Hi,
Saw GONG a few times, and with 3 different drummers. With Pip, it was jazz'y and different. With Chris (from Soul2Soul) it was very trippy and stony. With Pierre, it had a rock edge that really blasted and helped the long cuts in "YOU" specially. I have the tape from the sound board as a present for the pictures I gave the band, and the rock "hard" part of the music, is my favorite, and makes you want to get up and trip on it. The other two, while nice, were more "passive' for my tastes. Still nice, but passive. Surprisingly enough, the version with Pip, was not my favorite at all ... even though it was much closer to their original. But I think Pierre was the glue that helped make it super special.