Daevid Allen

Christopher David "Daevid" Allen (13 January 1938 – 13 March 2015) was an Australian musician. He was co-founder of the Canterbury scene groups Soft Machine (in the UK, 1966) and Gong (in France, 1967).

Biography Early years He was born in Melbourne to Walter and Helen Allen, and is of English descent. His father was a director in a furniture business and played piano. 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. While selling the International Herald Tribune around Le Chat Qui Pêche and the Latin Quarter, he met Terry Riley and also gained free access to the jazz clubs in the area.

In 1961 Allen travelled to England and rented a room at Lydden, near Dover, where he soon began to look for work as a musician. After meeting up with William S. Burroughs, and inspired by philosophies of Sun Ra, he formed free jazz outfit the Daevid Allen Trio ('Daevid' having been adopted as an affectation of David), which included his landlord's son, 16-year-old Robert Wyatt. They performed at Burroughs' theatre pieces based on the novel The Ticket That Exploded. In 1966, together with Kevin Ayers and Mike Ratledge, they formed the band Soft Machine, the name having come from the Burroughs novel The Soft Machine. Ayers and Wyatt had previously played in Wilde Flowers.

Returning to Paris in August 1969, they were offered the chance to make an album by the BYG Actuel label and so formed a new Gong band and recorded Magick Brother, released in March 1970. In late 1972 they were joined by electronic musician Tim Blake. Later Steve Hillage and Pierre Moerlen also joined to record the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy which consisted of Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg and You. along with a studio version with Allen on vocals.

His final studio album with Gong, I See You, produced by his son Orlando, was released in November 2014.

The same year, he worked on Book of Intxixu, the second Can am des puig album, and New Start by Belgian musician Will Z., a tribute album to Deià musicians, the first posthumous album of Daevid Allen and Carmeta Mansilla, singer of Can am des puig.

Illness and death On 12 June 2014, Allen underwent surgery to remove a cyst from his neck. It was determined to be cancerous and he subsequently underwent radiation therapy. In a statement, released on 5 February 2015, Allen wrote that the cancer had returned to his neck and also spread to his lungs, and that he was "not interested in endless surgical operations". He was "given approximately six months to live".

On 13 March 2015, his son, Orlando Monday Allen, announced through Facebook that Daevid Allen had died. The Planet Gong website announced that Allen had died in Australia, at 1.05pm, "surrounded by his boys". Allen had four sons, two with Gilli Smyth and two with other mothers.

Reviewing Allen's life, The Daily Telegraph said:

Allen revelled in being the court jester of hippie rock and never lost his enthusiasm for the transcendent power of the psychedelic experience. He once remarked: "Psychedelia for me is a code for that profound spiritual experience where there is a direct link to the gods." That he never attained the riches and fame of many of his contemporaries did not concern him. 2005: DJDDAY (with Weird Biscuit Teatime; re-released in 2025 under the band name Weird Biscuit Teatime Starring Daevid Allen) 2006: Live at The Fleece, Bristol, England, 6th June 2003 (with University of Errors) 2006: Glissando Grooves (BMO Vol. 12, SFO Soundtribe 3, with Don Falcone) 2008: Trial by Headline (with Brainville 3)

2010s 2012: Soundbites 4 Tha Revelation (poetry) 2012: Live at the Roundhouse 1971 (with Gilli Smyth & Soft Machine) 2012: Live in San Francisco (with Magick Brothers) 2013: Tried So Hard (with The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet, UK) 2014: Stoned Innocent Frankenstein (alternative mixes & outtakes from Banana Moon) 2015: Elevenses (as The Daevid Allen Weird Quartet) 2017: The Roadmap in Your Heart b/w Another Roadmap in Your Head and An Ambient Heat (7-inch single, by Spirits Burning & Daevid Allen)

Filmography 2015: Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales (DVD)