Can I just remind everyone that this Friday is the 60th birthday of  Richard.
Ever since I first heard him back in 1976 I've been in awe of  both his singing
and bass playing. I've been lucky enough to chat with  him on a number of
occasions, even being invited in for a spot of lunch when he lived in
Canterbury. I would just like to say "Happy Birthday Richard" and thank you for
all the wonderful musical moments you have given me.

Martin

Phil Miller brought, as per my request, no really, the band to Essex, he was a
lot nearer this time @ Colchester at the Arts Centre last night.

On arrival the conjecture among the 5 gathered outside awaiting doors open was
on how many would be attending the gig. As it turned out I counted 17 others
attending with me. The last time I had seen them here I chatted with Phil about
the days when I lived in London and watched them at the Bull and Gate; Kentish
Town and the appearance with IC one night of a certain Steve Cook on bass! and I
also spoke very briefly with Pip, fond memories.

So I was really looking forward to seeing them with a merciful 1-hour travel in
each direction.

Sitting in front of the stage I noticed straight away, being a drummer, the set
up was a Black Yamaha drum set, which was completely different to Mark
Fletcher's sparkle kit he had @ The Lake district gig late last year. So I
assumed aha a new drummer!

And so it was the bespectacled 'Marc Parnell' joined Phil, Peter Lemer, Fred
Baker, Simon Picard and Gail Brand.

They started off with the Trilogy, covering off some 20 minutes, Peter Lemer's
'Big Dick' was next this was followed by 'ED or Ian' its a beaut! with a great
sax section, a Bass featurette from Fred and finally the most welcome return of
the 'T Bone' since mad cow disease deprived us Anglaise carnivores a number of
years ago! Sorry.

Anyway I really liked Gail's playing, either when soloing, playing the brass
parts with Simon or embellishing here and there especially when supporting
discreetly in places of Fred's bass solos.

Delta Borderline saw the end of the first set and the band withdrew for break. I
as impressed with Mr. Parnell's efforts who I know nothing about or the reason
for Mr. Fletcher's non-attendance.

Soon they returned and Phil announced this as the First Set, to amused looks
from other members of the group, and myself, he corrected himself this is the
2nd set. My all time favourite of Phil's was next; Above and Below, written with
Alan Gowen, it wasn't the best version I'd heard but was as ever a lovely tune.

Conspiracy Theories was next with a great T Bone solo from Gail and a class
guitar solo, Phil's playing is so fluid and modest.

'Flash Point' was announced by Phil, and that it was to be counted in "at his
own risk" by Fred, much laughter and daft comments.

'Parallel' was next, but somehow didn't feel right, admittedly I am not a big
fan of the more bluesy based stuff, with another Trombone solo and a drum break
at the end failing to convince me.

'Your Root 2' was up with that wonderful keyboard riff, not quite the same
frenetic drum parts achieved by Mark Fletcher but he's (Mark II ouch!)new so
lets give him time. Wonderful lead keys from Peter as usual on this one, great
Fuzz Bass section with Gail in support and a good crescendo on the drums at the
end. Crash, crash, bish, bash etc.

No encore offered despite my polite applause, can't make to much noise on my own
and its all over now until they play on 10th at the Vortex, London. Be there!

Steve

[Thanks for the great review, Steve. I hope more people show up too at the
Spirit of '66 in Verviers tomorrow and at the Triton on Wednesday... A few
notes: (a) the InCa gig with Steve Cook on bass was in late '83 while Richard
Sinclair was away in France recording his duo album with Hugh Hopper; (b) "Above
And Below" was written by Phil alone, although the original recording was indeed
with Alan Gowen on keys on the "Before A Word Is Said" album - A.]

Just as an aside, Marc Parnell is a great drummer and took on the  sticks duty
last March (2007) at the Jazzwise to the Power of 10  season, where he played
with Nucleus Revisited. He is also drummer  with Theo Travis.

I thought I counted about 25 people there, slightly more at the Barbican the
night before for John Mclaughlin.

I concur it was a good gig.

