Uncut The Ultimate Music Guide - November 2019

PROG
OGG ROCK
OC
T H E A R C H I V E C O L L E C T I O N
“PRETENTIOUS?
I CAN’T SEE IT”
40
GREATEST
“A FLASH
OF MAGIC”
PROG
50 YEARS OF
KING
ALBUMS
ELP
ON TOUR
CRIMSON
GENESIS
“WE GET OFF
ON FANTASY!”
“A GOOD
CONCEPT”
PINK
IN-DEPTH
FLOYD
...AND THE FULL STORY
PLUS!
YES
MOODY BLUES
JETHRO TULL
OF ’70s PROG ROCK CARAVAN
REVIEWS VAN DER GRAAF
GENERATOR
SOFT MACHINE
CLASSIC
ARCHIVE AFTERWORD BY
FEATURES ROGER DEAN
GATEFOLDS | CONCEPTS | COLLECTABLE PROG | FLUTE SOLOS
FROM THE MAKERS OF
JOE STEVENS
PROG ROCK
Welcome back
my friendsÉ
S
TRANGE to relate, since prog is one idiom range of influences beyond rock’s traditional base in
where he’s never set foot, but a decisive rhythm’n’blues. Literary inspirations. Classical
figure in the music’s development is motifs. While a listener’s mind wandered into the
Mick Jagger. This isn’t so much for his fantastic landscape of a Roger Dean sleeve, musicians
encouragement of King Crimson – who stretched themselves into strange new shapes beyond
appeared with The Rolling Stones at Hyde Park in the map of traditional songs. You engage with a prog
1969. More because for many of the musicians who LP less like a record and more like a book: prepared for
would come to define this music over the next a journey, and expecting the unexpected. No wonder
decade, Jagger represented the apogee of a traditional it was a genre that thrived on the university circuit.
rock showmanship to which they could never aspire. In this latest addition to our Ultimate Genre Guide
These instead were people with different musical series, you can read about the birth of UK prog
ambitions and inspirations, but no less determination rock (in prog’s house there are many mansions, but
– even if the traditional exchange between star here we will concentrate on the UK golden age, 1968-
and audience was not for them. It might be hard to 1978, so no Focus, no Rush, no Marillion, and no
reconcile with the fox head, the batwings and the angry emails please) from the most musically
makeup, but in his theatrical fronting of the classic accomplished end of the psychedelic movement
Genesis lineup in 1973 Peter Gabriel was, in fact, at the end of the 1960s, to its mutation
retreating from the limelight. into vaguely complex radio-friendly
With their masks and strong visual rock (Genesis), into scary new
presentation, prog musicians accommodated shapes (King Crimson) or benign
their perceived shortcomings as entertainers, revisiting of old glories (Yes).
and in so doing gave a powerful identity
d to In addition to the classic
this new and expansive music. c. Im
Imprisoned interviews collected here, you’ll
behind keyboards, Rick Wakemanem (right) also find deep engagement with
embraced capes. As their work rk
kmmoved the main players in substantial
away from songs and towardss d dynamic new career reviews. You’ll find a
instrumental suites, our coverr stars,
s rewarding trip to the wilds of
Pink Floyd, retreated from their
eiir record the Soft Machine catalogue,
sleeves and, live, hid behind a series a guided tour of the double
of disorientating projections. entendre-filled world of
When they launched The Dark Caravan and a moving and
Side Of The Moon at the insightful view of the career of
RICHARD E. AARON/REDFERNS
London Planetarium, they Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

didn’t even turn up, which You’ll also enjoy debating the
articulated their position contents of our Top 40 prog
rather well. albums list, all of which stand
What was important was up to scrutiny today. It’s the show
the music, and this now at never ends… l
that
accommodated a huge new JOHN ROBINSON, EDITOR
ULTIMATE GENRE GUIDE | 3

CONTENTS
NT Van Der Graaf
Generator,
Paris, May 25,
1974: (l-r) Peter
Hammill, Hugh
Banton, Guy
Evans, David
Jackson
Mike Ratledge with

the Soft Machine,
Amougies Festival,
Belgium, October 1969;
(below) Mike Oldfield
on Hergest Ridge,
Herefordshire, 1974
6THE MOODY
BLUES
1967: a Brummie outfit rejects the
becomes king of the
concept album
club scene and suits for classical

motifs, Mellotrons and kaftans as
the Summer Of Love begins
38 CLASSIC
INTERVIEW!
“I’m writing
things I can’t
10 CLASSIC INTERVIEW!
“We had to rethink
the whole scene…”
play…”
With America catching
on, the Tull up their game 92 CLASSIC INTERVIEW!
“I’m going through
The Moody Blues stay ahead of the as sartorially challenged a bad phase”
game with their heady progressive
pop to escape the “singles rat race”
flautist Ian Anderson charts the rise
of his prog-folk supergroup 62 THE TOP 40 PROG
ROCK ALBUMS
1968-1978
Defying the curse of The Exorcist,
cash registers are ringing around
the world for the shy and intense
14KING CRIMSON
Robert Fripp and his 42SOFT MACHINE
Psychedelia, prog,
Magical musical worlds, from
Atomic Rooster and Camel to
multi-instrumentalist
basement visionaries bring shock

and awe – and a stunning debut
rock and jazz fusion, a tinge of
absurdism and a multi-talented
Family, Wishbone Ash and beyond
96GENESIS A band of English public
album – to ’70s rock drumming songwriter
66 VAN DER GRAAF
GENERATOR
schoolboys frolic on the playing
fields of their vivid imaginations
“What do we do?
Stop pushing ahead?”
“We’re a
very unplanned group”
A cult in England, big in Europe,
the intense and singular misfits
became generally much loved – 100 CLASSIC INTERVIEW!
“I’m excited
As King Crimson become Soft Machine’s Robert Wyatt on even by punks by the visual aspect”
a sensation in the UK underground, bridging the jazz-rock divide Special effects, silly costumes,
a US tour nearly breaks them
50CARAVAN 70 CLASSIC INTERVIEW!

“There’s one epic
grand ambitions: America beckons
as Peter Gabriel and co stand on the
24 EMERSON, LAKE
& PALMER
The Canterbury
Scene begins with an eclectic
work which lasts 25
minutes lying around
cusp of global fame and fortune
Classical, jazz and beyond!

A trio indifferent to blues rock
bunch of musical explorers somewhere”
Peter Hamill describes the tubulent 108YES A mass of ideas and
stay faithful to their heritage,
only to become a keyboard- 54 GONG
Fusion
beginnings of his visionary but
restless group
a career on the edge

PHILIPPE GRAS/ALAMY; IAN DICKSON/GETTY; MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY (2)
stabbing prog behemoth anarchists, flying
“English
teapots, cosmic
jesters and
surrealist
76 PINK FLOYD
Prog goes stadium, with
sonic innovations, mighty concepts,
“We’re a
people’s band”
Yes mania engulfs the States as Jon
bands tend to be adventures in side-long song suites, amazing Anderson and Rick Wakeman speak
more theatrical” sound artwork and dramatic visuals out from the eye of the storm
ELP perfect their own
atmosphere and scale
the pinnacle of rock
theatrics – with the
58
“Maybe
CLASSIC
INTERVIEW! 80 CLASSIC INTERVIEW!
“The dark side is
inside people’s heads”
118 MISCELLANY
Prog tropes and the
Top 20 most collectable prog
help of 100 roadies! the next album, Neuroses, paranoia and pressure: albums, from King Crimson to
no pot-head 1973 sees one of the greatest concept Gentle Giant
34JETHRO
TULL
pixies…”
Gong blow minds in
albums of all time
122I WAS THERE...

Hopping between
genres, the one-legged
bearded minstrel
France, as they examine
individual growth and their
ever-changing modes
88 MIKE OLDFIELD
Tubular Bells and the
making of a reluctant superstar
Legendary prog sleeve
artist Roger Dean on Hipgnosis,
Syd Barrett and working with Yes
4 | ULTIMATE GENRE GUIDE

DE
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PROG
THE
MOODY
BLUES
Destination: “enlightenment”. Third eyes open, a Birmingham band reject the
club scene for classical motifs and religious overtones. By Nigel Williamson
O
NE night in early 1967, The that was about to become the sound of 1967.
Moody Blues were playing Shortly after, keyboard player Mike Pinder
a godforsaken cabaret club purchased a second-hand Mellotron. In
in Newcastle. Dressed in the early 1960s Pinder had worked for
frightful matching blue suits, the manufacturer, Streetly Electronics
they were feeling utterly dispirited. It had in Birmingham, and allegedly found the
been two years since they had hit No 1 with machine unloved and unused in the working
“Go Now” and they had failed to chart since. men’s club at Dunlop’s Birmingham factory.
Their dejection turned to despair when, A mechanically complex instrument
after a lacklustre show, an unhappy punter that used a system of pre-recorded tapes
barged his way into the backstage closet to create an atmospheric quasi-orchestral
that served as a dressing room and told sound, the Mellotron opened up new
them they were the worst band he had possibilities in symphonic pop. Psych
ever seen. Recognising a degree of truth was about to become prog.
in the complaint, guitarist Justin Hayward The Beatles had recently hired a Mellotron
burst into tears. for use on “‘Strawberry Fields Forever”, and
Yet it proved to be not only a turning point its trippy, swooning textures would soon
in The Moody Blues’ fortunes but also a become a key prog motif in the hands of
catalytic moment in the development of Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Genesis, Yes
what would soon come to be known as and others. However, few mastered the
progressive rock. notoriously temperamental instrument
With the Summer Of Love about to burst better than Pinder, and The Moody Blues put
forth in all its tie-dyed glory, the suits were the Mellotron at the heart of their next single,
mothballed and replaced by beads and “Love And Beauty”, and their debut album,
kaftans. More significantly, the group Days Of Future Passed, which they spent
underwent a complete musical rethink. much of the summer of 1967 recording.
Within weeks, Hayward’s “Fly Me High” By the time of its release, Sgt Pepper’s
was released as The Moody Blues’ next Lonely Hearts Club Band and Pink Floyd’s
single. A barely coded drug song (“I’m up to The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn had
the eyes and I love everyone”), it didn’t chart already dramatically changed the musical
but the group took encouragement from a landscape. Yet Days Of Future Passed
renewed sense of purpose on an engaging aspired to a higher ambition. As executive
early example of the psychedelic acid-pop producer Hugh Mendl wrote in the

THE MOODY BLUES
DAYS OF FUTURE ON THE THRESHOLD A QUESTION SEVENTH SOJOURN

PASSED OF A DREAM OF BALANCE THRESHOLD, 1972
DERAM, 1967 DERAM, 1969 THRESHOLD, 1970 5/10
9/10 7/10 6/10
OCTAVE
IN SEARCH OF TO OUR CHILDREN’S EVERY GOOD BOY DECCA, 1978
THE LOST CHORD CHILDREN’S DESERVES FAVOUR 6/10
DERAM, 1968 CHILDREN THRESHOLD, 1971
8/10 THRESHOLD, 1969 5/10
6/10

PROG
G
album’s liner notes: “The Moody Blues established as The Moody

have at last done what many others have Blues’ signature sound.
dreamed of and talked about: they have Bookended by Edge’s
extended the range of pop music, and found poetry, the 10 songs
the point where it becomes one with the were heavily influenced
world of the classics.” by the band’s own LSD
Looking for a project to test new experimentation, seeming to
developments in stereophonic sound, follow the lysergic arc of an
Decca had initially suggested that the acid trip, from the initial rush
Moodies record an album for rock band and of “Ride My See-Saw” to the
orchestra, based on Dvorak’s New World closing transcendence of the
Symphony (a melody from which would sitar-laden “Om”, via the
later form the basis of “Voices In The Sky” dreamy “Voices In The Sky”
on their next album). and “The Best Way To Travel”,
In the event, the band brought their own on which Pinder took us
compositions to the project, a set of songs “speeding through the universe”
built around the concept of a day in the life as his Mellotron scaled new
of everyman and which borrowed from heights of invention. Four
Fouur Tops to cov
cover,
ver wwhile
hile
Indian raga the notion that each piece of The centrepiece, though, was Ha
Hayward’s “Never Comes
music should reflect a different time of day. “Legend Of A Mind”, a glorious The Day” and “Are You Sitting
With Peter Knight conducting the London tribute to LSD’s high priest Timothy Comfortably” stand among his
Com
Festival Orchestra and material contributed Leary that ended in an ecstatic finest yearning prog ballads.
fine
by all five band members – Hayward, hallucinogenic rave-up with the Mellotron The climax, though, was Pinder’s
Th
Pinder, bassist John Lodge, flautist Ray panning from one speaker to the other: epic
epi ic closing
cl “Have You Heard/The Voyage”
Thomas and drummer-poet Graeme Edge “He’ll fly the astral plane/Takes you trips Late bloom: sequence. Another celebration of lysergic
Moody Blues
– the group fused spoken-word poetry, around the bay/Brings you back the same reunited liberation, it ended with a Ligeti-like drone
orchestral interludes and sweeping ballads day/Timothy Leary.” (below, from the Mellotron – or rather didn’t end, as
minus Mike
into a cohesive entity in which you couldn’t You didn’t have to be on acid to enjoy the Pinder), 1978 the original vinyl LP continued the sound
see the join. Culminating in the epic trip, but it sure as hell helped, as Pinder into the run-out groove and carried on
“Nights In White Satin”, the world’s first freely admitted. “Listening to music, you playing until the needle was lifted, an
concept-driven, symphonic prog-rock enjoy it most when you’re in a meditative effect sadly lost on CD transfer.
album had arrived. state and I think the drug influence was able At the 1969 Isle Of Wight Festival, The
Over the next five years, Days Of Future to put you into that state instantly,” he said. Moody Blues were in their cosmic pomp
Passed was followed by six further albums While lacking the holistic quality of and video footage of their performance
of cosmic troubadourism in earnest pursuit its predecessor, …Threshold Of A Dream, finds them damn near stealing the show
of the meaning of life and man’s place in released just nine months later, was almost with a bewitching Saturday-evening set
the universe. as good. In a neat reversal of the American full of acid vibes that “charmed the loon
The high tide of their hallucinogenically R&B steals that had provided the Moodies pants off the crowd” with a spectacular
inspired vision came on In Search Of The with their pre-prog repertoire, “So Deep sunset as the backdrop.
Lost Chord (1968) and On The Threshold Within You” was a good enough song for the However, the backlash was about to hit.
Of A Dream (1969), a brace of classic ‘head’ To Our Children’s Children’s Children (1969)
albums that retain a special place in the was heavily inspired by the Apollo 11 moon
acid-fried minds of those taking their first
LSD trips at the time.
In the group’s quest for landing, without capturing the zeitgeist in
the way that “Space Oddity” did, while A
ANDRE CSILLAG/SHUTTERSTOCK
On In Search Of The Lost Chord the

symphony orchestra was replaced by the
mind-expanding Question Of Balance (1970) gave the Moodies
their biggest hit single since “Go Now” with
band’s own multi-instrumental eclecticism, profundity, many of the the bombastic “Question”, which Hayward
as harpsichord, cello, autoharp, tambura,
sitar, flute, saxophone, oboe and French lyrics now inevitably claimed he had written as a protest against
the Vietnam War.
horn were added to the dominance of
Pinder’s Mellotron, by now firmly
come across as kitsch Yet the group’s existential pontificating
was becoming repetitive and their florid
songs increasingly formulaic and flabby.
Prog-rock pioneers The Moody Blues
may have been, but after the initial boldness
of their experiments with orchestra
and Mellotron, there was not a great deal
of musical progression after 1970 as the
acid-laced beauty and sonic adventure
of their imperial phase gave way to syrup
and saccharine.
Alongside a new generation of prog
bands whom they had helped to inspire,
The Moody Blues no longer sounded
progressive but safe, unchallenging and so
conservatively non-abrasive that it smacked
of artistic cowardice. The experimentations
of King Crimson seemed bolder, the visions
of Yes more epic and ELP were brasher and
more bombastic if you liked your prog-rock
with added pomp and circumstance.
The band seemed to have sensed they
were approaching some sort of crisis. Critics
– never the band’s most faithful friends –

Going from
florid to
formulaic:
the Moodies
ive in 1970
were now openly sneering. The “Pseudy

Blues” was one, admittedly pretty good,
popular nickname while Rolling Stone
called them the “Sistine Chapel of popular
music”, implying that the rococo decoration
well in order in a place of worship had no
place in a rock band. Yet while they teetered
on the brink of the ridiculous – they had
in their time quoted from The Tibetan Book
Of The Dead and Descartes and featured
lyrics about “the secrets of our souls” – there
was something noble about the earnestness
of their quest.
“We wanted to collect religious and
psychedelic influences onto an album
and turn them into a pathway into
enlightenment,” Hayward admitted many
years later. “As young men, that’s what we
were searching for.”
It hasn’t all dated well. In the group’s quest
for mind-expanding profundity and desire
to spread a New Age gospel of spiritual
questing, many of the lyrics now inevitably reconnect the band with After Octave, former Yes
A
simply come across as kitsch. “He saw more terrestrial concerns keyboardist
ke Patrick Moraz replaced
magnificent perfection, whereon he thought when he wrote the Pinder,
Piin who refused to tour, and the
of himself in balance, and he knew he was,” perception-correcting sound was updated with electronic
so
recited in portentous biblical tones by a “I’m Just A Singer (In A drums and synths. It wasn’t the
dru
bloke who a few years earlier had ripped Rock’n’Roll Band)”, the same without the Mellotron, but
sam
it up in a green satin suit in a rock’n’roll closing song on Seventh albums such as Long Distance Voyager
alb
combo called El Riot & The Rebels, was Sojourn. The album was (1981) and The Other Side Of Life
(19
always asking for trouble. followed by six years of (1986) added to their tally of 10
(19
Yet it was still a very serious business. radio silence. platinum
plla albums and helped
Some Moodies devotees saw them as Few expected the group to boost sales past 70 million,
bo
prophets whose songs held the key to return from its abdication, a fi
figure only exceeded
enlightenment and a higher consciousness. especially after Pinder emigrated among prog fellow
am
One female fan camped out in flautist Ray to America and Hayward and travellers by Pink Floyd.
tra
Thomas’s garden for weeks, begging him to Lodge teamed up as a duo to With a disarming lack of
W
father her child, who was going to be the record the highly successful 1975 iirony,
ron
n one of their biggest-
new messiah. On another occasion, a male album Blue Jays and the Top 10 selling later songs was
sell
fan got backstage and asked members of the single “Blue Guitar”. titled “Veteran Cosmic
title
band to lay hands on him in the belief that Raw from losing The Rolling Stones, Rocker”, while in their dotage
Rock
their blessing would enable him to leave his Decca was desperate for new ‘product’ the band
b took to hosting an
body and permit God to enter his soul. from the biggest-selling act on its roster. By annual Moody Blues Cruise on
annu
Unsurprisingly, a disillusionment with 1977, under considerable record company which ffans joined them for a musical sea
this kind of thing, and the music that pressure, all five members were cajoled, voyage around the Caribbean. If it wasn’t
prompted it, becomes a discernible feature bullied, bribed or otherwise persuaded into quite a trip around the astral plane, it
PICTORIAL PRESS LTD / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
of their seventh and eighth albums. True reuniting. Pinder was the most reluctant offered a comfortably plush substitute.
enough, they still preyed on classical music and declined to return to Britain, so the In recent years an extensive programme
Asking fewer
(“Isn’t Life Strange” drew inspiration from band travelled to California to record. questions: of expanded and remastered reissues of
Pachelbel’s Canon In D), and both Every The eruption of punk ostensibly made (top, l–r) their 1967–72 canon has resulted in a partial
Graeme
Good Boy Deserves Favour (1971) and it an inopportune time for a Moody Blues Edge, Ray re-evaluation of their influence, although
Seventh Sojourn (1972) went to No 1. But comeback, yet 1978’s Octave was welcomed Thomas, their perceived pomposity has remained
Mike Pinder,
times in a small way were changing. “The by conservative fans with surprising Justin a stumbling block to anything more
Story In Your Eyes” single was their last fervour. Over the next decade the group Hayward substantial. Half a century on, The Moody
and John
to feature their signature Mellotron. went on to sell as many records as ever. It Lodge in the Blues remain the last great unrehabilitated
Meanwhile John Lodge attempted to was as if ‘year zero’ had never happened. early 1970s band of the prog era. ●

MOODY BLUES
“We had
to rethink
the whole
scene”
Cabaret is dead, but albums and exotic
philosophies are thriving. THE MOODY BLUES
move with the times, “coining it” on the
Continent and attracting huge but nefarious
crowds with their heady “progressive pop”.
“We wanted to get out of the singles rat race,”
says Mike Pinder. “We didn’t want to record
singles we didn’t believe in.”
NME AUGUST 31, 1968 “Voices In The Sky”, enters the singles
“CABARET is the chart this week at No 27.
graveyard of the Graeme and lead singer Justin Hayward
fallen pop groups popped round to the office to drag me out
and we didn’t want for a drink where we talked about their
to stick there and developments and plans. “Justin and John
die.” So says Moody had breakdowns during the cabaret,”
Blues drummer Graeme told me. “There’s nothing worse
Graeme Edge than playing music you don’t believe in to
explaining the northern audiences who aren’t interested.
outfit’s change of policy. From the days of “If we had stuck it, the group wouldn’t
loud, raucous straight pop numbers like have lasted until Christmas. We had to
“Bye Bye Bird”, the Moodies have turned stop and rethink the whole scene.”
PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
into a forward-looking and highly creative There was a 12-month integration period
group who are earning much praise from for Justin and John after they joined the
the people who know. group, during which time Justin had to
A few weeks ago, The Moody Blues come together with four natives of
played a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Birmingham who, he found, thought
Hall and gave everyone a nice surprise differently from him musically.
with their musical talent and abilities. “It was a gradual thing,” he explained.
Now, their near-perfect album In Search “Graeme played me his type of records
Of The Lost Chord is climbing the NME and I played him folk, things like Simon &
LP chart and a track from the album, Garfunkel albums that he had never

On the threshold:
The Moody Blues in
September 1968 –
(l–r) Mike Pinder,
John Lodge,
Graeme Edge,
Justin Hayward
and Ray Thomas

MOODY BLUES
heard before. In the end, we realised that we dug

each other’s music and after that, things were
much easier.”
The Moodies first discovered that they were all
on the same wavelength while traveling back
from a gig in their van one day. “John and Mike
and I were sitting in one corner and Justin and
Ray were over the other side talking and banging
things,” Graeme said. “Suddenly, we all got
together and discovered we had all been thinking
along the same lines. There was a big upsurge
and in about 14 days, everyone had written songs
and we were getting things together.
“We were managing ourselves during the
cabaret period and things were getting very, very
naughty. On the Continent we’re coining it and we
always have been. There, they think that if you
haven’t had a hit at home for a time it’s because
you’ve been busy playing all the time.
“In England, we were just a has-been group as far
as people were concerned. The ballroom scene is
dead, it doesn’t mean a thing any more. We’d like to
do some concerts but it’s
difficult knowing who to have
on the bill. At the Queen
Elizabeth Hall, I don’t think
people really knew much
about the harpist.”
Justin and Graeme, sipping
alternate pints and whiskies,
were both agreed that the The for months, being bought by other thoughtful,
single scene is not generally acquisition of sensitive people who gradually pick up the
for the Moodies. Justin a Mellotron good vibrations.
explained why. “If you get a was another
w But the giants are waking! When they fly to
hit single, you have to follow iimportant move America in October it is likely they will emerge
it,” he began. “The last one ffor The Moody from their musical cocoon with the kind of status
got to around No 20; that was Blues. “We spent
B which is now enjoyed by the Cream, Donovan and
OK because it kept our name all our food
a Jimi Hendrix.
around, but it’s no good money on it,”
m Having enjoyed the company and conversation
going into the studio and Graeme recalled of both Justin Hayward and Graeme Edge, I went
being told to play for three minutes. You can’t with a smile. “Mike used to work for the company looking for two of the ‘invisible’ Moodies multi-
expect to do a good job that way. that makes Mellotron, so he took it all to pieces instrumentalists – vocalists Mike Pinder and Ray
“This single will probably help the LP and vice and did lots of things to it. They’re very delicate Thomas – who hide out in the district of Esher.
versa. Disc jockeys are more likely to play it than and you have to be careful how you treat them. Just occasionally you become involved with
select a track for themselves.” “Once, the tapes got mixed up inside... It’s a refreshingly gifted people in this business who
Days Of Future Passed, the Moodies’ last album, two-day job at the factory to sort them out, but turn an interview into a pleasant afternoon of
sold well in America and is now enjoying a rerun Mike did it on stage with a bent coat hanger and dangling conversations and good sounds.
due to the single success of “Tuesday Afternoon”, a screwdriver in three-quarters of an hour!” And so it was with Mr Pinder and Mr Thomas,
which was released there following many requests. On the new album, the Moodies play 30 who filled the lounge with the sounds of “Hey
So impressed was he by the LP that veteran jazz instruments, but Graeme admitted that they can’t Jude” in stereo and the late ‘hip comedian’ Lord
star Stan Kenton has invited the boys to perform play half that number properly. What they do, it Buckley, who holds the key to just what those
the entire work with his band at the Hollywood seems, is to hire whatever they need for the mystifying lyrics from McCartney are really
Bowl in the autumn. Now In Search Of The Lost session and fiddle around until the sound they about. We drank tea and become absorbed in
Chord is doing very nicely over here and the group want is produced. “Mike has a way of bouncing discussion of yoga, Aldous Huxley and the “Life
are already thinking ahead to their next album. the bow across the bass and when we record it Force” about which we all know very little except
“We’d like to do a musical,” Justin said. “It will and put all the tracks on it, it sounds like a whole that we should know more.
take some working out to do it without the visual row of musicians,” Graeme revealed. “We don’t We sat drinking tea and playing at pop stars
scene, but it’s what we’ve been thinking about. mind cheating sometimes.” and reporters – just generally enjoying
I think it’s important to have a theme running If cheating produces things like this album, ourselves… and that, friends, is the secret of
through an album, a thread to hang it all on.” perhaps there should be a bit more of it going on. the Moodies’ success.
They have been commissioned to write the RICHARD GREEN “Two-and-a-half years ago we shut the factory
scores for two major films and it is quite possible down and almost broke up when Denny Laine,
that the soundtracks will be released as albums, NME SEPTEMBER 28, 1968 our vocalist, left,” said Mike. “What stopped us
which could see the Moodies in the unusual THE Moody Blues are the was finding two people like John and Justin, who
position of having three LPs out simultaneously! sleeping giants of the pop were so much on the same wavelength as us.
“…Lost Chord is our personal feelings,” Graeme world. They seldom seem to From that point on we just started doing things
GAB ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
said. “The tracks are by different people and make a dramatic impact that we really believe in – things that we really
reflect their thoughts. We wrote it at the time upon the charts, but create enjoyed like Days Of Future Past.
when The Beatles were with the Maharishi. I significant best-selling “It’s not completely an accident when you find
think they expected too much from him, they albums and thoughtful, yourself successfully doing something that you
were looking for a miracle. sensitive singles, like like. If you really enjoy what you are doing, the
“At the time, everyone was getting involved in “Voices In The Sky”, which effort is that much more and the work, therefore,
false religions and false philosophies.” meander about the lower regions of the Top 30 that much better. The mental release is greater.

