Daevid Allen - Bananamoon
Daevid Allen
"Bananamoon"
Released in 1971 (Decall).
Recorded in January 1971 at the Marquee Studios.
During the recordings of this album, Marquee Studio's sound engineer Tim Blake met Daevid Allen for the first time and he was invited to join Gong on tour as their sound mixer. Eventually Venux De Luxe got the job and Tim Blake returned to England where he purchased his first synthesizer, an EMS. This was the beginning of Blake's reputed career as keyboardist and synthesist and his involvement with Gong.
Memories on this recording:"The Studios are in Soho, London, in a maze of little backstreets. We went out of the studio to do some standing-up shots and while the others fooled around Daevid took a pen from his pocket and drew a bananamoon on this temporary wall which closed off a vacant lot. As you see on the pic (if you are lucky enough to own a copy of 12" vinyl), said bananamoon has a balloon in which the word "ship" is seen, if one looks closely it's apparent that originally Daevid had written "shit"... to this he refers below. A man leaned from a Posh Office and cried out "Wipe off that filth!", so we made ourselves gradually begin to disappear but nevertheless He sent his butler with gloves and a spotless cloth to erase the Bananamoon from his beautiful landscape. Also missing were Gary Wright, Gerry Fields, Pip Pyle, Christian Tritsch, Barry St. John, Maggie Bell, and Nick Evans, which is a pity."
Phil Franks, 2000.
Daevid Allen, Robert Wyatt and Archie Legget outside of the Marquee Studios, 1971.
Photo ? Phil Franks