Canterbury Soundwaves

Episode 16

2012-01-11T03:46:00.001-08:00

Listen Here

1. Soft Machine — "Pataphysical Introduction Pt. 1" → "A Concise British Alphabet Pt. 1" → "Hibou, Anemone and Bear" (from Volume 2, 1969)

2. Robert Wyatt (feat. Jimi Hendrix on bass) — "Slow Walkin' Talk" (recorded October 1968, Hollywood, CA, released on Flotsam Jetsam compilation, 1994)

3. Robert Wyatt — memories of Jimi Hendrix (Q&A session, Purcell Room, London, 2007-10-15)

4. Caravan — "Nothing At all" (from Waterloo Lily, 1972)

5. Hatfield and the North — "Lything and Gracing" (live at Bowery Poetry Club, NYC, 2006-06-25)

6. National Health — "The Collapso" (live on BBC TV's The Old Grey Whistle Test, 1979-01-09)

7. John Greaves (feat. Robert Wyatt) — "Kew. Rhone." (from Songs, 1995)

8. Henry Cow — "Udine" (from Concerts, 1976)

9. John Greaves, Peter Blegvad and Lisa Russell — "Kew.Rhone." (from Kew. Rhone., 1977)

10. Annie Whitehead (feat. Robert Wyatt) — "Before We Knew" (from The Gathering, 2004)

11. The Happy End (feat. Robert Wyatt) — "Turn Things Upside Down" (from Turn Things Upside Down, 1990)

12. The Jimi Hendrix Experience (with Robert Wyatt on backing vocals) — "Day Tripper" (live at The Playhouse Theatre, London 1967-12-15)

13. Kevin Ayers and the Soporifics — "Interview" (live in Hyde Park, London, 1974-06-29)

14. Kevin Ayers interview excerpt (memories of Hendrix, date and origins unknown)

15. Jimi Hendrix, Robert Wyatt, Andy Summers and Zoot Money — studio jam (Hollywood, CA, October 1968)

16. Soft Machine — "Lullabye Letter" → "Priscilla" → "We Did It Again" → "Why Are We Sleeping?" → "Joy Of A Toy" → "Hope For Happiness" → "Clarence In Wonderland" → "You Don't Remember" → improvisation → "10.30 Returns To The Bedroom" (live at Coliseum Ballroom, Davenport, Iowa, 1968-08-11)

17. Hugh Hopper interview excerpt (memories of Hendrix, date and origins unknown)

18. Soft Machine — "Have You Ever Bean Green?" [excerpt] (from Volume 2, 1969)

19. Led Bib — unknown piece [partial] (live at The Front Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 2008-04-08)

20. Jimi Hendrix, Robert Wyatt, Andy Summers and Zoot Money — studio jam (Hollywood, CA, October 1968)

21. Steve Hillage — Last FM interview excerpt (memories of Hendrix, 2008-06-14)

22. Gong — "Crystal Gnome" → "Dynamite" → "Gnomophone" (from Live in Sheffield, recorded 1973-10-08, released 1990)

23. The Boot Lagoon — "An Odd Owl" (from The Boot Lagoon EP, 2012)

24. Soft Machine — "A Concise British Alphabet Pt. 2" → "Hulloder" (from Volume 2, 1969)

[voiceover ambience: Daevid Allen and Mark Hewins — improvised guitar duet (part of a live Gong set, Mexico City, 1999-06-07)]

Errata and clarifications: Zoot Money was definitely part of Dantalian's Chariot (in fact it was his band, renamed from the earlier Big Roll Band). Udine is in northeastern Italy and you pronounce it "oodeenay" (audio here!) — the Henry Cow piece was recorded at its Palamostre Auditorium on 1975-10-13. "Rabbit"'s given name was "John Bundrick". The most likely drummer in Kevin Ayers band for that Hyde Park gig is Eddie Sparrow. The Boot Lagoon track was originally called "Woodland" (the title I give in the programme), but the band decided to rename it to the anagram "An Odd Owl". The EP comes out on Febuary 23rd and can be pre-ordered here.

look out for Robert Wyatt in his "yellow suit that's made by Pam"!

Episode 15

2012-01-08T02:58:00.000-08:00

Listen Here

1. Gong — "You Can't Kill Me" (live somewhere in England in 1974, apparently)

2. Caravan — "Love Song With Flute" (from Caravan, 1968)

3. Robert Wyatt (and Hugh Hopper) — "Blimey O'Riley" (from Solar Flares Burn For You, 2002)

4. National Health — "Borogroves (Excerpt from Part 2)" (from National Health, 1978)

5. Orchestre National de Jazz (feat. Rokia Traore) — "Alifib" (from Around Robert Wyatt, 2009)

6. Egg — "Symphony No. 2" (First Movement/Second Movement/Blane/Third Movement/Fourth Movement) — (from Egg, 1970)

7. Kevin Ayers — "Blue" (from Yes We Have No Manañas (So Get Your Mañanas Today), 1976)

8. Hatfield and the North — "(Big) John Wayne Socks Psychology on the Jaw" → "Chaos at the Greasy Spoon" → "The Yes/No Interlude" (from The Rotters Club, 1975)

9. National Health — "Black Hat" (from D.S. Al Coda, 1982)

10. Manogurgeil — "Sydämesi Suljettu Yrttitarha" (live at Lepakkomies, Helsinki, 2008-06-12)

11. Caravan — "Memory Lain, Hugh" (from For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night, 1973)

12. Geoffrey Richardson interview excerpt (BBC Kent, 2009)

13. Soft Machine — "So Boot If at All" (from The Soft Machine, 1968)

14. Lapis Lazuli — "Terminal Endearment" (rehearsal jam excerpt, late 2011)

15. Arlet — "Edinburgh Fringe" (live at St. Mary's Church, Sandwich, Kent, 2011-12-03)

16. Caravan — "With an Ear to the Ground You Can Make It/Martinian/Cox/Reprise" (from If I Could Do It All Over Again..., 1970)

17. Kevin Ayers and the Whole World — "Why Are We Sleeping?" (live in Hyde Park, London, 1970-08-17)

18. Caravan — "Dabsong Conshirtoe" [excerpt] (from Cunning Stunts, 1975)

19. Henry Cow — "Ruins" (from Unrest, 1974)

20. Caravan — "Bobbing Wide" (from Blind Dog at St. Dunstans, 1976)

21. J. Dilla — "Flyyy" [excerpt] (The Official Jay Dee Instrumental Series Vol. 1, 2003)

22. Jamal — "Fades 'Em All (Pete Rock Remix)" [excerpt] (from Last Chance, No Breaks, 1995)

23. Radiohead — "Life in a Glass House" (from Amnesiac, 2001)

24. Soft Machine — "Virtually Part 1" (from Fourth, 1971)

25. Caravan — "Limits" (from If I Could Do It All Over Again..., 1970)

[voiceover ambience: Steve Hillage — "Swimming with the Salmon" from Fish Rising, 1975]

Errata/clarifications: Jimmy Hastings definitely played bass clarinet on "Virtually Part 1"

Episode 14

2011-12-08T09:51:00.000-08:00

Listen Here

1. Kevin Ayers — "Oh! Wot a Dream" (from Bananamour, 1973)

2. Syd Barrett (with Soft Machine) — "Love You" (from The Madcap Laughs, 1970)

3. The Pink Floyd Sound — "Lucy Leave" (unreleased demo, 1965)

4. Mr. Head (Soft Machine) — "Contusions" (unreleased demo, summer 1966)

5. Soft Machine — jam excerpt (live at The Speakeasy, London, spring 1967)

6. Matching Mole — intro → "Marchides I" → "Smoke Rings" (from March, live 1972)

7. Pascal Comelade — "O Caroline, parts I & II" (from El Primitivismo, 1987)

8. Soft Machine — "Hope For Happiness" (live on the Guy Béart Show, French TV, recorded October 1967, broadcast 1968-08-25)

9. Pink Floyd — "Pow R Toc H" (live at the Golden Circle, Stockholm 1967-09-10)

10. Hugh Hopper — "Golden Section" (from Monster Band, 1985)

11. Arlet — "Para Lucia" (demo, 2011)

12. Kevin Ayers (feat. Daevid Allen) — "Lady Rachel" (live, unknown location and date)

13. Lol Coxhill and Didier Malherbe — jam (unknown location and date, from Haunted Camembert bootleg)

14. Robert Wyatt — "A Last Straw" (from Rock Bottom, 1974)

15. Gong — "Bambooji" (from Shamal, 1975)

16. Steve Hillage — "Leylines to Glassdom" (from Green, 1978)

17. Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports (feat. Robert Wyatt) — "Wervin'" (from Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports, 1981)

18. Caravan (with The New Symphonia) — "Introduction" (from Caravan & The New Symphonia, 1974)

19. Syd Arthur — "Black Wave" (B-side of "Ode to the Summer" single, 2011)

20. Syd Barrett (with Soft Machine) — "No Good Trying" (from The Madcap Laughs, 1970)

21. Soft Machine — "The Moon in June" [excerpt] (BBC radio session 1969-06-10)

22. Kevin Ayers (feat. Syd Barrett) — "Singing a Song in the Morning" (studio outtake, 1969)

23. Kevin Ayers interview excerpt (date and origin unknown)

24. Soft Machine — "The Moon in June" (Actuel Festival, Amiouges, Belgium, 1969-10-28)

25. Pink Floyd — "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (Actuel Festival, Amiouges, Belgium, 1969-10-25)

26. Caravan — "As I Feel I Die" (Actuel Festival, Amiouges, Belgium, 1969-10-26)

27. David Gilmour (feat. Robert Wyatt on cornet) — "Then I Close My Eyes" [excerpt] (live at the Royal Albert Hall, London, May 2006)

28. David Gilmour (feat. Robert Wyatt) — "Comfortably Numb" [excerpts] (live at Royal Festival Hall, London, 2001-06-22)

29. Slapp Happy — "Tutankhamun" (from Sort Of, 1972)

30. Gong — "Squeezing Sponges Over Policemen's Heads" → "Fohat Digs Holes in Space" (from Camembert Electrique, 1971)

31. Hatfield and the North — "It Didn't Matter Anyway" (live at Central TV studios, Nottingham, 1990-03-30)

32. David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Richard Wright, Kevin Ayers, Vashti Bunyan, Robyn Hitchcock et al. — "Bike" (Syd Barrett tribute concert, The Barbican, London 2007-05-10)

[voiceover ambience: Robert Wyatt — "For Carla, Marsha and Caroline" (from The End of An Ear, 1970]

Errata: I stated a couple of times that Syd Barrett's The Madcap Laughs was his second solo album, whereas it was actually his first. I also claimed that Wyatt's cornet playing with Gilmour's band was part of the 2001 Meltdown concert at the Royal Festival Hall, when in fact it was from a separate Gilmour concert in 2006 at the Royal Albert Hall. The 1990 Hatfield reunion concert was recorded for Central TV, not Grenada TV. And Camembert Electrique was released in 1971, not 1970.