lived through in musical terms. I mean, if I was I noticed rain clouds gathering. In a next-door
really pretentious I’d go down and try and walk garden an old man with a white beard was
on the Serpentine or something. In Search Of The banging a couple of bits of wood together. But
Lost Chord is just simply an adventure in mind no, it couldn’t have been. KEITH ALTHAM
really. There are a lot of critics who put the most
fantastic interpretations on what we do, but it’s MELODY MAKER OCTOBER 19, 1968
made worthwhile by just the few who find what GIVE a hand to Five Wise
we put there. Men of the music scene,
“One of the most distressing things about the who’ve come bearing rare
misrepresentation over the album has been that album gifts that have
some people have got the impression we are a lot certainly paid off big
of drug addicts. We go over to Europe and these dividends to discerning
guys come at us rolling up their sleeves to show us listeners. And, incidentally,
the needle marks as if it were some kind of badge! big dividends to them.
An admission to the club! There are a lot of ‘lurky’ They’re Mike Pinder,
people who sidle up to you and whisper, ‘Wanna Graeme Edge, Ray Thomas, John Lodge and Justin
drug?’ because you are in a pop group and into Hayward. Collectively known as the Moody Blues.
things they cannot understand. That’s very sad. The Moody Blues blazed their success trail on
“See that photograph of my girl on the the single charts scene with “Go Now” and
mantlepiece?” asked Ray suddenly. “Two daddy- “Nights In White Satin”. Both topped a million in
long-legs appeared on that last night. We get sales. But now the Moodies are concentrating
a lot in here. That mark on the floor over there more and more on albums. And have rung the
was a monster spider; took three swipes of Life bell here, too. Their Days Of Future Passed has
magazine to kill that one!’’ already sold 132,000 in America, In Search Of The
“On the same
wavelength”: The Moody Blues have, of course, established Lost Chord – although only recently released in
the post-Denny for themselves a very strong following on the the States – has hit the 100,000 mark, and is
Laine lineup with
Hayward and Continent and had only recently returned from a similarly a Top 10 LP rider in Britain, where it has
Lodge, circa 1968 concert just outside Paris which was attended by sold over 35,000,
300,000 people. Not that the Moodies have turned their backs on
“It was really a bit frightening,” said Mike. “I’d singles. Their latest is “Voices In The Sky”. But the
“Days Of Future Past was really a challenge, never seen so many people in my life. There was sights are set on the album market, for this, think
but it was something that we had always hoped an exhibition on there as well which included the Moody Blues, is where the way to progress lies.
would secretly happen. We shut ourselves away some items from the Vietnam war, including an “We wanted to get out of the singles rat race,”
in the studios for 15 days, until it became our American pilot’s jacket riddled with bullets. That says Mike Pinder. “We didn’t want to record
domain and what came out was what we thought was frightening too and a bit grisly.” singles we didn’t believe in. This didn’t apply to
we could do. What we did was really a diary of our The Moodies now await their American tour ‘Go Now.’ At the time we recorded it – three years
experiences and ideas at that time – I’m sure with interest and hope they will be received as ago – it wasn’t a commercial song in the
that’s how The Beatles and the Stones work now. well ‘live’ as they have on record. They admit commercial sense. But we wanted to write down
It’s really all a ‘day in the life of …’. that live appearances are not too important to our own stuff and develop more.” Hence the
“There was a time when I think The Rolling them now, although the travelling is the greatest Moodies’ concentration on the album scene.
Stones were living in the shadows of The Beatles, hang-up. “Once we’re on stage we find we’re “The album market is growing on a worldwide
about the period when they brought out ‘We Love enjoying ourselves!” scale,” says Mike. “Sales in America particularly
You’, which followed Lennon and McCartney’s Leaving the Moodies house after a very are phenomenal. And they’re growing here, too,
‘All You Need Is Love’. Then they did that Satanic pleasant afternoon’s chat – it got so pleasant that with the increasing sales of stereo equipment.
Majesties album, which didn’t really seem to be I’m not exactly sure which quote was which, but “Sales of stereo records are now up to about 30
them, but they’ve come right back to themselves then I think that both Mike and Ray think along per cent in Britain. In America, stereo accounts
now with ‘…Jack Flash’, which is their real selves. the same lines, so perhaps they will forgive me – for 60 per cent of the album market. I think LPs
These are examples of what I was saying about are really better value than singles. And people
doing the thing they do best by doing what they are buying them more because they are fed up
really like, which is our scene, too!”
Ray arrived at the interview straight from his “THERE ARE A LOT with the same old sounds they get on singles.
“Albums give us a chance to experiment with
long run up the River Mole, where he had been OF ‘LURKY’ PEOPLE new ideas. And buyers realise they offer more
hooking a few chub and perch. Fishing is a big
thing down there at present and DJ David WHO SIDLE UP TO than just music to dance to. They can sit down
and listen – get away on a trip of musical
Symonds is just one of the friends who are often YOU AND WHISPER, exploration. People like The Beatles and the
with them on the banks. From more recent
reports I understand that Mike and Ray have been ‘WANNA DRUG?’” Stones have appreciated this.”
The Moody Blues are not bugged with any
able to fish from the mantlepiece, but that’s
another story to be saved for a rainy day!
RAY THOMAS problems of recreating their studio sound “live”.
“We’re very successful on stage,” adds Mike.
We took up the subject of progressive pop and “We get very near to our recorded sound.”
their new album – In Search Of The Lost Chord, They’re so involved with their musical approach
and was it possible for people to overemphasise these days, in fact, that they are not even
the intellectual importance of pop music? concerned that they probably passed up a chance
“We’d never put down people for playing ‘Wild to make a single that has now hit No 1 in the chart.
Thing’ or ‘Bend it’,” said Ray. “It’s just that we’ve To wit: “Those Were The Days”.
been through all those scenes – we’ve had a top “We were playing second on the bill with The
pop with ‘Go Now’. We don’t want to deliberately Beatles on their last tour of Britain,” recalls Mike.
B
go out to make commercial music any more. I’d ““Paul came into our dressing room and showed
rather have the good opinion of one person, us this song. We liked it – but never got around to
u
whose musical opinion I respect, than a load of rrecording it.”
commercial rubbish at No 1. A trifle lucky, perhaps, for Miss Mary Hopkin
“I don’t think that we are musically pretentious. tthat the Moody Blues didn’t jump in first when
Mike has already said that we do what we have tthey had the chance! l LAURIE HENSHAW

PROG
KING
CRIMSON
Amid much fanfare, a bunch of basement visionaries knock the crown of ’70s rock
askew. An odyssey of blown minds and ever-shifting goalposts ensues. By Sid Smith
I
N the early days of January 1969, wanted to be the best band in the world. It
London’s weather was prone to sleet. might have seemed laughable, but everyone
Understandably Robert Fripp, Michael that made the trek down the Fulham
Giles, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald and Palace Road quickly found out that these
their roadie/lyricist Peter Sinfield were pretenders to the throne really could play
keen to get out of the cold as they lugged exceptionally well – and as “21st Century
their equipment, including a Mellotron that Schizoid Man” ably demonstrated, with the
took four people to lift, down into the new kind of dramatic precision that could knock
rehearsal room located by Sinfield a week their elders into the ground like so many tent
earlier. In that cramped space underneath pegs. If “…Schizoid Man” caught the violent
the Fulham Palace Road Café, they tinkered immediacy of its geopolitical surroundings
with cover versions that sometimes included as America and the Soviet Union fought
“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” and Joni proxy wars in Asia against the backdrop of
Mitchell’s “Michael From Mountains” as the moon landing, the portentous “Epitaph”,
well as nascent original material. wreathed in funereal Mellotron and Greg
At this point they’d only been together a Lake’s impassioned vocal, looked at the
matter of weeks, with Lake the last to join. longer-term prospects of a future generation
While Fripp, Giles and Lake had all worked and offered a pessimistic assessment.
on the West Country music scene in and In the following weeks a small stampede
around Bournemouth, Ian McDonald had of record companies beat a path to the
only recently returned from overseas where basement seeking to sign up this new act.
he’d been stationed as a bandsman in the Bands such as Yes and Genesis, Pink Floyd,
British army. As they searched for a name The Moody Blues and others watched in
as well as a distinctive musical identity, jaw-dropped amazement whenever
Sinfield came up with King Crimson, from Crimson gigged. Jimi Hendrix was spotted
one of his poems that had been kicking dancing around the tables at the back of the
around for a year or so and Ian McDonald Revolution club loudly shouting that “this
had just memorably set to music. is the best band in the world”, famously
It was a grand gesture of a name, a going up to the young guitarist from
declaration of intent and ambition by a band Wimborne in Dorset asking to shake his
of unknown nobodies punching way above hand. Some groups, such as Vertigo act
their weight. But a few more rehearsals Gracious, were so intimidated by the sheer,
down the line, this group decided they relentless musicality that, rather than

KING CRIMSON
IN THE COURT IN THE WAKE LIZARD ISLANDS LARKS’ STARLESS AND RED
OF THE OF POSEIDON 1970, ISLAND ISLAND, 1971 TONGUES IN BIBLE BLACK ISLAND, 1974
CRIMSON KING ISLAND, 1970 6/10 7/10 ASPIC ISLAND, 1974 9/10
ISLAND, 1969 8/10 ISLAND, 1973 7/10
9/10 8/10

PROG
follow King Crimson on stage at a show in Michael Giles announced their intention to (l-r) John Wetton,
the provinces, they deliberately poured a quit at the end of the American trip. The David Cross,
Robert Fripp and Bill
pint of beer onto their power supply in order quintet’s dazzling, meteoric career from Bruford in the Larks’
to spare their blushes. start to finish had lasted a magical 335 days Tongues/Starless-
era Crimson, 1974
Everything went fast for this band who before burning itself out.
were convinced they had a ‘good fairy’ In January 1970, Greg Lake accepted Keith
looking out for them. By the time they Emerson’s offer to form a new group and
supported The Rolling Stones at Hyde Park King Crimson began to look like progressive
before 250,000 people in July, just two days rock’s most celebrated ‘one-hit wonder’,
after Brian Jones’ death, they’d already such was the impact and importance of that
recorded radio sessions for John Peel. In debut. The momentum accompanying the
the summer, after sacking Moody Blues group in that first year was now replaced by
producer Tony Clarke, who was to have chaos and uncertainty as Fripp and Sinfield,
worked on the first album, they recorded the only survivors from the original lineup,
and produced their debut, In The Court Of
The Crimson King. Such was the word of
mouth and press frenzy about the group,
upon its release in October it entered the The momentum
album charts on both sides of the Atlantic,
aided and abetted by the unsettling gaze accompanying the
of the screaming face adorning the cover.
One of the most striking LP covers ever to
group in that first year
fill a record shop window, it conveyed was now replaced by
something of the power of the music it
housed and quickly became the gold chaos and uncertainty
standard for what was then beginning to be
called progressive rock. navigated from one recording to another
Touring America, being ’coptered into with an ever-changing cast list of guest
shows at Palm Beach and blasting the players and a determination not to let
brains out of the assembled freaks and Crimson collapse. Recorded in the spring
hippies packed into the Fillmores East and of 1970, In The Wake Of Poseidon sought
West, it seemed like nothing could stop King to replicate the structural dynamic of its
MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY IMAGES
Crimson’s remarkable rise from abject storied predecessor, with “Pictures Of A

obscurity to the point where rock royalty City”’s crushing guitar riffs and staccato
such as The Who’s Pete Townshend decreed explosions aping “21st Century Schizoid
their debut album “an uncanny Man”’s stark brutality. What was different,
masterpiece”. The young usurpers really The core and markedly so, was the atonal spattering
had marched up and stolen the crown. Yet of King of Keith Tippett’s acoustic piano on the coming to detest Sinfield’s lyrics. A new
Crimson:
out on the road, in a car somewhere near Robert Fripp catchy, avant-pop “Cat Food”. An incarnation of King Crimson made its live
California’s
Californ nia s Big Sur, Ian
n McDonald,
McDona
ald, and in 1972 incongruous single, it gained a lip-synching debut in April 1971 in Germany after more
MI
Crimson their only appearance than four months of auditioning various

ever on BBC TV’s Top Of The Pops. hopefuls. These included a young Bryan
A rising star of the British jazz Ferry, then looking for a pre-Roxy Music
scene and the leader of his own breakthrough into the music industry.
small (and large-scale) ensembles, Released in December 1971, the next
Keith Tippett’s anarchic presence
K album Islands offered a complete contrast to
would be keenly felt on Lizard, the
w Lizard’s brow-furrowing density, but
second of two contrasting albums displayed a musical compass prone to spin
made in 1970.
m every which way. It contained a wistful
With another shift in core composition for chamber ensemble
personnel and more guests, conducted by Fripp, a windswept ballad
iincluding Yes vocalist Jon Anderson, for a title track, a skewed blues with
Lizard was the first King Crimson
L misogynistic lyrics and an operatic soprano
album with music solely composed crooning against a sunny laid-back groove.
by Fripp. Its combustible mix of However, another instrumental, “Sailor’s
sharp-cornered jazz-rock riffing Tale”, revolving around Fripp’s frenetic,
iintersecting with classical-style chordal solo, pointed toward a metal-edged
arrangements, surging Mellotron alternative future. As history repeated itself
swells and the guitarist’s precision- once again, and with Sinfield already
guided laser-beam soloing occupying sacked, the Islands lineup finally broke up
a sprawling side-long suite, it’s the at the end of an American tour in the spring
sound of King Crimson finally getting of 1972. Undaunted, Fripp nabbed Family
out from under the shadow of 1969. bassist – and old friend – John Wetton and
Bold and different it may have been, Yes drummer and long-term Crimson fan
but it was also an augury of yet more Bill Bruford, who had just finished Yes’s
trouble, with the new iteration falling Close To The Edge. Along with violinist
apart in rehearsals. Fripp and Sinfield David Cross, completing the lineup was
kept the name alive in the studio, but percussionist Jamie Muir, whose work on
as far as finding a working group the UK’s free-jazz scene added a playfully
capable of getting out on the road, they subversive dimension to the rocky formality
were back to square one. It also marked of 1973’s Larks’ Tongues In Aspic.
a significant deterioration between Though a powerful statement in its own
Sinfield and Fripp, with the latter right, with some of the strongest material

KING CRIMSON
KC, 1980s: (l-r)

Fripp, Bruford,
Belew, Tony Levin
St Vincent’s Annie Clarke,

Hedvig Mollestad and even
Kanye West, who sampled “21st
Century Schizoid Man”, have
all been drawn to the curious,
eclectic energies and directions
the band in its various
incarnations vigorously and
fearlessly explored.
While King Crimson’s
personnel would stabilise
p
during the 1980s, and
eexpand and contract as
Fripp saw fit during
F
since Crimson’s original formation, nobody spiritually bruised and tthe ’90s and ’00s, it
in the band thought it adequately captured battered after six years sseemed that after
the force they conjured on stage. In their of steering more than 20 22003’s The Power To
earliest performances in the winter of ’72, musicians across seven Believe, the 13th and
B
Muir’s catalysing influence saw Crimson intensely detailed studio last Crimson studio
la
integrating lengthy improvisations amid albums, Fripp called time on rrelease to date, the
composed sections. Even after Muir’s abrupt Crimson after making the eensuing silence
departure on the eve of another UK and cathartic ’70s swansong Red. suggested that King
su
European tour to join a Tibetan monastery, Released in the autumn of ’74 Crimson had finally
C
such was the confidence of the remaining after the band’s dissolution, it abdicated. Yet after a
ab
quartet that the practice continued, possesses a pleasing symmetry, long absence, Fripp’s
lo
developing to a point where it was bringing everything full circle announcement that a
an
impossible for punters to tell what was with KC co-founder Ian radically overhauled and
ra
improvised and what wasn’t. The title track McDonald back as a guest expanded seven-piece King
ex
of 1974’s Starless And Bible Black, and from player, along with a returning Crimson, boasting three
Cr
it pieces including “We’ll Let You Know” Mel Collins whose tender sax drummers, would return to
dr
and “Trio”, all culled from live performances graced the gorgeously the stage in 2014 took fans,
th
MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES; KOH HASEBE/SHINKO MUSIC/GETTY IMAGES
but with any crowd sounds skilfully mournful “Starless”. Moving and indeed some members
an
removed, posited an almost telepathic from an aching ballad to the of the band itself, entirely
means of sniffing out vivid atmospheres, glowering tension and release by surprise. With material
creating gravity-defying rhythms, razor- of its screaming one-note reimagined and redefined,
rei
sharp interactions that could be opaque guitar solo, it dramatically Fripp’s setlist going forward
Fr
and mysterious one minute and bone- closes the door on the to their 50th-anniversary
crunchingly direct and rocking out in-your- turbulence of the 1960s and celebrations in 2019 draws
ce
face the next. These sonic explorations, 1970s. Red’s brilliance rivals Crimson’s heavily on that tranche of songs such as
which owed as much to contemporary impressive ’60s debut. “Starless” that had lain unplayed for well
classical experimentation as they did Just as In The Court Of The Crimson King over four decades. In some cases – 1969’s
rock or jazz, were forged into a compelling had set the bar and inspired countless “Moonchild”, “In The Court Of The Crimson
hybrid that placed Crimson outside the bands at the time of its release and in King” complete with its apocalyptic coda,
programmatic conceptual-orientated epics subsequent years, so too Red changed the substantial portions of the gnarly Lizard
of their contemporaries. game for yet another generation of players. Disciplined: suite – they were being performed live for
Focusing all their efforts on working in the Between the span of Crimson’s releases, (above right, the very first time. Appearing at the Rock In
l–r) Fripp,
USA during most of 1974, where they played admirers as diverse as Uriah Heep’s Mick Bruford, Rio festival before 100,000 people and an
their final date at a packed Central Park in Box, Herbie Hancock, Joe Strummer, Adrian estimated live television audience of several
Belew and
New York, Fripp in particular was exhausted Henry Rollins, Kurt Cobain, Kate Bush, Tony Levin in million, King Crimson’s capacity to surprise,
and looking to bail out. Emotionally and Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis, Tool’s Adam Jones, Tokyo, 1981 shock and awe remains undiminished. ●

“What do
we do?
King Crimson before

a gig at Ewell Tech,
Surrey, April 26, 1969:
(l-r) Robert Fripp,
Michael Giles, Greg
Lake, Ian McDonald
and Pete Sinfield

KING CRIMSON
Stop pushing
ahead?” A new group called
KING CRIMSON becomes
a sensation in the UK
underground, but a US tour
nearly breaks them.
“I hope this doesn’t sound
pretentious,” says Michael
Giles, “but another group
could come along and simplify
what we play and they would
be away. There are strong
feelings in the band to get
into more involved music.”
WILLIE CHRISTIE

KING CRIMSON
MELODY MAKER OCTOBER 18, 1969 NME NOVEMBER 8, 1969 thought, has been playing drums for 12 years,
AT the beginning of this FASHIONS are pleasant but first in Bournemouth alongside people like
year a new group arrived can be dangerously short- Zoot Money, Peddler Roy Phillips and Shadow
on the London club scene. lived. In roaring out from John Rostill and then in London from 1967.
None of its members were nowhere in a matter of half a Session work and various unsuccessful groups
known from past exploits dozen months to become the came before he formed Giles, Giles & Fripp with
with other bands but fashionable Underground Robert Fripp.
within a few months they attraction of the day, King Fripp himself, King Crimson’s lead guitarist,
were being talked about Crimson have a problem. had spent three somewhat soul-destroying years
as THE group in this year “It’s very worrying,” playing in a resident hotel band, backing cabaret
of the supergroups. agreed drummer Mike Giles, speaking from artists like Bob Monkhouse and Norman
Pete Townshend has described their first their manager’s Kensington mews house before Vaughan before the “forgettable” group with
album, In The Court Of The Crimson King, as an the group left for its debut tour of America. Mike Giles, about which they don’t like to talk.
“uncanny masterpiece”. They are Ian McDonald, “But I cannot see what on earth we can do about Ian McDonald, 23 and on sax, clarinet, flute
Pete Sinfield, Bob Fripp, Greg Lake and Mike it. How much are we responsible for what’s and Mellotron for King Crimson, is a former army
Giles, collectively known as King Crimson. happened? We started off doing our thing and bandsman who has played in all kinds of outfits
“We started rehearsing in January although after that it was not up to us at all. People either from classical orchestras to wind ensembles.
the people were together in the November before go to see you or they don’t. If they do and word Former draughtsman and member of the Gods,
getting the equipment together,” said Ian on his gets passed around, there must be some value where he switched from lead to bass guitar, Greg
first visit to the MM with Pete Sinfield. behind the fashion.” Lake is now the lead vocalist, while fifth member
“I wasn’t in a particular band, I was looking for The success of King Crimson’s first album, Pete Sinfield doesn’t actually play in the group
the right one. Bob, who plays guitar, and Mike, In The Court Of The Crimson King – in at No 14 but writes lyrics and operates the famed King
the drummer, were in a band together which in this week’s NME chart – really has been Crimson light show.
wasn’t a success and which nobody talks about. staggering, too staggering for some – notably the The group came together in January this year;
Greg was in a group called the Gods. groups who had been slogging round the circuit first Robert and Mike, closely followed by Ian and
“I joined Bob and Mike and I’d known Pete for only to discover King Crimson racing past them then Greg. Pete, a one-time computer executive,
about a year as we started writing songs together, to become the biggest potential success the drifted in later: “I thought how bad the lights
which we still do. I’d done various things and Underground has produced this year. So while were in some clubs and I said I would build
been in an army band for five years. Greg plays the majority of critics, underground connoisseurs them some to give colour on stage. At the
guitar and looks after the vocals. I play flute, sax, and musicians have been showering lavish praise beginning I was just changing the lighting for
clarinet, Mellotron and any other instrument in their direction – “original”, “sensational”, “the each song, but eventually I started ‘playing’ the
I can get my hands on.” new Beatles” – there has also existed a small but lights with the music.”
Pete Sinfield looks after King Crimson’s light vociferous band of detractors. All five brought different influences. Says Mike
show, an important part of their act, which aims “I think we have had our success a little too fast Giles: “You have got jazz from me, classics from
at total involvement. for some of the people who’ve been trying to make Bob, Beatles and Dylan from Pete and Ian and
“Originally I was just writing the words for some it for ages,” says Mike Giles. But although the heavy rock music from Greg. But the divisions
of the songs when I thought we should have some band could be called an overnight success, its aren’t really that satisfactory because we all like
lights. Just pure lighting, as the lights in some of members certainly couldn’t. Giles, a 27-year-old jazz, we all like Beatles and Dylan etcetera…”
the clubs were so bad. who speaks with deliberation and much fore- The group rehearsed for three months in a room
Then I got a bit more involved in it and tried to beneath a café in London’s Fulham Palace Road
get some intensity and feel into it. The first light and made its first public appearance in April.
show I had only cost £40 but I’m having one for
£500 by an electronic wizard.” “MOST PEOPLE ARE “There was a very hard core of people who gave
us support early on,” said Mike Giles. “They
Ian McDonald continued the King Crimson NOT QUITE SURE spread the good word for us around the clubs and
story: “We rehearsed for two months and then
did the opening gig at the Speakeasy and the WHAT TO MAKE OF when we went out and did our first gigs we found
a lot of people already knew about us.”
Lyceum, which was disastrous. But we got to US. WE MAY BE AHEAD Their biggest stroke of luck was a booking
OF OUR TIME”
the business end of the thing very quickly and on The Rolling Stones’ Hyde Park extravaganza.
we signed with Atlantic although Mercury It is no meagre tribute that more than a quarter
made a bigger offer.
“When we started nobody knew what
PETE SINFIELD of a million Stones fans who had sat for hours
on the hard ground raised howls of delight and
was going to happen. We just surprise for the aggressive music
knew it had to be good and it of King Crimson.
Schizoid men: King
had to be something different. Crimson in 1969 – Like many of their Underground
There are all sorts of influences. (l–r) Fripp, Sinfield, contemporaries, the group has a
Giles and Lake
Bob [Fripp] brings in a lot of loathing of ‘hype’, although Pete
classical things as he listens to and Mike say it has been somewhat
Bartók, Mike brings in a lot of exaggerated. “It was because
jazz, Greg brings in a lot of heavy everybody had been messed
things and I weave my way around by managers and agents,”
around the lot.” explained Pete. “Particularly Bob,
The group shortly tour America, Mike and Greg, who have been
where they hope they will be able through every bad scene in the
to write a lot of new material for a pop machine.”
MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
new album, which they hope to And Mike’s definition of ‘hype’:

release on their return. “Helping oneself without helping
In nine months King Crimson others at the same time. Our sort
have emerged, without the of protest about ‘hype’ is aimed
normal showbusiness hype, as at the ‘hypers’, the ones who are
one of the biggest talents. The still doing it.”
next nine months should see the “What does the word
development of their true pretentious mean to you?”
potential. ROYSTON ELDRIDGE asked Pete suddenly.

