Gong announce their Universal Ascension tour

Continuing their live domination and ‘Unending Ascending’ promotion Gong have announced more live shows across 2024 including dates in South America, European & UK festivals plus an extensive European tour for later in 2024...

UNIVERSAL ASCENSION 24
"We are delighted to announce the first tranche of international dates for the remainder of the year! (Please note, there are more incoming). We can't wait to melt your minds and drink deep of the cosmic goo that such an interaction will invariably cause. With love from the Planet Gong."

Dates are as follows:
06/04 CL Santiago Teatro Caupolican
13/04 FR Concarneau Le CAC
04/05 PT Gouveia Gouveia Art Rock Festival
20/07 DE Bad Doberan Zappanale
15/08 DE Eisfeld Woodstock Forever 24
16/08 UK Tunbridge Wells The Forum
17/08 UK Hernhill A New Day Festival 24
07/11 NL Tilburg O13
08/11 NL Zoetermeer Boerderij
10/11 DE Hamburg MS Stubnitz
11/11 DK Copenhagen Hotel Cecil
12/11 SE Malmö Babel
13/11 SE Goteborg Musikens Hus
15/11 SE Stockholm Debaser
16/11 SE Sala Rockland
18/11 FI Pori Validi Karkia Club
19/11 FI Espoo Louhisali
21/11 PL Warsaw Hybrydy
22/11 PL Bydgoszcz Kuźnia
23/11 PL Poznan CK Zamek
24/11 PL Katowice Rialto
26/11 DE Fürth Kofferfabrik
27/11 DE Jena KuBa
28/11 CZ Prague Akropolis
29/11 AT Ebensee Kino Ebensee
30/11 AT Vienna Porgy & Bess
03/12 DE Munich Backstage
04/12 DE Rüsselsheim Das Rind
05/12 DE Karlsruhe Jubez
06/12 FR Paris Cafe de la Danse
07/12 FR Colmar Le Grillen
09/12 DE Bonn Harmonie

Tickets and info gongband.com

ORDER THE ALBUM HERE

Unending Ascending track list:

    1. Tiny Galaxies
    2. My Guitar is a Spaceship
    3. Ship Of Ishtar
    4. O, Arcturus!
    5. All Clocks Reset
    6. Choose Your Goddess
    7. Lunar Invocation
    8. Asleep Do We Lay

Gongs Unending Ascending will be available on CD / Black LP / Limited edition Green LP and Digitally

ORDER THE ALBUM HERE

GONG NEW ALBUM ‘UNENDING ASCENDING’ OUT NOW

UK TOUR IN NOV 2023

Following the success of 2019’s ‘The Universe Also Collapses’, Gongs intergalactic voyage has once more entered Earth’s orbit with their new album ‘Unending Ascending’.

Set for release on November 3rd, the new album promises to offer yet another mind-expanding set of songs. Opener ‘Tiny Galaxies’ crackles with the electricity of supercharged sixties psych-pop, while ‘My Guitar Is A Spaceship’ is as close to an anthem as anything Gong have previously recorded. This uptempo, single-riff stomper is already a live favourite, garnering a positive reaction from a crowd of 90,000 Blur fans at Wembley Stadium in July 2023 when Gong frontman Kavus Torabi dropped it into his DJ set before Paul Weller took to the stage.

‘Ship of Ishtar’ is a rapt cosmic hymn where Gong make time itself stand still. Jet streams of kaleidoscopic melodies envelop ‘O, Arcturus’, to be followed by the lively polyrhythmic angularity of ‘All Clocks Reset’. ‘Choose Your Goddess’, a surprisingly muscular slice of ritualistic trance rock, ratchets up the intensity yet further. On ‘Lunar Invocation’ the band summons the Moon deities of yore with ululating feedback and squalling cymbals before the post-credits of ‘Asleep Do We Lay’ lull lugubriously, gently beginning the cycle all over again.