Episode 13

2011-11-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

Listen Here

1. Miller/Coxhill — "One For You" (from Coxhill/Miller, 1974)

2. Syd Arthur — "Ode to the Summer" (7" vinyl single, 2011)

3. Soft Machine — "Save Yourself" → "Lullaby Letter" (live on the Guy Béart Show, French TV, recorded October 1967, broadcast 1968-08-25)

4. Robert Wyatt — "Sea Song" (from BBC TV documentary Free Will and Testament, 2003)

5. Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band — "A- That's Freedom" (from Live at the Village Vanguard, 1967)

6. Working Week (feat. Robert Wyatt and Tracy Thorn) — "Venceremos (We Will Win)" (12" single, 1984)

7. Robert Wyatt — "Out of Season" (from Shleep, 1997)

8. Soupsongs (feat. Cristina Donà) — "Maryan" (live at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival 2008-10-31)

9. Comicoperando — "Alliance" (live in Modena, Italy, 2010-03-01)

10. Comicoperando (feat. Richard Sinclair) — "O Caroline" (live in Modena, Italy, 2010-03-01)

11. Henry Cow — "Gretel's Tale" (from Western Culture, 1978)

12. National Health — "Portrait of a Shrinking Man" [excerpt] (from D.S. Al Coda, 1982)

13. Elton Dean's Newsense — improvisation [excerpt] (live at the Berlin Jazz Festival, 1997-11-07)

14. The Wrong Object — "Platform One" (from Platform One, 2007)

15. Robert Wyatt — "Foreign Accents" (from Cuckooland, 2003)

16. The Zappatistas — "King Kong" (live at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival, 2003-10-03)

17. Phil Miller/In Cahoots — "5's and 7's" (from Conspiracy Theories 2006)

18. Penguin Cafe Orchestra — "Heartwind" (from Broadcasting From Home, 1984)

19. The Orchestra That Fell to Earth (a.k.a. The Anteaters) — "Tropic of Cancer" (live in Annie and Jennifer's back garden, Thanet, 2009)

20. Disassembler — "Reggaeton" (from What Is, 2010)

21. Robert Wyatt — "Stay Tuned" (from Comicopera, 2007)

22. Gong — "Radio Gnome Invisible" (from Flying Teapot, 1973)

23. Kevin Ayers — "Dreaming Doctor" (from What More Can I Say — private demo recording from early 70s, released 2009)

24. Caravan — "Hello Hello" (from If I Could Do It All Over Again..., 1970)

25. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury — thoughts on the "Robin Hood Tax" (from BBC interview, 2011-11-02)

26. Gong — "Givin' My Luv To You" (from Angel's Egg, 1973)

27. Neil — "Golf Girl" [excerpt] (from Neil's Heavy Concept Album, 1984)

[voiceover ambience: National Health — "Elephants" (from National Health, 1977)]

Errata/clarifications: When giving a hint to Annie about the piece from D.S. Al Coda, I told her it was "1980, possibly 1979", whereas it was in fact recorded in October 1981 (thanks, Erkki!). Not quite so long ago.

[Robert Wyatt, from a 1997 interview about the making of Shleep:]
"Annie Whitehead came in for one afternoon, and stayed the weekend to work on her trombone parts. She's wonderful because she listens. She's not thinking "...how can I do my own thing?", so much as "how can I help this song?", and her ears are extraordinary acute. She herself feels quite self conscious about the trombone — in that she's always saying: "put it down, I can hear it, I can still hear it, put it down" [in the mix]. But I love the sound of her trombone. I think it's got a really warm human sound, and I can't think of anybody else, even among the most famous trombonists, who could have actually helped the voice, and accompanied the voice so sympathetically as Annie did — on trombone."

Episode 12

2011-10-09T04:33:00.000-07:00

Listen Here

1. New York Gong — "Preface" (from About Time, 1979)

2. Sebastian Berweck — "Terry Riley: Keyboard Study No. 1 (1964)" [excerpt] (from American Trance Music, 2002)

3. Soft Machine — "Out-Bloody-Rageous" (from Live at the Proms, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall, London, 1970-08-13)

4. Robert Wyatt — "At Last I Am Free" (from Nothing Can Stop Us, 1982)

5. Soft Machine — "Feelin' Reelin' Squealin'" (B-side of first single, "Love Makes Sweet Music", 1967)

6. Daevid Allen — "Stoned Innocent Frankenstein" (from Banana Moon, 1971)

7. Planet Gong — "Stoned Innocent Frankenstein" (from Floating Anarchy Live 1977, 1978)

8. New York Gong — "Black September" (from About Time, 1979)

9. Hatfield and the North (feat. Robert Wyatt) — "God Song" → "Fol De Rol" → "For Robert" → "A-Mewsing"(live on French TV programme Rockenstock, 1973-01-02)

10. Caravan — "As I Feel I Die" (from Songs for Oblivion Fishermen, recorded at BBC 1970-08-19, released 1998)

11. Caravan — "L'Auberge Du Sanglier/A Hunting We Shall Go/Pengola!/Backwards/A Hunting We Shall Go (reprise)" (live at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, 1974-09-01)

12. Mr. Head (Soft Machine) — "Another Lover Has Gone" (rough demo tape, presumably recorded Sturry, Kent, July 1966)

13. Soft Machine — "Soft Space" (12" single, 1978)

14. Steve Hillage — "American funk apartheid" interview clip (from inteview with Captain SIB, 2010-09-09) → "Motivation" (from Motivation Radio, 1977)

15. Soft Machine — "37-1/2" (from Six, 1973)

16. Steve Hillage — 2009 BBC interview clip → "1988 Aktivator" (live at University of Kent sports hall, Canterbury, 1979-02-28)

17. The Damned — "I Just Can't Be Happy Today" [excerpt] (live on BBC TV's The Old Grey Whistle Test, 1979)

18. Supersister — "11/8" → "Dreaming Weelwhile" (from Present From Nancy, 1970)

19. Kevin Ayers — "Animals" (Spanish single release, 1980)

20. Gong — "Flying Teapot" jam (live in France, 1972)

21. New York Gong — "Materialism" (from About Time, 1979)

21. Zoo For You — "Cyriac Skinner" (demo, 2010)

22. Delta Sleep — "Dustbusters" (feat. Alan Watts) (live in their back garden, Canterbury, 2011-08-11)

23. Matching Mole — "Smoke Signals" (from Matching Mole's Little Red Record, 1972)

24. Egg — "They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano" (from Egg, 1970)

25. Hugh Hopper — "Minipax I" (from 1984, 1973)

26. The Pop Group — "Thief of Fire" (from Y, 1979)

27. Henry Cow — "Slice" (from Western Culture, 1978)

28. Henry Cow — "Slice" (from Western Culture, 1978)

29. Slapp Happy — "Haiku" [excerpt] → haiku competition results

30. Material — "Memories" (from One Down, 1982)

31. The Wilde Flowers — "Memories" (demo recorded spring 1966, Broadstairs, Kent)

32. Robert Wyatt — "punk" interview clip (from WTLV Dondestan documentary) → "The Whole Point Of No Return" (from Shleep, 1997)

33. National Health — "Walking The Dog" (from Missing Pieces, 1994, recorded live 1979-11-30)

[voiceover ambience: Gong — "A Sprinkling of Clouds" (from You, 1974)]

Errata/clarifications: I forgot to mention the problems Soft Machine had with Ratledge's organ at the beginning of the Proms set (hence the shaky start) [Correction! Erkki in Estonia has informed me that the technical problems were in fact with Hugh Hopper's fuzz pedal — so perhaps the shaky start was just nerves?]. I also forgot to mention that I played that Egg track. Pye Hasting's sister Jane was married to John Aspinall, if you're interested to find out more...

[Hugh Hopper:] "'Memories' was about the second song I ever wrote, around the end of 1964. Until then, Robert Wyatt, my brother Brian and I had been trying to be avant garde free-jazzers. We hated the Beatles and all that, but then suddenly realised what was good about it. I found I could fairly easily write songs and started churning them out. 'Memories' has been covered by several people — Damon and Naomi, Rainbirds, Robert Wyatt... The first time I heard the version with Whitney singing was down the phone from New York — the A&R person from Elektra played it to me and asked me what I thought, and who I thought the tenor sax player was. I said 'Dunno — Gary Windo?'. 'Archie Shepp' was his reply and in fact that knocked me out more than anything — Shepp had been one of our great free-jazz heroes! Whitney Houston was as yet unknown. (In fact, Laswell tried to get Fontella Bass for the vocal for this version for his Material project — someone suggested Cissie Houston's daughter could sing a bit!) If only she'd recorded it a couple of years later, I would now be a much richer person! My favourite version is the 1969 demo that appears on the Wilde Flowers CD, with Mike Ratledge on piano, Robert singing and me on bass and twelve-string."