Crimson’s biggest
stroke of luck:
entertaining the
Stones faithful at
the free Hyde Park
concert, 5 July 1969
“Pretending to be something you’re not,” MM and we have also had bits in the
I replied. underground papers here.
“Because we’ve been called pretentious,” “Among the people we have worked with so far
Pete continued, “and I can’t see it. is Al Kooper, who was disappointing. He was
“I think most people are not quite sure what backed by a new group, a second-rate soul band.
to make of us actually. Audiences aren’t quite We also worked with Om, a very nice heavy rock
sure which bits they should applaud. We may band, and Steve Miller. Audiences here still seem
be a little bit ahead of our time. They can see to favour English groups – perhaps because they
there is something worthwhile but they are seem to project more than the Americans. One
not sure what.” unexpected problem – the power seems rather
Mike: “What do we do? Stop pushing ahead, peculiar over here and I’ve been having trouble
cash in on what is simple for people to with the Mellotron. Every time the lights go down
understand, or go by our own standards? I hope it goes out of tune. Audiences seem pretty much
this doesn’t sound pretentious but another group the same as in England but we have re-paced our
could come along and simplify what we play and breakthrough, King Crimson is now in America. show so that it builds more to a climax.”
they would be away. They left last week for a two-month tour, Ian said there was a possibility of the group
“There are strong feelings in the band to get into complete with three tons of equipment, recording a single for Atlantic during the tour.
more involved music. If we did this straight away including Pete Sinfield’s lights. “It will cost BOB DAWBARN
I don’t think we would have an audience for it. a fortune to send,” said Mike. NICK LOGAN
Nevertheless, we enjoy what we do at the moment NME NOVEMBER 29,1969
and believe in it, and it earns us enough money to MELODY MAKER NOVEMBER 15,1969 THE number of British
set up the machinery to get into the music we “AMERICA is even more bands zig-zagging
want to in time.” American than we had lucratively across the
The group made its debut album three times: expected,” said King American continent rises
more through their own inability to be their own Crimson’s Ian McDonald monthly. Fleetwood Mac,
producers than for musical reasons. on the phone from Chicago. Nice, Jethro Tull, Led
Pete: “We were trying so hard. And we were “For example, they have Zeppelin, Fat Mattress and,
rushed at the end to get it finished. It could have a TV programme instead of course, The Rolling
been much better.” of our Epilogue called Stones were just a part of
Mike: “It could have been 50 per cent better. Sermonette – unbelievable!” the heavy British contingent on the US trail when
When we started we were going to be a recording Crimson are on their first trip to the States and King Crimson drummer Mike Giles phoned the
NME from a New York hotel last week.
TRINITY MIRROR/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
group more than a live group and it appears to will be away for eight weeks during which they
have turned out the other way. play a string of major dates, including a Miami In fact, resident at the same hotel at the same
“There is a definite lack of feel on the album concert with The Rolling Stones for which they time were Joe Cocker, Spooky Tooth and The
in some places and only about 30 per cent of are being flown by helicopter. Liverpool Scene. But for all our successful
the sound everybody wanted. What is missing “The album is out here now and seems to exports – in King Crimson’s experience – being
is the presence, the harshness, the attack. We be getting plays on all the New York stations,” new and British presents no easy access to fame
ideally need a sixth member of the band in the reported Ian. “Actually we were surprised to or instant acclaim.
shape of a producer.” find that people knew us when we arrived. This “We thought there might be a bit more
As is so often the case when a group makes its was partly due to people reading about us in appreciation because we were English, but

KING
BAND
CRIMSON
NAME
there wasn’t,” said Mike. “We have had to work musically. We saw the Steve Miller Band, who MELODY MAKER DECEMBER 20,1969
extremely hard and had to change round our are now down to a trio, and they were a WRITES Mike Giles to MM
equipment and bits of our act. We’ve moved disappointment as well. We also worked with from the USA: Good day
Greg [the vocalist] from the side of the stage to Al Kooper in Boston and weren’t impressed with to one and all from a very
the middle, for instance. him either – although he’s a nice chap.” homesick scribe on behalf of
“There have been no sort of instant reactions. The group haven’t had many chances to the Great Crimso, otherwise
On the first night in Boston there was just a ripple talk to young Americans but, says Mike, “the known as KC, Crimso The
of reaction from the audience. It was terrible. So Underground seems to be pretty strong, mainly Great or even King Crimson.
we had to work really hard the next few nights as a gathering point for young people. Since we last reported
and on about the third we were beginning to get “They are much more militant here about police back to MM, we have played
people with us. and social problems because they are affected Detroit, New York and the Palm Beach Festival.
“On the whole I think we have found audiences more. There’s also a lot of hostility towards At Detroit’s East Town Theatre we played with
more reserved than in England, but that may be people with long hair. There was a man in a The Band, who were excellent. Their songs,
because we are unknown and they know nothing supermarket making strong comments about arrangements and performance were all very
of our birth. The scene itself is very similar to that us, but we’ve tried to steer clear of that sort of together and we got the impression that they
in England. Reputations grow more by word of thing to avoid trouble.” were very sympathetic to each other’s musical
mouth. If somebody likes you they pass it on to In The Court Of The Crimson King, which is at attitudes and played to each other, thus creating
someone else.” 10 in this week’s NME LP Chart, had been on a complete band to listen to. There were, however,
Considering it was 5.30 in the morning New York release just five days when we spoke. “We’ve had flaws in their presentation although it didn’t
time, Mike sounded bright and cheerful as he a fair amount of FM radio,” said Mike, “and a few seem to matter.
consulted his diary for interesting things to pass people in the business spreading the word and The East Town Theatre was fairly well
on – but he admitted that in the first few weeks doing nice things.” organised and is a large old building complete
morale had sunk a little low. On their fifth week of the tour with four to with seats, food and drink for the groups, fair
“Well maybe not low, but it wasn’t that good. It go, the group is spending spare time writing dressing rooms and a good audience. We did
is improving now though. Mainly it was down to material for the second album, and have most of get the feeling, though, that our music was so
the fact that we were having to hang around for the ideas. They plan to record during February different from their usual diet that they will have
three or four days of each week with nothing to and March. “It will be different from the first,” to hear us again live and on record before they
do. But after all the bad luck, equipment breaking offered Mike, “and better.” can really get into it. But we were well received.
down, venues burning down and morale not too After a holiday over Christmas the group then We also played another Detroit theatre, the
good, things are looking up. embarks on a series of major concerts. Grande, with Jefferson Airplane. We were not
“We’ve yet to do the places that really count and “We hope to do some clubs as well,” said Mike. inspired by either.
we’re looking forward to them… like the Fillmore “I don’t think it would be fair to some of the Then on to New York with many days waiting
West, the Stones concert in Miami, Los Angeles audiences who cannot get to concerts – and also to play at Fillmore East with Joe Cocker and
Whiskey. We’re with Fleetwood Mac at the there are some nice clubs. But mainly it will be Fleetwood Mac. We did Friday and Saturday,
Fillmore. When we have done these places, if we concerts because it’s not only better for us but for two shows a night. Everyone must have heard
are worth knowing about then we will be known. the audience as well.” NICK LOGAN about the Fillmore so all I can say is that it is the
If we are not, we won’t. best place we have ever played. Their stage
“I think we are still learning,” Mike replied management, light show, facilities and
when I asked what the tour had taught the band.
“IT’S NOT THAT organisation are magnificent.
I DON’T LIKE SOFT

“It will probably take three trips to find out what Joe Cocker was very good and he has a big name
the answers are, but we have got as far as being over here. The only other groups that have been
able to see the light.”
THINGS, BUT I TEND worth commenting on are Nice, and, particularly,
TO FALL MORE FOR

Many groups find that the variable luck, The Flock, who are really the only band we have
prolonged travelling and inevitable periods of seen to date that are getting together – looking
boredom have their compensation in serving to
unite a band. “Yes, that is so,” affirmed Mike.
EXTREMES IN MUSIC” into the future with respect for the past.
We haven’t played any colleges since Vermont,
“We’ve found that it is knitting us together but ROBERT FRIPP mainly because we need the publicity of
we’ve yet to experience the results of it.” playing the major venues with name groups.
Mike consulted his diary to tell me that We have heard that our LP is “bubbling under”
after King Crimson’s gig at Chicago Kinetic the Top 100 over here and is receiving good
playground with Iron Butterfly, the hall was reaction everywhere so it is just a question of
burnt down during the night – by gangsters, time now, I hope, before it enters the chart.
according to reports. We hope to play colleges next time round
“Iron Butterfly had their equipment after having done the few major venues
completely burnt out,” said Mike. “Ours which include Detroit, Chicago, New York,
wasn’t too bad but we couldn’t use it for a Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San
couple of days because of the water in it. We Francisco. These are about the only places
had to cancel our second gig there.” where comparatively unknown groups like
On a brighter note, the group was pleased ourselves can get their music across in the
to find acceptance for their free-form best way with good conditions.
specialities. “We didn’t intend to use any,” On the last night at the Fillmore, Julie
said Mike, “but we tried them on Saturday and Driscoll turned up and pleased us by liking
they went down extremely well. our music. She also told us about her future
“One of the nicest jobs we did was last plans to work with Keith Tippett, which
week in Detroit,” he went on. “We played promises to be good.
with The Band, who were excellent. They are We received standing ovations on both
perhaps the best group we’ve seen: a very the Friday and Saturday at the Palm Beach
together unit.” Festival with the Stones. We were flown
The Band apart, Mike said they had been into the swamped festival site by helicopter.
disappointed with most of the American acts The festival is so large that, as always, it
they’d seen. “Most haven’t impressed us, like becomes disorganised.
Iron Butterfly. Jefferson Airplane have an The continuous rain has made the swamp
excellent light show but nothing really strong on which it was held into a mud patch – not

to mention the insects and snakes which bite,
and also the 4,000 Guardsmen who stood by
“in case of trouble”. The 50,000 people who
turned up were determined not to let anything
upset them and were beautiful in showing
America how to peacefully enjoy music under
the most difficult conditions.
Tomorrow we fly to Los Angeles for five days at
the Whiskey A Go Go and then to San Francisco
for three days at the Fillmore West. Then home via
New York to England’s green and pleasant land.
We’ve been writing new material for the next LP,
which includes rock’n’roll songs and love songs,
and we are also toying with the idea of writing a
modern symphony to be played by the leaders in
modern musical attitudes. It would probably
need about 12 musicians that we particularly
admire and would be written for a concert and,
possibly, an LP.
It’s only an idea at the moment, born from the
unsuccessful super-groups and the unsuccessful
attempts at combining different forms of music –
jazz and classics, rock and classics, rock and jazz
– most of which failed miserably in the past.
We feel – or at least I do – that instead of trying
to put unlikely musical attitudes together in the
hope of something happening, we should bring
together musicians who already have a broad and
respectful attitude in their playing so that we can
Ex-members Greg
hear music like we’ve never heard before. Lake and Mike Giles
join Fripp for a mimed
rendition of “Cat Food”
NME JANUARY 24,1970 on Top Of The Pops,
THE seemingly lemming- March 25, 1970
like mania for self-
destruction among our
established groups has left “Talk To The Wind”, from the King Crimson musicians, the blow is not a mortal one. Bob
us all a little blasé. Who album, is a signpost towards Ian’s musical Fripp is more than anyone else the head of King
can still express surprise leanings but, he adds, “I wrote that about two Crimson, as far as the music is concerned, and he
these days when the groups years ago and it didn’t really come off on the LP. remains. Ian and Mike acknowledged this fact
we’ve grown up with (or in “Mike had his own ideas but we are enough when they decided to split.
spite of) start voluntarily together to be able to work with each other.” Says Bob: “During the drive up the West Coast
taking themselves apart? Their dissatisfaction with Crimso’s music, said I asked them if they would rather I left and they
On the other hand, when it happens to a band Ian, came to a head during the group’s seven- said: ‘No. Crimso is more you than us.’
like King Crimson with all before them and not week US tour. They say that America either brings “It doesn’t mean that I don’t like soft things but
even six months into their recording life one does a group together or takes it apart, and in the case I tend to fall more for extremes in music and in
begin to wonder where it will all end. of King Crimson it appears to have done both. the same way as Ian feels free I feel free too.
Crimso, as it’s affectionately known, joined the “It was a fantastic coincidence really,” “The brakes are off. It was obvious to me
group casualty list as the new year opened with continued Ian. “Mike and I were both going where King Crimson should have gone. To Ian
the severance of its right arm and leg in the forms through the same scenes without knowing it. and Mike it should have gone a different way. At
of Ian McDonald and Mike Giles. America brought the group together and we the same time I didn’t think it was necessarily
The group’s remains, Bob Fripp, Greg Lake had more time to talk. There was a lot of sitting right that it should go in the direction I wanted
and Pete Sinfield, have meanwhile gone back around in planes and hotel rooms and a lot and that is why I asked them if I should leave.”
– literally – to square one. of time to think. After we spoke, Bob left to start rehearsals with
With two so-far-unnamed replacements, the “It wasn’t an impulsive decision. This had been the new band, which includes a drummer who
new King Crimson started rehearsing last week in building up since the group began. None of us came to Pete Sinfleld in a dream. “He’s been
the same room beneath a seedy West London cafe saw King Crimson as an end product.” living in the country near Glastonbury for a year
that the old King Crimson started from... exactly Bob nodded his agreement. “It was the right after getting fed up with crummy bands,”
one year ago. thing at the time and I enjoyed doing it.” volunteered Bob.
Ian McDonald and Bob Fripp, demonstrating Ian’s flute, sax, clarinet and Mellotron and They’ll stay at rehearsing for three months,
the amicability of the parting better than a Mike’s drums actually ceased to be a part of then go back on the road in April with a five-
carefully phrased handout could, met the NME King Crimson when the group played its last week recording stint starting in May. The new
last week to explain both sides of the split. US date at the Fillmore West before returning album will include “Mars”, a Pete Sinfield
“The situation,” started Ian, “was that I was home on December 16. rock’n’roller called “Catfood” and a Fripp song
playing music I enjoyed but I wanted to play Both have been writing material and plan to in the “Schizoid” vein about New York called
music that was more personal to me. I was unable go into a studio together “fairly soon”. They have “Pictures Of A City.”
TONY GALE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
to do that with King Crimson. no plans to form a set group – “Just us two and A single will also be released during the three
“The group has a very broad mixture of music anyone else who might like to play” – and the months’ rehearsals to compensate for the long
but the average feel of the songs I was not happy same goes for live appearances, although none gap between albums.
with. It is not happy music. And I want to make have been fixed. And the new music? “One of the reasons for the
music that says good things instead of evil things. “I suppose it is a gamble,” concluded Ian, long rehearsals is to allow the personalities of the
“The music will be more varied. I doubt if there “but I have sufficient faith in the music.” new men to come out in the music.
will be much paranoia or aggression. There will So what then of King Crimson? Despite Ian and “I have a feeling it will go to extremes – and that
be less frustration.” Mike’s major contributions as both writers and will be a gas.” l NICK LOGAN

PROG ROCK
EMERSON,
LAKE &
PALMER A supergroup faithful to their heritage expand into a
keyboard-butchering behemoth. By Nick Hasted
C
IRCUMSTANCES made ELP jazz musicians such as Jan Garbarek, who
pantomime prog villains in the drew on his ethereal native folk music rather
summer of 1977, when they than stiffly replicate jazz’s socially loaded
were joined by an orchestra in black source. In a rock culture reliant on
Montreal’s snowbound Olympic authenticity signified by blues suffering and
stadium in the video for “Fanfare For The excitement, it left ELP on a lonely limb. Even
Common Man”, a No 2 UK hit whose release Lake came to doubt their stubborn stand.
was symbolically bracketed by the Pistols’ “I will always have a certain amount of
“God Save the Queen” and “Pretty Vacant”. regret somewhere deep down inside,” he
But it wasn’t punk that did ELP in – they confessed in his autobiography Lucky Man,
were uniquely despised from the start. “particularly as a singer, at not being able to
They were the definitive supergroup, embrace American soul, blues and country
uniting The Nice’s showman keyboardist music… as much as I would have liked.”
Keith Emerson, King Crimson’s bassist- In truth, Lake had reacted to rock’n’roll’s
singer Greg Lake and the less storied arrival as deliriously as his future rock peers.
20-year-old drummer Carl Palmer (late of Putting it to one side with ELP was both
Atomic Rooster). They were viewed as out- strategic, and a statement of intent. “Just to
of-touch, dues-dodging dilettantes in the play some rock’n’roll would have been very
hippie press long before the punk rock enjoyable,” he told Sounds, “but not serious
weeklies put the boot in. enough for us to take on as a band.” It was
ELP were also deliberately resistant to ELP’s keyboardist who was truly indifferent
being a rock band at all. Feeling the blues- to rock. While young Reg Dwight was having
rock field was played out, their stated his suburban Middlesex horizons blown
intention when they began in 1970 was to wide open by Jerry Lee Lewis and Little
abandon the black American motherlode Richard, over in the Sussex coastal
which had so entranced the previous backwater of Worthing, they left Emerson
decade’s Surrey delta prodigies. “We cold, in a classical and jazz-ruled boyhood.
wanted to… stick to our heritage,” Emerson ELP were prog’s perfect template in the
recalled to journalist Phil Harrison. “We’re way they abandoned every expectation
white, we’re European, we didn’t want to embedded in 12-bar blues, the epochal
pretend to be something that we’re not.” fission of ’50s rock’n’roll, and the resistant
This paralleled the ’70s declaration of spirit the Dylan-led folk revival had also
cultural independence by Scandinavian fused into rock’s DNA. Even if, as Emerson

EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER
EMERSON, TARKUS PICTURES TRILOGY BRAIN WELCOME WORKS WORKS LOVE BEACH
LAKE & ISLAND, 1971 AT AN ISLAND, 1972 SALAD BACK, MY ATLANTIC, 1977 VOLUME 2 ATLANTIC, 1978
PALMER 6/10 EXHIBITION 6/10 SURGERY FRIENDS TO 6/10 ATLANTIC, 1977 4/10
ISLAND, 1970 ISLAND, 1971 MANTICORE, THE SHOW 6/10
7/10 8/10 1973 THAT NEVER
6/10 ENDS –
LADIES AND
GENTLEMEN
MANTICORE, 1974
5/10

Emerson’s speeding classical improv,
nothing outstaying its welcome. The
closing, sweet and simple ballad
“Lucky Man”, written by Lake when
he was 12 and a signature hit in
America, uses the rampaging, weird
waves of Emerson’s first touch of a
Moog synthesiser for its coda.
Tarkus (1971) then adds ELP’s
penchant for violent excess. This was
essentially Emerson’s characteristic,
regularly splitting blood-stained
piano keys by stabbing at them with
a knife, a crowd-pleasing manoeuvre
despised by critics (“One of these days
Keith Emerson’s Hammond will knife
him back,” Charles Shaar Murray
sniffed). Tarkus’s loose concept of a
rampaging machine-beast (justified
by William Neal’s cover art more than
Lake’s lyrics for “Tarkus”, which fills
side one), allows synth siren-screams,
Palmer pummelling and even brief
blues-rock guitar.
Side two is more lightly diverse,
including Lake and Palmer’s
hammering dialogue, Emerson’s
diaphanous piano on “Bitches
Crystal”, and perverse vignette
“Jeremy Bender”, featuring
Emerson’s mixture of jaunty honky-
tonk and English pub and church
piano. But ELP’s capacity for abrasive
aggression is the album’s revelation.
Far from the lofty elitists they were
Getting stuck in: often portrayed as, ELP were also
Hammond deeply committed to their audience, a
stabber Keith
Emerson on devotion that was reciprocated. They
stage, early ’70s were “a people’s band”, Lake declared
to NME. What they offered was,
acknowledged, NME. “For me it’s imagination.” though, the opposite of punk’s avowedly
substituting ELP’s self-titled debut album came proletariat, talent-levelling Year Zero. “Our
classical motifs in the wake of both their second gig role was to represent something the fans
made their at 1970’s Isle of Wight festival, could identify with in terms of excellence or
compositions sandwiched between The Doors and capability,” he told Phil Sutcliffe,
still more The Who and almost stealing the show, “something they could feel proud of.”
backward-looking: and their London debut’s dismissal by ELP had little interest in rock’s wider social
“progressive rock John Peel as “a tragic waste of talent currents. “We just entertain the troops and if
with a lot of regard and electricity”. In some ways a the audience feels like they want to be the
for the past”. tentative statement of intent – revolutionaries, that’s cool,” was the most
This sounded necessarily collecting stray solo pieces Lake could manage to Crawdaddy! in 1971.
dispassionate at as they built a group identity – it treats They were openly contemptuous of the
the time, and the classical composers with the magpie loose, druggy ethos of counterculture
impression in the cheek Led Zeppelin were showing avatars the Grateful Dead, keeping their
band’s increasingly blues songwriters, having to be own live improvisation and lifestyles more
gun-shy interactions nudged by Bartok’s widow to rigidly contained, and Emerson’s low
with the ’70s rock acknowledge his part in “The opinion in the same interview of the
press is of distant Barbarian”. Bach and Janacek working-class potential shown by trade
technocrats, more Out on a limb: meanwhile contribute to the dancing unions wouldn’t have endeared him to later
concerned with their elephantine stage (l–r) Carl Hammond grooves of “Knife-Edge”. This punk commissars.
Palmer, Greg
shows’ logistics than soulful art. “Their Lake and Keith classical core, building on Emerson’s But just listen to Pictures At An Exhibition,
HOWARD BARLOW/REDFERNS; GAB ARCHIVE/REDFERNS
music is mechanical and does not have a feel Emerson, 1972 appropriation of such themes with The Nice recorded at Newcastle City Hall on March 26,
to it like most rock’n’roll,” even their engineer and the orchestral “Five Bridges Suite” on 1971, and you can hear this people’s band
Eddie Offord blithely told Melody Maker. their 1969 LP Five Bridges, Jon Lord’s 1969 among their people. All the prog-haters’
Yet this badly underestimates their Concerto For Group And Orchestra with Deep clichés about out-of-touch elitists melt away
emotional commitment. Emerson’s earliest, Purple, and George Martin’s chamber when you listen to a roaring audience
deeply comforting memories were of arrangements for The Beatles, gives the response reported throughout their early
drifting to sleep as his dad played accordion. album graceful light and shade at odds with tours; in Birmingham, they were still calling
Lake called his devoted, poor working-class ELP’s techno-rock reputation. for more 30 minutes after ELP had climaxed
parents’ Christmas present of a guitar when Lake’s 12-minute “Take a Pebble” is the with their version of Mussorgsky’s 1874
he was 12 “God”, and believed music was a album’s heart, its discrete sections finding piece of the same length, which forms the
gift based in love. “A lot of art comes out of room for his winsome croon and poetic title piece and near-entirety of this great live
difficulty, a lot out of rebellion,” Lake told lyrics, exploratory acoustic folk blues and LP. First heard by Emerson at the Royal

