Green Hippo

Gong Tour

Gong Tour

Calling themselves the “most eccentric originating psychedelic band of the late sixties and early seventies” Gong, including some of its founding members, are still going strong producing progressive rock. The band, originally formed by Australian Daevid Allen in 1966, released a new album last year: ‘2032’, which has since seen them grace many a stage in its support. Being a continued instalment of the Gong Mythology, the album re-introduces a number of themes, ideas and characters conceived by Daevid Allen, which have repeatedly featured on Gong albums.

Despite many changes in band members and a variety of off-shoots, the band is still as well loved amongst fans as during their time pioneering the psychedelic arena in the 60’s and 70’s. In 2009 fans were able to enjoy alternating line-ups of the band’s members during a UK & Europe Tour, at several UK festivals, such as on the Glade stage at Glastonbury and at Big Chill festival, appearances in the US and a flying visit to Israel.

One such fan since his teenage years is lighting designer Jasper Johns and with twenty years of industry experience, designing and operating the often projection-based, dramatic and imaginative Gong shows was a great opportunity: “Gong are a group with a concept, an imagination, their own Mythology and the gentle madness to carry it off”

The overall equipment for the tour changed depending on the venue and gig but Jasper decided to programme and run all shows from his laptop-based Green Hippo HippoPortamus:

“The HippoPortamus was an obvious choice for ease of transporting, scarcely having to be out of my hands. It was also a bonus to be able to tweak certain images and programming right up to load-in. Having the Hippo in such a condensed package has allowed me to create a similar vibe; altering images in pre-programming and then layering and manipulating them live. I have found that with the Hippo, the right desk and pedal, I can operate both visuals and lighting to great success.”

While he travelled to all gigs with his 4-layer version HippoPortamus and Avolites Azure desk, festivals and one-off European gigs were run with specified projectors and screens appropriate for the individual venues and making use of the houselights.

For UK gigs and a short European tour QED supplied Sanyo XF35 15000 Lumen projectors, while Jasper utilised houselights and took a 12m x 9m screen as well as two Martin Atomic strobes:

“Using the strobes on the same desk as the Hippo can create very interesting flashing sequences between video and in sync strobe.”

Jasper made use of the Hippotizer’s Timeline component; programming extensive timelines for each song closely synchronised with the music and adjusted slightly as needed during the show. Having fine-tuned the programming for each song, Jasper used the master layer to add effects live, and with his Azure desk and a midi foot pedal he managed to operate his HippoPortamus as well as the house lighting desk.

The content consisted of mostly still images, some of which he Photoshopped for use on the Hippotizer, as well as some video footage provided by Jasper and the band themselves, with most of it centred around Gong Mythology and its characters, reinforcing the generally psychedelic feel of the shows.

Jasper used many of the available layer effects, most of the time taking advantage of all 4 layers, and with further Gong shows coming up this year he remarks: “I am looking forward with anticipation to the 6-layer version of the HippoPortamus, as this will give me the ability to have live camera-in without losing any creative possibilities.”