PSYCHE VAN HET FOLK Radio Centraal, Antwerpen, Belgium Wednesday June the 2nd 2004 from 09.00 am to 12.00 pm CONCEPT : The Early Soft Machine / THE CUNEIFORM RELEASES Guest radioshow by Bart Van Peer. PSYCHE VAN HET FOLK Radio Centraal, Antwerpen, Belgium Wednesday June the 2nd 2004 from 09.00 am to 12.00 pm CONCEPT : The Early Soft Machine / THE CUNEIFORM RELEASES Guest radioshow by Bart Van Peer. Soft Machine was formed in august 1966, although gigs (under the name of Mister Head) were played as early as May. It split up in December 1968, re-formed in February 1969 and carried on until late 1970’s through many line-up changed leaving no original member onboard. It reformed briefly in 1980 and 1984. Daevid Allen and Robert Wyatt first became acquainted in 1961 when Allen, who had just arrived in England from Australia, rented a room at Wyatt’s in Lydden. The two discovered a mutual interest in jazz, which resulted in a few gigs as the Daevid Allen trio (with Hugh Hopper on bass and Mike Ratledge occasionally guesting on piano) in London, in 1963. Around the same time, Wyatt formed the Wilde Flowers with the Hopper brothers, Hugh and Brian. The original line-up included Kevin Ayers on vocals, who left in july 1965. Other members of this group formed Caravan and Hatfield & The North. The impetus behind the formation of Soft Machine in 1966 was provided by the meeting of Allen and Ayers with Texan millionaire Wes Brunson in Deya, Majorca. Brumson agreed to put up the money for their new band, which allowed them to buy equipment and rent a rehearsal room near Canterbury. The name Soft Machine came second hand through a book by William Burroughs called “The Soft Machine” and he in turn had taken it from a lecture by physiologist in America. Soft Machine was a generic term for the whole humanity. In april 1967, The Soft Machine spent three days in De Lane Lee Studios, in London, England for a recording session with Giorgio Gomelsky producing. These recordings demo recordings can be found on next release : * Abraxas Soft Machine : Jet Propelled Photographs, track A4 “Jet Propelled Photographs (aka Shooting At The Moon)” 3 min. After a French tour Daevid Allen was refused to re-entry into England because he had been working illegally in England without a work permit. Allen stayed in France and formed Gong. Today he is still musically active (most known now for his University of errors” group). Soft Machine were forced to become a trio. (Kevin Ayers, Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt) The 5th of december 1967 they made some recordings for the Top Gear Show on BBC, which were broadcasted on December the 17th. Brian Hopper wrote “Hope For Happiness” as as an expression of the interest he had in Eastern cultures and philosophy from an early age and which also interests a lot of other people with side references to mysticism, the occult, other-worldliness, astrology etc. etc. Bound up with this was a growing feeling he had in the early sixties for Indian classical music and Indonesian gamelan music. Thus were born the “raga-sagas” of which “Hope For Happiness” was but one part. * BBC Soft Machine : Peel Sessions, disk 1 track 4 “Hope For Happiness”, 5 min. When the first official album was released and after touring with Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix, Kevin Ayers left the group to start a solo career. He became replaced by Hugh Hopper. * Virgin Soft Machine Live In Paradiso, March 29th 1969 , B-side, 1“Fire Engine Passing With Bells Clanging”, 2 “Pig”, 3 “Orange Skin Food”, 4 “A Door Opens And Closes”, 5 “10;30 Returns To The Bedroom” 20 min. (all those tracks come from “Volume Two”) Spaced is previously unreleased and forgotten studio recordings made in early/mid 1969. This recordings were an important influence for “Third”; the double album from 1970. * Cuneiform Soft Machine, Spaced : track 4 “Spaced Four” (fragm. Last 20 min. from 32 min.) 20 min. BBC recordings Soft Machine : track 6 «Facelift/Mousttrap/Noisette /Backwards/Mousetrap Reprise» 12 min. (broadcasted 15-06-1969) * Cuneiform Soft Machine, Noisette : track 5  “Hilbou, Anemone and Bear”, 8 “12/8 Theme”, 9 “Esther’s Nose Job” 34 min. (recorded live on the 4th of January 1970 at Fairfield Hall, Croydon, England) * Cuneiform Soft Machine : Backwards, track 2 “Moon In June” 8 min. This cd contains a demo-version of “Moon in June” which takes 20 minutes. * Cuneiform Soft Machine : Virtually, track 1 “Facelift”, 2 “Virtually” 19 min. Hugh Hopper left in 1973. * CBS Hugh Hopper : 1984, A2 “Minpax pt. 1”, A3 “Minpax pt 2” 7 min. * ??? Hugh Hopper & Julian Whitfield : track 7 “Lost At Sea” 4 min. In September 1971 Robert Wyatt left Soft Machine and immediately formed Matching Mole. After a fell-down out of a window he had to live in a wheelchair. He has a fantastic solo career and Rock Bottom, produced by Pink Floyd's drummer Mick Mason, is his best and most known masterpiece. Review : http://progressive.homestead.com/progreview.html * Cuneiform Robert Wyatt : Solar Flames Burn For You, track 6, “Solar Flames Burn For You” 7 min Review : http://singersong.homestead.com/Singer.html Hearing all these releases from Cuneiform I can only recognise how fantastic Soft Machine really were! A must! Also very good is a triple box published in 1977, called 1977, “Triple Echo”, with outtakes which never made it onto LP. The “Moon in June” track for instance, is much better on this album. Recommended! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other playlists : http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/2003.html General index page : www.radiocentraal.be/psychevanhetfolk More detailed index page : http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/index.html Receive weekly this playlist before the radioshow with new reviews and additional comments : / ontvang wekelijks playlist vòòr de radio-uitzending : Subscribe / schrijf u in : psychevanhetfolk-subscribe@yahoogroups.com