In the beginning (1964-1967) there was The Wilde Flowers. The Wilde Flowers begat Caravan and Soft Machine. Thus The Canterbury Scene was born and for a time in the late 60’s and through the 70’s it was good. There was much cross breeding in The Canterbury Scene and many musicians played musical chairs between the various different lineups. Most likely this accounts for the common thread of musical sensibilities between the assortment of bands.
Canterbury is a cathedral city filled with (at times) ringing bells and church organ music. Canterbury bands used the organ as a lead instrument - filtered through a Wah-wah pedal and fuzz distortion ala Jimi Hendrix. The music was also heavily influenced by the improvisational quality of Free Jazz.
There is another aspect of Canterbury Scene music that sets it apart from other forms of Progressive Rock. It has a nonsensical quality. A whimsical literary quality. A silly humorous aspect that feels refreshing and liberating and reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously.
It comes from…
Lewis Carroll. It comes from…
Edward Lear. It comes from…
Spike Milligan. It also comes from…
Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe
The Goon Show and Spike Jones and the City Slickers and early Monty Python.
A good place to start...
If Robert Wyatt is the Canterbury Scene’s prodigal son, then Daevid Allen was the court jester.
Daevid Allen or “Divided Alien” co-founded Soft Machine in 1966 and Gong in 1967.
In 1960, Daevid Allen left his birthplace of Melbourne, Australia to live in The Beat Hotel in Paris.
He moved into the room that had been recently occupied by Peter Orlovsky (left) and Allen Ginsberg (right).
To make a living, Daevid Allen sold the “International Herald Tribune” around the Latin Quarter of Paris. The same year that saw the release of Jean-Luc Godard’s groundbreaking French New Wave film - Breathless.
Whilst making his rounds, he came into contact with experimental musician Terry Riley who helped immerse him in the Paris jazz club scene.
Sun Ra
They performed music for a theater version of The Ticket That Exploded.
In 1966, Daevid Allen and Robert Wyatt joined Kevin Ayers and Mike Ratledge to form Soft Machine.
After a tour of Europe, Daevid Allen was refused re-entry into the UK because his visa had expired. He went to Paris instead and participated in the 1968 Paris Protests.
For him, “participating” meant handing out teddy bears and reciting French poetry.
Robert Graves
After Paris, Allen turned up in Deya, Majorca where he met poet Robert Graves and recorded his 1969 album Majick Brother with Didier Malherbe - a flautist he had met in a cave on Graves’ estate.
In 1970, Daevid Allen hooked up with his old mate Robert Wyatt and recorded the album Banana Moon.
In 1971, Gong released Camembert Electrique and then between 1972 and 1974 Gong completed their Flying Teapot Trilogy (aka The Radio Gnome Trilogy) which consisted of Flying Teapot, Angel’s Egg and You. The trilogy was influenced by Bertrand Russel’s “Russel’s Teapot” theory.
At the time of the trilogy, Gong was signed with Richard Branson’s burgeoning Virgin Records which was riding high off the phenomenal success of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells.
In May 1977, Gong performed a one off show in Paris which featured Sting, Stewart Copeland and former Soft Machine guitarist (and Robert Fripp collaborator) Andy Summers performing as part of Mike Howlett’s band Strontium 90.
Sting, Stewart Copeland, Henry Padovani (1977)
A double live album featuring a portion of the concert was released in 1977 entitled Gong est Mort, Vive Gong.
Robert Wyatt played on four Soft Machine albums called (wait for it) First, Second, Third and Fourth. All of these albums are highly influential and critically acclaimed (especially the first three) but Third is generally considered to be a masterpiece.
The album followed quickly on the heels of the landmark Miles Davis album Bitches Brew.
Third features four free form jazz compositions - the shortest clocking in at 18 minutes 12 seconds. The trio of Mike Ratledge (organist) Robert Wyatt (drums and vocals) and Hugh Hopper (bass) was accentuated by the addition of Elton Dean (saxophone) Lyn Dobson (saxophone and flute on Facelift) Jimmy Hastings (flute and clarinet on Slightly All The Time) Rab Spall (free jazz violin on the coda to Moon In June) and Nick Evans (trombone on Slightly All The Time and Out-Bloody-Rageous).
