1. Christopher David "Daevid" Allen was an Australian musician.
18 Facts About Daevid Allen
1. 2.
Daevid Allen was co-founder of the psychedelic rock groups Soft Machine and Gong.
3.
Daevid Allen was born in Melbourne to Walter and Helen Allen, and is of English decent.
4.
Daevid Allen's father was a director in a furtniture business and played piano.
5.
In 1960, inspired by the Beat Generation writers he had discovered while working in a Melbourne bookshop, Allen travelled to Paris, where he stayed at the Beat Hotel, moving into a room recently vacated by Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky.
6.
In 1961 Daevid Allen travelled to England and rented a room at Lydden, near Dover, where he soon began to look for work as a musician.
7.
Daevid Allen returned to Paris where he formed Gong along with his partner Gilli Smyth.
8.
Daevid Allen admitted that he was scorned by the other protesters for being a beatnik.
9.
In 1971 Daevid Allen recorded and released his first solo album, Banana Moon for BYG Actuel.
10.
In late May 1977, Daevid Allen performed and recorded as Planet Gong, then reformed the "Radio Gnome Trilogy" version of the group for a one-off show at the Hippodrome, Paris, France.
11.
In 1978 Daevid Allen moved to New York at the invitation of his old producer Giorgio Gomelsky, and was teamed up with the nascent Material to form the punk-influenced New York Gong.
12.
In 1981 Daevid Allen returned to Australia, taking up residence in Byron Bay where he worked on performance pieces and poetry.
13.
Daevid Allen performed with performance artist David Tolley as Ex, using tape loops and drum machines.
14.
In 1998 Daevid Allen co-founded the San Francisco-based psychedelic rock band University of Errors and the UK based jazz rock band Brainville 3, going on to record several studio and live albums with each.
15.
On 12 June 2014, Daevid Allen underwent surgery to remove a cyst from his neck.
16.
The Planet Gong website announced that Daevid Allen had died in Australia, at 1.05pm, "surrounded by his boys".
17.
Daevid Allen had four sons, two with Gilli Smyth and two with other mothers.
18.
Daevid Allen revelled in being the court jester of hippie rock and never lost his enthusiasm for the transcendent power of the psychedelic experience.