More thoughts on Kevin

This appeared on the Planet Gong website:

Kevin Ayers died on the 18th February at his home in Montolieu, France. He was 68. He was a dear friend of Daevid and Gilli, well, forever. His life both musical and personal intertwined closely with theirs particularly in the 60's and 70's. They lived together, made music together, had adventures and just experienced it all together in those days. Despite some of the many obituaries denying the fact, Kevin was to all intents and purposes a member of Gong in 1971 when the band first toured the UK. He also played an instrumental role in Steve Hillage appearing in Gong's Universe in 1972 while Steve was touring France as a member of Kevin's band. Daevid told me on hearing the news of Kevin's passing he and Gilli thought, 'If the situation was reversed what would Kevin do?' Easy, a bottle of the best red wine affordable was purchased, Kevin's music went on heavy rotation and stories of the good times, full of good thoughts were shared with close friends and family in Australia. When all is said and done they simply loved him.'

And here is what appears on the official Caravan website:

It was with great sadness to hear that Kevin Ayers, a legend of the Canterbury scene has passed away aged 68. Kevin was a founder member of Soft Machine and played on their first two albums. He had a varied and prolific solo career producing memorable LPs such as 'Joy Of A Toy' and 'Shooting At The Moon'. His backing band included Mike Oldfield and Andy Summers. Kevin was very well known and a friend of Caravan during their early years and he will be greatly missed.

One commentator has pointed out that Kevin's contribution to two Soft Machine albums is an error unless Jet Propelled Photographs is considered an official Soft Machine release. Also "No mention on the Caravan site that it was Kevin who taught Pye Hastings his first guitar chords. Where But For Kevin...".

Stuart Maconie had a lovely chat over the phone with Robert Wyatt about Kevin as part of his BBC Radio 6 "Freak Zone" programme (click on image to stream):