This band were famous for their free shows, performed off the back of a truck, and were regulars at Stonehenge. I managed to see them 15 times during the 1980s and early 90s - they were always tight, loud and clearly enjoying themselves and I have always wished I'd seen them more often.

The classic '70s lineup featured stunning glissando guitar from Steffy Sharpstrings plus vocals from Suze and Anni - this was the band which supported Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth for Live Floating Anarchy 1977, released under the name of Planet Gong and an essential part of many record collections. If you don't have it, you should .... The core of the band has been Gavin da Blitz (keyboards) and Keith the Bass who used to mesmerise us with his chin dipping in time to the rhythm as his bass notes steadily worked at loosening the joints between ribs and sternum. Steffy is also a talented songwriter/vocalist and many thought that the band would not survive his departure.

The arrival of Deano Ferrari on guitar and a succession of drummers slowly changed the style of the band over the years, from psychedelic punk, to reggae and slightly more mainstream music. During this period the band produced some extremely powerful songs like "Secrets", "Heartbeat" and the truly magnificent "Ways to be Free".

Sadly, considering the longevity of the band, there is a shortage of recorded material available and I believe that most of the albums that were released are currently unavailable. I contacted Keith the Bass a couple of years back and he informed me that the two tape albums "Stolen Moments" and "Coaxed Out From Oxford" are likely to be released at some point - keep an eye on the Gong website for news www.planetgong.co.uk.

Here & Now have been gigging again recently, with Steffy back on guitar and vocals and Joie Hinton (formerly known as Joie Ozric) on keys. In July 2005 at a H&N gig in France, Tim Blake joined them and the show was reported as being awesome. There is a chance that Tim will appear with them again at Sonic Rock 2005.

Sound files

All around 1.5 mins and thus around 1.5Mb so will take a while to download but worth it if you want to find out what Here & Now sounded like ....

If you only have a dialup modem, don't forget to right click then Save Target As .... to get the files. If you've got a broadband connection, you should be able to play them directly from here by left clicking on them.

• What You See is What You Are - from their first album, Give and Take. Superb glissando guitar from Steffy.
• Heart of the City - from the official bootleg tape album Coaxed out from Oxford. I lost my original tape so this is an MP3 made from a tape to tape recording, but it gives a really good feel for how the band sounded for most of their shows that I attended.

Links:

• Keith the Bass: keith@space.sonnet.co.uk
• www.planetgong.co.uk is the official Gong website and should list H&N gigs and album releases when they are available.
• http://www.herenow.be/ is the home of the new evoloution of Here & Now, featuring original members Steffe and Kif Kif, plus Twink and Tim Flatus of the Invisibles..
• http://www.wellers.demon.co.uk/herenow.htm is a fantastic Here & Now site with full discography and a trading list for live shows
• http://www.borderlinebooks.com/80s90s/h0006.html is the Here & Now page of Adrift in the Ether which is a fantastic reference source.