[The full Hopper interview with Steve Aitch is here.]

"Hugh became interested in tape loops ten years before this album was created while living with Daevid Allen and Gilli Smythe in Paris." Daevid had already been exposed to the work of Terry Riley and was producing sound-pieces made up of repeated tape loops". Hugh was just 18 at this time and living outside of England for the first time. Hugh goes on to say: "For the next year or so i carried on assembling my own loop-pieces. Back in Canterbury Pye Hastings lent me his Ferrograph for a while. I tinkered also with eight-millimeter movies,filming Mike Ratledge and my brother Brian being poetic or Robert Wyatt playing trumpet while looning around in a field of yellow flowers. Occasionally when our parents were away on holiday we had Cultural Evenings — tape and movies together!" That's just priceless!"

[From http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=211323, original source unknown.]

[Captain Sensible:] "My favourite album though was Soft Machine III — amazing, uplifting stuff. Nobody has ever done as good an album as that. I remember me and some mates went to see Soft Machine at the Greyhound in Croydon. We were totally besotted with Mike Ratledge's image, so we all arrived in these long black wigs with the fringe at the front and those small round Mike Ratledge shades and false black moustaches. Not the type of thing to do at a Softs concert when you consider how serious and studious their audiences traditionally were. After the gig, the four of us were sitting in our Morris Traveller outside waiting for Ratledge to appear. When he drove off we followed him, and at every traffic light he stopped at we'd pull up alongside. So he'd look over to our car to see four Mike Ratledge's staring back at him... by about the 6th traffic light his nerve failed him and in a total panic he slammed his foot down and raced away with us in hot pursuit, determined to follow him home. Except that a Morris Traveller is only capable of luke-warm pursuit at the best of times, so he soon lost us."

[full piece here]

Episode 11

2011-09-09T03:10:00.000-07:00

Listen Here

1. Caravan — "Place of My Own" (live, Strasbourg, 1972-12-05)

2. Kevin Ayers and The Wizards of Twiddly — "Am I Really Marcel?" (live at Waterman's Arts Centre, Brentford, 1995-03-10, from Turn The Lights Down, 2000)

3. Hugh Hopper and Richard Sinclair — "Long Lingers Autumn Time" (from Somewhere in France, recorded 1993, released 1996)

4. Robert Wyatt — "Lisp Service" (from Dondestan, 1991)

5. Lindsay Cooper and Maud Bauer — "Kromhout 2 Cyl. 80 Pk." (from Canaille, 1988 — compilation album recorded live at International Women's Festival of Improvised Music, Zürich, October 1986) [Jenny Woolworth's blog entry about this]

6. Bullion — Bullion's Canterbury Mix (2011)
Hatfield and The North — "Aigrette" / "Intellectual Exercise" intro; Hatfield and The North — "Shaving Is Boring"; Hatfield and The North — "The Other Stubbs Effect" / "Captain Spillage" interlude (Daevid Allen); Steve Hillage — "Octave Doctors"; Lady June — "Everythingsnothing"; Caravan — "Be All Right"; Caravan — "Memory Lain, Hugh"; Matching Mole — "Instant Pussy"; Robert Wyatt — "Gharbzadegi"; Gong — "Radio Gnome Prediction" (Intro) / "And You Tried So Hard"; Gong — "Flying Teapot"'; Gong — "Pot Head Pixies"; Robert Wyatt — "Age Of Self"; Fred Frith — "Carnival On Wall St" / "Being Defined" Interlude; John Greaves — "Salt"; Gong — "Shamal"; Robert Wyatt — "Stalin Wasn't Stallin'"'; Caravan — "No Back Stage Pass"; Robert Wyatt — "To Carla Marsha And Caroline" / "Jolly Clever" interlude (Mike Ratledge, Kevin Ayers); Soft Machine — "Have You Ever Bean Green?" / "Pataphysical Introduction pt.1"; Kevin Ayers — "Goodnight Goodnight"

7. Delivery — "One For You" → "Big Jobs no. 2" → "Finesse Is For Fairies" → "All Day Forever" → "Nan's True Hole" → "Shaving Is Boring "→ "God Song" (live at the Tower of London moat, 1972-07-21)

8. Caravan — "The Love in Your Eye" (from French TV programme Rockenstock, 1972-12-08)

9. Daevid Allen — "The Switch Doctor" (tape collage created 1966, broadcast 1968, released on The Death of Rock and Other Entrances, 1984)

10. The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet (UK) — "Clarence In Wonderland" (live at the Wise Crone Cafe, Glastonbury Festival, 1993-06-24)

11. Kevin Ayers and The Wizards of Twiddly — "See You Later" → "Didn't Feel Lonely Til I Thought of You" (live at Waterman's Arts Centre, Brentford, 1995-03-10, from Turn The Lights Down, 2000)

12. Soft Machine — "Kings and Queens" (from Fourth, 1971)

13. Syd Arthur — "Mystic Mole" (digital bonus track with preorders of the Moving World EP, 2011)

14. The Oyster Band (feat. June Tabor) — "Dives and Lazarus" (from Freedom and Rain, 1990)

15. Kevin Ayers — "The Teddy Bears Picnic" (live in Newcastle, 2003-06-11)

[voiceover ambience: Caravan — "Reprise" (from If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You, 1970)]

As mentioned during the programme, the haiku competition has been extended for another lunar cycle (get your haiku in by 2011-10-12!). For more details, and to see the current list of entries, check the bottom of the Episode 10 blog entry.

[presumably reproduced from the Radio Times, 1968]

10.25 THE SWITCH DOCTOR
A radio collage
based on material
written and assembled
by DAEVID ALLEN

In this free-flowing treatment of poems, conversation, snatches of music and electronic sounds, Mr. Allen has constructed a radiophonic work in the borderland between literature and music. It takes its place alongside other recent experimental programmes, including Crook and Souster's Seasons through the Day of a Town by the Sea and Rosemary Tonk's [sic] Sono-Montage, but ultimately it should perhaps be listened to more in the spirit of a piece of music, such as John Cage's Fontana Mix.

+ Introduced by GEORGE MACBETH
followed by an interlude at 10.55

Episode 10

2011-08-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

Listen Here
1. Kevin Ayers — "Oleh Oleh Bandu Bandong" (from Joy of a Toy, 1969)

2. Six North — "The Enneagram" (from Prayer, 2003)

3. Caravan — "It Doesn't Take A Lot" (outtake from In the Land of Grey and Pink recording sessions, December 1970)

4. douBt (feat. Richard Sinclair) — "Over Birkerot" (live in Japan, 2010)

5. Robert Wyatt — "Chairman Mao" (from Re Records Quarterly Vol.2 No.2, 1987)

6. Matching Mole — "Marchides" (from Matching Mole's Little Red Record, 1972)

7. Robert Wyatt — "Opium Wars" (from Radio Experiment, 2009, recorded in Rome, February 1981)

8. Slapp Happy — "Haiku" (from Casablanca Moon, 1974)

9. Hugh Hopper and Alan Gowen — "Two Rainbows Daily" (from Two Rainbows Daily, 1980)

10. Gilgamesh — "Playtime" (from Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into, 1978)

11. National Health — "Flanagan's People" (from Playtime, recorded live 1979-04-27)

12. Gong — "Isle of Everywhere" (from You, 1974)

13. Manuel Göttsching, Steve Hillage, Elliot Sharpe and Zhang Shouwang — "Echo Waves" (live at Metamorphose festival, Japan, 2010-09-04)

14. Acid Mothers Gong — "HoHoHo! (Avahoot Klaxon's Acidological Report)" [excerpt] (from Live in Nagoya, 2006)

15. Clammbon — "As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still" (from Japanese TV, 2002?)

16. Soft Machine — "As Long as He Lies Perfectly Still" (from Volume 2, 1969)

17. Humi (Hugh Hopper and Yumi Hara Calkwell) — "The Shape of a Haze" (Club Integral, London 2007-11-01)

18. Fred Frith — "Selluloid Restaurant" (from Step Across the Border documentary, 1990)

19. Haco — "After Dinner" (from Step Across the Border documentary, 1990)

20. Caravan — "Winter Wine" (recorded for Beat Club, German TV, 1971-07-24)

21. Gong — "Outer Temple" (from Angels Egg, 1973)

22. Soft Machine — "Mousetrap" → "Noisette" → "Backwards" → "Mousetrap (reprise)" (from Breda Reactor, recorded live in Breda, Holland 1970-01-31, released 2005)

23. The Boot Lagoon — "Businessman" (from forthcoming EP, 2011)

24. Delta Sleep — "The Stamp" (from Delta Sleep EP, 2011)

25. Cyann & Ben — "Alifib" (live in Ground Zero record shop, Paris, September 2006)

26. Hatfield and the North — "Blane Over the Low Countries" [end] → "Drowning" (reprise) → "Goodbye For Now" (from Hattitude (1973-75), released 2005)

27. Slapp Happy — "Haiku" (from Live in Japan — May 2000)

[voiceover ambience: Matching Mole — "Instant Kitten" (from Matching Mole, 1972)]

errata and clarifications:

Alex Maguire wasn't part of the 1990 Hatfield reunion (Sophia Domancich played keyboards for that). He was part of the 2005 reunion. I should have mentioned that "The Enneagram" by SixNorth appears to be unrelated to Egg's "Enneagram". I also feel that I should have mentioned "Jean and Mary" who were responsible for the vocals on "Oleh Oleh Bandu Bandong". I wonder who they were and where they are now (the thankyou list on the sleeve notes thanks "Jean and Mary who had to sing in Malay — which is a fair achievement for two Scots girls.")

Canterbury Soundwaves 2011 Haiku competition!