Regarding the single Kavus Torabi had the following to say:

“‘Tiny Galaxies’ came together very quickly and we loved it so much we road tested it around the UK and Europe throughout the Summer of last year before we recorded it. The fantastic response we received playing it out made it the obvious choice as the first song to drop ahead of our new release. Pick the telescope up for a total headtrip through the cosmos in three and a half minutes, but, for all our sakes, don’t look down the other end.”

Accompanying the single and the announcement of the new album comes a video that brings the vibrant world of Gong to life. Created by Drain Hope, it’s the perfect visual representation to ‘Tiny Galaxies’. 

Kavus Torabi continues:

“Once again Drain Hope has illuminated our theta waves into this beautifully kaleidoscopic vision.”

Gong will be appearing alongside Ozric Tentacles on a co-headline tour throughout the UK in November/December 2023 as well as ‘The Last Blast’ Tour in 2024. 

OZRIC TENTACLES AND GONG TOUR 2023

  • Friday 17 November – OXFORD, 02 Academy2
  • Saturday 18 November – LONDON, O2 Forum
  • with the Crazy World of Arthur Brown
  • Sunday 19 November – MANCHESTER, O2 Ritz
  • Monday 20 November – SHEFFIELD, 02 Academy2
  • Tuesday 21 November – COLCHESTER, Arts Centre
  • Thursday 23 November – NORTHAMPTON, Roadmender
  • Friday 24 November - BRISTOL, O2 Academy
  • Saturday 25 November – GLOUCESTER, Guildhall
  • Sunday 26 November – BIRMINGHAM, 02 Academy2
  • Tuesday 28 November – BRIGHTON, Chalk
  • Wednesday 29 November – NORWICH, Epic Studios
  • Thursday 30 November – BOURNEMOUTH, O2 Academy
  • Friday 1 December – FROME, Cheese & Grain
  • Saturday 2 December – LIVERPOOL, 02 Acedemy

THE LAST BLAST TOUR 2024

  • Thu 7th March - EXETER - The Phoenix
  • Fri 8th March - FALMOUTH - Princess Pavilion
  • Sat 9th March LYME REGIS - Marine Theatre
  • Sun 10th March - CARDIFF - The Globe
  • Mon 11th March - SWANSEA - Patti Pavilion
  • Wed 13th March - SOUTHAMPTON - The 1865
  • Thu 14th March - MARGATE - Dreamland
  • Fri 15th March - HULL - The Welly
  • Sat 16th March - NOTTINGHAM - Rescue Rooms
  • Sun 17th March - STOCKTON-ON-TEES - Georgian Theatre
  • Mon 18th March - LINCOLN - Engine Shed
  • Wed 20th March - LEEDS - Brudenell Social Club
  • Thu 21st March - NEWCASTLE - University
  • Fri 22nd March - GLASGOW - St Luke's 
  • Sat 23rd March - EDINBURGH - Summerhall
Tickets

GONG + OZRICS TEAM UP FOR THE LAST BLAST TOUR

After the roaring success of their previous tour, Ozric Tentacles and Gong join forces once more, embarking a  co-headline tour across the UK in November 2023. Regarded as one of the most influential bands to emerge from the UK’s festival scene, Ozric Tentacles returned after a long hiatus delivering their 2020 full length ‘Space For The Earth’.

Co-headliners and seminal psych-rockers Gong, released their studio album ‘The Universe Also Collapses’ also via Kscope in 2019, followed by live album ‘Pulsing Signals’ in 2022. Their 2022 joint tour was the first Ozric Tentacles full-band outing in eight years and the very first time that both Gong and Ozric Tentacles had toured together.

Fruit Salad Lights, long-time visual collaborator with both bands, will accompany their performances throughout the tours with a stunning light show and mind-expanding projections.

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown will also be appearing as a special guest at London’s November 18th performance at O2 Forum.

Says Ozrics Tentacles multi-instrumentalist Ed Wynne regarding the announcement:

“It looks like we're heading out on tour once again this autumn. We had a great time last year with our label mates GONG and it was fun to take a full band out on the road after such a long hiatus. Brandi Wynne is back on bass, and we introduced our fantastic new drummer, Tim Wallander. So, here we go for round two – up, up and away!”