On the subject of the John McLaughlin gig, I thought the free foyer band
beforehand - the Christian Garrick Quarter - were excellent. I bought the CD and
have been listening to it solidly since. Not quite a 'Canterbury' sound but some
distant similarities with Caravan. Highly recommended.

Samples at <http://www.chrisgarrick.com/>

Well said it man! I'm agree with you...

Happy birthay Ri-chard...!

Greetings from the land of grey and pink - Perů...

Luciano

PD : Fitter stokes!...What a nick!...Shadows from Hatfield...

I concur and Chris Garrick works with John Etheridge - sort of Canterbury
connection. I thought they did a good version of Pat Metheny's "Song for Bilbao"
which the John Etheridge quartet also do well (including the line up with Chris
Garrick).

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOolooapCjk>

Anybody know anything about this one?? Looks like it was filmed around the time
of 1968 "Jimi Hendrix North American Tour". It plays a few songs off the Vol. 1.
Hopefully their is a full show of this somewhere or at least a soundboard 68
recording!

Actually I believe this pre-dates their '68 US tour. I saw them on that tour
with Hendrix in Seattle and Kevin was using a Rickenbacker bass sans the makeup.
And they weren't dressing quite so psychedelically (with the exception of Robert
who played in a bathing suit and a hat!) Maybe Aymeric can date this for us?

Jeff

[Ca. October 1967 - A.]

Hey Jeff,

First post, so if I do this wrong, apologies to everyone :) Any recollection of
any of the setlists from when you saw Soft Machine and Hendrix? I'm sure that
was an amazing show!

Peace,
Austin

Austin:

It was unbelievable. Life-changing, really. My brother Greg and my best friend
Jerry were with me and it was that concert that inspired us to drop our guitar
player and change our band Glass format to a keyboard-centric trio.

I don't recall exact set lists but Hendrix, who we'd seen the year before, was
playing material from his "Are You Experienced" and "Axis: Bold as Love" albums.
He and The Experience were doing some mind-bending jamming on blues tunes like
Red House... but... The REAL treat for us was this heretofore unknown (to us)
band that opened for Hendrix called The Soft Machine. I'll never forget that
moment - the Coliseum was using this hilarious circular, revolving stage (that
must have been a nightmare for the bands!). The lights went down the first thing
we heard was this incredibly LOUD rumbling that shook the very foundation of the
building. It was the bass pedal beginning to "Why Are We Sleeping". At that
point I remember the stage was facing away from us and the first thing we had
enough light to see was this person climbing over the top of the backline of
SUNN and Marshall amplifiers to get on this drum set. Maybe a drummer? But then
"why does he only have on a bathing suit, a vest and a hat", we asked ourselves?
Must be a drum roadie or something... I remember Kevin introduced the set as the
bass pedals were rumbling by saying "This is called the Rise and Fall of The
American Empire" and when some people at the front of the stage laughed
nervously, he added "We're not kidding..." and they launched into "Sleeping..."
at top volume! The three of us were on the edge of our seats freaking out! We
could not believe a trio could make a sound this HUGE. And  this unique. We had
never heard anything remotely like them. Not even Hendrix was this
outside-the-box. I remember Robert was in fine voice and the fact that this
mystery trio had a singing drummer on top of everything else was so incredibly
cool. And Mike... Oh My God! He just BURNED that Lowry keyboard up... I remember
thinking his solos were like being on acid because no one could really play THAT
fast! They were SO loud. And SO tight as a unit. It was obvious they had been
playing together onstage for a while. They were louder than Hendrix even...
After we went home that night we had been changed. There's nothing more powerful
an artist can do to an audience than what The Softs did to three little
Washingtonian kids that evening. We were 16, 15 and 14 at the time. And I'll
tell you I'm 56 now and I get just as excited thinking about that concert as I
was when it happened! That was really the moment Glass was born. The Soft
Machine set list - we were to find out later after we bought the first album -
was basically the entire first album with much extended jamming on "We did it
Again", "Priscilla", "So Boot if at All" and of course "Lullaby Letter"... I had
my 35 mm camera with me and shot a roll of film that included pictures of The
Soft Machine. I had no flash and was sitting pretty high up on the side but I
did manage to get one semi decent picture of The Soft Machine. I'll email it to
anyone that's interested. Contact me offline at relentls@.... This
picture was used with permission by Cuneiform as the traycard picture for their
Soft Machine "Middle Earth Masters" CD. So far it seems to be the only picture
anyone can dig-up of The Soft Machine playing onstage on that tour. There must
be some others somewhere lying in some old forgotten photo album or at the
bottom of a cardboard box in storage somewhere. Wish they'd be found...