Festival Hall in 1969, he later called it “just with his new, ex-King Crimson effort on “Pirate”’s
a bunch of great tunes” – which, from this co-lyricist Pete Sinfield. The unflagging, swaggering,
tour de force to their hit with Copland’s 28-minute “Karn Evil 9” 13-minute orchestral high
“Fanfare”, was classical music’s biggest finally attempts the truly seas adventure that is ELP’s
boon to ELP. Lake’s own classical training conceptual suite that last hurrah.
can be heard in his limpid Spanish guitar “Tarkus” bluffed, decrying The accompanying
during “The Sage”, and his voice is chorister “loss of humanity as humanity orchestral tour that Emerson
pure on “Promenade Part 2”, gently supposedly progressed”. Its insisted on nearly bankrupted
supported by Emerson’s organ as he sings apocalyptic “show that never them. Works Volume 2, released
of “childhood tears as dry as stone”. ends” resembles Bowie’s late in 1977, was an amiable
Emerson’s wild Moog explorations during Ziggy in its extravagance, outtakes compendium that
“The Old Castle” and the crowd’s deliriously with Afro-Cuban remained largely unbought,
bonkers response to it all show the ELP interludes and sufficient, while Love Beach (1978) was
phenomenon at a joyous peak, as the show’s sustaining melody. a contractually obligatory
sheer newness and scale of achievement is The live triple-album Welcome Back, embarrassment in a sleeve showing them as
eagerly absorbed. It’s also a record of My Friends To the Show That Never Ends “the Bee Gees on holiday”, (as Lake put it).
tremendous, assured dynamics, with – Ladies And Gentlemen was intended to They split that year.
multiple switchback climaxes and melodic clear the deck for a new phase, but proves Emerson and Lake’s mild ’80s success
highs. The contrasting, Tchaikovsky-meets- as unwieldy as its title, only Emerson’s with Cozy Powell in an ersatz ELP (“Lots of
ballroom-blitz encore of B Bumble & The ragtime solos really brightening the mood drummers’ names begin with P,” Cozy
Stingers’ garage novelty “Nut Rocker” before the overblown, 35-minute climax of protested) and two full reunion records,
sees them leave to yet more mayhem. The “Karn Evil 9”. Black Moon (1992) and In the Hot Seat (1994) –
Quo Army and Bay City Rollers seem apt “a complete failure” for Lake – couldn’t turn
early ’70s comparisons to the delirium back time. The mood after a final gig at the
caught here, as high ambition is met with
matching delight: “something they could
First heard by Emerson High Voltage festival in London’s Victoria
Park in 2010 “was like a cross between a
feel proud of”, indeed. in 1969, he later called party and a funeral”, Lake recalled.
Mussorgsky’s Pictures
Trilogy (1972) fine-tuned ELP’s The Emerson I met around then was a
innovations, with their individual gentle, kind man, speaking slowly and
influences now fully absorbed. “From the
Beginning” is a laid-back hippie ballad with At An Exhibition “just a operating on his own wavelength, but at
peace with his past, and even his punk
Laurel Canyon guitar, “The Sheriff” eerily
Elton-esque in its vocal and Taupin-like,
bunch of great tunes” neighbour in LA, John Lydon. “I always
thought it was fucking great that you stuck
comic Western lyrics, while their first Aaron knives in your organ,” the one-time Johnny
Copland cover, the US hit “Hoedown”, Something in ELP now broke. Taking tax Rotten told him over lunch. His 2016 suicide
allows more rollicking Moog and Hammond. exile in Switzerland, where Lake did press- by shotgun was therefore a shocking end.
“Abadon’s Bolero” uses new, 48-track studio ups with his neighbour Bowie, unity had Just before his own death from cancer
capacity for massive overdubs, but goes been exhausted by the time 1977’s Works the same year, Lake tried to define the
nowhere noisily during its eight minutes. finally arrived, and commercial momentum melancholy that was perhaps his friend’s

Brain Salad Surgery (1973) was then the irretrievably lost, even after “Fanfare For secret core. Emerson had spent formative
soundtrack to ELP’s apotheosis, so The Common Man” became their biggest Snow and childhood years sick and looking out on
rock: filming
gargantuan by now in all their doings that UK hit. The album’s point for Emerson was the video for playing children that he couldn’t join, he’d
punk would seem necessary after all. his “Piano Concerto No 1”, and his desire “Fanfare For told Lake, suffering a profound loneliness
The Common
Controversially pioneering replicable to be recognised as a modern classical Man” at the he channelled into an inner imaginative
live conditions with the first 100-light composer, which would stay frustrated. Olympic world. Far from cold pomposity, ELP’s early
Stadium in
proscenium arch and a quadraphonic sound The double album tellingly splits ELP onto Montreal, emphasis on boundless imagination came
system installed at all shows – along with separate writer’s sides. But it’s their unified February 1977 from a heartfelt generosity. l
Lake’s $6,000 Persian rug,
Emerson’s Moog monolith, and
Palmer’s two-ton hand-carved kit,
which their UK manager Stewart
Young claimed would “simply
smash through most stages” –
they required Wembley Arena
for their 1974 homecoming.
Pictures At An Exhibition’s bond
with their audience seemed long
ago. “Everybody… appeared glazed
by it all,” NME glumly noted.
Brain Salad Surgery’s twisted
HR Giger sleeve, showing a
biomechanical female head
much like his later Alien designs,
does, though, house an album
maintaining ELP’s ambition.
“Toccata” uses Ginastera’s First
Piano Concerto as a showcase for
Palmer’s whooping, attacking
electronic-drum innovations.
“Still… You Turn Me On” is a Lake
groupie dismissal graced by
crystalline guitar, “Benny The
Bouncer” a gruesome comic spoof

Jolly progger:
Keith Emerson
on stage at
Pirates World
in Florida, 1971
RICK DIAMOND/GETTY IMAGES

“English
bands
tend to
be more
theatrical”
A two-gong, 100- roadie
band, ELP are approaching
the pinnacle of rock
theatrics. John Peel may
carp, but as they progress
from Pictures… to Brain
Salad Surgery, there’s no
stopping them. “Things are
happening very quickly,”
says KEITH EMERSON

MELODY MAKER DECEMBER 19, 1970 stage. I’ve been playing it a lot
“WHAT a waste of talent recently. I’ve been listening to all
and electricity!” Greg Lake the rock drummers, and they all
stepped back from the play in eights, you know — THAT
spotlight and winked into kind of rhythm.
the wings. He was on stage “There are so many more patterns
at the Limmathaus, Zurich. to play. There is much more music in
Keith Emerson and Carl the playing of Elvin Jones, and I’d like
Palmer were trading freaky to play more melodic drum patterns.
phrases on Moog synthesiser Jon Hiseman has sussed that out — he
and drums. The audience sat enraptured. gets away from the usual patterns.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer were on the final “My playing has really changed
lap of a Continental tour that had left them happy no end. In ELP I can use the other
and exhausted. The kind of biting criticism part of me. My playing is channelled
hurled at them in London, and paraphrased by now. I’m using two gongs instead of
Greg, seemed irrelevant. Swiss fans loved them two bass drums in my solo. I like to
and demanded three encores, just as they had roll on them and play patterns on my
done all the way from Vienna. bass drum.
And the ovation was justly earned. The three “I’m really trying to find my own
musicians have blended their talents in a way that thing. People have said ‘he’s fast’ but
did not seem likely even to their earliest admirers. somebody said I wasn’t funky, which
The music is exciting, satisfying and at all times really annoyed me. I have tried to get
sparked by energy and sincerity. Just how valid across this barrier of the funky thing over a thousan
thousand nd fa
fans sitting
itti on theh floor,
is their flitting from the classics to jazz and rock? and technique, and Keith has brought out a lot waiting patiently.
I neither know, nor care. more in me. At one time, I must confess, I nicked There was no room off the stage, and there was
And it doesn’t worry me if blues material is ideas from other drummers. I was playing Elvin so much equipment on stage, it was practically
barely found in their work and that Carl rarely Jones records the other day, then I went to see impossible to see the band. But they sounded
chops firewood on his drums. ELP are Buddy Rich at Birmingham. great as they roared through “Pictures At An
mercifully different and strictly non- “Buddy really has that technique and he swings. Exhibition”, “Barbarian”, and “Pebble”.
underground. Hallelujah. Now – if I could get the FEEL of Elvin Jones and Back to the hotel, Greg ordered Scotch and Coke
Still slightly shattered after a recent tip to the technique of Buddy – well I could be doing and we talked in the bar, until 1am.
Germany with Colosseum, I flew on wings of something new in modern rock drumming!” He revealed the group were not too keen
molybdenum from cluttered London Airport to to visit America, yet awhile. “We can make a
rainswept Zurich. living in England and Europe and be far happier
“THE CRITICISM HURT,

Peter, the young Swiss promoter, who speaks than trying to make a fortune in the States,”
English with an Earls Court accent, drove me he explained.
at speeds in excess of several kilograms per
decimalised millisecond to the Continental Hotel,
MAN, BUT LOOKING “At the moment the band is £30,000 in debt.
BACK, THE SLAGGING

If you average it out, only 10 per cent of groups
which resembles every other new hotel in every make money in the States.
other European city.
Exchanging one crumpled shirt for another
OFF HAS DONE “The band has gone beyond my expectations
when we formed. The criticism hurt, man, but
from my suitcase in some vague attempt at SOME GOOD” looking back at the Isle Of Wight Festival and
dressing for dinner, I descended to the simulated after – the slagging off has done some good.
leather restaurant. GREG LAKE “Keith has been criticised for his showmanship,
Here the group and their bodyguard of which has upset him, but WE’VE told him not to
road managers were grinning somewhat self- How did Carl and the group react to the criticism worry, we’re more interested in doing the next
consciously behind a special screen which had that greeted their initial appearances? album. That’s really us.
been erected to protect the “normal” customers “The worst remark that offended me was the “We were going to record ‘Pictures’ on the
from the offensive sight that is a modern English crack about ‘The Keith Emerson Show’, saying next album but I think that would be dishonest
pop group. that Greg and me were backing musicians. We because between three people we’ve got
Or perhaps it was to protect the group from the had rehearsed so hard – you know how long. enough talent to do our own material and
offensive sight of wealthy, grinning Eurocrats. It was heartbreaking. If we were not strong not Mussorgsky’s.”
In the event, bread rolls could be hurled about personalities, it could have done a lot of damage. On the DC9, bumping back over the mountains
without fear of reprimand, and the boys drank I haven’t been personally knocked for my playing and clouds, Keith talked about the next LP.
whisky, brandy, wine, Coca-Cola, beer, vodka but it hurts when the whole group gets knocked. “I’m getting much more inspired by
and Irish coffee in huge quantities. “And you do And anyway, people should not judge a band contemporary music than the classics now,” he
need it!” was the cry of their general factotum, by a first hearing. John Peel, who criticised us, said watching Carl reach for a paper bag as we
white-faced and long-haired Mark Fenwick, a is entitled to his opinion. But I think he just wobbled over the Alps.
JORGEN ANGEL/REDFERNS;MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
man who can argue with recalcitrant Swiss wants to get across to the masses as “There’s a piece of music written in 1964 by
lighting engineers, organise aeroplane tickets a big underground disc jockey. Ginestera – a piano concerto… it’s too much.
and rave into the small hours, without apparent If I don’t get some food soon I’m I still practise a lot. I’m more conscious
mental disorder. going to collapse – and that’s of getting into myself, finding out what
It was Mark who organised a marathon club putting it mildly!” music I have inside me, finding new
bash that evening for ELP who paraded the But there was no time for things to play.
cosmopolitan quarter of Zurich under the food. As the car squealed to “I like working with Greg. I get an
protective aegis of countless road managers. a halt, after getting lost in idea and ring him up at midnight
Next day we spent with Carl on a visit to the the rush-hour traffic jam, and ask him round to listen to
Paiste Cymbal factory in Lucerne, where the it was down to a quick something I’ve written. Carl comes
ancient craft of cymbal making is carried out on shower, and bundling as well, because he likes to be in on
the lake shores. sheet music, drum sticks arrangements from the beginning.
On the drive back to Zurich, Carl talked about and musicians into cabs. “Next year it’s
Greg
his drumming and the direction of ELP. The concert hall Lake, important to get
“I’m thinking of using my little jazz drum kit on was packed with 1970 our new LP out

Nicking ideas
from other
drummers:
Carl Palmer on
stage in 1970
and I’d like to make a solo piano and organ LP, that they are to close. in the band. He heard our
involving all sorts of styles, gospel, jazz, boogie And it is news that comes al
album and he especially
and blues. I’ve devised a technique for a different as a genuine shock liked Carl’s drumming.
li
style of 12-bar boogie, in 7/4 time. to musicians, fans, He may come to the
H
“This band is an ideal nucleus of talent, which promoters, managers. Fillmore
Fii tonight.”
will enable us to break out and do other things.” But if Bill Graham says The three once skinny
CHRIS WELCH he is tired and fed up English musicians briefly
En
with the rock business, compared pot bellies,
co
MELODY MAKER MAY 8, 1971 he maintains his sighed and climbed
si
BLOOD streaming from his enthusiasm for music. iinto
n their Cadillac.
head, a middle-aged man, His praise for Emerson, Now dark, the streets
N
white, well dressed, Lake & Palmer is outside were jammed with
ou
staggered into the fairly ecstatic. fans. In the foyer were heads
fa
headlights of the battered And, says a young New York fan jumping on little different from those you might see digging
Yellow Cab. The Puerto his seat behind me at the first show: “Christ – similar concerts in Berlin, Belfast or Birmingham.
Rican driver grinned and they’re brilliant!” Young, excited, they poured into the theatre,
looked at me quizzically. Earlier, over a meal before the show, Keith told slow-handclapping an underground movie,
The man’s son and wife me: “The act is really together now and things anxious for music.
pleaded with the driver. “It’s an emergency. are happening very quickly here. The audience Taking a seat, I felt a rising excitement with
Please take us to the hospital.” reaction has been really… well, inspiring.” Keith them. I had seen the band in Leicester, England,
“It’s up to him,” said the driver. “OK,” I said seemed genuinely surprised. only a few weeks before. How would their
with studied indifference, still expecting an “The album has sold 40,000 this week and incredible arrangements, Keith’s phenomenal
ambush. I think we only need a few more for a Gold. We artistry be greeted – here at the home of rock?
“You’ll never know how much this meant to have done five gigs so far, and the first one was in There was not long to wait for the answer.
us,” said the wife, helping her husband into the the outback somewhere – very informal – so we The New York fans seemed like really nice people.
emergency department. felt at ease.” Not in the least blasé, they responded with
“Thank you, thank you,” said the son, pushing Although Keith had been to the States before delighted yells to various outbursts of brilliance,
two dollars through the armour-plated screen with The Nice, Greg had been with Crimson and listened intently, told each other to keep quiet
that separates the cab driver from his passengers. Carl with the Crazy World, all felt the reaction to during the softs, and spontaneously roared
“You know – I think it was his wife who hit ELP has been nothing like the past. during the louds.
him,” giggled the driver, bumping and skidding “There has been a big change in the audiences,” “Right on!” yelled a kid nearby, “Far out!” And
through the 3am streets. said Keith. “Now they seem to know us, and they it didn’t sound phoney. “Christ, they really are
New York, New York. You can see the smog lying are really pleased to see us here. Our act is a little a super, super group,” another told a friend.
over the city as the Jumbo drops down from the shorter than it is in England, and we are not The band played magnificently, well aware
Atlantic crossing. doing Pictures At An Exhibition, because it would of the importance of the occasion, and perhaps
Emerson, Lake & Palmer are playing at the make things too long. But we may play it when we even with a sense of history, in view of the
Fillmore tonight. And it seems like a good idea to do Carnegie Hall on May 26. We’re quite looking threatened closure.
go and see them. See Britain’s most exciting band forward to that! Keith was occasionally racing the already
blowing at America’s most exciting venue. “It’s a bit of a performance getting here with all furious tempos at times, perhaps through over-
Fillmore is a legendary name wherever rock our equipment and in some places we have excitement. But in view of the brilliant way Carl
music is played. And the day I arrive, Bill overloaded the power! But we have to use our and Greg kept up with the surges of power, the
Graham, the equally legendary owner, of both own PA. total effect was fairly devastating.
East and West Fillmores, announces on the radio “Apparently Miles Davis has shown an interest “Barbarian”, their Bartók-inspired opener,

Recording
Trilogy,
November
18, 1971
i
instantly had the audience knocked back in their
seats, Keith leaping from organ to piano in his
shining, electric blue suit.
And the unleashing of “Tarkus”, the new
major work, induced screams at the twists
and explosions of the arrangement.
“Take A Pebble” was the subject of much
request as it is getting a lot of FM airplay.
This melodic tune has quickly developed into
Keyboard
a marathon to equal Pictures…, and among the warrior: Keith
highlights are of course Greg’s guitar feature, Emerson at the
Empire Pool in
which had the audience keeping time, and Keith’s Wembley, April
amazing piano tour de force. 1, 1974
He tore through a stream of improvisation
at the piano, moving into choruses from “Lady
Madonna”, a country hoe-down on electric hang on to their values, through rock music, minimised. He plays a singularly attractive
keyboard, then finally, breathless, back to the whoever plays it, and where ever it is played. brand of acoustic guitar, while his vocal style
ballad voice of Mr Lake, which proved too much CHRIS WELCH often reminds me of a schooled John Lennon, the
for the audience. notes pitched spot-on but given just a shade of
They stood up, and remained standing for the MELODY MAKER AUGUST 3, 1974 that nasal cutting edge, on original ballads like
rest of the show. Thence to the menace of “Knife GREG LAKE’S London home “C’est La Vie”.
Edge” and a cataclysmic “Rondo”. is a rare and impressive Will it affect his writing if ELP move to
Here Carl zapped into his solo with a kind of sight. A light glows outside a the States?
savage joy that held the audience in a trance. His town house in a quiet street “Yeah, I think it must do. Good or bad, you can’t
drums seemed to be revolving with him, like a that takes you back to the tell. You can see the difference between the
slow-motion spin dryer, while his hands were a 19th century. And there is American bands’ approach to music and
blur. Perhaps he has found a way to defeat the no doubt that Greg enjoys everything in general.
space and time barrier. At any rate, his sticks are the life that success with “English bands tend to be more theatrical and
going to catch fire one fine gig. Emerson, Lake & Palmer maybe the move will defuse a lot of the energy
The group literally staggered off stage, dripping has opened up to the one-time impoverished bass going into the theatrical side. I like to see a more
in sweat, and some minutes of yelling from the player from the West Country. all-round thing, more than just musicians
audience elapsed before they could be induced to But even when the subject for discussion playing, although I think the extreme theatrics
NORMAN QUICKE/EXPRESS/GETTY IMAGES; DAVID WARNER ELLIS/REDFERNS
offer up their encore. over dinner sometimes comes down to money of the rock business, of which we have certainly
Here a puzzling situation developed. On the and the problems of taxation, music is still the been a part, has reached a pinnacle. Everybody
Continent and in England, “Nut Rocker” is their guiding force for the amiable, slow-speaking is carrying their own light show now!”
finale, a kind of camp joke, which usually amuses third force in one of rock music’s most power- ELP really pioneered the big road show?
and entertains. The Fillmore people didn’t dig packed ensembles. “Yeah, they were a lot of the things we tried to
it. Perhaps Bee Bumble & The Stingers were Greg’s own music veers more towards the pretty get into. I think everybody does it so much now,
prophets unheeded in their own land. At any rate, ballad and meaningful song, usually written in it will count for very little.
the tune seemed unfamiliar. collaboration with poet Peter Sinfield, and it is a “It will go back to the roots. We are going to
Keith quickly sussed however and dropped cause for regret that perhaps more of this kind of carry on with the same show for this tour, but in
the number, to be replaced in a rescheduled material has not been forthcoming in ELP. places that haven’t seen it yet. The show we did at
programme. But they are the kind of band, with so much to the Empire Pool was the best show we’ve ever
It was an amazing weekend, and proved once play and choose from, where not everything can had, just without a doubt.
again just how today’s rock music HAS united the be made to fit. When there is a keyboard player “All the experiments we made, and all the
youth of the world against the crumby society. like Keith Emerson around and a percussionist of money we lost, paid off in the end because we
Bombarded with drugs, crime, war fever, the stature of Carl Palmer, then its small wonder learnt so much from the shows on the previous
pornography, traffic accidents, phoney that Greg sometimes gets a mite overshadowed. tours – what not to do – and in the end it paid off.
patriotism, the young shout their freedom and But Lake’s contributions should not be “Our basic idea was to perfect our own

atmosphere and recreate it each night. It was last show we do with this particular production. that to make a solo album would enhance their
a good idea but the problems involved were “We’ve just done a European tour, which was own identity. And so everybody was making
immense. We had one hundred road managers very necessary because we did so much damage solo albums. Which kinda put me off a bit, and
at one point, so you can see the cost. last time we went over. We were late for gigs, late still does.
“And yet we could justify each roadie, until setting up and this show was smooth! “I really don’t want to make it to come out like
we had a different system designed. It was “This show was twice as large and impressive a solo album. It certainly won’t be recorded like
really down to fatigue among the guys putting and it could go up in about five hours. Before, it ‘THE GREAT LAKE ALBUM’.
up the equipment. was ridiculous – it took all day. “I want it to have a title and be an album in its
“Now we have spent more time researching how “I’m glad we filmed that tour, looking back, own right. Then if people find out later that I’ve
unions work and how we can use them, and all because it was a step, a courageous step. done it, then great and that would be a fantastic
sorts of things – planning up front.” Everybody in the business said, ‘Don’t do it.’ dream for me.
How many roadies did the band have when they “But I want it to survive on its merits, and the
started in 1970? main motive is to see what, without compromise,
“Three – no, was it four?”
How did Greg feel about the new ELP album? “ALL THE my music will bring forth. Because in a band you
compromise and happily so. But it’s interesting to
“It’s the show. We’re doing all the things we EXPERIMENTS WE see what will happen when it’s just me.”
think people want to hear from our past records
and most of the new ones on Brain Salad Surgery. MADE, AND ALL THE Had Greg done many sessions?
“Just little demo things, little experiments, just
It’s just the live show.” MONEY WE LOST, really putting down tunes to see how they are
PAID OFF IN THE END”

You were saying that after this American tour going to feel. I have actually done no recording
you might back away from the heavy kind of that is going to end up on a record. Just a few
presentation. What could you do after that really?
“Um. One has to do something original. I mean
GREG LAKE experimental things I have done after ELP
sessions, in an extra hour.”
the accent may or may not be on production, it People might well expect an acoustic album
may be something entirely different. The choice And then when we went to do it again, they from Greg. Would he go into that?
is open, and the direction will come entirely said, ‘You’re crazy, you must be crazy.’ But it “Yes I would. I suppose it’s more me than
from the music. It always does. So before we worked out fine.” anything. But I’ve always played in tough music
really lock onto any new ideas, they will come How was Greg progressing with his solo album? bands all my life, the Gods and people like that,
from the music.” “It comes in spurts in between all the other and really it’s part of me. In fact on ELP albums
Have you had much time for writing, when work. You can’t really settle down to a long period I usually put only one track down that’s like an
you’ve been touring so much? on it, just bits and pieces, but it’s coming.” acoustic thing.
“No. We’ve played something like 84 Greg had talked about it before, over the “I think anyway, I’m known for acoustic things
shows since November and there past couple of years. Why the wait? from my solo spots. Peter Sinfield writes the lyrics

has been no time. Except we’ve “Yeah – it became the fashion, and they are better than my own lyrics to my own
had a few weeks just lately, didn’t it? I think it stemmed
d melodies. It’s just like a flash of magic.
and we’ve all done a little from the players in bands
fr “It’s a good combination that has worked for
bit on our solo albums who perhaps saw the day
w years. It worked in King Crimson and we’ve done
and generally rested. when their band broke up
w some on Brain Salad. Of all the musicians, he’s
“So we are in good and whatever.
an the one closest to me. He’s the only one I could
spirits now to do the next “It’s an insecure life and write lyrics with and he writes exactly the lyrics
little bit, and then it’s the I suppose
s they thought that I want.” ● CHRIS WELCH
Karn you dig it:

(l–r) Emerson,
Palmer and Lake
take a bow, 1974
PROG ROCK
JETHRO
TULL
Hopping between genres, the one-legged minstrel becomes king of the
concept album, until the concepts nearly bury him. By Nigel Williamson
T
HE rich musical panoply of what of Anderson’s Tull to “do it all”. Eventually
in the late 1960s was fondly Anderson over-reached himself with
known as “the underground” War Child, conceived as an allegorical
contained a dazzling array of movie with a band-and-orchestra double
styles and subgenres. From the album soundtrack and a plot in which a
Fleetwood Mac-led British blues revival to teenage girl meets God, St Peter and Lucifer
the sledgehammer riffing of the “heavy” in the afterlife, choreographed by Margot
bands, from the pysch-folk of The Incredible Fonteyn and with John Cleese as a (much-
String Band to the jazz-fusions of Soft needed) “humour consultant”.
Machine and from the classical allusions of When the project collapsed under the
The Nice to the epic concept albums of the weight of its own pretension, Anderson
prog bands, it was a heady time to be alive. wasn’t sure whether to be frustrated
And Jethro Tull ambitiously managed to or relieved. Among prog rock’s more
pitch a tent in every camp. embarrassingly elaborate grand follies,
Tull debuted with a blues-rock album they surely didn’t get any grander or
that earned them a verse in The Liverpool more embarrassing, as the reddest of
Scene’s famous parody “I’ve Got These red rags to the punk hordes about to
Fleetwood Mac Chicken Shack John Mayall trample all over the carefully arranged
Can’t Fail Blues”. Leader and flautist Ian rococo furniture.
Anderson rearranged Johann Sebastian Anderson’s typically intransigent reaction
Bach for flute and rock band and stood on to punk was another concept album titled
one leg to play a Roland Kirk jazz standard. Too Old To Rock’n’Roll: Too Young To Die!,
The hit single “Sweet Dream” found Tull sending out a defiant fuck-year-zero
thundering as heavily as Led Zep. They challenge to those who denounced his band
went ISB fey-mystical on “The Witch’s as dinosaurs. Fads were ephemeral, he
Promise” and turned into latter-day Tudor declared, but “if you stick around long
troubadours on Minstrel In The Gallery. As enough, you come into fashion again”.
for concepts, from Aqualung and Thick As He had a point, too. Half a century on from
A Brick to A Passion Play and War Child, Tull Tull’s debut album, 2018 found Anderson
seemingly had them by the score. and the latest iteration of his band on a
In the sheer breadth of their scope and sold-out, celebratory world tour under the
ambition, arguably no prog rock band banner ‘Jethro Tull: The Prog Years’, which
rivalled the have-a-go determination continues in 2020.

