Gong – Sidney and Matilda, Sheffield, 20 November 2023 – The Canterbury scene(zine) continued….

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…