Jeff

[Thanks Jeff, great story ! - A.]

The Softs played an uninterrupted 30-minute set in Atlanta with the Hendrix
tour, but it was many months until I found a copy of the first album, and I'm
not sure which songs were in that mix - my memory is that there was an extended
"organ of doom" section a little like some of the material on Man in a Deaf
Corner, and a repeated phrase by Robert that sounded like "in my chateau" (but
it could've been the bad acoustics / bad seats.

BTW, Eire Apparent is often listed as playing with them in Atlanta, but they
didn't - just Amboy Dukes (first set only), Vanilla Fudge, and Hendrix.

["Let's go to my chateau" is the chorus of "Clarence In Wonderland", a song that
was in the Softs' repertoire then, and eventually got recorded by Kevin Ayers
solo. A version by Soft Machine is now available on the first volume of Hux's
collected Softs BBC sessions - A.]

Everyone:

Thanks Aymeric. In re-reading this I simply must add that I was remiss in not
mentioning how great Kevin was too. His playing was innovative, aggressive and
his use of the wah-wah pedal on "Joy of a Toy" blew my mind! I had never heard
anything like that done with a bass guitar before and it added to the effect of
Soft Machine being something so totally new and unlike anything else around.
There really are no words, no vocabulary or colors to describe the actual music
that affected us so strongly. They were that unique. So apologies to all Kevin
Ayers fans out there for omitting him the first time around. You know, come to
think of it, it was Kevin's low resonating voice that was actually the first
Soft Machine  vocal we heard. His recitation on "Why Are We Sleeping" - WOW...
What can you say? Poetry in front of Marshall stacks!!  I'm glad I got to meet
him at the Progman Cometh concert. He's really a great guy...

Jeff

Thought this might interest some of you (at the very least)...

This video :
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn8UeBN54rM>
...uses Elton's last recording as its soundtrack.

Courtesy of Mark Hewins who had the following to say...
"Piano Improvisation [...] recorded 5 days before [Elton] passed away on 7th Feb
2006. Elton's music has been included here because for many years he travelled;
(by boat, train, tunnel and plane) between London and Paris. Probably one of the
most frequent Musical passengers 'cross channel' - the name of this piece of
music...

Recording and sonic re-mix by Mark Hewins.
NB: Included on the complete two day recording session was the last duo by the
Dean/Hewins partnership: Elton's last recording".

Thanks to Craig Shropshire & Steve F. for the link & story...

A.

Just got this from our friend Charles van Waalwijk...

"This is to let you know ..
If some of you want to go to the Gong show in London next 14 th of june at the
QE Hall I have two tickets I will not need...

Something went wrong with the basket on the internet and I bought four and I
only need two"

Contact Charles at: <sil.gang@...>... First come first served!!

One more instrumental facet of the huge Elton Dean…

Thanks

Laurent from France

Very cool song! Thanks so much for sharing. Any idea as to where/if it has been
commercially released?

Peace,
Austin

[It hasn't - A.]

Hi all,

First, a reminder that In Cahoots are playing tonight at the Vortex Jazz Club,
<http://www.vortexjazz.co.uk/june-programme.html>.

Gong -- with Hillage and Giraudy! -- are playing at the South Bank Centre on
Saturday and at the Kentish Town Forum on Sunday. The Saturday show is sold out,
but I've just managed to get a returned ticket and I know there's another
available if you ring up soon. I understand the Sunday show still has tickets
available.