JETHRO TULL
THIS WAS BENEFIT THICK AS A BRICK WAR CHILD TOO OLD TO HEAVY HORSES
ISLAND, 1968 CHRYSALIS, 1970 CHRYSALIS, 1972 CHRYSALIS, 1974 ROCK’N’ROLL: TOO CHRYSALIS, 1978
6/10 7/10 8/10 6/10 YOUNG TO DIE! 7/10
CHRYSALIS, 1976
STAND UP AQUALUNG A PASSION PLAY MINSTREL IN 5/10 STORMWATCH
ISLAND, 1969 CHRYSALIS, 1971 CHRYSALIS, 1973 THE GALLERY CHRYSALIS, 1979
9/10 9/10 6/10 CHRYSALIS, 1975 SONGS FROM 6/10
7/10 THE WOOD
CHRYSALIS, 1977
8/10

PROG ROCK
When Anderson moved south from t note at the same time as he

the leaving Anderson free to pursue a new,
Blackpool with various other future blew into the instrument.
b all-enveloping kind of progressive music
members of Jethro Tull in 1967, like many Further singularity was that incorporated elements of rock, jazz,
of the bands who went on to become prog provided by Anderson’s
p blues, folk and even classical influences.
stalwarts, their repertoire consisted distinctive stage presence,
d With Martin Barre as Abrahams’
almost entirely of a mixture of blues playing while standing on one
p replacement on guitar, Tull’s second
and Motown covers. leg and draped in an ankle-
le album, Stand Up, found a band in
Too broke to live in London, they set up length second-hand overcoat.
le transition from blues rock and on the
base in Luton, playing gigs under such The image was not contrived
T cusp of prog-rock glory.
names as Navy Blue, Ian Henderson’s Bag – the coat had been given to him by his Meticulously crafted, apart from a
O’ Nails, Bag O’ Blues and Candy Coloured father and served as an extra bedcover in jazzy rearrangement of Bach, the album
Rain. As they never got invited back, the his freezing bedsit and he wasn’t aware he consisted entirely of Anderson originals.
band’s booking agent took to changing was standing on one leg until it was Conductor David Palmer – who would play
their name at will. David Rees, author of highlighted in early reviews in the music an increasingly influential role before
Minstrels In The Gallery: A History Of Jethro press. Yet the effect was attention-catching: joining the band full time in 1977 – came
Tull, tells a particularly wonderful tale of the he looked like a tramp or a holy fool, the sort in to orchestrate “Reasons For Waiting”.
band turning up to a gig and realising that of disconcerting figure you might cross the Although barely four minutes long,
the name they didn’t recognise on the poster road to avoid. Before long he had added a “Back To The Family” utilised abrupt
outside the club must be them. codpiece to the costume. and unexpected changes of tempo to
The name Jethro Tull – randomly chosen Recorded during the summer of 1968, create the impression of a suite, a form
after the 18th-century agriculturist – Anderson described Tull’s debut, This Was, that would become a Tull trademark and
eventually stuck because its use coincided as “sort of progressive blues with a bit of a prog-rock leitmotif.
with the first time they managed to get jazz”. It was one of the first recorded uses of Elsewhere, on songs such as “Look Into
a second booking at the same venue. the ‘prog’ appellation and the record was The Sun” and “We Used To Know” (the latter
However, confusion reigned for some time well received and sales were encouraging. with a chord sequence remarkably similar
after and their debut single, “Sunshine However, not everyone was impressed: to the one the Eagles would later use on
Day”, was miscredited to ‘Jethro Toe’. Robert Christgau dissed it in The Village “Hotel California”), acoustic and electric
The lineup was for a while in a similar Voice as “a combination of the worst of instruments were finely calibrated.
state of flux, but by the beginning of 1968 Roland Kirk, Arthur Brown, and your Anderson called the album “the beginning
had stabilised around the quartet of nearest G.O. blues band”. of the real Jethro Tull adventure” and by the
Anderson, his Blackpool schoolfriend His view may have been harsh but it was summer of 1969 – as Tull were embarking on
Glenn Cornick on bass, and the Luton-born High flutin’: obvious that between Abrahams’ heads- an American tour with Led Zeppelin – Stand
Ian Anderson
pair of drummer Clive Bunker and guitarist on stage at down, 12-bar barrelling and Anderson’s Up had reached No 1 in the UK charts.
Mick Abrahams. The arrival of the latter, a the Royal more expansive vision, something had to The Zep tour broke Tull in America and led
Albert Hall,
blues purist who saw the band occupying October 13, give. Within weeks of the album’s release, to an invitation to play Woodstock, which
similar territory to Fleetwood Mac and 1970 Abrahams had quit to form Blodwyn Pig, Anderson disdainfully turned down. He
Chicken Shack, was critical – not least later explained that he did not want Tull to
because Abrahams’ virtuosity persuaded be branded as a “hippie band” and left it to
Anderson, who didn’t want to be reduced to
They played gigs under The Who and Ten Years After to fly the flag
playing rhythm guitar in his own group, to for British rock’n’roll. However, if you listen
take up another instrument.
Possibly influenced by The Moody Blues’
such names as Navy closely, in the Woodstock movie you can
hear Tull’s Stand Up being played over the
flautist, Ray Thomas, whose playing was Blue, Ian Henderson’s PA system between the live acts.
prominent on the recently released Days
Of Future Passed, Anderson picked up the Bag O’ Nails and The commercial success of Stand Up was
assisted by Tull’s insistence – unusual
flute, learning on the job and developing his
own uniquely idiosyncratic style, singing
Bag O’ Blues among ‘underground’ bands
a
– on continuing to release
non-album tracks as singles.
n
Between 1969 and 1971,
B
the band scored four Top 20
th
hits: “Living In The Past”,
h
““Sweet Dream”, “The Witch’s
Promise” and “Life Is A
P
Long Song”, all of which
L
were only available on
w
sseven-inch vinyl.
The follow-up album, Benefit,
marked a final farewell to Tull’s roots
m
as a blues band, Anderson’s densely
a
lliterate lyrics set against folkish
melodies with rock arrangements,
m
ccreating a similar soft/heavy dynamic
tto Led Zeppelin III. Yet it was mostly
a dress rehearsal for what was to
ccome next.
The first three Tull albums had
ffollowed what Anderson called
““a gentle progression”. Insisting
tthat the fourth album had to be
““different”, he was also determined
tto take full creative control and to
make a “serious” statement. He
m
ttook as his theme one of the

JETHRO TULL
biggest subjects of all – faith

in God and its confused and
complex relationship with the
social construct of organised
religion, embroidering his
philosophical musings with
his own feelings of “fear, guilt,
embarrassment, reverence
and loathing”.
Recorded in a studio that had
ironically once been a church
(and with Led Zeppelin at work
in the adjoining studio on their
fourth album), the result was
Tull’s first full-blown prog-
concept, Aqualung. Although
Anderson later tried to claim
it was merely “a whimsical
collection of odds and sods”, the
themes were self-evident, side
one containing a series of linked
character sketches under the
title “Aqualung” and side two
subtitled “My God”.
With further changes in the
lineup, the creative approach
was different, too. Tull had
previously recorded mostly live
in the studio, with Anderson
handing over his songs “so the
other guys could do the big job
of playing them”. The sessions
for Aqualung often found
Anderson in the studio alone,
playing the drums and
overdubbing both acoustic and
electric guitars on tracks such
as “Locomotive Breath”.
From here on, Anderson and
Tull went concept crazy. The
follow-up, Thick As A Brick,
was a 44-minute two-part suite
that pretended to be a musical
adaptation of an epic poem by
fictional eight-year-old genius
“Gerald Bostock” and came
packaged in an elaborate
spoof newspaper, recording
Bostock’s exploits.
Adding harpsichord, xylophone, trumpet, as “tedious nonsense”. Such brickbats were Jethro Tull in A change of direction was sorely needed
saxophone and strings to the rock-folk- perhaps deserved – and yet beneath the Amsterdam, and Anderson’s moonlighting as Steeleye
1972: (l-r)
classical melange, it was Tull’s most ludicrously portentous concept lay some John Evan, Span’s producer provided the impetus.
musically ‘progressive’ album to date and epically fine prog rock and the album gave Ian Anderson, While others folded under the punk
Barrie Barlow,
in its way a masterpiece of the genre. Yet Tull their second US No 1. Martin Barre onslaught, between 1977–79 Anderson
there was also an uncomfortable sense Top that? Easy. Enter War Child. Only and Jeffrey fashioned a trilogy of pleasing folk-rock
Hammond
that Anderson was hedging his bets, this time Anderson had gone too far. After albums that prevented Tull from joining
seeking to compete with the commercially the project’s original wildly over-the-top the scrapheap.
successful bombast of ELP and Yes on multimedia concept had collapsed, he Over the next two decades there were
one level, but at the same time cynically was left to salvage what he could from the another eight albums of bewilderingly
claiming the project was a knowing satire wreckage and put out the remnants on diverse stripe, as Tull embraced
on their grandiose designs. a disappointingly old-fashioned non- synthesisers (1982’s The Broadsword And
It was followed by the even more conceptual album of straightforward songs. The Beast), hard rock (1987’s Crest Of A
convoluted A Passion Play, chronicling the It was only a momentary pause in his Knave, which won a Grammy for Best Metal
spiritual journey of a voyager named Ronnie heroic ambition. Minstrel In The Gallery Performance) and world music (1995’s Roots
GIJSBERT HANEKROOT/GETTY IMAGES
Pilgrim in the afterlife, no less. Presented in contained spoken-word intros and To Branches).
four “acts” and set variously in purgatory, a 17-minute four-part suite titled The glory days of Tull were long
heaven and hell, with a comic spoken-word “Baker St Muse”, while Too Old To gone,
g but old prog rockers can never
interlude that sat uncomfortably between Rock’N’Roll: Too Young To Die! was stop
s conceptualising. As a solo artist
AA Milne and an Aesop fable, the album intended as the soundtrack to a A
Anderson was still fashioning epic
was ferociously slated. muddled rock musical. Thankfully albums well into the new millennium,
a
NME called it “the fall of Jethro Tull”, it was never staged, and even iincluding
n a Thick As A Brick sequel,
Melody Maker found it “rattles with fervent Tull fans generally regard released on the 40th anniversary of
re
emptiness” and Rolling Stone dismissed it the album as an artistic nadir. the original. l
th

“I’m
writing
things
I can’t
play”
With America beginning to hop
to their beat, JETHRO TULL are
upping their game, carving
up a Stradivarius in search of
transatlantic success. “In the
States the groups were like the
MC5,” unwashed flautist Ian
Anderson tells Chris Welch.
“We were a little more subtle.”
HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
XXXXX

JETHRO TULL
The Stand Up/
Benefit Jethro Tull
lineup, 1970: (l–r)
Ian Anderson,
Glenn Cornick,
Martin Barre and
Clive Bunker

JETHRO TULL
MELODY MAKER OCTOBER 16, 1971 football. You give up smoking and do deep-
“AFTER THE GIG IT’S

A BRITISH band’s conquest breathing exercises. We rehearse before a tour
of America is the modern- and gradually work up to it, with a final dress
day equivalent of the
STRAIGHT TO THE rehearsal. When we’re on tour it’s total
HOTEL, AND IT’S HARD

Crusades. Instead of seeking involvement. Even when we’re not touring,
the Holy Grail, they pursue we’re recording.
the Holy Dollar with
TO SLEEP… SO YOU “The first week home after a tour of the States
PLAY CARDS”
religious fervour. is written off completely to adjust to the time
It is a stirring tale, this changes. Then you get bored and start writing or
pioneering by bold bands of practising. That’s something we’re just beginning
adventurers across the prairies, mountains and
IAN ANDERSON to do – practice. I’m starting to practise the flute
deserts in search of limitless treasure. for the first time.
See them battle with the pirate agents and taking drugs. But after playing four nights a “Basically, I have always just jammed in the
promoters. Thrill to the sound of savage week, suddenly my attitudes changed. America studio. But because of the structure of what the
audiences whooping a greeting to electric became the place to play and England was where band is doing now, we have to improve ourselves
warriors from far lands. I wanted to live. technically. I find I’m writing things I can’t play. I
And when they return, battle weary and “On our last tour we actually had a few days can only play in four keys, and I remember being
triumphant, the rock crusaders strip off their off. Yes, I remember now – we had a day off in given a piece of rock on a wooden stand for flute
boots, sink into a pile of skins and recount their Vancouver!” playing by the MM. If I’m going to win another bit
deeds, hardships and struggles, eyes glinting, Does Ian feel physically exhausted after an of rock next year, I’d better start practising.
lips curled over their teeth. evening of fluting, “I’ve been practising the violin lately – well it’s
“It’s often extremely guitaring and leaping?
gu all music. I bought a violin in New York and cut it
difficult to find a “Not really exhausted up to fit it with frets. Then I taped on a pick-up. I
launderette,” said one – if you keep a sensible finally used a hack-saw to take out a great lump,
such hunter, Ian Anderson pace, and don’t use all
pa and inside saw the maker’s name – ‘Stradivarius.’
of Jethro Tull, this week. your energy right away.
yo Oh, I’m sure it’s a fake. I couldn’t be that unlucky.
Ian has plenty of It’s like a game of
It’ I’ve got another violin which is a much better
experience in the art of
touring America. His band
“It’s not a dressing
has been 10 times, on each gown!”: Anderson
occasion building up their fronting Tull at
the Isle Of Wight
reputation, until now they Festival August
stand as one of the most 30, 1970
popular and highly paid.
It’s often difficult for
fans at home to realise
just how big are some of
the groups they used to see at their local
bierkeller or jive bar. Jethro are giants in the
States, but on their native heath... “they hardly
played Aqualung, our last LP”.
Just how did Ian and the lads crack that
impenetrable continent? What was the story
of Tull’s success? And what of launderettes?
Read on.
“America is consistent for us but here it’s
trailed off as far as most people are concerned,
in that we are not talked about so much. In the
final analysis – we do all right. We were too fast
coming up in England. In America it was very
slow. I saw Yes in America and they went down
well – much better than we did on our first tour.
We bombed out in a lot of places.
“Our first tour was in January ’69 when we
played the Fillmore in New York. All our gear
had been sent to Boston, and we were on with
Blood, Sweat & Tears. We were completely up
the creek. They vaguely knew our albums,
but basically we were unknown.
“At the time I thought it would be our first and
last tour. I thought England was the place and
that we were a little club group. In the States, the
groups at the time were like the MC5 and we were
a little more subtle. I was surprised when we
started to get a good reaction.
“After 13 weeks we lost money, so we had to
go back. The second tour was with Led Zeppelin
DAVID REDFERN/REDFERNS
and much improved. We played to 5–10,000 a

night and we seemed to be scoring. On the third
Caption
tour we were on our own, earning money, and we
felt good.
“I hated the country at first – I really didn’t want
to know. It distressed me to see so many kids

The Aqualung lineup,
London, March 11, 1971:
(l–r) Martin Barre, Ian
Anderson, Jeffrey
Hammond, Clive Bunker
and John Evan
in
instrument. I don’t think I could play it on stage, launderettes, for – er – highly But apart from
but it would be good for sessions.”
b personal wash. None of us t
trouble with
Tull have a kind of maxi-single on release at wash our stage gear.” llaundry – what
the
th
h moment with five songs, which Ian I mentioned that Ian’s about the mace
a
describes as an interlude between albums.
d famous old dressing gown battles, the
b
They have a new album on the way about looked like it hadn’t been untamed
u
which he waxed enthusiastic and they are
w cleaned for half a century. audiences, the
a
playing a British tour this month.
p “It’s not a dressing gown!” brutal police?
b
“It’ll be nice to do a proper tour of England, said Ian with mild “It’s pretty humdrum
“I
where it will be so much more relaxed than
w indignation, eyes rreally. But once we
the States.”
th popping slightly. played at Hampton Beach…”
pl
How much of a strain was it on the road? “It cost £60 and I had Go on...
“It’s a routine. Sometimes it’s a ’plane job. it made in Carnaby “And we played the most
Sometimes you can go by car, which means
S Street. But it has got disastrous
di
i set of the tour. We
you can see something of the country. Usually
y slightly ripped. If I played so badly we decided to
pl
it’s a two hour ’plane trip. If you’re late you go
it don’t wear it – I feel get them clapping on the
ge
straight to the gig. If you’re early you get a
st uncomfortable. It stinks beat. People started jumping
be
ssound check. After the gig it’s straight to the something awful, but it’s on the stage and fighting.
hotel, and it’s difficult to sleep because you
h part of me. It’s a personal The promoter tried to snatch
Th
are shattered, so you play cards. We play
a piece of memorabilia, the microphone away from
th
‘Black Bitch’ and if my wife travels with us,
‘B and as much a part of me and kept yelling, ‘I’m
m
sshe’s one more hand at cards. There’s no club playing as my flute. It’s the promoter – get off,
th
going – we all go to bed, and we don’t very

g only about two years old, get off!’ But we carried
ge
often go outside the hotel, except to find a
o but it started off when my h playing and the police came
on the
launderette.
laa We go to bed about 2am, then dad gave me an overcoat to keep me warm when pouring in. I understand they haven’t held any
up at 10am and off again, to the airport.
u I came down from Blackpool. It got nicked in concerts there since.”
“Once you get into the routine of airports Chicago. The new one is a frock coat. I expected it In a way its rather comforting, that the hopping
you can work reasonably well, and write
y would cost me about £15 – not sixty quid! But it’s flautist who can still raise the eyebrows of any
ssongs on the ’plane, or catch up on reading. a nice bit of material. None of that cheap Rod passing City gent, is more concerned with the
As I said, our main problem is finding
A Stewart rubbish, y’know.” washing of smalls than spreading chaos. ●

PROG
SOFT
MACHINE
Psychedelia, prog, rock and jazz fusion, all lightly brushed with absurdism – Wyatt’s
undulating crew proved an endlessly pliable sonic machine. By John Lewis
S
OFT MACHINE have been several single, “Love Makes Sweet Music” – a piece
different groups over the course of charming freakbeat, not quite poppy
of their existence – a freakbeat enough for Ready Steady Go!, yet not quite
combo who morphed into pioneers freaky enough for the Summer of Love.
of psychedelic whimsy; an Its flipside, “Feelin’, Reelin’, Squealin’”,
experimental prog band who eventually is closer to the hippie ideal, a piece of
became a rigorous jazz rock act. The bulk of flute-drenched psychedelia featuring a
their output has been instrumental, but they growling baritone-voiced Kevin Ayers on
still managed to spawn three distinctive the verses and a tenor-pitched Dadaist
vocalists – Robert Wyatt, chorus from Wyatt. It would also be the
Kevin Ayers and Daevid Allen – who last recording that the band would release
questioned the fundamental nature of featuring a guitar for nearly a decade.
Anglo-American rock music. An early live engagement saw them on the
Uniquely among prog-rock bands, Soft French Riviera, playing in a production of
Machine tended not to use guitars, but Picasso’s outrageous, erotic play Desire
they’ve still managed to feature several of Caught By The Tail and already displaying
Britain’s top guitarists – Andy Summers a fondness for jazz-inspired improvisation.
from The Police, fusion guru Allan Allen left the band on the way home –
Holdsworth and jazz luminary John denied re-entry to the UK for overstaying the
Etheridge. And the band has been the terms of his initial visa from Australia, he
seedbed for dozens of other hugely stayed on the Continent to form the Anglo-
successful musicians – film composer French outfit Gong – but his surrealist vision
Karl Jenkins, big-name saxophonists lived on for the first two Soft Machine
Elton Dean, Ray Warleigh and Theo Travis, albums. In particular was Allen’s interest in
and drummers John Marshall and Gary the teachings of the French “pataphysicist”
Husband have all passed through the band’s Alfred Jarry, an eccentric, proto-Dadaist
ranks over the past half century. prankster who counted Picasso, Gauguin,
The band formed in 1966, from the ashes Duchamp and Oscar Wilde as friends.
of the Daevid Allen Trio and the Wilde The three-piece band’s debut album,
Flowers, featuring drummer Wyatt, bassist 1968’s The Soft Machine, is a wonderfully
Ayers, Aussie guitarist Allen and organist endearing collection of skewed pop songs. It
Mike Ratledge. The only recording made by was played with a certain rigour that owed
this quartet would be the February 1967 much to the band’s contemporaries the

SOFT MACHINE
THE SOFT VOLUME THIRD FOURTH FIFTH SIX SEVEN BUNDLES SOFTS
MACHINE TWO CBS, 1970 CBS, 1971 CBS, 1972 CBS, 1973 CBS, 1973 HARVEST, 1975 HARVEST, 1976
ABC PROBE/ PROBE, 1969 9/10 6/10 7/10 7/10 6/10 8/10 7/10
BARCLAY, 1968 8/10
8/10

