IN: Gong are an international progressive rock band that incorporates elements of jazz and space rock into their musical style. The group was formed in Paris in 1967 by Australian musician Daevid Allen and English vocalist Gilli Smyth. Band members have included Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Pierre Moerlen, Bill Laswell and Theo Travis. Others who have played on stage with Gong include Don Cherry, Chris Cutler, Bill Bruford, Brian Davison, Dave Stewart and Tatsuya Yoshida.

In August 1969, film director Jerome Laperrousaz, a close friend of the pair, invited them back to France to record a soundtrack for a motorcycle racing movie which he was planning. This came to nothing at the time, but they were subsequently approached by Jean Karakos of the newly-formed independent label BYG Actuel to record an album, and so set about forming a new electric Gong band in Paris, recruiting their first rhythm section of Christian Tritsch (bass) and Rachid Houari (drums and percussion) and re-connecting with a saxophonist called Didier Malherbe whom they had met in Deia. However, Tritsch was not ready in time for the sessions and so Allen played the bass guitar himself. The album, entitled Magick Brother, was completed in October.  The re-born Gong played its debut gig at the BYG Actuel Festival in the small Belgian town of Amougies, on 27 October 1969, joined by Danny Laloux on hunting horn and percussion, and Dieter Gewissler and Gerry Fields on violin, and was introduced to the stage by bemused compere Frank Zappa. Magick Brother was released in March 1970, followed in April by a non-album single, "Est-Ce Que Je Suis; Garcon Ou Fille?" b/w "Hip Hip Hypnotise Ya", which again featured Laloux and Gewissler. In October, the band moved into an abandoned 12-room hunting lodge called Pavillon du Hay, near Voisines and Sens, 120 km south-east of Paris. They would be based there until early 1974.  Houari left the band in the spring of 1971 and was replaced by English drummer Pip Pyle, whom Allen had been introduced to by Robert Wyatt during the recording of his debut solo album, Banana Moon. The new line-up recorded a soundtrack for Laperrousaz's movie, now entitled Continental Circus, and played at the second Glastonbury Festival, later documented on the Glastonbury Fayre album. Next, they began work on their second studio album, Camembert Electrique, later referred to by Allen as "the first real band album". It established the progressive, space rock sound which would make their name, leading, in the autumn, to their first UK tour. However, by the end of the year Pyle had left the group, to be replaced by another English drummer, Laurie Allan.
QUESTION: Did anything else big happen during those years?
IN: Kennedy was born as Myles Richard Bass on November 27, 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts, and subsequently lived in Northern Idaho. As a child, he moved to Spokane, Washington, where he grew up in a Christian Science family on a farm. His father, Richard Bass, died when he was four years old and his mother subsequently went on to marry a Methodist minister, and the family took the surname Kennedy. Before Kennedy attended Mead High School (which he attended with football player Jason Hanson), he found musical inspiration from Led Zeppelin, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and John Sykes' Blue Murder band.

In 1995, Kennedy started teaching guitar in a store called Rock City Music. By August 1996, he became the lead vocalist and lead guitarist of The Mayfield Four, a rock band he formed with his childhood friends Zia Uddin, Marty Meisner, and Craig Johnson (also of Citizen Swing). They signed a contract with Epic Records thanks to a critically acclaimed demo called Thirty Two Point Five Hours that the band recorded in 1996, followed by a live extended play called Motion in 1997. The Mayfield Four's debut album, Fallout, was supported with a fifteen-month tour with bands such as Creed, Big Wreck, and Stabbing Westward. The album was praised by critics, but it failed to chart, and ultimately became the only album by the band to feature rhythm guitarist Craig Johnson, who was fired from the band due to undisclosed reasons.  Following the Fallout tour, Kennedy made an appearance in the 2001 drama film Rock Star starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston. He said that he got a call from his manager telling him that the filmmakers needed someone who could sing high and that his name was suggested. On the set of the film, he met Wahlberg along with Zakk Wylde and Jason Bonham, who also appeared in the movie alongside several other notable musicians. Kennedy was the only actor in the movie whose actual singing voice was used. In the movie, directly paralleling a scene at the beginning of the film, Kennedy's character (Mike, also known as "Thor") is noticed by Wahlberg's character, Chris "Izzy" Cole, the lead singer of Thor's favorite band, Steel Dragon. Izzy pulls Thor onstage and sings the rest of the song with him, eventually telling him to finish the rest of the band's concert. The film was met with mostly mixed reviews, garnering a 52% "Rotten" score on Rotten Tomatoes.  The Mayfield Four's second and final album, Second Skin, was released in June 2001. Kennedy has since said that it is one of the most personal records he has made. The album has been critically acclaimed and Kennedy has commented on how it and Fallout are much more popular now than when they were released.  Though popular, The Mayfield Four never garnered enough exposure to break into the mainstream. In 2002, the future of the band began to look unlikely, and Kennedy began recording new music, which he described as "Daniel Lanois meets Massive Attack." The band went on hiatus that year, and would ultimately disband. In an interview with Pulse Weekly in 2004, Kennedy said that it was because he was "burned out with the whole rock industry at that point." However, three previously unreleased songs appeared on a fan-run Myspace page dedicated to and approved by The Mayfield Four in early 2010, causing rumors of a possible reunion to begin circulating. However, when asked about this during an interview, Kennedy replied that he does not see it happening.
QUESTION:
did the album do well?