On Sunday, I'm going to see the Steve Howe Trio at Ronnie Scott's: that's Yes's
Steve Howe on guitar with his son, an accomplished player in his own right,
Dylan Howe on drums and Ross Stanley on Hammond organ. Much recommended. (And if
you don't want to see Gong or Steve Howe, then David Gilmour and Ron Geesin and
performing Pink Floyd's _Atom Heart Mother_ at the Cadogan Hall on the same
evening!)

Whatsrattlin readers may also be interested that Bill Bruford's Earthworks are
back after an 18 month hiatus with a short residency at Ronnie Scott's 28-30
July. I also recommend new jazz band Portico Quartet at the Jazz Cafe on 12
June.

Henry

[Thanks Henry ! I'll be at the Gong Forum show on Sunday myself. John Etheridge
is playing the Proms with John Williams on Monday, but John told me that's sold
out... btw Henry, whatever happened to your Yes FAQ pages ? - A.]

>First, a reminder that In Cahoots are playing tonight
>at the Vortex Jazz Club.

And very good they were too. A reasonably full and appreciative house as well
which makes a big, big difference. Thought the new trombonist (Gail Brand) with
Simon Picard on sax added a nice degree of raunchyness to the music.

>Whatsrattlin readers may also be interested that Bill
>Bruford's Earthworks are back after an 18 month hiatus with
>a short residency at Ronnie Scott's 28-30 July.

Hey - excellent. I have really enjoyed all their gigs.

A masterpiece before, it's even more so now that it's been remixed, remastered
expanded with a 28-minute live track from the Heresie incarnation, as well as
the participation of our own Aymeric Leroy in the liners, 1313 is now back out
under its original title, Univers Zero, and it's never sounded better. Review
here:

<http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=29715>

Best!
John

Great show by Gong last night. Some random thoughts... It was fantastic to see
Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy performing with the band, and looking very
much as if they were enjoying being there as much as the audience were enjoying
seeing them there. The set was mostly nostalgic, classic era tunes. The biggest
surprise for me was "Light in the Sky" with Steve on lead vocals and Miquette
and Gilli Smyth on backing vocals (and Daevid Allen dancing around in a brief,
red cocktail dress...).

Daevid, despite being 70 now, remains a fantastic performer, but in terms of
performance I felt it was the rhythm section of Mike Howlett and Chris Taylor
who particularly excelled. I'd hoped for a few more opportunities for guitar
gymnastics from Steve, but we got a couple of great solos. Good back-up singing
and effects from Miquette. Gilli still sings great in her distinctive style, but
at 75(?) looks rather frail up on stage! As a Yes fan, with the Yes tour
recently cancelled because of 63-year old Jon Anderson's health problems, it's
heartening to see his elders still performing! Speaking of Yes, Chris Squire +
wife were in the audience. I also saw Paul Morley (Art of Noise, ZTT) getting
the tube home, although I don't know whether he'd been to see Gong or Massive
Attack.

This was the opening night of the annual Meltdown Festival at the South Bank
Centre, hosted this year by Massive Attack, who were in the larger Royal
Festival Hall with Gong in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. While it was great for Gong
to get such a high-profile show, I felt this was the wrong sort of venue for the
gig. I was very distracted by people constantly coming and going throughout the
show -- either getting beer or getting rid of beer, so to speak -- which would
have been less of an issue in a standing venue. The Queen Elizabeth Hall is also
not best suited to dancing, and there were plenty of people wanting to dance!

The opening act was a surprise, guitarist Graham Coxon, formerly of Blur,
playing a solo set with electric guitar and live loops. Great light show,
terrible performance! Drony, feedback-drenched, guitar loops evoked a cross
between Frippertronics and Radiohead, but without the artistry of either. Quite
a few of the audience walked out!

Gong are playing tonight at the Kentish Town Forum. I couldn't make out the
announcement, but I think Daevid said he + Gilli + someone are also doing a
London gig on Wednesday -- anyone know more?

Henry

Courtesy of Charles Van Waalwijk and his charming wife, my partner and I
attended Massive Attack's Meltdown on Saturday Night (thank you Charles).

