Gilli Smyth

Gillian Mary Smyth[2] (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.[3] In Gong, she often performed under the name Shakti Yoni, contributing poems and "space whispers".[4]

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[1]
Occupation(s)	Poet musician writer
Instruments	Vocals
Associated acts	Gong, Planet Gong, Mother Gong
Website	www.gillismyth.com

Smyth 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.[4]

Gilli Smyth with Daevid Allen, Hyde Park, 1974

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.[4] 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.