Haiku syllable structure is 5-7-5. Entries should have a Canterbury music theme. The prize is three tracks of your choice to be broadcast on a future episode. Just submit your entry (and an email address) via the comment box below.

Here are my entries, to get you started (and so that I win by default if no one enters!):

Whirr of run-out groove,
side two of Soft Machine's Third
Put the kettle on!

Richard Sinclair's bass
with cousin Dave's organ sound
Timeless perfection

Entries submitted as of 2011-08-16:

Alan Gowen's synth
with Dave Stewart's mad organ
that's keyboard heaven

[Errki, Estonia]

my flat in Herne Bay
listening to Rock Bottom
Peter vomited

[Andrew Nicol, Grimsby, UK]

Triple Echo set
my first discs of Soft Machine
Been hooked ever since

[Ted, Cleveland, OH, USA]

the Kevin Ayers scene
the South of France, plush velvet
aback! aback! (-ah)

[Mark E. Smith, Salford] (thanks to Sir Robert Bunkum for pointing this one out!)

These three just in, too late to get mentioned in Episode 11, in which the Haiku competition is extended for another month [so get your haiku in by October full moon (2011-10-12)!]:

Swelling moon means we
meander down St Dunstans
No nostalgia trip

Chaucer leads us south
and east to where the music
spirals heavenwards

Pothead Pixies know
Octave Doctors softly glow
Would you like some tea?

[Andy Letcher, Oxford, UK]

And this from a pseudonym'd author (a sly reference to the great Edo period haiku poet Bashō) in the Canterbury area:

Blue sky through plum tree
Hammock swings, earphones on. Bliss!
No birdsong...just Gong

["Hashō", Oare, Kent, September 2011]

Episode 9

2011-07-12T01:00:00.000-07:00

Listen Here
1. Slapp Happy — "The Drum" (from Casablanca Moon, 1974)

2. Henry Cow — "Amygdara" (from Leg End, 1973)

3. Fred Frith interview excerpt (from Step Across the Border documentary, 1990)

4. Robert Wyatt — "Memories" (live at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, 1974-09-08, from Theatre Royal Drury Lane 8 September 1974, 2005)

5. Soft Machine — "Hibou, Anemone and Bear" (from Noisette, recorded live at Fairfield Hall, Croydon, 1970-01-04)

6. Henry Cow (featuring Robert Wyatt) — "We Did it Again" (from 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set, live in Hamburg, 1976-03-26)

7. Henry Cow — "Gloria Gloom" (from Concerts, 1976, session recorded for John Peel, BBC radio, 1975-08-05)

8. Alan Gowen, Phil Miller, Richard Sinclair, Trevor Tomkins — "Before a Word Is Said" (from Before a Word is Said, 1981)

9. Lindsay Cooper — "Woman's Wrongs II" (from Rags, 1980)

10. Gong — "Inner Temple" (from Gong est Mort, Vive Gong, recorded live at the Hippodrome, Paris, 1977-05-28)

11. Caravan — "Love Song Without Flute" (BBC Session, 1971-03-11, from Songs for Oblivion Fishermen, 1998, also the 40th anniversary edition of In the Land of Grey and Pink, 2011)

12. Steve Hillage (featuring Lindsay Cooper) — "The Salmon Song" [excerpt] (from Fish Rising, 1975)

13. News from Babel (featuring Robert Wyatt) — "Moss" (from Letters Home, 1986)

14. Robert Wyatt, Chris Cutler and Lindsay Cooper — In the Dark Year" (from The Last Nightingale EP, 1984)

15. Slapp Happy (featuring Robert Wyatt) — "A Little Something" (BBC session 1974-06-25, from Robert Wyatt's Flotsam Jetsam compilation, 1994)

16. Kevin Ayers — "A View From the Mountain" (from Rainbow Takeaway, 1978)

17. Comicoperando (featuring Dagmar Krause) — "The Sea Song" (live at Teatro Comunale di Modena, Italy, 2010-03-01)

18. Brainville — jam excerpt (live at Gorizia Jazz Festival, Italy, 2008-04-19)

19. John Greaves, Peter Blegvad and Lisa Russell — "Good Evening" (from Kew.Rhone, 1977)

20. Rae — "Eyed Ear" (from Era, 2011)

21. Panzerpappa (featuring Richard Sinclair) — "Vintervake" (from Koralrevens Klagesang, 2006)

22. Caravan — "For Richard" (Live at Grenada TV studios, Nottingham, 1990-07-24, from Live in Nottingham, 2003)

23. Robert Wyatt — "Alifib" (recorded in Paris, March 1975 for French TV broadcast)

24. Wyatt Moss-Wellington — "Alifib" (from Gen Y Irony Stole My Heart, 2011)

25. Henry Cow (featuring Robert Wyatt) — "Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road" (live at the New London Theatre, 1975-05-21, from Concerts, 1976)

26. Arlet — "Summertimes" (live in St. Thomas Hospital Undercroft, Canterbury, 2011-05-28)

27. Charles Mingus — "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" (from Mingus Ah Um, 1959)

28. Gong — "Gongsong" (from Magick Brother, 1970)

29. Egg — "Long Piece No.3 Part 4" (live recording, date and venue unknown, from The Metronomical Society, released 2007)

30. Hatfield and the North — "Stay Jung and Beautiful" (recorded for John Peel Show, BBC radio session, 1974-11-21 from Hatwise Choice, 2005)

30. Liam Magill and Raven Bush — jam → "Ode to the Summer" [excerpt] (live in Best Lane Gardens, Canterbury, 2011-05-28)

31. Kevin Ayers — "Hat Song" (from Rainbow Takeaway, 1978)

[voiceover ambience: Henry Cow, "Ruins" (from Concerts, 1976)]

errata/clarifications: Henry Cow's first recording seems to be a John Peel session from 1971-05-04, not 1972. Lindsay Cooper's Rags album came out in 1980, not 1985. I really should have said something about the Ottawa Music Company, the (tragically unrecorded) collective which Chris Cutler began with Dave Stewart before CC joined Henry Cow (other members of Egg, plus Steve Hillage, passed through the OMC). Zoo For You's (and Arlet's) trombonist is called Thom Harmsworth. The live Soft Machine piece was definitely from the same concert which Third's version of "Facelift" was taken from. Rae are from Bristol, not Bath (insofar as they're from any one place).

[click on 'YouTube' icon for full screen view, etc.]

Peter Blegvad's Leviathan (1992—99)

From Robert Wyatt's "My Top Ten", Let It Rock magazine, January 1975:

"1. 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' by Charlie Mingus is from an album called Mingus Ah Um on CBS (I think). This isn't offically a song — I don't know of any words for it — but it's very singable like a lot of Mingus tunes. However complicated his tunes are, when you know them, you can sing along with them. Also I can almost play it as well as sing it because, like many of Julie Tippet's songs, it's nearly all on the black notes on the piano. The improvisations on this, which are by Shafi Hadi and Booker Ervin on saxophones, respect the tune — are extensions of the tune. People like Gil Evans and Mingus stand out from other jazz writers and arrangers because they integrate the improvisations of their musicians into their writing.

I should think it's easier for a musician to do that playing with Mingus than with most people, simply because Mingus tunes are so beautiful anyway."

Episode 8

2011-06-15T00:05:00.000-07:00

Listen Here
1. Gong — "Master Builder" (from You, 1974) [including excerpt from LastFM inteview with Steve Hillage, 2008]

2. Arzachel (Uriel) — "Metempsychosis" (from Arzachel, 1969)

3. excerpt from LastFM inteview with Steve Hillage, 2008

4. Khan — "Hollow Stone" [excerpt] (fromSpace Shanty, 1972)

5. Egg — "Wring Out the Ground (Loosely Now)" [excerpt] (from The Civil Surface, 1974)

6. excerpt from BBC Kent TV interview with Steve Hillage, 2009

7. Hatfield and the North — "Underdub" (from The Rotters' Club, 1975)

8. Kevin Ayers — "Shouting in a Bucket Blues" (from Bananamour, 1973)

9. Ozric Tentacles — "Aumriff" (from Live Ethereal Cereal cassette release, 1986)

10. Ozric Tentacles — "Akasha" (from Spirals in Hyperspace, 2004)

11. Gong — "I Never Glid Before" (live on French TV programme Rockenstock, 1973-09-18)

12. Steve Hillage — "Four Ever Rainbow" (from Rainbow Dome Musick, 1979)

13. The Orb — "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld" [excerpt] (from The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, 1991)

14. Gong — "Digital Girl" (from 2032, 2009)

15. excerpt from BBC Kent TV interview with Steve Hillage, 2009

16. Caravan — "Where but for Caravan Would I?" (from Caravan, 1968)

17. Steve Hillage — "Astral Meadows" (from "Aftaglid" suite, Fish Rising, 1975)

18. The Spacegoats — "Wild Wee Folk" (from Tribadelica cassette compilation, 1996)

19. The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet (UK) — "Om Mane Padme Hum" (live at The Wise Crone Cafe, Glastonbury Festival, 1993-06-24)

20. Soft Machine — "Bone" (from Fifth, 1972)

21. Robert Wyatt — "September the Ninth" (from BBC4 TV documentary Free Will and Testament, 2003)

23. Penguin Cafe Orchestra — "In the Back of a Taxi" (from Broadcasting from Home, 1984)

24. Zzebra — "Spanish Fly" (from Zzebra, 1974)

25. Glenn Gould — Shostakovich, Piano Quintet in G minor, op.57, movement V (further details unknown)

26. Soft Machine — "I Should've Known" (from Jet-Propelled Photographs, recorded 1967)

27. Matching Mole — "No 'Alf Measures" (from March, recorded live, March 1972, released 2002)

28. The-Quartet — "Lonely Woman" (live at The Ballroom, Canterbury, 2011-05-28)

29. excerpt from LastFM inteview with Steve Hillage, 2008

30. Steve Hillage — "Fish" (from Fish Rising, 1975)

[voiceover ambience: Steve Hillage — "Leylines to Glassdom" (from Green, 1978)]

Errata/clarifications: I claimed that Rainbow Dome Musick came out "around the same time" as Eno's Music for Airports. In fact it came out the following year.