Pataphysicists got
a brand-new band:
The Soft Machine
in January 1967 –
(l–r) Daevid Allen,
Mike Ratledge,
Robert Wyatt
and Kevin Ayers
Jimi Hendrix Experience (whom the band “Orange Skin Food” both spin out into the
would support on a mammoth US tour that kind of territory explored by Frank Zappa on
year), but Wyatt, Ayers and Ratledge all After a US tour Hot Rats, with Hugh’s brother Brian Hopper
wore their experimentalism lightly – like
Alfred Jarry, this was a band who were very with Jimi Hendrix, playing harmonised solos on multiple reed
instruments. Best of all might be “Hulloder”,
consciously not taking themselves too
seriously. “Why Am I So Short?” is a hymnal
Kevin Ayers left, to be presumably written in the States, where
Wyatt checks his privilege over the course
piece of Wyatt whimsy, “So Boot If At All” replaced by the band’s of a lengthy, stream-of-consciousness
has a certain heavy rock swagger, with
organist Mike Ratledge playing like a roadie Hugh Hopper ramble (“If I was black and I lived here/I’d
want to be a big man in the FBI… but as I’m
metal guitarist; “Why Are We Sleeping” not/And because I’m free, white and 21/I
prefigures early Blur; while “We Did It into a shorter series of segued tracks to don’t need more power than I’ve got/Except
Again” is a hypnotic one-chord groove maximise on publishing income). The first sometimes when I’m broke”).
that anticipates the motorik krautrock that of these, “Rivmic Melodies”, is a 17-minute The entire album is a cornucopia of ideas,
Can would be making a few years later. suite filled with compelling shorter pieces. any one of which could have seen them
The album’s highlight might be “Lullaby “Good evening, we now have a choice moving in a dozen different directions. The
Letter”, an angular proto-punk miniature selection of rhythmic melodies from the direction that they did end up taking, like
with unusual chord changes that sounds Official Orchestra of the College of many other jazz-loving rock musicians, was
oddly reminiscent of Nirvana, with Ratledge Pataphysics,” announces Wyatt over a inspired by Miles Davis’s album Bitches
again playing a heavy metal solo on his jazzy, loping groove, before launching Brew. At the end of 1969, Wyatt visited a
Lowrey organ. into a Sesame Street-style recitation of London jazz club where the pianist Keith
After the US tour with Hendrix (when the alphabet over a quirky melody Tippett was performing with his eight-piece,
Andy Summers briefly joined the band), (track four, “A Concise British one that would later feature on his 1970
BIPS/GETTY IMAGES, PICTORIAL PRESS LTD / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
Ayers left, to be replaced by the Alphabet, Pt II”, repeats the Polydor album You Are Here... I Am There.
band’s roadie Hugh Hopper, and the track with the alphabet Wyatt was impressed by the horn frontline
band regrouped to create the 1969 recited in an entirely random that lurched between tightly written
LP Soft Machine Volume Two, which order). Anchored by Ratledge harmonies and free improvisation. “We
takes the Jarry-esque absurdism playing suspended chords on asked if we could borrow them to add spice
of the first album into an almost the piano, often with him to our distinctive but inflexible ‘bees-in-a-
symphonic dimension. The overdubbing buzzsaw organ bottle’ sound and they generously agreed to
influence of the band’s friends Pink riffs over the top, it’s a help out,” says Wyatt.
Floyd is strong (Wyatt, Ratledge and thoroughly appealing album, Elton Dean (alto saxophone), Marc Charig
Hopper had backed Syd Barrett on his and a fine vehicle for Wyatt’s (cornet) and Nick Evans (trombone), along
1968 solo debut, The Madcap Laughs). plaintive, mischievous choirboy with Lyn Dobson (flute and alto) and Jimmy
But the band also take a conceptual tenor voice. “Dedicated To You But Hastings (flute and bass clarinet), were
direction that owes much to Frank Zappa You Weren’t Listening” is a lovely added to the Soft Machine lineup, forming
(apparently, on Zappa’s recommendation, Mike Ratledge baroque ballad, while “Hibou a short-lived septet (Soft Machine weren’t
they split the album’s two dominating suites Anemone And Bear” and alone in their admiration of Tippett’s band

– King Crimson also hired Tippett,
Charig and Evans around this time).
The resulting album, 1970’s Third,
turned out to be the way station between
psychedelic prog and full-on jazz rock.
Hugh Hopper’s composition “Facelift”
is a challenging and intriguing mix of
ambient free improvisation and jazzy,
high-pressure rock. It is a blend of two
live performances recorded at Croydon’s
Fairfield Halls and then manipulated in
the studio, Teo Macero-style, and subject
to post-production tape loops. Ratledge’s
“Slightly All The Time” starts as a playful
swing groove that moves into several
stages and shifting time signatures; while
the closing track, “Out-Bloody-Rageous”,
starts and ends with a nod to Terry Riley’s
A Rainbow In Curved Air, with overdubbed
layers of organ creating a ghostly,
hypnotic quality for the first and last
five minutes of the track, sandwiching using a Fender Rhodes, feedifeeding
ing iitt Jenkins,
JJe ki who h pens
a jagged 7/4 groove that features one of through numerous effects units sseven of the tracks,
Mike Ratledge’s best fuzz-organ solos. and enjoying its glossy, ethereal sspecialising in simple,
The album’s penultimate track, Wyatt’s qualities on tracks like “M C” and sstatic and rather
“Moon In June”, might be the band’s the aqueous ambient jazz of rrepetitive grooves like
masterpiece, but it was one that Ratledge “Drop”. “All White” is a rigorous ““Nettle Bed”. “Carol
and Hopper didn’t particularly like. Wyatt modal groove in 7/4, “Pigling Ann” is a pretty,
A
sings a highly self-referential lyric that Bland” is an episodic funk ballad, sspartan ballad, “Day’s
provides a running commentary of the while “As If” is a fidgety and Eye” is a rigorous workout
E
recording process (the words would change idiosyncratic piece of collective iin 9/8, while Ratledge
when he performed the song live, at BBC improvisation written by Ratledge. iintroduces a synth to the band
Radio sessions, or at the Prom concert that What becomes apparent is that, for all the ffor the first time – a modular
Soft Machine headlined that summer). meretricious playing, there is no-one in the analogue EMS model called the AKS.
Wyatt plays drums, bass and keyboards band capable of acting as a Chick Corea or a It’s tempting to see subsequent albums
for most of the track, his sparse approach Herbie Hancock. Ratledge is great at texture as an afterthought, but Bundles (1975) is
reminiscent of his forthcoming solo albums and at “comping” (providing inventive a fascinating change in direction. Ratledge
like Rock Bottom. “Moon In June” could backing for others), and he could get away is increasingly sidelined – Jenkins is even
have augured a new era for the band as a with playing simple fuzz-rock riffs on his (Above) starting to overdub keyboards – but the real
Third-era
Wyatt-esque conceptual pop group, but wheezy, buzzy Lowrey organ in earlier lineup – (l–r) USP is that the band have introduced guitar
instead it became the band’s last vocal incarnations of the band. But, as a Ratledge, for the first time since their debut single.
Hugh
track. 1971’s Fourth sidelines Wyatt and classically trained pianist dabbling in Hopper, Where the sonic space usually occupied by
it would be his last with the band. Hugh jazz, his limitations as an improviser Robert guitar was filled by Ratledge’s FX-laden
Wyatt and
Hopper is the dominant songwriter, and become apparent. Even the band’s strong Elton Dean – keyboards, here Allan Holdsworth starts
many of the textures explored by the band instrumentalists, like Elton Dean, seemed before their to dominate proceedings, playing with
concert at
start to become self-consciously jazzier. Roy reluctant to really take the lead. the Albert a John McLaughlin swagger on “Hazard
Babbington joins the band on four tracks to Dean left after Fifth to be replaced by multi- Hall, August Profile”, showing an ECM delicacy on
13, 1970
play upright bass, complementing Hopper’s reedist Karl Jenkins from Ian Carr’s Nucleus, “Gone Sailing” and telling a compelling
bass guitar, while Ratledge puts his electric who started to dominate the band on 1973’s (Below) narrative tale on “Land Of The Bag Snake”.
Bundles
HULTON-DEUTSCH/HULTON-DEUTSCH COLLECTION/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES; TONY RUSSELL/REDFERNS

piano through a ring modulator – an FX unit Six, a double album that mixes live and lineup, 1975 – Holdsworth would soon be lost to America
popular with the likes of Herbie Hancock studio recordings. A voyage through (c/wise from (to join The Tony Williams Lifetime), to be
top left) Roy
and Chick Corea. Elton Dean’s first enjoyably disorientating time signatures, Babbington, replaced by the more introspective John
songwriting contribution, “Fletcher’s “37 ½” features some impressive drumming Ratledge, Etheridge on the rather reflective and
John
Blemish”, is a series of tightly written from John Marshall; “EPV” and “Lefty” are Marshall, ambient 1976 album Softs.
cued passages that are linked by free both interesting ambient explorations Allan Soft Machine have continued to exist, on
Holdsworth
improvisation, consciously referencing featuring an FX-laden Fender Rhodes; while and Karl and off, since then, as a legacy project – also
Bitches Brew. Ratledge writes the bitty, the funky groove of Ratledge’s “Gesolreut” Jenkins known, variously, as Soft Ware, Soft Works
fiddly “Teeth”, while Hopper’s “Virtually” recalls Eddie Harris’s “Freedom and Soft Machine Legacy –
is a four-part suite that moves between Jazz Dance”, the soul-jazz drawing from an alumni of
gentle harmonies and free-jazz freakouts. standard covered by Miles Davis. around 50 people and often
The waltzing “Kings And Queens” is a rare The most memorable track on featuring some very big
point of meditative peace on the album. the studio album is “Stanley names in British jazz
By the time of Fifth (1972), Soft Machine Stamp’s Gibbon Album” a (including John Taylor,
had fully morphed into a fusion outfit, propulsive groove set around Dick Morrissey and Theo
broadly along the lines of Chick Corea’s Ratledge’s fugal piano riff. But Travis). But their repertoire
Return To Forever or John McLaughlin’s it’s the angular “Stumble” that concentrates almost
Mahavishnu Orchestra. Wyatt had been sets out Jenkins’ stall as a exclusively on the mid 1970s
replaced by two jazz drummers – Phil songwriter, and sets the tone incarnation of the band.
Howard on side one, John Marshall on side for how the band would continue There are dozens of
two – both playing with a weird degree of on 1973’s Seven. fascinating iterations of
restraint. Ratledge had ditched his Hohner By now Hopper had left, to be Soft Machine that could
pianet, the clunky-sounding electric piano replaced by Roy Babbington, and provide fruitful territory
he’d used on previous albums, and started the writing is dominated by for exploration. ●

Soft Machine’s Hugh
Hopper (left) and
Robert Wyatt play the
Amougies Festival in
Belgium, October 1969

SOFT
BANDMACHINE
NAME
“We’re a very
unplanned
group”
Fresh from new collaborations,
SOFT MACHINE’s Robert Wyatt
is bridging the jazz-rock divide.
“I think of myself as a catalyst
for the real musicians,”
he tells Michael Watts
MELODY MAKER JANUARY 2,1971

1970 was a very good
year for Robert Wyatt.
It was the year in
which he established
himself as a major
drummer in
contemporary British
music; the year
in which he
experimented outside the confines,
unrestrictive though they are, of The Soft
Machine, dallying briefly with Kevin
Ayers, then concentrating more strongly on
his role inside the Keith Tippett Centipede
project, with whom he has played so
impressively on their three initial outings.
And then, as the year has drawn to an
end, he has further established his own
identity by becoming a prime mover in
Symbiosis, that excitingly impromptu,
free-blowing band, and finally topping
off the proceedings by producing his own
album – you believe he produced it, too?
He has called it The End Of An Ear, which
is quite a funny pun, I suppose. But then,
Robert it quite a funny person with his
huge fur French hat crammed down over
his untidy lank hair.
Whenever I think of Robert I think of that
PHILIPPE GRAS/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
hat, and there are other mental images, too.

Of Robert slouching around in that curious
way of his, with his creased trousers that
are always too short flapping around his
ankles, dressed in the maroon coat that
always looks a size too big; of Robert
lathered with sweat as he sits stripped
to the waist, flailing away like a man

SOFT MACHINE
possessed under the hot lights of the Albert Hall [Windo] and Nick [Evans], that a whole different
“I STILL FEEL LOST.

during the Softs’ televised concert; and then there thing happens. I just lift up me sticks and
is Robert sitting with bitter tears in his eyes in a immediately something else happens and
dressing room in Rotterdam because he hates the
SOMETIMES I’M BACK different situations arise that would never
WHERE I STARTED SIX

performance he has just given. arise with Soft Machine. I just play completely
Because, you see, he’s nothing if not an different things.
emotional person. He is also nothing if not
a nice person, and niceness is not an excessively
YEARS AGO” “Symbiosis is different people. All music is a
cooperative thing, you see. Beyond all people’s
common quality among musicians and ROBERT WYATT individual talent is a shared talent, which
entertainers. Much of the secret of his success the music has. How to pin down the best
is that people respond so readily to his is expected to react back to us. I just find that relationship... European music sort of solidified
spontaneity and generosity of spirit. Everybody totally embarrassing – ending a number, bang, in a way into an almost military hierarchy of
wants to work with him, and when they have then straight into the next one, all that business. composer, conductor and orchestra.
made the gig they come back for more. There was I can’t bear it.” “What happens is, there’s a kind of assumption
nobody happier and more elated amongst those that the type of person who conceives the music
50 people in Centipede than Wyatt, and no one You don’t always appear happy with the is a different kind of person from a performer –
more brought down when the band received group... What do you think it’s doing wrong that’s what European music assumes, although
reviews that were generally cautious and, in for you personally? [Long pause] “All the things many great European composers have been
one instance, bitterly hostile. you can talk about in music we agree on. We all virtuoso performers of their own work, and
“I’m upset, not for my own sake,” he explained share similar ideas on the possibilities of freedom many great composers are great conductors. But
later, “but for Keith and Julie.” And he meant it. and the different types of freedom, and structure, generally speaking, this is a hierarchy that’s
and discipline, and what use they are, and when accepted, and the fact is that in my opinion the
How do you feel about interviews, Robert? they’re useful and when they are not, and how to most vital influence on music has been the black
“I regret most I’ve done when I see what’s cooperate, and still express yourself. But music music of the past 50 years.
happened, but then I regret most performances isn’t, like, conscious ideas, concepts, if you had “The most interesting thing it seems to me,
on records, too. I think one of the big difficulties them; the real music is the way you play, the that has been suggested by black music, is that,
is that written words and spoken words aren’t actual note that you put after the note before. as in, say, painting, the person who conceives
the same thing. You actually think different “And quite simply, sometimes we aren’t playing of it and the person who plays it can be one and
things in print – I do. Things I say, words I use in the same piece of music – the drumming isn’t the same – combine both skills in one person.
speech, if I was writing down the same thought, the drumming for the bass line that Hugh’s And this seems to me the most interesting,
I actually wouldn’t use the same word. There’s using, or there’s another bass line that isn’t being challenging thing that jazz music has come up
nothing anybody can do about that, really. It’s played, or the rhythm section thing that should with that European music doesn’t really like to
misleading. I find I say things just to pad some be with Mike’s organ solo isn’t because Hugh and get to grips with. And what Symbiosis is, is a
things out, or to be clever for a minute while I’m I are somewhere else. The idea, after all, is not to complete imbalance; in other words, we’re all
trying to think what I really think. I can see the create four pieces of music but one piece of music, blowers without any of the composers, or when
value of them, but I still find it makes demands... and I’m upset on nights when we create four we do have composers – like Keith was with us
It upsets me sometimes, put it like that. But that’s pieces of music.” the other night – he’s not in a composing or
true of anything.” controlling role at all.
So what have you gained musically from the “And so it’s an incredible risk, Symbiosis every
But Hugh [Hopper] and Mike [Ratledge] don’t Symbiosis? “Since the summer, since I’ve started night, because we just turn up and play. The
like interviews, do they? “Well, Hugh is playing with Kevin, I’ve realised that in other responsibility is enormous; you’ve got to be on
pathologically shy. Very. The fact that he goes on contexts there are things in me which come out form then and there because you’re going to be
stage is part of it. You don’t get up on your own, and never seem to come out when I play with Soft doing all the composing and all the performing
you get up with equipment and amplifiers and Machine. It’s not a question of quality at all, it’s at the same time, and so is everybody else.”
volume. It’s very private on stage; it’s not an just a question of different situations demand
exhibitionistic thing to do at all. different skills, and I hadn’t realised just how Would you agree that this seems to be a very
“People are often surprised at musicians and much you do adapt and just play what seems interesting period for young jazz musicians
performers being introverts but it doesn’t surprise necessary. I would be very loath to put a word to and the thinking rock musicians? They really
me. What surprises me is that people who are it and think of a concept which fits what I mean. seem to be coming together. “Well, Centipede
extroverts are musicians. What amazes me is “All I know is that when I get on a kit, and there’s is directly responsible for Symbiosis and so on.
when a brilliant musician is an extrovert, because Roy Babbington on me left and whoever it might Yeah, I think so. For me, I find it staggering, and
if they’re extrovert it probably means that they be, Neville Whitehead or someone, and Gary a bit scary, because it seems to me there’s so much
spent their time in their teens rushing round to do and so little to hide behind.
coffee bars meeting people, and I’m “There’s a lot of knowledge and wisdom
Wyatt:
surprised that they had the time to learn “There’s an that’s been spread around in the last four
to play anything at the same time. element of or five years. There’s no excuse for certain
childishness
“Whereas I find that introverts are less in jazz” types of musicians not knowing about
social people, are very often the ones who other types. The standards are so high
learn to play instruments properly. The now! And the area of information you are
one way you can hide is to be a performer, expected to cope with! I think there’s bound
because it’s really a false identity to be to be a lot of messy stuff of journalistic
on stage. You can really feel untouchable interest – interesting but disposable – but I
and private. think it’s incredibly exciting. Short answer
“The group has become primarily to your question – yes.”
instrumental, for instance, because of
our characters, in a way. We’re a very What do you think jazz people can
unplanned group in our direction. We just learn from those musicians with rock
sort of drift from whatever area seems to references? “That’s interesting. Before
GEMS/GETTY IMAGES
excite us at the moment to whatever other I talk about it I think that if you think of it
area seems to excite us. Even the simple as a blanket thing you’re in trouble; a band
things, like the gaps, the lack of gaps, is created out of generalised theories sounds
because we are embarrassed, I think, to like one to me, always. And a band made out
have a silence on stage where the audience of people who’ve met and work together well

sounds like that as well. There can be Softs parade: (l-r)
Mike Ratledge,
as much difference in worlds between Hugh Hopper,
two so-called rock musicians working Robert Wyatt and
Elton Dean in 1970
together, they can bring more
completely different things to each
other than a rock musician and a
classical musician.
“If there are any general things, I
think they’re the obvious ones. Jazz
musicians are now realising that there’s
nothing mature about consistently
drowning out your bass player and
pianist. There’s nothing childish about
getting your bass player and pianist
heard, even if it means they have to
play crude instruments such as bass
guitar and electric piano. There’s
nothing essentially immoral or
immature about it. The fact that rock
musicians assume that you’ve got to
hear the bass line – although very
often they overdo it – seems to me an
actual element of musical maturity
in rock. There’s an element of
childishness in jazz. There’s an
assumption that jazz musicians can do all the uncomfortable since we started. Basically,
i ll I came “There’s a k
kind
ind of family of thi
thinkers
inkers that my
teaching and rock musicians all the learning. up to London to sing songs with Kevin [Ayers]. parents belonged to, and to a certain extent
“If the soloist, for instance, is doing a Five, six years ago. I’d done a lot of things before Robert Graves could be called the head of that
development upon a harmonic sequence and you then that were instrumental, but by instrumental family. He’s a kind of distant tribal chief, though
can’t hear the harmonic sequence, so you don’t I don’t mean jazz or rock. In fact, the funny way it’s several generations removed. He had various
know what the solo lines are referring to, then you these discussions come to jazz and rock is that fights with me dad, who died some years ago. My
lose the point of reference; you lose the lovely I don’t see them as the two great sources from father at that time, he was a sort of brilliant young
cosmic hum, if you’ll pardon the expression; you which musicians are drawing. Communist layabout, really [laughs].
lose the sense of well-being, you lose, actually, “A lot of my richest sources of inspiration “He’d done various things. He’d got a degree
the music, and you just leave the ideas. It’s an come from not one musical idiom or the other in law at Liverpool, and then he did modern
important thing in rock, the amplifiers and that, but from paintings, and theatre and people’s languages at Oxford, and then he got on to do
and instead of being rude about them, I think characteristics that you haven’t seen come psychology at Cambridge. A very bright bloke.
jazz musicians are realising more and more that through in music.” “He lived just long enough to realise that
they’ve got a very important function and that I wasn’t going into university, which really
they’re solving problems that can’t be solved in But everybody is affected to a greater or disappointed him. He died in a state of anger at
any other way in the immediate future. lesser extent by every experience they me, I’m afraid. But he was also a pianist, and
“And I think rock musicians can learn from encounter. Didn’t you once tell me you’d that’s definitely where I got my ideas from. The
jazz musicians. The most important thing they learnt a lot by being told by Robert Graves, house was full of music.
learn is that you can get a lot more out of music the poet, to leave home at 16 and make your “And Graves, he’s incredible. There’s a colony,
and put a lot more into it if you learn to play own way in the world? “Well, I lived with a set, around him there. Mind you, I’m talking
properly. Quite simply, jazz musicians are him in Majorca for a while, and he became my about when I was there, which was before The
showing rock musicians that there’s an awful lot Mediterranean father in a way. He’s happy to have Soft Machine. I’ve got lots of friends who have
of things you can do on a guitar and drum kits me there, and I hadn’t left school when I first went gone back there. Kevin spent some time there.
that aren’t unnecessary or just technical fiddle there, but he didn’t want me to loaf about in the He got into Majorca as a place to live much more
bits – they just expand your language. sun and just have a nice time and groove, which than I did.”
“In practice, most jazz musicians tend to me to is virtually the state he’s got to now, because he
be very involved in what they play – actually, the has the traditional attitude that he’s done his So when you came up to London you were
relationship between them and their instrument; homework, built up something, and now he’s going to sing with Kevin? “Yes, I think that was
and they’ve developed that to a very high extent – out in the sun finishing it off, so to speak. the idea; I didn’t really know. I’d been through a
a man and his bass, a man and his alto, a man and “I hadn’t earned it yet, somehow, and though period in my head very much like the stuff I’m
his piano. And what rock has spent a lot more time there was great love abounding it wasn’t one doing now, although not technically, probably.
doing than most of jazz is studying the actual which had to be constantly backed up by me The music I was listening to – had been listening
effect and balance of what all these instruments being there all the time or him coming here, just to – was Sunny Murray, Milford Graves and Cecil
sound like from the outside on a stage.” that he felt I had to go out and do it, and then Taylor, essentially. And Eric Dolphy, and Elvin
when I’d got something that I’d done, maybe go Jones, of course. And I arrived at the point where
What do you think your strengths are as a back and see him again. And I haven’t been back I decided the simplicity of Kevin’s songs, and the
drummer? “Well, I suppose it’s a bit late to say yet because I don’t feel I’ve done anything yet rightness and charm of them, had a fantastic
this, but I don’t primarily think of myself as a that would stand up to his kind of standards.” appeal to me after a couple of years of Sunny
drummer. I think of myself as a catalyst for the real Murraying and freak-out. And I’m now, I think,
musicians. How I see myself being most useful is So how did the tie-up with Graves originate? at a similar stage. I’m likely now to get into the
getting people at it slightly more than if I wasn’t “There’s a bunch of friends there in the early ’30s stage that Chris Spedding has been through on
PICTORIAL PRESS LTD / ALAMY
there, or even getting them together and at it. If I who’d gone out there – poets and writers – and his album. I haven’t heard it, but what he’s said
was really into drums as an end I’d be sitting here their children, their grandchildren, got invited about it I recognise, and I think a lot of us do.
practising. But I haven’t got a practice pad! So long out there by the people who stayed on there – you “In fact, it’s becoming a long syndrome in music
as I can play well enough to pin down what’s going know, the children of the people who went back – people going from complexity to simplicity. But
on and to emphasise the pace that’s necessary. to England during the war. And I’m one of them. I still feel very lost, actually. Sometimes I’m back
“From the technical point of view I’m just He’s no relation, though my father’s first wife was where I started six years ago. I’ve to go through
nowhere, really. I’ve always felt a bit his secretary. the cycle all over again now.” l

PROG
CARAVAN
From the Canterbury crucible comes an unserious but highly dextrous unit, out
of step but always in time. If they could do it again? They still are! By Paul Moody
C
ANTERBURY, APRIL 6, 1968. It was the beginning of a journey that
For the hundred or so regulars would take Hastings and the various
squeezed into The Beehive Club incarnations of Caravan from this sleepy
at 52 Dover Street, the rangy Kent backwater to stadium tours of America
figure at the front of the stage and the brink of stardom, all while
with the aquiline features and flowing exhibiting an eclectic array of influences
ginger locks looked strikingly familiar. that ran counter to pop orthodoxy.
Still just 21, Pye Hastings was already Where rock’n’roll was traditionally the
a fixture in a febrile music scene that had sound of the city, drawing its creative energy
seen local heroes Soft Machine become the from the streets, Caravan’s music – inspired
darlings of the UK underground over the by Anglican church music, jazz, folk and
previous six months. classical as much as soul and R&B –
However, this debut performance under tapped into a more meditative tradition,
the name Caravan – taken from the Duke as divorced from reality as Oliver Postgate’s
Ellington tune – marked a radical change creations during the period in nearby
of direction. Dispensing with the renditions Blean – Bagpuss, Ivor The Engine and
of jazz, soul and R&B standards they’d Noggin The Nog.
relied on in previous outfit The Wilde “I think the best definition is Robert
Flowers, the charismatic Hastings and Wyatt’s, which I heard from his own lips
fellow band members Richard Sinclair a couple of years ago at the University of
(bass), David Sinclair (organ) and drummer Kent,” says the band’s viola player, Geoff
Richard Coughlan – all casually dressed in Richardson, today. “Canterbury in the ’60s
flowing shirts and flared jeans – delivered was like the Galápagos Islands, where due
three sets of original material laced with to its isolation from the rest of the evolving
both a quirky pop sensibility and a sense world, strange things evolved unlike
of civic pride, encapsulated in standout anywhere else.”
track “A Place Of My Own”. Much like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales,
“The gig went down really well, Caravan’s story involves a rolling cast of
considering it was our first chance to try characters and more than its fair share of
out our own compositions on the public,” bawdiness. The son of a professional banker
recalls Hastings today. “Naturally, we in the Bank of India (his mother’s father had
loved it. The feeling was that we had been a police commissioner in India in the
something different.” days of the Raj), Pye Hastings’ musical

