https://canterburyscene.com/2020/03/19/zopp-zopp-bad-elephant-music/), with a Dave Stewartesque assault of familiar keyboard sounds and such complexity that its closest compositional equivalent was probably National Health’s ‘Missing Pieces’ (Zopp’s leader, Ryan Stevenson admitted at the time that Mont Campbell was just as much an influence). ‘Dominion’ followed in 2023, a somewhat more accessible album, with the surprise addition of Stevenson’s clear, sharp vocals, and what we have here is a band moving slowly towards the forefront of neo-progressive rock.

So – why a first gig only now? Well, Zopp are essentially the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Stevenson (his forte are those keyboards but he also plays guitar and bass), with assistance from Italian emigree drummer Andrea Moneta. Stevenson’s considerable and multi-faceted output can be achieved largely in a studio, Mike Oldfield style… But a recent active pursuit of gigs has yielded a few forthcoming dates at festivals and this was essentially a try-out, a free gig in one of the more extraordinary venues I’ve come across.

The Sumac Centre is situated in a residential area of Basford, Nottingham, set back from a road of terraced houses, but in such an incongruous location that I’d already driven past it twice before locating it. On November the 4^th, half the city was festooned in fireworks, police cars racing to some flashpoint somewhere down the road, and for some reason pavements everywhere strewn with discarded and trashed Borisbikes. A couple of lads emerging, bottles clutched to their chests from a neighbouring off-licence, looked at me askance when I asked directions for the Sumac Centre, which when eventually located turned out to be a gloriously alternative oasis: more extended living room than hall, anarchist literature everywhere, a bar staffed by volunteers serving ale, cups of tea and veggie samosas, and perhaps 50 or so people scattered around in various vantage points around and behind tables used normally, I am guessing, as a café. Support band Cows Hit Bingo were an excellently sharp, tight outfit purveying the sort of extended grooves I’d expect at Kozfest, and Zopp emerged, after some slightly confusing soundchecking against the broadcast of their ‘Dominion’ album as a rather youthful looking four piece: Stevenson centrestage with vocal mike over the top of the dual rack which produced those   trademark ‘Canterbury’ organ sounds on his Nord Electro, as well as a lesser used Mellotron; Moneta slightly out of sight on drums, and the two ‘new’ members: Richard Lucas on electric guitar and backing vocals; and Ashley Raynor on six string electric bass.

Ashley Raynor

The first thing to say is that the extended instrumentation gives the overall sound a much more rounded feel – there is a clinicality to the first album in particular which, although integral to that project’s identity and impact, is smoothed over within the context of a live band: firstly Raynor adds some ballast (as well as warmth and dexterity) to the bottom end of the mix, whilst Lucas was excellent, with wah-wah effects and fluid soloing as well as taking Stevenson’s original album lines – his exposure suffered for around twenty minutes in the middle of the set of being too low in the balance: partly inevitable because of the understandable pervasive nature of a keyboard-dominant band but I suspect other gremlins may have been at work. Drummer Moneta holds things together, as he has for both albums, a rock solid base for all the whirring wheels around him, as well as providing deftness of touch where required.

Andrea Moneta, Ryan Stevenson

A set of something like 70 minutes materialised as 7 tracks, which tells you something else about where the band are heading stylistically: two, the relatively straight ‘Return After Light’ and the more expansive ‘Living Man’ were truncated introductions to what will be extended pieces on the forthcoming third Zopp album: the latter set its stall out with its pounding bass introduction, imploring vocals throughout, and jumping between any number of ideas (but always returning to those resonant keyboard themes). Undoubtedly this is more ‘progressive’ than just its Canterburyesque components, but if anyone is in any doubt as to those core influences, then ‘Return After Light’, like the set-closer ‘Toxicity’ is never too far away from an intricate Stewart-like solo.

Zopp: Richard Lucas, Andrea Moneta, Ryan Stevenson, Ashley Raynor

The band managed, in their first 20 minutes to air probably my favourite two Zopp tracks: ‘Before The Light’, which announced the band on their debut with its blaring fanfares; and ‘You’, which could be the band’s defining work to date. In amongst the predominantly hard driving themes apparent through this (and indeed most of Zopp’s work) it is the slightly more considered section about 5 minutes into ‘You’, with oscillating Egg-like motifs and some of the best of Stevenson’s vocal works (augmented here with a second voice from Lucas) which is a showstopping moment – time seems to stand still for a moment a la Khan’s ‘Hollow Stone’, before keyboards take the piece off once more. ‘Uppmärksamhet’ takes this moment of poise even further – a beautiful reflective piece in its original form (and here too live), the band took the time to extend this out into a major psychedelic jam which may well have been the highlight of the evening.

The band, the announcer, and I suspect much of the audience exchanged knowing looks and comments about the ‘proggy’ aspects of the set: the length of the pieces and their complex themes – there is a residual attitude which requires the need to be apologetic for anything compositionally adventurous, even amongst a band of Zopp’s relative youth – but music of this quality and ambition really should be celebrated. Those exposed to Zopp’s music, and not just in these pages, tend to be hugely enthusiastic about what they are hearing – I hope that in the not too distant future this will extend to the larger audiences and venues they deserve. But what a privilege to be there at the start!

All manner of Zopp goodies including music, posters and T-shirts are at https://zopp.bandcamp.com/

Zopp play Danfest in Leicester on the weekend of 24-26 November https://theprogressiveaspect.net/uk-festivals/

Glasgow on the weekend of 2/3 December https://www.drygate.com/events/upcoming-events/the-prog-before-xmas-2023