[click on 'YouTube' icon for full screen view, etc.]

From Robert Wyatt's "My Top Ten", Let It Rock magazine, January 1975:

"2. Next bit I've chosen is the 'Piano Quintet' by Shostakovich. The string quartet part of this quintet, as far as I remember — as it's some years since I've heard it — play bowed muted strings; a very haunting sound. I like the idea of a string quartet anyway; in fact I enjoy the idea of a string quartet more than I enjoy a lot of string quartet music. In this case, perhaps, I liked it because the cello is often used rather in the way the double bass is used in jazz — i.e. not bowed but plucked; relatively simple rhythmically, as far as I remember. It's an incredibly melodic piece, which you must admit is a great achievement for someone who is, after all, only a brainwashed communist."

Andy Letcher's review of Gong live in Oxford, 2009

Ætherial-voiced former Spacegoat Stella Homewood has a new album out, co-produced by Stella and Zegg Spacegoat. It's called Ordinary Day, and well worth checking out if you're into the psychedelic folk thing.

Episode 7

2011-05-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

Listen Here
1. Caravan — "Golf Girl" (from In The Land of Grey and Pink, 1971)

2. Gong — "Fohat" jam (from The Mushroom tapes, G.A.S. tape, recorded 1973 or '74)

3. Cos — "Amafam" (from Post-Aeolian Train Robbery, 1974)

4. Kevin Ayers — "Hymn" (BBC TV educational broadcast Music Alive, 1972-03-20)

5. Ultramarine — "Hymn" (Mouse on Mars "A Sleep" mix) (from Hymn EP, 1996)

6. Ultramarine — "Instant Kitten" (from United Kingdoms, 1993)

7. Matching Mole — "Instant Kitten" (from Matching Mole, 1972)

8. Hatfield and the North — "Shaving is Boring" (live at Birmingham Town Hall, 1974-04-30)

9. Soft Machine — "Hazard Profile" (BBC radio session, 1973-10-30)

10. Matching Mole — "Gloria Gloom" → "Part of the Dance" (live on French TV programme Rockenstock, recorded 1972-07-01)

11. Isotope — "Illusion" (from Illusion, 1975)

12. 801 — "Tomorrow Never Knows" (from 801 Live, 1976)

13. Steve Hillage — "It's All Too Much" (live in Hyde Park, London, 1976-09-17)

14. Soft Machine — "Spaced Two" (from Spaced, recorded 1969, released 1996)

15. Lol Coxhill (with Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers) — "Soprano Derivitavo" → "Apricot Jam" (from Wyatt's compilation Flotsam Jetsam, 1994)

16. The Boot Lagoon — "Strawberry Jam" (rehearsal recording, 2010)

17. Caravan — "In the Land of Grey and Pink" (from In the Land of Grey and Pink, 1971)

18. Kevin Ayers — "Cold Shoulder" (from The Unfairground, 2007)

19. Robert Wyatt — "Strange Fruit" (from Nothing Can Stop Us, 1982)

20. Thelonious Monk — "Friday the 13th" (from The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall, 1959)

21. Soft Machine — "Soon Soon Soon" (live at Palais de Sports, Paris, 1967-11-17 or -18, as broadcast on French TV programme Bouton Rouge 1967-12-09)

22. Spirogyra — "The Furthest Point" (from Bells, Boots and Shambles, 1973)

23. Neil — "Golf Girl" (from Neil's Heavy Concept Album, 1984)

[ambient voiceover: Soft Machine, "The Moon in June" (from Third, 1970)]

Errata/clarifications: The main man from Porcupine Tree who remixed In the Land of Grey and Pink, and whose name escaped my mind, is Steven Wilson. Brian Kenney was the presenter of Music Alive, not its producer. The live Hatfield piece (at least the first chunk) was "Shaving is Boring", which I should have recognised as I played the studio version a couple of lunations ago. I claimed that Isotope contained "several ex-members of Nucleus" – in fact there was only one (original bassist Jeff Clyne). The Steve Hillage concert in Hyde Park was in 1976, not 1979. I also forgot to mention that, along with the rest of the esteemed crew, Jimmy Hastings (brother of Carvan's Pye Hastings) who played flute on the original "Golf Girl" also played flute on Neil's version!

[click on 'YouTube' icon for full screen view, etc.]

"In 1969 the Roundhouse, although by now home to the UFO underground music club [I think he meant Middle Earth] was still basically an unconverted, round, conically roofed open space. It was chosen by Peter Dockley, a "happening" artist, as the perfect space in which to create a three-dimensional spidery set, upon and with ballet dancers would perform to a score provided by The Soft Machine. Using tapes that I had made of the band in concert, together with material composed especially for the occasion, "Spaced" was created in the living room of my Islington, North London, apartment. Many tape loops were involved, ranging in length from just a bar or two, to several minutes, with the loops run around milk bottles on the stairs, and requiring retraining [sic?] the cat to prevent her leaping on each loop as the splicing tape slid by."
Bob Woolford
North Canton, Connecticut
January 1996

[from http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordre_de_la_grande_gidouille:]

L’Ordre de la Grande Gidouille (OGG) est une institution du Collège de 'Pataphysique.

Dès 1948, le Collège de 'Pataphysique restitue << en son lustre extrême >>, l'ordre promulgué par Alfred Jarry dans son Almanach du Père Ubu illustré (Janvier, Février, Mars 1899). Les principaux dignitaires du Collège de 'Pataphysique sont tous membres de l'OGG, mais l'ordre peut aussi distinguer quelqu'un en dehors du Collège, pour récompenser son mérite pataphysique ou son action ponctuelle et particulièrement remarquable à une manifestation du Collège. Boris Vian par exemple était Grand Maître (GMOGG) et « promoteur insigne » au Collège, mais Henri Salvador sans être membre du Collège était commandeur de l'ordre.

Extraits de l'article 10:

Selon les prescriptions de ces Statuts, l'Ordre reste fidèle au principe de la pluralité des Grands-Maîtres ou Pères Ubus.
Le Curateur Inamovible, le Staroste et le Vice-Curateur, les Provéditeurs et les Satrapes du Collège de 'Pataphysique sont de Droit Grands-Maîtres de l'Ordre de la Grande Gidouille et constituent par leur réunion le Conseil suprême de l'Ordre, que préside le Curateur Inamovible et en son absence le Vice-Curateur.

From Robert Wyatt's "My Top Ten", Let It Rock magazine, January 1975:

"3. Friday The Thirteenth' by Thelonious Monk. The particular version I have in mind is from the Town Hall Concert he did - the first main Town Hall Concert - where the arrangements were done by someone called Hal Overton. I think when Monk dies there'll be a rash of colour supplement potted biographies, little television programmes-arts programmes and so on, about him. 'The zany loony of the bebop world' is what they'll call him, no doubt. They won't do it till he's dead of course, in case he makes lots of money, which they probably think would be bad for him. In my opinion he's one of the greatest writers of tunes that I've ever heard, within my range of appreciation. The thing about this particular concert is that Hal Overton's arrangements are really imaginative. He's taken old recordings of Monk playing these tunes and written them out, including the solos Monk played, and orchestrated them for a large band. So you have the spontaneity of the improvised ideas strengthened by Hal Overton's inspired orchestration. 'Friday The Thirteenth' I particularly like because its got a secondary bass line which is sort of out of synch with the tune itself, and it sort of tilts the whole tune at a strange angle (If that sounds like Pseuds' Comer, I'm sorry , but that's what happens when you try and explain what you like about music)."

Episode 6

2011-04-18T03:33:00.000-07:00

Listen Here
1. Nucleus — "Song for the Bearded Lady" (from We'll Talk About It Later, 1970)

2. 801 — "East of Asteroid" (live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 1976-09-03, from 801 Live)

3. Matching Mole — "Gloria Gloom" (from Matching Mole's Little Red Record, 1972)

4. Robert Wyatt — "5 Black Notes and 1 White Note" (from Ruth is Stranger Than Richard, 1975)

5. Eno — "Kurt's Rejoinder" (from Before and After Science, 1977)

6. Syd Arthur — "Pulse" (from Moving World EP, 2011)

7. Caravan — "Derek's Long Thing" (unreleased track, available on For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night 2001 CD remaster)

8. Caravan — "The Love in Your Eye" [excerpt] (from Waterloo Lily, 1972)

9. Acid Mothers Gong — "Hari Balmy Bom Rif" (from Live in Nagoya, 2006)

10. Lapis Lazuli — "Triton Gnast" (online release, 2010)

11. Soft Machine – "Neo-Caliban Grides" → "All White" → "Slightly All the Time" → "Drop" (live in Germany, autumn 1971, available on Drop, 2008)

12. Kevin Ayers — "Two Goes Into Four" (live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, 1974-06-01, from June 1, 1974)

13. Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy — "Tunion" (from Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy, 1974)

14. Eno — "Burning Airlines Give You So Much More" (from Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), 1974)

15. Egg — "Wind Quartet I" (from The Civil Surface, 1974)

16. Robert Wyatt — "Alfib" → "Alfie" (from Rock Bottom, 1974)

17. Miroslav Vitouš — "Epilogue" (from Infinite Search, 1969)

17. Robert Wyatt — "Out of the Blue" (from Comicopera, 2007)

18. Eno — "1/1" (from Ambient 1: Music for Airports, 1978)

19. Kevin Ayers and Brian Eno — untitled piano improvisation (live on London's Capitol Radio, August 1974)

[voiceover ambience: Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy — "Four Ever Rainbow", (from Rainbow Dome Musick, 1979)]

From pennyblackmusic.co.uk profile of Robert Wyatt:

Perhaps the most significant collaboration between Wyatt and Eno though was the ground-breaking Music for Airports. Eno had mentioned the idea of creating soothing airport music to Wyatt previously but Wyatt was also roped into the sessions at Basing Street studios with Wyatt also getting an co-writing credit on the opening track '1/1'. Wyatt’s role, largely, though was to play spontaneously on the piano. "Brian just sort of got me to improvise at the piano for a while and chose what to use later," Wyatt recalled. "I was surprised and delighted with his use of what I did — how he created a sustained mood. I didn’t know what he would do with what I’d played. I think the results were brilliant, pure Brian: great stuff!"