CARAVAN
CARAVAN IF I COULD IN THE LAND WATERLOO FOR GIRLS CUNNING BLIND DOG AT BETTER
DECCA, 1968 DO IT ALL OF GREY LILY WHO GROW STUNTS ST DUNSTANS BY FAR
8/10 OVER AGAIN, AND PINK DECCA, 1972 PLUMP IN DECCA, 1975 BTM, 1976 ARISTA, 1977
I’D DO IT ALL DECCA, 1971 5/10 THE NIGHT 7/10 6/10 5/10
OVER YOU 9/10 DECCA, 1973
DECCA, 1970 7/10
7/10

Wonder and causing youthquakes across the country,
whimsy: (l–r)
Richard Coughlan, whimsical ditties such as “And I Wish I Were
Richard Sinclair, Stoned” already felt like museum pieces
Pye Hastings and
Dave Sinclair, 1968 from another era.
With his ego bruised and conscious
that both Richard and Dave Sinclair had
sstockpiled material, Hastings took a
backseat for the band’s next album, 1971’s
b
IIn The Land Of Grey And Pink.
While innuendo-laden songs such as
““Golf Girl” played up to the Canterbury
sstereotype of their hometown as a stoned
version of Frodo’s Shire, it was “Nine
v
Feet Underground” that established the
F
band as a force to be reckoned with. A
b
mesmerising, 22-minute opus in eight parts
m
written in their keyboardist’s basement,
w
it showcased Dave Sinclair as every inch
the equal of prog-rock rivals Keith Emerson
th
and Rick Wakeman.
an
When the album again failed to chart,
the keyboardist – already exasperated
th
by y the band’s parlous financial state –
decided to quit. Having recruited Steve
de
Miller to take Sinclair’s place, continuing
M
tensions between Hastings and Richard
te
Sinclair
Sii during the recording of 1972’s
education began while he m
music publishing executive more jazz-oriented Waterloo Lily saw
was still at Pilgrim Boarding Ian Ralfini.
Ia the latter also leave the band to join
School in Lydden, 10 miles With Tolkien-centric whimsy Delivery – who wo uld later mutate into
outside the city. suddenly all the rage, Caravan
su Hatfield And The North.
Having gravitated towards signed to MGM/Verve on seven
si “Dave and Richard Sinclair leaving the
the avant-garde local music pounds a week, symbolically
p band at such a critical time in our careers
scene based at nearby Wellington inking the deal at The Beehive.
in was definitely a blow,” says Hastings today.
House, he made friends with a Released in October 1968, their “Some would say a killer blow. But looking
teenage Robert Wyatt – already debut album showcased
de back, it presented itself as an exciting
a gifted drummer – who had Hastings’ uncanny ability to
H opportunity to reform and take the band in
been taken under the wing of the harness Canterbury’s choral
ha a different direction. I never would have
Wyatt family’s lodger, a 21-year- tradition with the spirit of the
tr given up, and I didn’t.”
old Australian called Daevid age, the band’s wide-eyed sense
ag With Caravan having seemingly ground to
Allen. A blond-haired poet who of wonder made manifest in a halt, an unlikely jump-start came when,
had stayed in Allen Ginsberg’s nine-minute epic “Where But
ni during auditions for a new bassist, Hastings
room at The Beat Hotel in Paris For Caravan Would I”.
Fo chanced upon 22-year-old viola player Geoff
and owned a suitcase of With an enthusiastic John Peel
W Richardson (formerly of Winchester prog
records that pushed all artistic providing radio support, Caravan
pr outfit Red Acid).
boundaries (Thelonious Monk, seemed to be on the fast-track to
se Sharing both Hastings’ smutty sense
Stockhausen, Bartok, Spike of humour and influences (Miles Davis,
Milligan), Allen acted as an Frank Zappa and King Crimson), the
artistic lightning rod, encouraging newly recruited Richardson found himself
Hastings, school friend Kevin Ayers and “Dave and Richard getting a crash course in the rock’n’roll
an angelic-looking guitarist from the local
secondary modern called Richard Sinclair Sinclair leaving at such lifestyle on a tour of Australia and New
Zealand alongside Slade, Status Quo and
with their musical endeavours, resulting in
Hastings making his stage debut with the
a critical time was Lindisfarne in February 1973.
“In Melbourne, I went to the hotel gym
scene’s de facto band, The Wilde Flowers,
in Margate in June 1966.
definitely a blow,” says to use the sauna only to find that it’d been
wrecked by the apparently normally mellow
Eager to start their own group in the wake Pye Hastings today members of Lindisfarne,” he recalls.
of Allen, Wyatt and Ayers’ decision to form “It was my first experience of very large
Soft Machine – who had used their atonal stardom. However, Verve’s decision to close crowds, and in retrospect, I don’t think
free-jazz experiments to achieve national down its UK operation without warning we got a great reaction. However, we were
notoriety – Hastings and Sinclair recruited threw the first of many spanners in the soon to start playing the big UK festivals to
fellow Wilde Flower Dave Sinclair (Richard’s works, leaving the band label-less until great effect.”
cousin) and drummer Richard Coughlan to February 1970, when they signed to Decca’s With the band toughened up by this
form Caravan in January 1968, determined psychedelic offshoot, Deram. bruising experience, Caravan’s next album,
to emulate their friends’ success. Despite its suggestive title track earning For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night, was
Living on a diet of Marmite and Weetabix the band an appearance on Top Of The Pops, a grittier affair, typified by show-stopping
at their shared house at 7 Westgate Terrace their second album, If I Could Do It All Over live favourite “Hoedown”.
in Whitstable – and using equipment loaned Again, I’d Do It All Over You, released in With the band’s upward trajectory
to them by Soft Machine while they were on September 1970, jarred horribly with a confirmed by 1974’s well-received orchestral
tour in America with Jimi Hendrix – their zeitgeist where ’60’s utopianism had given live album Caravan & The New Symphonia,
connections saw them land a gig at way to a harsher ’70s reality. they received a further boost when big-
influential central London psych haunt In the same month where Black Sabbath’s league manager Miles Copeland – son of
Middle Earth, where they were spotted by proto-metal anthem “Paranoid” was one of the founders of the CIA – took the

band on, vowing to break them in America. Richardson with a grin. “We made the The Better By “It was the best therapy in the world,”
Copeland immediately booked the band driver take us up and down as many times Far lineup, he later recalled. “Every blow with a four-
1977: (l–r)
on a coast-to-coast tour of the States in as possible to demonstrate our new status.” Geoff pound club hammer was landing on the
September 1974, supporting everyone from By 1977, however, such shameless Richardson, imaginary head of some poor bugger who
Coughlan,
Fleetwood Mac to Fairport Convention. decadence felt as out of touch as Caravan Hastings, I felt had done me wrong.”
With the wind in their sails, there were looked on the sleeve of the next album, Jan Today, however, Hastings is sanguine
Schelhaas
high hopes for their sixth album,titled (for Better By Far – enjoying a banquet while and Dek about Caravan’s failure to hit the heights
fans of lewd spoonerism) Cunning Stunts. dressed in white tuxedos. Messecar of their prog rock peers.
“It’s the punchline to a joke Richard Dropped by manager Miles Copeland in (Below, l–r) “We loved Yes and Genesis and ELP. The
Coughlan was fond of telling,” recalls a punk-inspired purge of his roster – it was Dave Sinclair, difference between us all was that they had
Richardson,
Richardson. “What’s the difference also the career death knell for Wishbone Coughlan, good singles and we didn’t.”
between a policeman’s truncheon and Ash, Curved Air, Renaissance and The Hastings and While the band’s members are now
John G Perry
a magician’s wand?’ One is for cunning Climax Blues Band – Caravan suddenly in the Girls scattered across the globe – Dave Sinclair in
stunts… What can I say? Pye is vulgar, he found themselves on rock’s hard shoulder. Who Grow Tokyo, Hastings in Scotland and Richard
Plump In
can’t help himself.” The sense that they had become as The Night Sinclair in Italy (Richard Coughlan sadly
Despite the album’s comparative success culturally relevant as the dinosaurs was lineup, 1973 died in 2013) – the brilliance and mind-
– it reached No 50 – Caravan’s inability to brought home to Richardson when he was boggling musicality of their back catalogue
take themselves too seriously (a heinous invited to join The Damned on stage at a gig lives on – a touchstone for outfits ranging
crime in prog rock circles) became ever at The Music Machine in Camden later the from King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard
clearer during a performance at that year’s same year. to Syd Arthur.
Reading Festival. As the band left their “Captain Sensible introduced me Currently touring around
stage prior to the encore, their road crew by saying, ‘We’ve got a real live a nucleus of Hastings and
displayed their naked buttocks to the hippy here with us from Richardson, Hastings’ desire to
crowd, spelling out the album’s title on Caravan,’” he recalls. “It spread the Canterbury gospel
their backsides – a display of bare-faced was as if overnight we’d remains as strong as it did
cheek that made the national press. become relics from a back on stage at The
While the presence of legendary producer bygone era.” Beehive on that heady
Tony Visconti at the helm for 1976’s Blind While Caravan’s night in April 1968.
Dog At St Dunstans did little to improve its fanbase didn’t “Fifty years later we
commercial performance – it only reached disappear overnight, are still playing and enjoying
No 53 – Caravan were still living high on any hopes of joining the it more than ever, and prog
the hog, having signed a new deal with stadium superleague were music seems to be having
Arista. After the final gig of their second over. Having split up at the a resurgence worldwide, so
US tour in Long Island, the band jumped in tail end of 1977, by the time what’s not to like?” he says in
a helicopter where they drank champagne of the band’s one-off conclusion. “I will carry on
en route to JFK. On their return to Heathrow, reformation for a TV show until I write something that
they were met by Arista’s blue Rolls-Royce, in 1990, Hastings was I am completely happy with.
which whisked them back to Canterbury. working as a labourer at a I haven’t got there yet.”
“At the time, Canterbury High Street was construction company run by These Canterbury Tales aren’t
still open to two-way traffic,” recalls a friend of Richard Coughlan. finished yet. ●

PROG
GONG
O mother, don’t do it again! A cosmic joker blasts off from Planet Gong into
colourful, absurdist new universes of sound. By Jon Dale
D
OWN to their very core, French- anarchic goofball wisdom with great gusto.
British-Australian prog group The end result is a body of work that takes
Gong were deeply silly. At their some time to navigate, but yields continual
peak, in the early-to-mid 1970s, rewards. It’s a mission that Gong pursue, on
Gong was basically a grown and off, to this day.
man leading a troupe of musicians into an At the centre of it all was Australian
imagined world of surrealist adventure, full transplant Daevid Allen. A peripatetic
of Pothead Pixies, Octave Doctors and other figure, he turns up at odd moments
dippy-trippy stuff. But they were deep, too: elsewhere in the prog story – as a founding
their intention, ultimately, was nothing less member of The Soft Machine; through
than to bring about their audience’s psycho- connections with Caravan – his position
spiritual awakening. If other prog bands as the English beatnik-hippie’s beatnik-
could get a bit too portentous, Gong’s hippie guaranteed by his friendship with
humour and lightness of touch was a William Burroughs and Terry Riley, and
welcome reprieve, and offered yet another his involvement with the May ’68 protests
take on prog’s multifaceted aesthetic. in France. Allen cottoned on to the
Gong amplified the whimsy of the early seductive power of absurdity early in his
Canterbury scene and added a kind of life, figuring out that playing the holy fool
spiritual illumination drawn from Dadaism allowed him to sneak past the squares:
and pataphysics, populist mysticism, and “Behind a smoke screen of silliness, the
the socio-cultural turbulence of their times. cosmic joker could infiltrate anywhere while
Part of a number of scenes, but somehow teaching unhindered the ‘heresy’ of gutsy
existing out on their own, Gong’s tale is one spiritual transformation.”
of communes and the cosmos, jams and It was his French connection, though, that
jazz, “floating anarchy” and freaked-out really got things moving. An early lineup of
fusions – nothing less than the Gong appeared playing in Stockholm in
interplanetary and outerplanetary travels early 1968 alongside Don Cherry, with
of the expanded mind. It took them to some luminaries like Yoko Ono and Ornette
pretty weird places, but one impressive Coleman checking out their gigs. But
thing about Gong is just how much they Gong really first materialised on the
did – the group churned out plenty of counterculture’s collective radar thanks
albums across the 1970s, toured a whole to their debut album, 1969’s Magick Brother,
lot, and generally spread their message of released on the French label BYG, which

GONG
GONG DASHIELL HEDAYAT GONG STEVE HILLAGE DAEVID ALLEN GONG

MAGICK BROTHER & GONG ANGEL’S EGG FISH RISING & EUTERPE LIVE ETC.
BYG, 1969 OBSOLETE (RADIO GNOME VIRGIN, 1975 GOOD MORNING! VIRGIN, 1977
8/10 SHANDAR, 1971 INVISIBLE VOL. 2) 6/10 VIRGIN, 1976 7/10
8/10 VIRGIN, 1973 6/10
DAEVID ALLEN 8/10 PIERRE MOERLEN’S GONG
BANANA MOON GONG AVEC GONG DAEVID ALLEN GONG EST MORT,
BYG, 1971 DAEVID ALLEN GONG GAZEUSE! NOW IS THE VIVE GONG
8/10 CONTINENTAL YOU (RADIO VIRGIN, 1976 HAPPIEST TIME OF TAPIOCA, 1977
CIRCUS PHILIPS, 1972 GNOME INVISIBLE 5/10 YOUR LIFE 7/10
GONG 7/10 VOL. 3) AFFINITY, 1977
CAMEMBERT VIRGIN, 1974 STEVE HILLAGE 7/10 PLANET GONG
ELECTRIQUE GONG 7/10 L LIVE FLOATING
BYG, 1971 FLYING TEAPOT VIRGIN, 1976 STEVE HILLAGE ANARCHY 1977
9/10 (RADIO GNOME GONG 6/10 MOTIVATION RADIO LTM, 1978
INVISIBLE VOL. 1) SHAMAL VIRGIN, 1977 7/10
VIRGIN, 1973 VIRGIN, 1975 6/10
8/10 6/10

PROG
was connected to the a documentary about fuzzed-out guitar venom from Allen on
magazine Actuel, and deep motorcycle rider Jack songs like “Fohat Digs Holes In Space”.
in the zone with Paris’s Findlay. Most importantly, By now, Allen was also injecting his
bustling free jazz scene. though, the group laid signature “glissando guitar” into the Gong
With prog still in its down their first classic, sound, a warbly, tinnitus-ring drone he
developmental stages, Camembert Electrique. created by “glissing” the strings of the guitar
Magick Brother was With a team of sympathetic with a metal rod (apparently, handles of
an extension of early musicians on board – surgical implements were particularly good
Soft Machine’s psych- Pip Pyle, Shakti Yoni (aka tools). It makes his guitar sound hypnotic,
pop whimsy and Gilli Smyth), Bloomdido as though it’s playing itself, drifting on
playfulness, with an Bad De Grass (aka Didier eternally, hovering somewhere out there in
added, spacier dimension. Malherbe), The Submarine the ether. The group’s creativity felt endless
Indeed, throughout the Captain (aka Christian at this point, as though there were no limits
album, there are great pop Tritsch), with Allen as Dingo to their possibilities; but the truth of the
gems, and Allen certainly Virgin or Bert Camembert – matter was, Gong were in trouble, with
had some facility with catchy melody – “Behind a they finally got the collective Gong magic various members coming and going, record
smokescreen
even if he’d eventually drop that for Gong’s of silliness…”: on tape: almost 50 years later, this still plays label uncertainty, and Allen feeling pretty
extended space-prog jams. Magick Brother Gong circa 1974 as their strongest set, the most potent much as though he was on his last legs.
– (l–r) Laurie
also introduced the witchy “space whisper” Allan, Didier collection of psych-space-prog-rock-pop Help came from Simon Draper of Virgin
of collaborator and Allen’s partner, Gilli Malherbe, playfulness they ever recorded. Records, who made Gong one of the
Tim Blake,
Smyth. During this time, Gong were living Stevie Dunn, Part of what makes it compelling is how label’s first signings, alongside German
as a gang in a country house out near Daevid Allen, rough’n’ready it all sounds. “You Can’t Kill group Faust, and a young kid named
Steve Hillage
Fontainebleu, in France, sorting out their and Miquette Me” oscillates around a cyclical, driving riff Mike Oldfield. With the support of an
trip, getting together with two managers Giraudy that slams into the ground as a sax rudely independent label who were in the business
and starting to develop the cosmology blurts and blasts its way onto the tapes. “I’ve of thinking big, Gong entered their imperial
that would help elevate some of their Been Stone Before” follows, a drowsy anti- phase. Around this time, the group also met
greatest music. An Allen solo album, hymn, a church organ preset plotting the Steve Hillage, a guitarist who’d been a part
Banana Moon, followed suit in 1971, chords while Allen leers and swoops the of early proggers Archazel, and who’d led
recorded when Allen returned to England melody across the top. On “O Mother”, the Khan for a year or so. Hillage was the final
briefly, reuniting with Robert Wyatt and repetitive “don’t do it again” seems to wink at piece of the Gong puzzle, the person who’d
paying homage to old friend Kevin Ayers The Soft Machine’s “We Did It Again” riff- help to pull it all together, allowing the
with the affected plummy machine; “I Am Your Fantasy” group to make their now-legendary Radio
baritone of “White Neck Blooze”. loses itself in a wash of space Gnome Invisible trilogy.
1971 was a busy year for Gong. whisper and trip-flip-out By now, Gong were fully settled in their
Once Allen was back in France, meditations. Throughout, Fontainebleu commune and ready to get
the group embarked on a number the group unpin the songs, to work on their “magnum opus”. Allen
of projects. They backed poet let them loose from their was using Gong to plot out his visions,
Dashielle Hedayat on his oft- moorings. It’s a total trip, realising his desire to impart the wisdom
overlooked but beautiful album a plenitude of space-rock he’d accrued from years of inner and outer
Obsolete, a stunning, longform wildness, miniaturised exploration. If it comes across as slightly
set of improvisations. They also psych-prog operas, cult-ish, well, there was definitely a risk it
recorded a fine mini-album interstellar noise interference, could all look that way, but thankfully,
soundtrack for Continental Circus, and some soaring, searing Gong’s trademark humour undoes any

GONG
are her egg”. Here, Gong stretch bored, and indeed, this would be his last
things yet further, Allen’s goof- ’70s album with Gong; Hillage left soon
mystic pronouncements adrift in a after, only guesting on 1975’s jazz-rock
sea of drone and space blues, while stumbler Shamal.
songs like “Sold To The Highest Allen left the group in typically outlandish
Buddha” invent what feels like, fashion, freaking out at a gig in Cheltenham,
oddly enough, a kind of space-rock/ sensing a malign force at work and
prog-jam/music-hall genre mash-up. subsequently running out of the venue,
“Castle In The Clouds” is a beautiful hitchhiking home in full stage costume and
example of Hillage’s liquid multiplex makeup. With Pierre Moerlen subsequently
guitar playing, spiralling out speed- installed by Virgin as the group’s new
freak arpeggios that get caught up in leader, Gong became a different beast,
the twists and turns of a delay pedal. continuing down the fusty jazz-rock path
Angels Egg may not be the best – the tricksy playing and funkless grooves
album in the trilogy, but it’s probably of 1977’s Gazeuse! signalled this intent. It
the best entry point, simply as it tries was a betrayal of Allen’s, and Gong’s, wide-
to do so much: built from short eyed wonder. You could still hear that
snippets of spacey meditations, wonder, though, if you picked up the live
whimsical prog tunes, percussive albums of Allen-era Gong that were released
toy-pattern minimalism, and some in 1977 (Gong Est Mort… featured a briefly
overthinking, any abject seriousness. So, The Shamal Canterbury-esque driftsongs, with Smyth’s reunited classic-era Gong, from the ’77 Gong
instead of reams of theory and didactic, lineup, 1976: (l–r) “space whisper” and Allen’s colloquial Reunion showcase in Paris). Hillage went
Sandy Colley,
obscurantist proclamations, Radio Gnome Patrice Lemoine, pataphysics ever-present, it’s a lovely album solo, with Virgin supporting him as a kind
Invisible told the story of Planet Gong, a Mireille Bauer, where everyone’s playing sympathetically, of low-rent Mike Oldfield: his first three
Pierre Moerlen,
projection of an ideal Earth, through the Mike Howlett, fully inhabiting the Gong universe. If it all albums (Fish Rising, L and Motivation
wanderings of cartoon-ish characters like Jorge sounds kind of bonkers-visionary, that’s Radio) feature some good songs and
Pinchevsky,
Zero The Hero, whose travels have him Didier Malherbe because, well, it is, but it’s an absolute blast. delightful playing, but none of it quite
encountering the Pot Head Pixies, the By the following year’s You, though, the sparks like his work with Gong, and it
(Below) Steve
Octave Doctors, teapot vendors, the “great Hillage solo, balance in the group had shifted towards wouldn’t be until 1980, and the New Age
beer yogi”, and more, in a loosely mapped supporting the the more muso Pierre Moerlen, and the classic Rainbow Dome Musik, that he’d
Electric Light
quest for knowledge and transformation. Orchestra on result is the beginnings of a streamlined, really find his métier.
Was it ridiculous? Undoubtedly. Was it their North fluid jazz-rock: the surrealism is dumped, And what of Allen? He and Smyth retired
American tour,
compelling? That depends on your fondness February 1977 replaced with rutting musicianship. There to Deya in Spain, sustained by royalties
for absurdism. But there’s certainly are a few lovely moments, but Allen’s getting from French TV News’s use of Gong’s
something deeply fun going on with these “Continental Circus” as a theme tune,
outer-space radio broadcasts from Radio and recorded a few pleasant-enough solo
Gnome Invisible, “a telepathic pirate radio
network operating brain-to-brain by crystal Camembert Electrique albums, before heading back to Britain to
hook up with travelling proggers Here &
machine transmitter”. The first such
broadcast, 1973’s Flying Teapot, benefits
is the most potent set of Now, and their punk pals Alternative TV,
going out on the road as Planet Gong for
both from Hillage’s contributions and the
space-chamber bliss-outs of synth player
psych-space-prog- their Floating Anarchy Tour.
Gong would prove to have a hardy
Tim Blake. Some of the caustic edge of rock-pop playfulness constitution, and would take a number of
Camembert Electrique is gone, butt
it’s replaced by a joyously they
tth
h ever recorded forms over the decades, Allen rejoining at
some point in the ’90s, helping to pilot
free, open-armed things until his death in 2015, while
anarchy that inviting groups like the similarly minded
sometimes cohered Japanese psych-rock commune Acid
into surprisingly Mothers Temple into the extended Gong
disciplined jams, family. Indeed, Gong are still a going
like the epic ride concern, even after both Allen and
that is “Flying Smyth have passed, releasing a new
Teapot”, which album, The Universe Also Collapses, in
shifts from a 2019 and a boxset of Gong’s Virgin
fluid jazziness recordings, Love From The Planet Gong,
to the hilariously collecting core albums and
British chant, contemporaneous live material.
“Have a cup of tea, At this pace, Gong could go on forever,
have another one, ’ave or at least until Planet Gong arrives:
a cuppa tea”. according to Allen’s prophecy, we’ve
The tea was spiked, clearly. By only got to wait until 2032. At the very
the time of “Witch’s Song/I Am Your least, though, we have Gong to thank
Pussy”, Smyth is swoon-breathing into for giving prog rock permission to
your ears, promising to “cover you with smile, to laugh, to breathe out and take
a warm, dark mothering, fill you with an itself just that bit less seriously – all the
animal love, carry you away in the sky”, better to bring the audience closer to
before her maniacal laughter lifts the having the kinds of revelatory
song into a clattering, lackadaisical encounters that powered Allen, all
groove, Hillage’s wah guiding it with an those years ago, when he was
incipient funk. Smyth calls you back to assembling the cosmology that made
the world at the beginning of the second Gong possible. You could do much
part of the trilogy, 1973’s Angels Egg: worse than to get in your glider and
“She is the mother of everything, and you ride the tide with them. ●

“Maybe the
no pot-head
Gnome-mad land:
Gong in 1974 – (l–r)
Steve Hillage, Gilli
Smyth, Mike Howlett,
Miquette Giraudy,
Didier Malherbe,
Daevid Allen and
Pierre Moerlen

GONG
next album,
pixies…” In their spiritual home
– France – GONG
blow minds, to a pre-
converted “Planet
Gong” crowd. Change,
however, may be on
the cards. As Didier
Malherbe tells
Chris Salewicz,
“There is
a need for
cleaning up…”