Well first up was Graham Coxon described as experimental guitarist, I have heard
of GC I think he comes from the Daevid Allen branch of related Gong-ing? excuse
my lack of knowledge of this side of the Canterbury scene.

We went in to listen to GC and to me it was predictable in its form, accompanied
by a spectacular back scene of 'psychedelic' projections. GC played multi
layered guitar with I presume the use of digital delay/echo/repeat device, brave
stuff to stand there alone and go for it but it wasn't essentially to my taste
so I retreated to the bar after 3 'numbers'.

In the usual style at QEH we were told to be back in the auditorium promptly for
Gong, the bar was packed, I was excited hoping that they  would play 'the hits'
especially with Hillage and Giraudy in the line up and Gilli Smyth. I was hoping
for songs like those on the Gong Live album I bought back in 1977 and I wasn't
disappointed. The band were onstage and there was genuine excitement and a great
relaxed and happy atmosphere. The monk like and hooded/robed Mike Howlett was
superb on electric bass playing complex and simple bass lines to thunderous
effect.

It was brilliant! 'You Can't Kill me' 'Oily Way' 'Dynamite/I am your  Animal'
'Isle of Everywhere' 'Ooby Scooby' 'Flying Teapot'. Daevid  Allen was brilliant
as ever on vocals and Gliss Guitar on his white  brick! Hilarious costumes, his
appearance in 'god knows what' in the  middle of; "me oh my there's light in the
sky" was hilarious!  everyone was cracking up inc' the band. I loved the
Elvis/Gnome  hybrid and the 'master of ceremonies' white suit/top hat.

Chris Taylor (leftie drummer) was brilliant too, to be able hold down the dense
ryhthms and hit the accents and mastering the starts and  stops, some of which
were prodigeous was fantastic. I think he's great. The tunes were delivered with
power and panache throughout by the group and was stunning in places.

Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy I'd only seen on VHS so that was a treat and
as expected they were excellent throughout, top quaity  guitar solos, synth
colourings, and effects and great ensemble  playing. Toward the end people
started dancing! and although the QEH  security men tried to stop them, the
stage announcer, I think, rushed forward to smooth things out and the gyrating
went on. Great fun.

Overall my best gig this year it'd be great if they play again in the future, I
will be there. I had to miss the encore/s? due to the journey home, so if anyone
has the full set list I'd be glad to see it.

Thanks for the review Stephen. Sounds like a great evening! Graham  Coxon is
probably best known for his time as the guitarist with the  extremely successful
rock/pop band Blur. Since leaving them he has made  several solo albums. I don't
think he has too many Canterbury  connections. He is a fan of Syd Barrett and, a
year or two ago,  appeared on a TV program about Syd and sang a couple of Syd's
songs.

Stuart

"Stuart Mott" <stuart.mott@...> wrote:

> Thanks for the review...

Ta Stuart, it was great, but whoops about Graham Coxon! I thought I recognised
the name and assumed him a Kangaroo or Acid variety guy, and of course he's the
Blurite' guitar man. So much for pop music!

Steve

Saw Gong at the Forum on Sunday. A combination of other commitments and the fact
that I didn't particularly want to see Gong sitting down (!) meant that this was
the one I chose to attend rather than the South Bank.

Have to say that I thought that the sound was shocking and rather spoilt the gig
for me (unusually for someone as who lives in a bit of lofi world). No
reflection on the band, more a frustration that on my first time seeing Steve
Hillage (and Miquette Giraudy) do their stuff outside System 7 I couldn't really
hear what they were doing.

Likewise Gilli, even Theo - I wouldn't even have been able to make out Daevid's
words a lot of the time without significant prior knowledge! I've been trying to
work it out since - was it just my hearing, or the spot I was in, or the amount
I'd had to drink? Don't wish to go on about it, and I will be the first to get
tickets for the rumoured 40 year anniversary tour, particularly since it was
quite obvious that Steve Hillage was up for it AND still 'had it', but was this
anyone else's experience?