Robert Wyatt on working with Eno on Shleep album (from WLTV interview):

"I was once asked about Brian: 'What's it like working with one of the great cerebral intellects of modern culture?' . It made me laugh a bit, because what working with Brian is actually like being two children in a little play-pit. His pleasure in working the studio is so innocent and childlike — still — and that's really what's so enjoyable.

He's so enthusiastic — he kind of bounces around from one piece of machinery to another, quite the opposite of me. I'm very intimidated by the machines, and he loves them and feels at home with all of them. And he came quite early on in the session, and it was a great help to me, and I think also it was very exciting for Jamie, the engineer, to have someone with that amount of knowledge, just showing what could be done in the studio."

Pierro Scaruffi on Rock Bottom: "...one of rock music's supreme masterpieces, a veritable transfiguration of both rock and jazz. Its pieces straddle the unlikely border between an intense religious hymn and a childish nursery rhyme. Along that imaginary line, Wyatt carved a deep trench of emotional outpouring, where happiness, sorrow, faith and resignation found a metaphysical unity. The astounding originality of that masterpiece, and its well-crafted flow of consciousness, were never matched by Wyatt's later releases."

From Robert Wyatt's "My Top Ten", Let It Rock magazine, January 1975:

"4. 'Epilogue' by Miroslav Vitouš, from the album Infinite Search. Miroslav Vitous is technically in a class with Barre Philips, Stanley Clarke and Barry Guy. But as composer of music for the bass he is my favourite since Charlie Haden. Maybe his slavic origins have something to do with his particular melodic inclinations. On Infinite Search, the double bass — an instrument usually used in a subservient role — is the group's 'lead' instrument. The group — Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, Jack de Johnette and Joe Henderson — support Miroslav's lines with the accuracy, speed and imagination you associate with a first-class tennis match. Although the individual musicians are accustomed to working together in a live context, they are also accustomed to drowning out double-bassists, on the expedient premise that the loud instruments lead, the quiet follow. The recording studio can liberate musicians from this 'hierarchy by volume'. In this case, the effect of such energetic players pulling their punches to leave space for Miroslav to set the direction in each piece creates a fine, translucent texture, like a spider's web. Tennis matches, spider's webs — the whole world in a song, what more can you ask?"

Episode 5

2011-03-10T02:54:00.000-08:00

Listen Here
1. Hatfield and the North — "Halfway Between Heaven and Earth" (instrumental) → "The Yes No Interlude" (live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, 1975-03-16)

2. Hugh Hopper and Alan Gowen — "Fishtank I" (from Two Rainbows Daily, 1980)

3. Manogurgeil — "Poliisien Kesäkoti" (Live at Lepakkomies, Helsinki 2008-06-12)

4. Dashiell Hedayat — "Long Song For Zelda" (from Obsolete, 1971)

5. Elton Dean and Hugh Hopper interview excerpts (from unknown TV documentary)

6. Kevin Ayers interview excerpt (BBC Radio 4, 2007-08-25)

7. Caravan — "Asforteri" (from If I Could Do It All Over Again..., 1970)

8. Syd Arthur — "Planet of Love" → "Hermethio" (from Moving World EP, 2011 — now available from Dawn Chorus)

9. Gong — "Sold to the Highest Buddha" (from Angel's Egg, 1973)

10. Hatfield and the North — "Shaving is Boring" (from Hatfield and the North, 1974)

11. Kevin Ayers and the Whole World — "Rheinhardt and Geraldine"/"Colores Para Delores" (from Shooting at the Moon, 1970)

12. Caravan — "Nine Feet Underground" (live on BBC Radio One, 1971-05-16, released on Green Bottles for Marjorie, 2002)

13. Soft Machine — "Hope for Happiness" (from The Soft Machine, 1968)

14. The-Quartet — "Canterbury Tales (Prologue/The Chav's Tale/The Check-Out Girl's Tale/The Deacon's Tale)" (from Shattering, 2008)

15. Soft Machine — "Facelift" (live on French TV programme L'Invité du Dimanche 1969-12-07)

16. Egg — "A Visit to Newport Hospital" (from The Polite Force, 1971)

17. Hermetho Pascoal — "Forró Brasil" (from Ao Vivo Montreux Jazz Festival, 1979)

18. Syd Arthur — "Exit Domino" (from Moving World EP, 2011 — now available from Dawn Chorus)

19. Steve Hillage — "Ether Ships" (from Green, 1978)

20. Robert Wyatt interview (from WLTV television documentary, 1991?)

21. Robert Wyatt — "The Sight of the Wind" (from Dondestan, 1991)

22. Miles Davis and Gil Evans Orchestra – "Blues for Pablo" (from "The Sound of Miles Davis" TV concert, recorded at CBS Studio 61, NYC, 1959-04-02)

23. The Happy Accidents — "Street of Desire" (from Masters of the Baloonafon DVD soundtrack, 2006)

24. Egg — "I Do Like To Be Beside the Seaside" (live at unknown venue, 1971, released on The Metronomical Society, 2007)

[voiceover ambience: Brian Eno, "1/1" (piano by Robert Wyatt), from Ambient 1: Music for Airports]

Erratum: During the interview segment, I somehow failed to mention that Daevid Allen was also (of course) part of the pre-Softs "Mister Head" lineup that resided and practiced in Sturry in the summer of 1966.

[click on 'YouTube' icon for full screen view, etc.]

From Robert Wyatt's "My Top Ten", Let It Rock magazine, January 1975:

[Selections 4, 3, 2 and 1 to be played in subsequent podcasts!]

5. "Blues For Pablo" by Gil Evans and Miles Davis. This is from an LP originally called Miles Davis Plus Nineteen, which was Evans' first attempt to arrange a complete series of inter-related mini-concertos for Miles, who plays mainly flugelhorn in a bigband context. It's harder to play the flugelhorn than the trumpet, which tends to make even flugelhorn virtuosi like Clark Terry, Art Farmer and the great Johnny Coles play more carefully , thoughtfully than many trumpeters. As the title suggests, there is a certain similarity between the music of southern Spain and the early blues of the southern States, which Gil Evans exploits beautifully without using the obvious link instrument, the guitar. In fact Gil Evans was, as far as I know, the first 'jazz' arranger to supplement the traditional 'ethnic' dance band instruments with French horns, flutes and other instruments usually associated with the European orchestral tradition. Incidentally 'Blues For Pablo', like the other tracks on this record, is only a couple of minutes long, which demonstrates Gil Evans' roots as an arranger for 'pop' dance bands, and makes each individual piece nice and tight (if I'd been a radio DJ at the time I'd have pushed them as worthy competition to Sandy Nelson and Duane Eddy on the instrumental singles market).

6. "Sex Machine" by Sly and the Family Stone. Sometimes, when I've got nothing else to do, I sit and speculate about Sly Stone's innovations in the recording studio. He used to be a disc jockey and as anyone who admires the work of Kenny Everett knows, DJs have a unique opportunity to muck around with tape recorders and create a sort of surreal continuity with their between-record link pieces — to make a musical entity out of an otherwise more-or-less random series of records. Also a successful American DJ has to be fast, slick, tasteless and dramatic — a great education for a musician. One major difference between Sly Stone's courageous production stunts and, say Frank Zappa's, was that the basic band recording always had the immediacy and excitement of a good live gig. Larry Graham in particular, is a spectacularly useful bass-player and singer.

7. "Flying" by the Beatles. A lot of people didn't like the Magical Mystery Tour film because it was amateurish (the cameras didn't dart in and out ot the lead singer's nostril's like they do in professionally made music films) or pretentious (they were actually trying to do something interesting): or something. Belonging as I do to the gullible hippy generation whose critical faculties are irredemably blunted by drugs, sex, and bad PA systems, I thought it was great. The LP of the same name was even better, because they filled it out with their recent amazing singles. The most magical and mysterious piece on the record though, for me, was Flying' which essentially seems to consist of a twelve-bar blues, except that all the chords are major, and the singing 'white'. So white actually, that it sounds like the 'Volga Boat Song', part two.

The effect is um what can I say oh you know the usual string of misleading, inadequate adjectives, um, how about 'this record is very nice so I like it'. P.S. I though the Beatles much more daring and inventive than most of us 'progressive' groups of the late sixties (apart from the Pink Floyd). Something to do with endless studio time replacing endless live gigs, I should think.

8. "Leaning On A Lampost" by George Formby. Yet another Daring, Wacky Northerner Apart from being Daring, Wacky, and Northern, George Formby was a shit-hot ukulele player, not half so stodgy as his many imitators - he'd have made a good rhythm guitarist. Apart from which this is a useful record to play to anybody who still thinks that Bob Dylan invented good lyrics. While I'm at it I'd like to mention Frank Crummil. Ahem, "Frank Crummit". Thank you.

9. ''Hold On I'm Coming" by Sam and Dave. I vividly remember as if 'twere yesterday the day I saw the amazing Stax circus come to town. And best of all I remember Sam and Dave striding on stage from either side and meeting in front of Booker T's gang all hammering away like it was the encore already-very exciting. Once again how can mere words convey etc. etc.

