Gong and Soft Machine founder Daevid Allen, alias Divided Alien, alias Dingo Virgin, alias Bert Camembert, has succumbed to cancer at age 77. He had revealed a little over a month ago that his doctors had given him six months to live, but the disease claimed him even sooner than expected.
This board isn’t exactly a hotbed of prog fandom, but I wanted to have Daevid’s passing acknowledged–to me this is as big as the loss of Leonard Nimoy and Terry Pratchett is to many of you.
Bye-bye, Daevid; flights of Pot Head Pixies sing thee to thy rest.
I knew of him mostly by reputation in connection with the Soft Machine, but the group had left him behind by the time they recorded (or, rather, UK immigration kept him from returning with them). Still, it seems like he was a major name in the entire Canterbury scene of progress rock, and it’s sad to hear this.
Ah… another of my heroes gone. I’m not too surprised, though, as I knew he was getting up there in years. Gong est mort… Vive Gong.
Ddamn. Another great musician gone. RIP.
I knew he was extremely ill, but DAMN.
He had left Soft Machine several before I saw them and I only saw Gong a couple of times (wish it had been more!) I was playing some early Soft Machine with him on it just a couple of days ago. And my partner and I were just talking yesterday about whether we’d go see Gong without him, if they toured again…
And now I think I would like a cup of tea.
There sure are a lot of cool people leaving us recently.
Sacred Geometry
Lovely track, Larry; thanks for posting that link.
Tragically, but predictably, the guy from the Gong Show is getting more attention than the guy from Gong. 