Morning Calm

Some memories by Gerry Field (Gerry Fields) about this Band and their sole album : I played the violin in that trio in 1969. I was 20 years old... 42 years ago. Leo Gillespie was the singer/guitarist and Didier Malherbe played flute. The summer of 1969 we played mostly in front of a cafe on Boulevard Montparnasse in Paris and [a193816] passed the hat for us. She went on to punk rock stardom in the US to our great surprise. Even though she told us she was writing poetry, she never sang or performed with us. She was a great friend at that time and as it often happens, that friendship was lost to stardom. For me it was quite a summer. We also performed on a French tv show and Patti and her sister Linda can be seen for about a second in that tv show. The album was recorded in the Fall of 1969 in Paris. Someone took us into a recording studio and it was all done in one take. None of us made any money. And we never actually heard the product. We really got ripped off by the guy who got us into the studio. Later, after playing with this trio Morning Calm - actually we didn't have a name at the time - I was in the beginning of Gong before it was called Gong (The [a10354] Group - we played at the BYG Festival in Belgium with Zappa as the MC) . Didier Malherbe interview: When I came back to Paris in the summer of 69, I met an Irish guy who was busking. His name is Leo Gillespie. There also was Gerry Field, an excellent young violin player from Chicago. We played in the streets of Montparnasse for a couple of months, just before the founding of Gong. Busking was a very good experience for me. People are passing by and you need to have something seducing to attract them. Leo was very good at that. He improvised all of his lyrics. We eventually went into a studio and recorded an album. The guy who brought us in was gentle and helpful… He sold the tapes to the label Barclay and gave the project the name “Morning Calm”. It was not our choice. Years later I discovered the album existed. I didn’t even know. I met Leo and Gerry after this, but never carried on with the project.