What can I say about the Third album that has not already been said. It is an essential album of The Canterbury Scene.
It is an essential album period.
In 1970 Robert Wyatt released his first solo album The End Of An Ear. He left Soft Machine a year later, after the recording of the Fourth album.
In October of 1971, Wyatt formed Matching Mole which is a pun on Machine Molle - a french phrase meaning “Soft Machine”.
They released two albums - Matching Mole in April of 1972 and Matching Mole’s Little Red Record in November of 1972.
The album’s aesthetic is a reflection of Wyatt’s increased political radicalism - possibly influenced by his fellow bandmate Phil Miller (guitar) who had lived in Cuba during the revolution.
The album’s title refers to Chairman Mao’s “Little Red Book” published in 1964.
The cover art is reminiscent of propaganda posters produced during China’s Cultural Revolution.
It was produced by Robert Fripp and featured Brian Eno playing synthesizer on the track Gloria Gloom.
On June 1, 1973, an inebriated Robert Wyatt fell from a four story apartment which resulted in him being paralyzed from the waist down and confining him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Two of his former bandmates, Dave Sinclair and Phil Miller, went on to form Hatfield and the North. They recorded two albums - the eponymous Hatfield and the North in 1974 and The Rotter’s Club in 1975.
The 2001 novel The Rotter’s Club by Jonathan Coe took it's name from the album. The novel holds the record for the longest sentence in English literature at 13,955 words.
This feat was inspired by a Czech novelist named Bohumil Hrabal who wrote a book using one sentence called...
Dave Stewart from Egg played keyboards.
Before you ask - No, not the Dave Stewart from Eurythmics.
Egg’s two most notable albums - 1971’s The Polite Force and 1974’s The Civil Surface are both examples of the use of puns for titles.
The 1977 concept album Kew. Rhone. featured lyrics by Peter Blegvad who made great use of anagrams, palindromes and other verbal games. Blegvad lived in New York City in 1975 where he was a background animator for Peanuts films.
Mont Campbell, who doubled on bass guitar and vocals for Egg was also a member of National Health. The 1977 concept album Kew. Rhone. featured lyrics by Peter Blegvad who made great use of anagrams, palindromes and other verbal games. Blegvad lived in New York City in 1975 where he was a background animator for Peanuts films.
He later contributed music to the Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire soundtrack.
Another key part of the Canterbury Scene is the influence of the psychedelic counterculture i.e. psychotropic drugs, eastern religions and music - for example the droning elements of Indian ragas.
So…. let’s make a Canterbury Cake, shall we? Here is a list of the ingredients.
1. Church organ sound used as a lead instrument and accentuated by fuzz distortion and Wah-wah.
2. The improvisational quality of Free Jazz as embodied by the way out there musicians like Sun Ra.
3. A healthy dose of British humour - Spike Milligan, The Goon Show, Monty Python and Spike Jones.
4. A nod to the whimsical literary tradition of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll.
5. The expert musicianship of Progressive Rock.
6. A healthy dose of psychedelia.
Mix it all up and bake for an hour at 360 degrees and I think you might have it.
The Essential Albums
Caravan - In The Land Of Grey and Pink
Daevid Allen - Now Is The Happiest Time Of Your Life
Egg - The Polite Force
Gong - The Radio Gnome Trilogy
Hatfield and the North - The Rotter's Club
Matching Mole's Little Red Record
National Health
Soft Machine - Third
Kevin Ayers - Joy Of A Toy
Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom
The cover of Kew. Rhone. is an 1806 painting by Charles Wilson Peale called Exhuming The First American Mastodon.
Peter Blegvad was also a member of Slapp Happy along with Dagmar Krause and Anthony Moore. In 1974, the band moved to England where they briefly merged with Henry Cow.
I’ll close with Gong performing “I Never Glid Before”.
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