Misplaced Pages

Gilli Smyth
Smyth performing with Gong in Tel Aviv, 2009
Background information
Birth name	Gillian Mary Smyth
Born	(1933-06-01)1 June 1933 London, England
Died	22 August 2016(2016-08-22) (aged 83) Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia
Genres	Spoken word jazz rock space rock
Occupations	Poet musician writer
Instrument	Vocals
Website	gillismyth.com

Gillian Mary Smyth (1 June 1933 – 22 August 2016) was an English musician best known for co-founding the psychedelic rock group Gong with her partner Daevid Allen in 1967. She also released music with spinoff groups Mother Gong and Planet Gong as well as releasing several solo albums and albums in collaboration with other members of Gong. In Gong, she often performed under the name Shakti Yoni, contributing poems and vocals dubbed "space whispers".

Biography

Smyth was born in London. She studied at King's College London, (the liner notes for Voiceprint's 'Mother Gong' CD suggests 'London University') where she gained notoriety as the outspoken sub-editor of "Kings News", a college magazine. After a brief spell teaching at the Sorbonne (Paris) (where she became bilingual), she began doing performance poetry with well-known English jazz-rock group Soft Machine, founded by her partner and long-time collaborator, Daevid Allen, in 1968.

She co-founded Gong with Allen, an outfit that included musicians such as Steve Hillage, Pierre Moerlen and Didier Malherbe. All of the songs on the albums Magick Brother and Continental Circus are listed as written or co-written by her. In her spoken-word poetry, especially within Gong's "Radio Gnome Invisible" Trilogy, she portrays a prostitute, a cat, a mother, a witch, and an old woman, and she was known for wearing costumes for these personas on stage. This became part of a cult mythology, which was written into sixteen albums that the band recorded. Gong developed into a family of bands, including Gongmaison and Mother Gong. Mother, Smyth's 1978 solo album, led to her founding Mother Gong, having left the original band in 1975 to have children.

Mother Gong toured internationally in 1979-81 and 1989–91, either headlining or supporting such artists as Bob Dylan and Big Brother and the Holding Company. Smyth appeared as a solo performer and lecturer at the Starwood Festival from 1992-93. She did voice-overs for commercials, recorded audio books for children, as well as other books and poetry, gave workshops on voice projection and voice as a confidence-raiser, and also performed for many women's groups.

Death

She died in hospital in Byron Bay on 22 August 2016 at the age of 83 of pulmonary pneumonia.

References

1. "Gilli Smyth: Mother – Album Review". Louder Than War. 8 June 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
2. "BMI - Repertoire Search". Retrieved 23 August 2016.
3. "Gilli Smyth". Users.swing.be. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
4. ^ "Gilli Smyth in the Gong Family Maze". Planet Gong. Archived from the original on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
5. "Gong co-founder Gilli Smyth dies, aged 83". The Guardian. 25 August 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
6. "Gilli Smyth, 'Space Whisperer' – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 29 August 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016.

External links

• Official website
• Gilli Smyth at IMDb
• Gilli Smyth discography at Discogs
• Terrascope Interview 2007

This article about a British musician is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• 1933 births
• 2016 deaths
• Alumni of King's College London
• Canterbury scene
• Charly Records artists
• Jazz-rock musicians
• Space rock musicians
• Academic staff of the University of Paris
• Deaths from pneumonia in New South Wales
• Gong (band) members
• British musician stubs