Gong but Not Forgotten

Don’t be alarmed if the name Gong doesn’t ring a bell.

During its early-to-mid-’70s heyday, the European progressive rock/psychedelic band, which performs Thursday at the Coach House, was practically unknown in the United States. American audiences never saw the maverick hippie group live, and none of its records cracked Billboard’s Top 200 album charts.

That’s why the members of Gong were pleasantly surprised to discover three years ago, when the group toured the U.S. for the first time, that it actually had an American fan base.

“I didn’t really realize what kind of imprint we left on people in the ‘70s, because Gong has always been an underground group,” Gong saxophonist-flutist Didier Malherbe said in a recent phone interview. “We never participated fully in the music business. To realize people are happy with that music has made playing it again worthwhile.”

Gong’s main support base was always in Europe. The band initially kicked up its heels in Paris in 1970. The brainchild of Australian beatnik and ex-Soft Machine vocalist-guitarist Daevid Allen, Gong was largely an experimental unit that mixed free-jazz improvisation with trippy psychedelic rock, folk and ambient electronic music.

Colorful hippie imagery surrounding the group heightened its cult status in Europe. Gong created a mystical vocabulary and sang songs about such fanciful subjects as “flying teapots manned by Pothead Pixies.”

The band members also lived communally, first in a rural farmhouse outside of Paris and then in a house near Oxford, England.

“Living communally was very important,” said Malherbe, who speaks with a thick French accent. “That creates ties on a composition level. It makes things very interesting, obviously. We don’t live communally anymore. I live in Paris with my wife. But when we come back with Gong, those ties are still very vivid and lively, and it’s a pleasure.”

The group flirted with popular success when its “Camembert Electrique” album entered England’s Melody Maker magazine album chart in 1971. But, overall, Gong was too different to be considered mainstream.

Gong gradually lost momentum in the late ‘70s, and by 1980 the group dissolved. During the ‘80s, a number of former group members incorporated the Gong name into new projects. There was Allen’s Planet Gong and New York Gong; percussionist Pierre Moerlen’s Gong; and vocalist Gilli Smyth’s Mother Gong.

An official Gong reunion didn’t occur until the early ‘90s. In 1992, the group released the eclectic “Shapeshifter,” its first studio album in 14 years. Three years later a live album recorded at a 25th anniversary gig at the London Forum was released.

Malherbe acknowledges that Gong in the ‘90s has benefited from the popularity of contemporary and like-minded neo-hippie brigades such as Phish. To some Generation X jam-band fans, the music of Gong is anything but passe.

“It’s been interesting to find that our audiences today have been a mixture of some very young people as well as fans from the ‘70s,” he says.

In recent years, the members have been content to balance live Gong shows and tours with outside projects. Malherbe will release an album of acoustic world music later this year. Smyth is due to put out an album of spacey electronic music with her band Goddess T. Vocalist-guitarist Allen is leading a new San Francisco-based outfit called University of Errors.

Gong veterans Allen, Smyth, Malherbe and bassist Mike Howlett are all part of the current touring lineup, which also features newcomers Chris Taylor on drums and guitarist Mark Hewins.

The additions are part of the band’s long history of lineup changes. (In the ‘70s, the band briefly included former Yes and King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford and vaunted guitarist Allan Holdsworth.)

“It’s too complicated to explain,” said Malherbe, asked why Gong has had so many members come and go. “It’s part of the karma. Life has many surprises.”

But don’t expect another Gong breakup any time soon.

“Gong will carry on,” Malherbe said. “It’s difficult to know exactly what is going to happen next [since some of us have other projects]. But there is a demand from the people who love Gong. They want to see us, so we have to fulfill that demand. We’re glad to do it, but not all the time.”

* Gong and Brand X play Thursday at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. 8 p.m. $15-$17. (949) 496-8927.