Goldie does a version of this song which apparently accentuates the title's erotic possibilities - more power to her, er, elbow and everything, I say; but nevertheless I doubt if her version matches the original in terms of pure musical excitement. On the other hand, there's probably no such thing as pure musical excitement – apart from The Old Grey Whistle Test of course.

The way Stax records were recorded made them perfect for discotheques rather than posh stereo systems etc, on which, like many good dance records e.g. west-Indian dance records, they sound comparatively stark and dry. Conversely, many so-called "well-produced" records, when pumped out over a busy dance floor, are about as helpful to dancers as a carpet of wet cement. I mention this because it's puzzling trying to work out why things are or have been popular, if you don't take into account the original context. I'd like to continue in this vein and discuss the amphibious life of the sea lion but I know enough about joumalism to know that you're supposed to stick to the point. So here's my last record.

10. "Get Out Of My Life Woman" by Lee Dorsey/Allen Toussaint. These two made a series of great singles, and if anybody's got a spare copy of the LP of this title they made together, I'll give anything except perhaps my right arm for it. I gather Lee Dorsey's not working as a singer any more, runs a garage or something. Never mind we've still got John Mayall. Toussaint belongs to the great tradition of musicians from New Orleans with names thought up by a French Stanley Unwin. Some of my favourite of these voodoo-swamped names include Bechet, 'Slow-drag' Pavageau, Alphonse Picou, Barney Bigard, Joseph 'Zigaboo' on drums on this particular record but whoever it is ought to be famous. He saved my bacon, anyway, by showing me a way to combine the triplet feel of the earlier swing bands with the more violent military-band-derived eighth note feel favoured in moderb rock circles. Now I hastily leave you to ponder the exact meaning, if any , of the phrase 'modern rock circles'.

Daevid Allen on meeting William Burroughs:

[from Magnet Magazine, 1999-10-01:]

Allen soon left London and relocated to Paris, where he lived at the Beat Hotel. "One of the first people I met was (William) Burroughs," says Allen. "I moved into the room that Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky had just vacated, and Burroughs was looking for a jazz band to play while he performed dramatic versions of (his cut-up book) The Ticket That Exploded with Ian Somerville and Brion Gysin. My room was right next door to Brion's — he was doing interesting tape loops similar to Terry Riley, who was around, too. Burroughs invited me up to his room and said, 'Well Dave, there's two ways that I can communicate this information to you. One way will take 30 years and the other will take five minutes. Which way you do want it?' Anticipating instant sodomy, I said, 'I think I'll take the 30 years.' He was happy with that and told me, 'I've got this job and I want you to play.' We put on the show and there was the weirdest collection of people in the audience. Burroughs had one scene with nuns shooting each other up with huge syringes. Terry Riley came, and we ended up playing together outside in the street with motorscooter motors, electric guitar and poetry. It was wild."

[from The Scotsman, 2009-11-20:]

The 71-year-old majordomo of incorrigible hippy space-rockers Gong had fled the conservatism of his native Australia in search of wild adventure and beatnik cool, pitching up in Paris where Burroughs was holding court in the Beat Hotel. "It was 1961 and I was more than a little intimidated by him," says Allen. "But he wanted me to play music at his poetry readings — I was a jazzer back then — so he suggested we first go up to his room where he got behind this desk like some Brooklyn insurance salesman. 'Well, Daevid,' he said, 'there are two ways of doing this. One way will take ten minutes, the other will take the rest of your life.' I assumed the first way might have involved sodomy so I opted for the latter.'

Episode 4

2011-02-07T02:47:00.000-08:00

Listen Here
1. Matching Mole — "O Caroline" (from Matching Mole, 1972)

2. Quiet Sun — "Trot" (from Mainstream, 1975)

3. Hatfield and the North — "Giant Land Crabs in Earth Takeover Bid" → "The Stubbs Effect" (from Hatfield and the North, 1974)

4. National Health — "Squarer for Maud" (from Of Queues and Cures, 1978)

5. Gilgamesh — "Foel'd Again" (from Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into, 1978)

6. The Daevid Allen Trio [sic] — "Dear Old Benny Green is a-Turning in His Grave" (from Live 1963)

7. Brainville 3 — excerpt ["Dear Friends" → gliss jam] (live at Gorizia Jazz Festival, Italy, 2009-04-19)

8. Sun Ra — "Brainville" (from Sun Songs, 1957)

9. Sun Ra — "Twin Stars of Thence" (from Lanquidity, 1978)

10. Speakers Corner Quartet — "Sahara" (live on the Furthur Stage, Lounge on the Farm festival, Canterbury, 2010-07-11)

11. Syd Arthur — "Truthseeker" (live on the Furthur Stage, Lounge on the Farm festival, Canterbury, 2010-07-10)

12. Caravan — "L'Auberge Du Sanglier (A Hunting We Shall Go)" (live at the Bataclan, Paris, 1973-11-26)

13. Kevin Ayers and the Whole World — French TV interview excerpt + jam → "Clarence in Wonderland" (live at the Taverne de Olympia, Paris, May, 1970)

14. Khan — "The Cobalt Sequence" → "March of the Sine Squadrons" (from Space Shanty, 1972)

15. Spirogyra — "Old Boot Wine" (from Bells, Boots and Shambles, 1973)

16. Egg — Long Piece No. 3: Part 3 → jam (live at The Roundhouse, London, 1970-05-08)

17. Robert Wyatt — "Gharbzedagi" (from BBC4 TV documentary/session Free Will and Testament, recorded 2003)

18. Gong — "Tropical Fish" → "Selene" (from BBC Radio 1 sessions, 1971-11-09, released on Pre-Modern Wireless, 2002)

19. Soft Machine — "Teeth" (from Fourth, 1971)

20. Soft Machine — "When I Don't Want You" (demo recorded 1967, later released on Jet Propelled Photographs)

21. Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy — "The Letter" (from Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy, 1974)

22. Caravan — "Ride" (BBC Radio 1, Top Gear session 1968-12-31, released on Green Bottles For Marjorie: The Lost BBC Sessions, 2004)

23. Gorky's Zygotic Mynci — "Oh Caroline" (from Tatay, 1994)

24. Kevin Ayers — "Beware of the Dog" (from Bananamour, 1973)

[voiceover ambience: Kevin Ayers — "Underwater" (from Shooting at the Moon, 1970)]

[click on 'YouTube' icon for full screen view, etc.]

Geoffrey Richardson (Caravan) and Raven Bush (Syd Arthur) at Lounge on the Farm festival,
Canterbury, 2009, where they duetted on "A Hunting We Shall Go"

Gharbzadegi (Persian: غربزدگی ) is a pejorative Persian term variously translated as "Westoxification," "West-struck-ness", "Westitis", "Euromania", or "Occidentosis". It is used to refer to the loss of Iranian cultural identity through the adoption and imitation of Western models and Western criteria in education, the arts, and culture; through the transformation of Iran into a passive market for Western goods and a pawn in Western geopolitics.

The phrase was first coined by Ahmad Fardid (University of Tehran Professor) in the 1940s, it gained common usage following the clandestine publication in 1962 of the book Occidentosis: A Plague from the West by Jalal Al-e Ahmad, an eminent Iranian writer.

[from Wikipedia article]

Errata: I gave the name of the 1978 Sun Ra album as "Languidity", whereas it is actually Lanquidity (weirdly, I've since found out that the first EP by Speakers Corner Quartet, who I followed that Sun Ra track with, was released on Lanquidity Records...); I gave the name of the Caravan piece as "Sanglier", which this suite is sometimes referred to, but it seems more commonly known as "A Hunting We Shall Go"...and the studio version has the oh-so-catchy title "L' Auberge du Sanglier/A Hunting We Shall Go/Pengola!/Backwards/A Hunting We Shall Go (reprise)", presumably for shrewd publishing-related reasons; I said I didn't know what the Gilgamesh title "Foel'd Again" was about — I've since discovered that it's a reference to Foel Studio where the album was recorded.

Here's part of an interview with Daevid Allen which appeared in Fortean Times not so long ago:

FT: If we go back to the late 60s/early 70s we find a lot of cosmic musical mythologies about flying saucers and space ships and so on — Magma in France, Hawkwind in Britain. Why do you think 'space was the place' at that moment in musical history? And did you have any personal experience with flying teapots?

DA: In 1958 before I left Melbourne for the UK I discovered a battered LP in a used album bin called SUN RA COSMIK ARKESTRA and though intellectually I understood it not, something subtle clicked in to my psyche that I possibly never recovered from.

Certainly at age seven, I was already under the impression that my personality had been over-ridden by an "imaginary friend" who knew more than I about the ways of the worlds. At a much later stage, this impression returned, gifting me a certain additional understanding of a civilization far more tolerant and forgiving than this crazy world of opposing extremes. But rather than be taken too seriously and thus seen as a threat to the status quo, it suited me to act the village loony and thus show me true knickers only to musicians, poets, wise women and seers.

In my long life there have been various sightings of "flying teapots" and/or something looking like that, but what do we want me to do? Prove it scientifically? Alas I can only prove this in a dark room amongst consenting adults. Maybe.

FT: Gong's musical mythology is more complicated, more cosmic, far funnier and much longer-lived than any other from that period. It's hinted at in your early recordings, comes to the fore in the Radio Gnome Trilogy and then sends ripples through much of your later work — and that of other ex-Gong members like Steve Hillage. Why is that?

DA: Rather than creating an imposed teaching story I sought to create a hidden teaching structure (imagined in the form of an invisible double helix spiral) with which ingenious men and wo-mendicants could hatch their own peculiar teaching story. This presumed an outcome self-tailored to each individual and the avoidance of the guru trap.

It's an attempt to let the mythology be hinted at in your terms rather than fleshed out on my terms. Yet, apparently, it remains a potent influence on our approach to communicating a deeper meaning to our glorious madness.

