When vocalist and guitarist Mark Graham played a rough demo of his song, Ship of Fools to composer/multi-instrumentalist Andrew Keeling in the summer of 2018, the idea of the Gong Farmers was suddenly born. Together with a chance visit to an Irish castle, where the activities of the medieval gong farmers was described in detail, the band was now named. Adding such musically diverse friends as David Jackson (Van der Graaf Generator) and techno musician Ed Hindmoor, Ship of Fools became a journey into unchartered waters of differing styles and subject matter.