Flying Teapot
Studio album by
Gong
Released25 May 1973
RecordedJanuary 1973
The Manor Studios, Oxford, UK
Genre
Length39:45
LabelVirgin
ProducerGiorgio Gomelsky
Gong chronology
Continental Circus
(1972) 		Flying Teapot
(1973) 		Angel's Egg
(1973)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]

Flying Teapot is the third studio album by the progressive rock band Gong, originally released by Virgin Records 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's Tubular Bells (V2001). It was re-issued in 1977, with different cover art, by BYG Actuel in France and Japan. Recorded at Virgin's Manor Studios, in Oxfordshire, England, it was produced by Giorgio Gomelsky 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 in December and You the following October. This trilogy forms a central part of the Gong mythology. The Flying Teapot idea itself was influenced by Russell's teapot.[2] It was the first Gong album to feature English guitarist Steve Hillage, 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 [sic], some jazzy chords and a spacey solo [on 'Zero the Hero'.]"[3]

In the Q & Mojo Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came #35 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums".[4]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Radio Gnome Invisible"Daevid Allen5:32
2."Flying Teapot"Allen, Francis Moze12:30
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
3."The Pot Head Pixies"Allen3:00
4."The Octave Doctors and the Crystal Machine"Tim Blake2:00
5."Zero the Hero and the Witch's Spell"Allen, Blake, Christian Tritsch9:45
6."Witch's Song / I Am Your Pussy"Gilli Smyth, Allen5:10
Total length:39:45

Personnel

The original personnel listing is as follows:

These pseudonyms, in turn, represented:

References

  1. ^ a b c Allmusic review
  2. ^ Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 2. SAF Publishing, 2009, p.5.
  3. ^ Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 2. SAF Publishing, 2009, p.188.
  4. ^ Q Classic: Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, 2005.
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