''Flying Teapot'' is the third studio album by the

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band

Gong A gongFrom Indonesian and ms, gong; jv, ꦒꦺꦴꦁ ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ja, , dora; km, គង ; th, ฆ้อง ; vi, cồng chiêng; as, কাঁহ is a percussion instrument originating in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Gongs ...

, originally released by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

in May 1973. It was the second entry in the Virgin catalogue (V2002) and was released on the same day as the first,

Mike Oldfield Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and documen ...

Tubular Bells Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within a ...

(V2001). It was re-issued in 1977, with different cover art, by

BYG Actuel BYG Records was a French record label known for the Actuel series specializing in free jazz. However, the label released a handful of non-jazz recordings by artists such as Musica Elettronica Viva, Freedom and Gong. History BYG Records was found ...

in France and Japan. Recorded at Virgin's

Manor Studios The Manor Studio (a.k.a. The Manor) was a recording studio in the manor house at the village of Shipton-on-Cherwell in Oxfordshire, England, north of the city of Oxford. Overview The Manor and its outbuildings are listed Grade II on the Nati ...

, in Oxfordshire, England, it was produced by

Giorgio Gomelsky Giorgio Sergio Alessando Gomelsky (28 February 1934 – 13 January 2016) was a filmmaker, impresario, music manager, songwriter (as Oscar Rasputin) and record producer. He was born in Georgia, grew up in Switzerland, and later lived in the Unit ...

and engineered by "Simon Sandwitch 2 aided by Tom Zen" (Simon Heyworth and Tom Newman). Subtitled ''Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 1'', it is the first of the ''Radio Gnome Invisible'' trilogy of albums, followed by ''

Angel's Egg is a Japanese art film original video animation (OVA) written and directed by Mamoru Oshii. Released by Tokuma Shoten on 15 December 1985, the film was a collaboration between artist Yoshitaka Amano and Oshii. It features very little spoken di ...

'' in December and ''

You In Modern English, ''you'' is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from the Proto- ...

'' the following October. This trilogy forms a central part of the Gong mythology. The Flying Teapot idea itself was influenced by

Russell's teapot Russell's teapot is an analogy, formulated by the philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), to illustrate that the philosophic burden of proof lies upon a person making empirically unfalsifiable claims, rather than shifting the burden of ' ...

. It was the first Gong album to feature English guitarist

Steve Hillage Stephen Simpson Hillage (born 2 August 1951) is an English musician, best known as a guitarist. He is associated with the Canterbury scene and has worked in experimental domains since the late 1960s. Besides his solo sound recording and reprodu ...

, although he contributed relatively little as he arrived late in the recording process. According to Daevid Allen, "Steve Hillage arrived eventually, but there wasn't a lot of space left. He played some rhythmick wa wa ic some jazzy chords and a spacey solo on 'Flying Teapot'." In the Q &

Mojo Mojo may refer to: *Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * MOJO HD, an American television network * ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film * '' ...

Classic Special Edition ''Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock'', the album came #35 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums".''Q Classic: Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock'', 2005.

Track listing

Personnel

The original personnel listing is as follows: *Pon voicebox – Dingo Virgin & Hi T Moonweed the favourite *

Orgone Orgone () is a pseudoscientific concept variously described as an esoteric energy or hypothetical universal life force. Originally proposed in the 1930s by Wilhelm Reich, and developed by Reich's student Charles Kelley after Reich's death in 1 ...

box & space whisper – the Good Witch Yoni * VCS3box Cynthia size A & crystal machine – Hi T Moonweed the favourite *Split sax i.e. tenna & soprasox & so flooth – The Good Count Bloomdido Bad De Grasse *Gitbox – Stevie Hillside (spermguitar & slow whale), The Submarine Captain (sidereal slideguitar & Dogfoot), Dingo Virgin & others (aluminium croonguitar & stumblestrum) *VCS3 fertilised elect piano & left bank uptightright pno & Shakesperian meat bass – Francis Bacon *Drumbox kicks and knocks – Lawrence the alien *Congox – Rachid Whoarewe the Treeclimber *Road crew & trux – Venux De Luxe (switch doctor), Wiz De Kid (lights) & Duke These pseudonyms, in turn, represented: *

Daevid Allen Christopher David Allen (13 January 1938 – 13 March 2015), known professionally as Daevid Allen, sometimes credited as Divided Alien, was an Australian musician. He was co-founder of the psychedelic rock groups Soft Machine (in the UK, 1966 ...

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

Gilli Smyth Gillian Mary Smyth (1 June 1933 – 22 August 2016) was an English musician who performed with the bands Gong, Mother Gong, and Planet Gong and released several solo albums and albums in collaboration with other members of Gong. In Gong, she ...

– space whisper *

Tim Blake Timothy Blake (born 6 February 1952, in Shepherd's Bush, London) is a keyboardist, synthesist, vocalist, and composer working with Gong, Hawkwind and his Synthesizer and Light performances as Crystal Machine, with the French Light Artist Pat ...

–

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, vocals *

Didier Malherbe Didier Malherbe (born January 22, 1943 in Paris), is a French jazz, rock and world music musician, known as a member of the bands Gong and Hadouk, as well as a poet. His first instrument was a saxophone, but he also plays flutes, alto clarinet ...

– saxes,

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

– guitar *Christian Tritsch – guitar *

Francis Moze Francis Moze (born 2 February 1946) is a French bass player, best known for his work in Magma, Gong and Pierre Moerlen's Gong. Moze played in an early line-up with Magma. When he left the group, Giorgio Gomelsky introduced him to Gong. He played o ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, piano *

Laurie Allan Laurie Allan (born 19 February 1943, London) is an English drummer, best known for stints in Delivery and Gong. Biography Allan started drumming when he was 12. His professional career got going in the early 1960s. He was in The First Real Poe ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Rachid Houari –

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...

s *Francis Linon –

live sound mixing Live sound mixing is the blending of multiple sound sources by an audio engineer using a mixing console or software. Sounds that are mixed include those from instruments and voices which are picked up by microphones (for drum kit, lead vocals an ...

*"Wiz De Kid" –

lighting technician Electrical lighting technicians (ELT), or simply lighting tech, are involved with rigging stage and location sets and controlling artificial, electric lights for art and entertainment venues (theatre or live music venues) or in video, television, o ...

*"Duke" –

roadie The road crew (or roadies) are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians. This catc ...

References

{{Authority control 1973 albums Concept albums Gong (band) albums Albums produced by Giorgio Gomelsky Progressive rock albums by British artists Space rock albums