FT: A lot of visionary mythologies seem to have their origin in some sort of epiphany or moment of revelation — like Alfred Watkins' discovery of ley lines or some of Jung's insights into the unconscious. Did the Planet Gong mythos arrive fully formed as some sort of mystical revelation? If so, what was the occasion?

DA: Yes, it did. Suffice to say, on Easter Sunday 1966, this humble (?) poet on a mountainside in Deya, Mallorca, witnessed an unlikely career in psychedelic rock unfold in a spectacular vision that also gave me a preview/glimpse of a light show before I knew what the hell it was. The story is told in the books GONG DREAMING 1 — 1965-69 and GONG DREAMING 2 — 1969-75.

Episode 3

2011-01-19T02:20:00.001-08:00

Listen Here
1. Kevin Ayers — "Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes" (from Whatevershebringswesing, 1971)

2. Gong — "It's Only The World Said The Girl" (from Glastonbury Fayre '71)

3. Soft Machine — "Out-Bloody-Rageous" (from Third, 1970)

4. Terry Riley — "A Rainbow in Curved Air" (from A Rainbow in Curved Air, 1967)

5. Kevin Ayers — "Decadence" (from Bananamour, 1973)

6. Hugh Hopper and Phil Miller (live on VPRO Desmet Radio 6, 2007-08-29)

7. Frank Zappa — "King Kong" (live on BBC TV, 1968)

8. Caravan (feat. Frank Zappa) — "If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You" (live, Amiouges, Belgium, 1969-10-26)

9. Robert Wyatt — "Sonia" (from Ruth is Stranger than Richard, 1975)

10. Robert Wyatt (feat. the SouthWest African People's Organisation Singers) — "The Wind of Change" (from Flotsam Jetsam, released 1994)

11. Mr. Lovebucket — "Shakara" (live on the Furthur stage, Lounge on the Farm festival, Canterbury, 2008-07-12)

12. Delivery — "Nan's True Hole" (live at The Dome, Brighton, 1972-09-29)

13. Matching Mole — "Waterloo Lily" (live, somewhere in Europe, 1972)

14. Caravan — "Feelin' Reelin' Squealin'" (live at the BBC, Radio One in Concert 1971-05-16)

15. Soft Machine — "I Should've Known" (from Dutch VPRO TV programme Hoepla 1967-09-22)

16. The Wilde Flowers — "Almost Grown" (from The Wilde Flowers compilation, released 1994)

17. Hatfield and the North — "Mumps" [excerpt] (from The Rotters Club, 1975)

18. Björk (feat. Robert Wyatt) — "Submarine" (from Medúlla, 2004)

19. The Raincoats — "And Then It's OK" (from Odyshape, 1981)

20. Gong — "Bambolay"/"Ya Sunne" (from Glastonbury Fayre '71)

21. Soft Machine — "We Did It Again" [acapella hidden track] (from Middle Earth Masters, released 2006)

[voiceover ambience: Hatfield and the North — "The Stubbs Effect" (from Hatfield and The North, 1974)]

Richard Sinclair on jamming with Frank Zappa:

"Just before the concert got going he spoke to every group that he'd seen doing a quick rehearsal. He just said 'Hello I'd like to play with you for about ten minutes, have you got a tune that could work with us?' I think Pye suggested that we play 'If I Could Do It All Over Again'. We made it last ten minutes and he played a solo on it. He was quite a small man actually and he looked very stoned indeed, but actually he made a good job with everybody he played with. I remember him climbing onstage with us and it was like someone putting in the handle to start up a vintage car engine. He just wound it up and it was amazing, just incredible. We were just playing a 7/4 figure over a small amount of chords and Dave was rocking it up. It was really good."

Errata: In this episode I erroneously claim that: A Rainbow in Curved Air was released in 1969 (it was 1967); that Nico's real name was "Christine" (it was "Christa"); that Zappa takes three minutes to come in on guitar when jamming with Caravan (you can hear a squall of his feedback near the beginning); that there was "a little bit of an African influence" in Robert Wyatt's "Sonia" (it features Mongezi Feza, the South African trumpeter, who wrote the piece!!); that Christian Tritsch played guitar with Gong at Glastonbury '71 (he played bass — Daevid was the sole guitarist...and I mispronounced his name too). Sorry, everyone...

Episode 2

2010-12-22T05:51:00.000-08:00

Digging further into the Canterbury archives...

Listen Here
1. Caravan — "If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You" (from If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You, 1970)

2. Matching Mole — "No 'Alf Measures" (from Robert Wyatt's Flotsam Jetsam compilation, released 1994)

3. Egg — "Enneagram" (from The Civil Surface, 1974)

4. The Boot Lagoon — "Le Apperail Doux" (downloadable from http://thebootlagoon.co.uk)

5. Soft Machine — "Thank You Pierre Lunaire" → "Have You Ever Bean Green?" → "As Long as He Lies Perfectly Still" → jam (live at The Paradiso, Amsterdam 1969-03-29)

6. Cecil Taylor — "Rick Kick Shaw" (from Jazz Advance, 1956)

7. Soft Machine — "Disorganisation" → "We Did It Again" (live at Middle Earth, London autumn 1967)

8. Kevin Ayers — "Irreversible Neural Damage"/"Invitation"/"The One Chance Dance"/"Dr. Dream Theme" (from The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories, 1974)

9. Caravan — "For Richard" (live at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, 1974)

10. Kevin Ayers (feat. Nico) — "The Oyster and the Flying Fish" (from Shooting at the Moon, 1970)

11. Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy — "Optimism" (from Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy, 1974)

12. Hugh Hopper — "Oyster Perpetual" (from Hopper Tunity Box, 1977)

13. National Health — "Brujo" (from National Health, 1977)

14. Planet Gong — "Opium For the People" (from Floating Anarchy '77)

15. Daevid Allen interview (origin unknown)

16. Centipede — "Septober Energy Part 1" (excerpt) (from Septober Energy, 1974)

17. Hatfield and the North — "Amsterdamage" (live Amsterdam 1974-11-19)

18. Daevid Allen (feat. Robert Wyatt) — "Memories" (from Banana Moon, 1971)

19. Ultramarine (feat. Robert Wyatt) — "Kingdom" (from United Kingdoms EP, 1993)

20. Rachel Unthank and the Winterset — "The Sea Song" (from The Bairns, 2007)

21. Robert Wyatt — "The Sea Song" (from Rock Bottom, 1974)

22. Robert Wyatt, Ros Stephen and Gilad Atzmon — "What a Wonderful World" (from For the Ghosts Within, 2010)

23. Gong — "Eat That Phonebook Coda" (from Angel's Egg, 1973)

[voiceover ambience: Gong — "The Octave Doctors & The Crystal Machine" (from Flying Teapot, 1973)]

Episode 1

2010-11-21T06:34:00.000-08:00

Looking at the origins of the so-called "Canterbury Sound": first singles, first albums, early recordings, etc.

Listen Here
1. Soft Machine — "Why Are We Sleeping?" (from The Soft Machine, 1968)

2. Gong — "A Sprinkling of Clouds" (live somewhere in the UK, 1974 from the Gong Appreciation Society tape You Do Have to Give Up Dope)

3. Steve Hillage — "Canterbury Sunrise" → "Hiram Afterglid Meets the Dervish" (from Fish Rising, 1975)

4. The Wilde Flowers — "Impotence" (from The Wilde Flowers compilation, 1994)

5. Caravan — "Hello Hello" (first single, 1968 — wrong! see below...)

6. Caravan — "Place of My Own" (from Caravan, 1968)

7. Kevin Ayers — "Singing a Song in the Morning" (first solo single, 1969)

8. Kevin Ayers — "Lady Rachel" (from Joy of a Toy, 1969)

9. The Wilde Flowers — "Parchman Farm" (from The Wilde Flowers compilation, 1994)

10. Egg — "Symphony 2: Movement 4" (from Egg, 1970)

11. Arzachel (Uriel) — "The Garden of Earthly Delights" (from Arzachel, 1969)

12. Syd Arthur — "Secrets of the Planet Soul" (from Kingdoms of Experience EP, 2008)

13. Syd Arthur + The Quartet — "Facelift" (recorded live at Orange Street Music Club, Canterbury 2010-05-01)

14. Soft Machine — "Love Makes Sweet Music" (first single, 1967)

15. Soft Machine interview (BBC? 1966 or 1967?)

16. Hatfield and the North — "Calyx" → "Son of 'There's No Place Like Homerton'" (from Hatfield and the North, 1974)

17. Spirogyra — "Cogwheels, Crutches and Cyanide" (from St. Radigunds, 1971)

18. The Daevid Allen Trio — "Capacity Travel" (from Live 1963, released 1993)

19. Robert Wyatt — "To Caravan and Brother Jim" (from The End of an Ear, 1970)

20. Matching Mole — "Dedicated to Hugh But You Weren't Listening" → "Beer as in Braindeer" (from Matching Mole, 1972)

21. Hugh Hopper — "Minipax I" (from 1984, 1972)

22. Gorky's Zygotic Mynci — "Why Are We Sleeping?" (from Llanfwrog EP, 1995)

23. Kevin Ayers — "Ballbearing Blues" (from The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories, 1974)

[voiceover ambience: Soft Machine — "Out-Bloody-Rageous" (from Third, 1970)]

Errata: In this episode I'm in error about the date of that version of The Wilde Flowers' "Impotence". This turns out to have been recorded, post-Wildflowers, on August 6th, 1969, in a London studio, some of the members (plus Mike Ratledge on organ) having decided to revisit some of their old repertoire. "Parchman Farm" was taken from a session which took place at Wout Steenhuis' studio in Broadstairs, Kent on 16th March 1965. More detail on all this here. I'm also completely wrong about "Hello Hello" — this was Caravan's second single, the first having been "Place of My Own" in 1968. "Hello Hello" wasn't released until August 1970 and did feature on an album (their second one). I don't know how I missed that!