Whilst I'm here (with Aymeric's permission) can I just say that it's last chance
saloon to get hold of some Facelift mags before they make their way to the
recycling banks in a couple of weeks before a load of renovation work - seems a
shame but I need the space. I've got whole boxes of some issues, less so of
others. Full details on <http://www.faceliftmagazine.co.uk> - there are prices
up there, but to be honest make me any reasonable offer, even just to cover
postage and packing and I'll try and oblige.

Phil

I have an extra full weekend pass to the Nearfest Prog weekend of Jun 20-21-22
in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA. It is a front row center seat. (I bought 3 and
am only using 2). Respond directly to me at jayplumb@... and not the group.
Face value, no scalping, approx 100 US dollars.  Here is a link to the event:
<http://www.nearfest.com>

JAY

I seem to remember reading that Damon Albarn's parents had set up an early tour
of France by Soft Machine, so there's a very tenuous Canterbury connection!.
(Albarn was the singer in Blur)

Alan

[Actually, Keith Albarn designed the "Discotheque Interplay" where the band
briefly performed in the Summer of '67, in association with Ian Knight who later
briefly co-managed Soft Machine with Sean Murphy - A.]

I just found all these messages in my spam filter!

Great post, Jeff - thanks so much!

- Nick

Nick:

Thanks! I've had several requests from people who I sent the Soft Machine live
on Sept 6th, 1968 photo to for more details about what the concert was like.
I'll try and dig through the  memory vault in my mind and flesh out the story
even more. One thought that did occur to me as I listened to this CD I just
bought called "The Soft Machine Turns On Vol 2" which is purported to have the
only known recording of Soft Machine on tour during this time was that the Softs
were much tighter as a unit when I saw them in September, 1968. There was much
less of the extemporaneous improvisations in between the individual songs and
the band stayed true to the set that would eventually be recorded by ABC Probe
in New York at the end of this tour and released as their debut album "The Soft
Machine Vol 1". As an example I'll cite the fact that on "The Soft Machine Turns
on Vol 2" CD recording of "Joy of A Toy" Kevin "noodles around" (a Hugh Hopper
term) a bit before he gets to any kind of melody. When I saw them in Seattle
Kevin was using his Rickenbacker through a wah-wah pedal as he did on "Vol 1"
and went right to the beautiful melody of "Joy For a Toy" that he'd obviously
worked up on tour night after night. Stuff like that. Mike still did lots of
VERY LOUD blindingly-fast soloing in all the places he does on Vol 1 however, I
do NOT recall Mike doing "Organistics". Basically their hour-long set was more
succinct and I think it made them that more impressive to us. I remember we were
also very impressed by the fact they came on and played one long set and then
disappeared (this influences Glass to this day in that we prefer one or two long
sets for our concerts). The Soft Machine seemed so totally together and
seasoned. Their professionalism affected us even more so I think because we had
never even HEARD of them here in the Pacific NW. I'll dig up some more details
like this as they come to me and post them here as long as fellow Rattlers are
interested.

Jeff

p.s. As a last note I'll add that I was so impressed with Kevin's bass solo on
"Joy..." that one of the first things I did after Glass started working on
learning the entire "The Soft Machine Vol" 1 was buy a Vox wah-wah pedal to
faithfully imitate him. I do remember we had to wait FOREVER for that first
album here in the States though... Also just remembered that Robert did a
fantastic solo too... This was before he had been given the beautiful blond set
we all are familiar with from Mitch Mitchell. He had this funny mismatched
double bass drum set with one of the smallest bass drums - like an 18 or a 20
inch maybe - next to a typical 24 inch. I remember how unique and cool I thought
that was...

[Thanks Jeff. Just one comment - the album had already been recorded (after the
*first* leg of the US tour, in April 1968) when you saw them - A.]

Aymeric:

Ahh... Thanks for the correction. I wasn't really sure on that timing. All I
remember is we waited and awful long time it seemed after we'd seen them before
we were able to purchase "Vol" 1 in little Pt Townsend, Washington!

- Jeff

[Well, it *did* take a long time to get released (December 1968) which I think
partly accounted for the band's decision to break up, since there was very
little apparent support or interest from their label (or management) - A.]