Gong frontman Kavus Torabi also had the following to say:

“We knew the first tour we did last year with Ozric Tentacles was going to be good, but I don’t think either band realised just how good. As mind-blowing as it may have been for the audience, it was as beautiful for both bands off stage.” Kavus continues

“Perhaps many people have always associated Gong with Ozrics but what became apparent in 2022 when we toured together was just how stylistically different yet completely compatible both bands were. Two very unique sides of the same psychedelic coin. Make no mistake, regardless of which band plays first or last, this is an unforgettable show, a full-on sensory assault with both bands absolutely tapping into the eternal. We would have been fools not to repeat it.”

As co-headliners, the bands will alternate the running order each night.

Pulsing Signals (Live Album)

Iconic British band Gong have announced their new live album ‘Pulsing Signals’ will be released on Kscope in February 2022. Recorded live across three shows at The Wardrobe in Leeds, The Cluny in Newcastle and Rescue Rooms in Nottingham in 2019 as the band toured their acclaimed album ‘The Universe Also Collapses’, this live record finds the group in spirited form as they undertake, unbeknownst to them, their final tour before the global pandemic took charge.

Formed in 1969 by Daevid Allen, one of the founding members of Soft Machine, classic albums such as Camembert Electrique, Flying Teapot and You established Gong as one of the most unique, innovative and experimental rock groups of the Seventies.   

Before he sadly passed away in 2015, Allen laid out his hopes for a future Gong, that it should be uplifting, exploratory and a positive force. Kavus Torabi, Fabio Golfetti, Ian East, Dave Sturt and Cheb Nettles, chosen by him, continue his vision.

Owing to Gong being an international band, lockdown and restrictions on travel made it impossible to convene and work on new music. The band received many requests by fans to release a live album and fortunately enough, the band had multitrack recordings of several shows from the 2019 tour. Bassist Dave Sturt went through all the master tapes and selected the best performances which became Pulsing Signals.

The album was recorded by Pete Wibrew and mixed by Frank Byng, while mastering was handled by Andy Jackson. The stylish artwork was designed by Steve Mitchell, who has worked closely with the band since 2016’s Rejoice I’m Dead.

To mark the announcement, Gong have shared ‘My Sawwtooth Wake’ from the album. Taken from 2019’s ‘The Universe Also Collapses’, the sprawling near 13 minute epic captures the band on top form with an appropriately mind bending video to match. 

With touring now set to recommence and bookings going long into 2022 and beyond, Daevid Allen’s vision for the future looks set to be fulfilled.

Pulsing Signals will be available on 2CD & digitally on 18th February  and  2LP on 22nd March  - all formats are available now.

The Universe Also Collapses

The vanguards of 20th and 21st Century psychedelic music lead the way with their new studio album

Gong is more than a band. It’s an idea. A way of life. A continuum that exists in all times, in all places, everywhere.

Gong’s new album, The Universe Also Collapses, their first for Kscope, is the latest shining point on that continuum, a masterpiece of visionary 21st century psychedelia, a celebration of the magick of science, a journey both internal and external, bridging the worlds of lysergic exploration and quantum physics, equal parts Terence McKenna and Stephen Hawking.

“We wanted to make what we thought of as the ultimate psychedelic rock album,” says Gong’s singer and guitarist Kavus Torabi of The Universe Also Collapses. “The word ‘psychedelic’ gets bandied around a lot, and a great deal of the stuff that gets called psychedelic nowadays doesn’t match up to the description. I want to hear music that makes me feel like I’m on drugs.” 

The Universe Also Collapses is all of that, but it’s much more too. This is the second album since the death in 2015 of Daevid Allen, the maverick genius who founded Gong more than 50 years ago in a flash of LSD-fuelled inspiration. If 2016’s Rejoice! I’m Dead! was a tribute of sorts to the band’s departed talisman, then The Universe Also Collapses marks the dawning of a new chapter.

Read More

FOLLOW GONG ON INSTAGRAM

@gongband

 
Image