NIK TURNER'S SPHYNX - OFF BEATS - GONG

1978-12-19 London, UK - Camden Town - Electric Ballroom - Xmas Party (159m - aud - complete show)

NICK TURNER'S SPHYNX: Nik Turner, Corrina, Harry Wiliamson, Steve Broughton, Ermanno Ghisio-Erba?
OFF BEATS: Hamish McDonald, Tasmin Smyth & others
GONG: Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Laurie Allan, Harry Williamson, Hugh Hopper, George Bishop

Disc 1:

SPHYNX:
1) Nik Turner Intro (1:05) *
2) ? (11:13) **
3) ? (7:57)
4) ? (5:28)
5) Thoth (7:52)
6) ? (5:46) ***
7) ? (6:31) $
8) Nuclear Waste (5:12) £
9) ? (7:22) =
OFF BEATS:
10) Master Builder (4:32) /
11) Beat On The Brat (3:03) ^
12) Submission (3:23) §
13) "A bit of jamaican love music" (4:21)
14) Bye Bye (5:25) ==

Disc 2:

GONG:

1) Daevid Allen Intro (2.23) !
2) Only Make Love If You Want To / Zero Theme (6:09) %
3) Band Intro (3.51) &
4) The Rapist (3:04)
5) Brothasista Invocation (1:17) ?
6) I Am Your  Fantasy (2:41)
7) Shakti Yoni (4:40) 
8) I Am A Fool (4:41)
9) OK Man, This Is Your World (4:37) °
10) I Am Your Animal / Dynamite (8:32) \
11) Prostitute Poem (Street Version) (3:54)
12) Tropical Fish (11:10)
13) Next Time Ragtime (3:21) #
14) Time Of The Goddess (1:06) '
15) Fohat Digs Holes In Space (9:39)
16) Fire (1:46) \\
17) Witch's Song / I Am Your Pussy (7:02) //

* [Cut at 1:05].
** Same theme as Mother Gong's "Beautiful Country".
*** A couple of bits later included in Mother Gong's "Words Fail Me" GAS tape and "Fairy Tales".
$[Tape flip at 6:30].
£ [Start very slightly cut]. Weak left channell (start to 2:35).
= [Cut at 7:21 on applause].
/ [Start slightly cut]. Just the IAO chant. "Right now in this moment of truth we have a rise!"
^ Ramones cover.
§ "This next number is called 'Submission' and it's dedicated to Sid".
== With "Master Builder" reprise. "It's back to being a roadie now". [Cut at 5:24 on applause].
! [Cut at 0:25]. Daevid spoken intro.
% Daevid solo.
& [Cut at 3:50] Audience whistling Here & Now's "What you see is what you are".
? Poem which Gilli would recite on "New Age Transformation Try" with Planet Gong.
° Gilli's own version of "Dreaming It".
\ [Tape flip at 8:31].
# Backing is a country version of "I Am A Fool".
' The theme at the end was a coda for "Zero The Hero" earliest version (as on "Studio Follies").
\\ [Cut at 1:46].
// Encore. With Hamish singing. Daevid ends singing "Happy Christmas to you".

Source (for all except disc 2 track 17):
1st gen cassette from Woodland's AUD master (played back with no dolby) > wav > flac.

Disc 2 track 17 (encore) is 2nd gen > wav > flac.
The left channell on this track had almost no music (with much hiss) so I pasted the right 
channell to the left one. The encore here is complete, unlike on the previous torrented version.

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Thanks to WOODLAND who recorded the show, preserved it for all these years and shared generously
(thanks for the info as well!)

This is the complete Xmas Party. Parts of this were seeded here previously (The Off Beats and a
small part of Gong - with lots of cuts. Now for the first time here is Sphynx, Off Beats and the complete Gong set - almost 80 min.

My previous torrent from this show had some 25 min. of Gong and lacked Daevid's solo intro "Only Make Love..." as it was also part of the University Of East Anglia tapes from the previous day and I was wrongly convinced that song didn't belong to the Electric Ballroom set. SORRY!!!

The drummer for Sphynx might be Ermanno Ghisio-Erba (aka Dino Ferrari). He had already played with Sphynx at the Deeply Vale Festival in summer and somewhere through the set his playing makes me think this is the same drummer as on Mother Gong's "Fairy Tales".

Except for Hamish and Tasmin, lineup for the Off Beats is unknown.
"This is Steve Hillage the 13th on guitar". 
"The drummer plays for a Brighton band called "The DP's".

Maclen Sep 8th 2008 - torrent shared on Dimeadozen. Please keep it lossless.