NME DECEMBER 21, 1974 good cooking was an incorporate mime and lyrics about
GONG’S hotel in the Avenue important part of the mythology of the Planet Gong.
De Wagram in Paris is married life.” And the suspension of disbelief in their
directly opposite the Salle It’s probably true audiences is immediate.
Wagram where they are due that Paris and France
ÒI
to gig tonight. It should take – and quite possibly WOULD like to go upstairs in
about 30 seconds from the world, actually – my bathroom,” smiles Didier
bedroom to dressing room. really do have a need Malherbe benignly. “Because
All in all, quite handy. for the Gong. in my bathroom I ’ave fantastic sound,
It’s not necessarily going Paris is depressed you know. I would like to bring all the
to be that handy for Daevid Allen, however. and grey and, most of people who are in the Salle Wagram in
A couple of days previously, you see, he’d all, enervating. A freak my bathroom.
realised how pleasant it would be to fly heatwave lifting the “Just for the solo. Because it has
down to visit a chateau in the Balearic Islands. temperature into the the perfect sound, man, for the
And he obviously hadn’t thought it terribly lower 60s coincides perfect solo.”
necessary to bother anyone with the trivia of with the band’s stay in Sandwiched between the Salle
his whereabouts. the capital. Wagram and the chintzy pomposity
Now the thing is, the various members of Gong For the meantime the of the Paris Habitat the Gong
do rather have this tendency to… to wander, strikes are over – but a saxophonist and flautist is holding
would perhaps be a reasonable way of putting it. cab driver tells me authoritatively of impending court in a cafe. His presence does not go
Steve Hillage, for example, handed his key into revolution – though sinister bus-loads of CRS riot unobserved by the rest of the customers. It is,
reception immediately after checking into the police can be seen on the move everywhere. one supposes, not unusual to see a Frenchman
hotel. Didier Malherbe has also gone missing, No-one seems to know exactly why. wearing a black beret. It is, though, perhaps a
although it’s generally believed he’s visiting an The next day, Bill and Carolyn Bruford and little odd that on top of the beret there should be
uncle whose pornographic books and mistress he myself play at tourists, and come across 500 two plastic fried eggs and a rasher of equally
had once been so fond of. police guarding the front of the Ministere Des plastic bacon.
The lampshade-skinned face of Tim Blake, Finances. Some seem merely impatient, others “The beret is a part of a face. It’s a plane, you
however, has been located peering over the edge are rammed full of uprightness, while a few seem know?” I am told somewhat obliquely. “And if
of his bedspread at a battery of ingeniously genuinely scared as they stand around waiting you take a swim with your beret you can pick up
oriental mind destroyers. for a demo that, in fact, never was. lots of jellyfishes.
Eventually he and Mike Howlett emerge to While Gong are actually on stage – yes, the gig “And if you have a beret that is solid enough you
join manager and record label owner Richard does happen – the dressing rooms are rifled by a can also have some teapots landing, obviously…”
Branson – out checking on the troops as it were ratpack of switchblade-carrying blousons noirs – Good, good, good. We’re there already. This
– and tour manager Didy Brooks and myself over the French version of Hells Angels who are, in obsession with teapots… Umm, why?
a late lunch in a nearby brasserie. reality, closer to a bunch of Puerto Rican extras “I don’t know…It’s a nice one, isn’t it?” And
As the wine is being poured, a certain Mr and from West Side Story. Didier points to a teapot out of which another
Mrs Bill Bruford are noticed ambling down from Two hundred police arrive in full battle gear to customer has been drinking. The customer, who
the direction of the Etoile Metro. Bill Bruford, late deal with them. And Gong arrive in France and looks as if he should live close to Guildford,
of King Crimson and Yes, is, as you are possibly sell out all their gigs and play numbers which settles his bill and departs. Didier adjusts his
aware, currently the Gong drummer. frock coat and silk scarf and places the bacon-
Confusion is indubitably regnant, and whether and-eggs beret at an even more rakish angle.
it’s Gallic or Gong reasoning it’s been decided that
the new arrivals should stay at the Hotel “IF YOU THINK THE However, while we’re on the subject of teapots,
perhaps I could ask how long Gong will be
MacMahon some four blocks away. IDEA COMES BEFORE associated with pot-head pixies?
THE REAL, YOU COULD

It all takes a while to sink in. But ultimately I In fact, perhaps we could discuss the whole
begin to really appreciate that the initial moving question of the Gong mythology, as it has been
spirit of the band, Daevid Allen, is currently
SAY POT-HEAD PIXIES whispered in my ear that one or two of the
COME BEFORE GONG”

waiting on standby at some Spanish air terminal younger members of the band sincerely believe
over a thousand kilometres away. that it is becoming something of a hindrance;
So I inquire of tour promoter Georges Luton,
a shade hesitantly, if there is a possibility that
DIDIER MALHERBE that not only can the music stand on its own
without the mythology but that as far
the gig may have to be pulled out. as the more reactionary elements of
a
How fatuous of me. Not only has it English audiences are concerned –
E
not yet been decided what time the gig which probably means most of them –
w
will begin, but there is still the minor tthe adventures of Radio Gnome Invisible
problem that Eric Clapton is also are a positive hindrance.
a
playing Paris that night. Didier shrugs his shoulders: “Well, as
And this crazy Anglais thinks that ssoon as there was a Gong mentioned
just because one member of Gong tthere were the pot-head pixies.
might not turn up then it will be “It all depends on how you look at it…
necessary to scrap the concert! IIf you look at it in a sort of realistic way
Yes, Gong and Paris blend well. you can say that the Gong people set
y
They blend with France’s almost up that fantasy and chose…”
u
feudal, hierarchical rationale that was But what about it interfering with
epitomised for history in a Reuter report tthe music?
to the London Times some months ago, “Well, you can look at it the other way
stating that, “A man was today sent to around. You can say that it’s actually
a
prison for eight years for killing his tthe Planet Gong people who are
second wife – as he did his first – actually producing the music.
a
because her cooking was not up to “If you think that the idea comes
cordon bleu standard. Seeing God:
before the real – like Plato used to
b
“The judge told Noel Carriou, aged 54, Clapton fan tthink, for example – you could say that
in passing sentence, that he understood Steve Hillage pot-head pixies come before Gong. Or
p

GONG
they created Gong and not Gong The Gong’s all here:
Daevid Allen and
creating the pot-head pixies.” bassist Mike Howlett
Yes, yes, yes. But does the music at the Croydon
Greyhound, Surrey,
actually need the pot-head pixies? September 29, 1974
“Well, pot-head pixies are green,
and for me, in my very subjective
associations, green is associated with
music… And I never thought of that
before I met a guy called Burton Green
with whom I have recorded the first
album that has my name on it.
“But to tell you a more widespread
idea about the whole thing concerning
that… is that Daevid himself – you
know, Dingo – suggested that the next
album would be completely empty of
pot-head pixies. And no more relation to
the mythology.
“A lot of people have been putting him
down for that. I was very surprised
when he said that… But maybe the next
Gong album,” states Didier with a sage
smile, “no more pot-head pixies… No
more anything of that.
“I can see that there is a need for a
cleaning up, you know. But I think
that in a few years time the pot-head
pixies will make a reappearance. They
help us a lot.”
At 11.20, Daevid Allen (“aluminium
croon and banana guitar”) is
trailing Spanish flu germs
around the dressing rooms of Sticking with
the pixies?:
the Salle Wagram as he shares Gong’s 1974
the porcelain jar of luminous tour drummer
Bill Bruford
facial cream with Tim Blake
and Didier Malherbe.
He mentions – in passing,
as it were – how lucky he had
been to get on a flight, though
even after the gig Daevid
appears to feel discussion of
his possible non-appearance
to be both unnecessary and
inconsequential. And you The band plays for a solid two hours, with
Which is almost certainly know what? The
k perhaps the true pièce de résistance being the
correct as it soon transpires Gong are really
G seguing of “Flute Salad” into “Oily Way”: Didier
that the concert was most in rrocking. I mean Malherbe mimes flute playing with a loaf of
danger from guitarist Steve iin no way had I French bread before picking up the real
Hillage, who’d been almost eever previously instrument and creating molton squelches of
indecently keen for Gong to tthought of their mini-volcanic eruptions until the audience clap
knock the Paris date on the music as more
m and sway with the anarchic rhythm that begins to
head altogether so that he could have gone off to than impeccable jazz rock. But this is raunch emerge from Blake’s synthesiser.
the Parc Des Expositions to see Clapton. of the first order, with Hillage playing mental The rest of Gong pick up the flow and “Oily
Somehow, though, the gig is totally sold out, acrobats with his guitar before virtually Way” drifts into a thrusting mass of Zappa-esque
with some 300 people outside trying to blag their disembowelling it on “Perfect Mystery”, the high-grade steel power.
way in. second number. Daevid Allen, the man who nearly wasn’t there
Bill Bruford strolls through the tatty backstage Bruford’s niche in the band is quite perfect, on the purely musical level of the gig, needn’t
curtaining looking a little more dapper in his and obviously a permanent place within the have turned up.
coney-skin coat than your standard Gong band could benefit Gong immensely. Indeed, if Allen, however, it emerges from both his
member. He strips down to his white T-shirt and only on a more ephemeral level Bruford himself activity on stage and from post-gig conversation,
JOHN DICKENSON/GETTY; MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY
jeans as the sound of Tim Blake’s synthesiser has obviously gained in freedom of drumming is an essential to Gong more in the function of
slides into the backstage area. “Masterbuilder” expression, as his onstage confidence tells. catalyst – as the only representative of the band
– aka The Om riff – builds and builds as the However, from conversations with him it would still totally at one with its ideal of absurdity, and
rest of the Gong join Blake on stage. The recent appear that Bill Bruford’s future is still very much thereby welding together into a (non)corporate
King Crimson percussionist immediately in the open; that he genuinely doesn’t know module the diversified insanities of ability that
makes his presence felt with some splashes of whether to remain with the Gong beyond the end have evolved through individual growth.
clashing cymbals that Malherbe duets with in of their European tour on December 18. Despite his personal lacklustre performance –
some organismic sax swirls that filter about It also does seem on the cards that life with the due almost certainly to his illness and his rather
Blake’s sounds. band could prove to be a little too much at the unrealistic voyage to the Mediterranean – the
And then Steve Hillage and Mike Howlett take opposite end of the psychic spectrum to the more presence of Daevid Allen hovers over Gong as an
off on their respective guitars and basses as Allen Calvinistic existence he was used to leading with essential constant.
adds some fairly perfunctory rhythm guitar. Robert Fripp and King Crimson. Or, as they say, “Gong is one and one is you.” l

PROG ROCK
THE 40 BEST
UK PROG ROCK
ALBUMS
1968–1978 Rather glorious! From the common room to the topographic ocean,
40 albums to access magical musical worlds. By Jim Wirth
T
HE lexicon of pop writing was still a work in rock, Afro rock, country rock, ‘singer-songwriter’ and post-psychedelic
progress when Melody Maker reviewed the 1970 ‘underground’ sounds are also something distinct from progressive rock,
debut album by Gentle Giant. You can sense the meaning our list does not include the Groundhogs, Man, Osibisa, Fairport
great vacuum where the word “prog” ought to Convention, Traffic, the Pink Fairies, Roxy Music or Roy Harper.
be as the writer struggles to put this new sound To further reduce our options, and abiding by the parameters of the
into words: “Musical content is actually rather magazine, we have worked on the premise that first-flower progressive
glorious, with powerful heavy chords and weird, rock was a British phenomenon, which only really made sense in a world
nightmarish-sounding vocals traversing a sky of of sixth-form common rooms, Monty Python and damp army surplus
complex, playful rhythm – all good stuff for an active imagination.” greatcoats. Frank Zappa’s music had jazzy elements and silly time changes
The term “progressive rock” was used in the sleevenote to the first but it isn’t prog, and nor is Mountain’s Nantucket Sleighride, Amon Düül II’s
Caravan LP, released in 1968, but did not become a catch-all term for the Yeti, or Can’s Tago Mago (despite ostensible similarities). That also means
brand of forward-looking, intellectually inclined music exemplified by no place for yodelling Dutchmen Focus, French fantasists Magma or ELP-
Yes and King Crimson until a good while later. Contemporaries didn’t approved Italians PFM, for which we can – in our slightly supercilious
necessarily know what prog rock was, so – for the purposes of compiling British way – only apologise.
our Top 40 prog LPs – the first challenge was to define what it wasn’t. Final principle: to ensure the broadest possible spectrum of releases,
Our first arbitrary principle: no genuine progressive rock was made we have included nothing by artists who have a chapter dedicated to them
earlier than 1967 (when Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” was in this magazine, and no more than one record by any single act (with the
released) or later than 1975, Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here representing slightly awkward exception of Robert Wyatt, who gets in with Matching
the wistful end of an era. Anyone making music that sounded like Genesis Mole and as a solo act). That leaves us with 40 records, which (hopefully)
or The Moody Blues later than that could no longer claim to be questing for are – to quote that same Melody Maker review – “exceedingly clever…
new musical territory. with a good sense of make-believe and vision”. Or, to put it more briefly,
Blues rock, hard rock, heavy rock, jazz rock, glam, boogie, folk rock, art quintessentially prog.
1 ATOMIC ROOSTER 2 AUDIENCE 3 KEVIN AYERS AND 4 BARCLAY

IN HEARING OF THE HOUSE ON THE HILL THE WHOLE WORLD JAMES HARVEST
B&C, 1971 CHARISMA, 1971 SHOOTING AT THE MOON ONCE AGAIN
Heavy rockers Atomic Rooster Audience provided the music for HARVEST, 1969 HARVEST, 1970
messed with the formula in 1971, 1969 skinhead film Bronco Bullfrog, The blond, handsome Ayers Oldham’s answer to The Moody
stripping back John Du Cann’s but bovver boots were never their morphed into a kind of psychedelic Blues, BJH had real staying power,
guitar to allow Vincent Crane’s thing. The title track from their Dean Martin after deciding he wasn’t lasting until 1998 in their original
keyboards to lead. Their reward: anguished third LP paints them sufficiently technically proficient to incarnation. Their second album
two hit singles (“The Devil’s as less frenzied fellow travellers to continue as Soft Machine’s bassist. features heavy orchestration, a
Answer” and “Tomorrow Night”) labelmates Van der Graaf Generator. Only his wayward second album – vague “Echoes” mood and two
and their best-remembered album. featuring a young Mike Oldfield – is of their most enduring songs,
proper prog. “Mocking Bird” and “Galadriel”.

THE 40 BEST UK PROG ROCK ALBUMS
5 BEGGARS OPERA 6 PETE BROWN 7 CAMEL 8 CATAPILLA

WATERS OF CHANGE AND PIBLOKTO! MUSIC INSPIRED BY CATAPILLA
VERTIGO, 1971 THINGS MAY COME AND THE SNOW GOOSE VERTIGO, 1970
Proof that prog could survive THINGS MAY GO BUT THE DECCA, 1975 Progressive rock was something of
north of Hadrian’s Wall, Glasgow’s ART SCHOOL DANCE Paul Gallicoe’s tear-jerking novel a boys’ club, making Anna Meek’s
Beggars Opera made four LPs of GOES ON FOREVER was the blueprint for this flute- deranged presence on Catapilla’s
faintly ridiculous orchestral pomp HARVEST, 1969 flavoured tour de force, a winner two stupidly rare LPs all the more
for Vertigo in the early ’70s. Guitarist Most famous as Cream’s lyricist, with Whistle Test viewers of the remarkable. One of the great lost
Ricky Gardiner later played on Pete Brown made a host of LPs with time. On the Radio 2 end of the vocal talents of the age, she
David Bowie’s Low, while organist Battered Ornaments and then the progressive spectrum, perhaps, but sounds – frequently – like Cleo
Alan Park became Cliff Richard’s more jazzy Piblokto!. The thunderous few captured the mood of the post- Laine on fire.
musical director. title track is an underground classic. Tubular Bells world so adeptly.
9 CENTIPEDE 10 COLOSSEUM 11 COMUS 12 CRESSIDA

SEPTOBER ENERGY VALENTYNE SUITE FIRST UTTERANCE ASYLUM
NEON, 1971 VERTIGO, 1969 DAWN, 1971 VERTIGO, 1971
A notorious four-sided folly The first band on the Vertigo spiral A Dark Ages King Crimson, Comus Plenty of jazzy Hammond organ and
marshalled by pianist Keith label, Colosseum was the prog- were cohorts of David Bowie from a guest appearance from flautist
Tippett, Centipede were a 50-piece rock endeavour of brit-jazzers Jon his Beckenham Arts Lab days. extraordinaire Harold McNair are
ensemble, accommodating bits of Hiseman and Dick Heckstall-Smith, Their debut album is a genuinely perhaps the key selling points of
Soft Machine and King Crimson and featured the mighty Hammond hideous evocation of pagan Cressida’s ill-fated second LP, finally
plus plenty of brit-jazz talent. of Dave Greenslade. A long-hair savagery and mental distress, released the year after they split.
Exhausting and messy, but very version of Dave Brubeck, perhaps, played on wheezing acoustic The intemperate “To Play Your Little
much of its moment. but thoroughly rocking in parts. instruments. Gripping but grisly. Game” might have been a hit in a
better world.
13 CZAR 14 JAN DUKES DE GREY 15 EAST OF EDEN 16 EGG

CZAR MICE AND RATS IN THE MERCATOR PROJECTED THE CIVIL SURFACE
FONTANA, 1970 LOFT TRANSATLANTIC, 1971 DERAM, 1969 VIRGIN, 1974
Very heavy, but regrettably humble, From Sheffield, Jan Dukes De Dave Arbus’s greatest claim to rock Keyboard wizard Dave Stewart
Czar left barely a trace during Grey started out as a second-tier fame was playing the violin solo and ex-Spirogyra singer Barbara
their own time, but received some Tyrannosaurus Rex before taking on The Who’s “Baba O’Riley”, Gaskin had a decidedly un-prog
posthumous attention for their a wild prog-ward swing with but his multi-instrumental skills No1 1981 hit with “It’s My Party”,
sombre self-titled LP when US their follow-up. The side-long ensured that Bristol’s East Of Eden but his three-piece band Egg did
rapper Tyler, The Creator used a “Sun Symphonica” is an acoustic qualified as prog for their debut mad time signatures like few others.
sample from the wistful “Today” rhapsody, but the creepy title track LP, though a novelty hit with 1971’s “Nearch”, from their oboe-heavy
on his 2019 hit “Puppet”. – extremely bad trip Jethro Tull – is “Jig-A-Jig” killed some of their comeback album, is a terrifying
the winner. countercultural buzz. musical brain teaser.

PROG ROCK
17 FAMILY 18 FRUUPP 19 FUCHSIA 20 GENTLE GIANT

FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT THE PRINCE OF HEAVEN’S FUCHSIA OCTOPUS
REPRISE, 1969 EYES DAWN, 1974 PEGASUS, 1971 VERTIGO, 1972
The stars of Jenny Fabian’s 1969 The best of the Belfast band’s A profoundly heavy-looking As members of Simon Dupree
novel Groupie, Leicester’s Family four LPs for Pye’s progressive cover perhaps mis-sells the lone & The Big Sound, the Shulman
were just – like Jethro Tull – a subsidiary label, this conceptual LP by these Exeter University brothers had a psychedelic hit with
psychedelic blues band gone feral. piece is Yes at their drippiest with a alumni, which is best described “Kites” before morphing into the
Their oddball post-psychedelic worrying Broadway twist. Fruupp’s as the Electric Light Orchestra on unashamedly pretentious Gentle
is best sampled here; even Roger delightfully ungainly progress starvation rations. Hallucinogenic Giant. Their third album features
Chapman’s astringent voice cannot was hampered in 1975 when main mini-suite “Gone With The Mouse” Bee Gees harmonies, crazy time
suck the beauty out of “Emotions” songwriter Stephen Houston quit to is a classic nonetheless. signatures and one of Roger Dean’s
and “The Weaver’s Answer”. become a priest. very best sleeves.
21 GNIDROLOG 22 GREENSLADE 23 GRYPHON 24 HATFIELD AND

LADY LAKE GREENSLADE MIDNIGHT MUSHRUMPS THE NORTH
RCA, 1972 WARNER BROTHERS, 1973 TRANSATLANTIC, 1974 THE ROTTERS’ CLUB
Twin brothers Stewart and Colin A whopper of a Roger Dean sleeve Crumhorn-toting graduates of the VIRGIN, 1975
Goldring gained some kind of punk made it clear to buyers what to Royal Academy of Music, Gryphon Richard Sinclair’s refuge after he left
notoriety with the Pork Dukes’ expect from Hammond monster started out as medieval fetishists Caravan, the impish Hatfield And
filthy “Telephone Masturbator” but Dave Greenslade’s first LP, which of the Amazing Blondel school, The North (name stolen from a road
had done rather more substantial comes across as prime-era Yes but found a timeslip Tubular sign on the A1) did clever wordplay
work with Gnidrolog. Honky spliced with the Small Faces circa Bells groove with the sidelong as well as intense jazzy meandering
Madness-style saxophone has “Tin Soldier”. Opener “Feathered title track here, conceived for a on their two albums, this second
helped make their two 1972 LPs Friends” is the one to google. performance of Shakespeare’s one also lending its title to Jonathan
enduring novelties. The Tempest. Coe’s mighty prog roman à clef.
25 HENRY COW 26 HIGH TIDE 27 JADE WARRIOR 28 KHAN

UNREST SEA SHANTIES FLOATING WORLD SPACE SHANTY
VIRGIN, 1974 LIBERTY, 1969 ISLAND, 1974 DERAM, 1971
Mainstays of the austere Rock An apocalyptic hard-rock band with Featuring refugees from psychedelic Steve Hillage had not perfected his
In Opposition movement, the a twist, what separated High Tide also-rans July, Jade Warrior’s USP blissful Gong-age guitar chops when
Cambridge-educated Henry Cow from the Black Sabbath set was the was weaving world music into their he formed his second significant
veered deliberately towards the idiosyncratic combination of Tony prog tapestry, an innovation that band (after Uriel/Arzachel), but
unlistenably cerebral. Their second Hill’s guitar and future Hawkwind won them precious little attention Khan’s lone LP is appealing still;
LP is an intense affair, defined by man Simon House’s wailing violin. until this, their fourth LP, which a mix of wistful Caravan pop and
Lindsay Cooper’s omnipresent Their debut is a bruising encounter, mirrors the ambient soundscapes Uriah Heep sludge, best sampled
oboe and Chris Cutler’s improbably but not without subtle touches. of Brian Eno and laid-back on “Driving To Amsterdam”.
busy drumming. krautrockers Cluster.

THE 40 BEST UK PROG ROCK ALBUMS
29 McDONALD 30 MATCHING MOLE 31 PROCOL HARUM 32 QUATERMASS

AND GILES MATCHING MOLE A SALTY DOG REGAL QUATERMASS
McDONALD & GILES CBS, 1971 ZONOPHONE, 1969 HARVEST, 1970
ISLAND, 1971 A bit too flippant to persist in Soft The Bach-flavoured “Whiter Shade Royal Academy Of Music-educated
Ian McDonald and Michael Giles Machine beyond the instrmental Of Pale” has a decent claim to keyboardist John Peter Robinson
found the going too heavy after Fourth, Robert Wyatt quit in 1971 being the first great prog record, was the star attraction in this three-
appearing on King Crimson’s debut to form this punningly named act but pop success perhaps killed piece act, whose music offered a
LP, and moved into more wistful (machine molle is Soft Machine in some of the Southend-on-Sea men’s slightly leftfield take on Traffic’s
territory with this record, a cross French). The first of their two LPs underground kudos. Their first four hairy mod sound. Robinson went
between Emerson, Lake & Palmer has strung-out jazz vibes aplenty, albums are all great, but the title on to bigger things, notably writing
and The Kinks. It also features a plus one of prog’s great love songs, track here sums up their mournful the score for Wayne’s World.
much-sampled hip-hop break. “O Caroline”. majesty best.
33 QUIET SUN 34 RARE BIRD 35 SECONDHAND 36 STRAWBS

MAINSTREAM AS YOUR MIND FLIES BY REALITY BURSTING AT THE SEAMS
ISLAND, 1975 CHARISMA, 1970 POLYDOR, 1968 A&M, 1973
A few years above Nigel Farage at On the slightly nasty side of The Streatham teenagers the Moving Serious heads might not have
Dulwich College, King Crimson- Nice, organ-toting proggers Rare Finger were forced to change their approved of the Strawbs’ three-day-
alike experimentalists Quiet Bird had a No 1 hit in France and name after recording their debut week-inspired hit single “Part Of The
Sun’s choppy efforts were set to Germany with “Sympathy” but album, a slab of slightly doomy Union”, but there was no denying
go unrecorded after they split in saved their best pseudo-classical post-psychedelic rock, which, at its the progressive intent of its mother
1972, but – flush with Roxy Music shot for the anguished side-long title best – on the ambitious “Mainliner” LP, the one-time folk-rockers coming
success – guitarist Phil Manzanera suite on their second album. – anticipates the Crimson sound. across like The Byrds with classical
brought his band back together to pretensions. Juicy.
immortalise their set in 1975.
37 T2 38 TEA & SYMPHONY 39 WISHBONE ASH 40 ROBERT WYATT

IT’LL ALL WORK OUT AN ASYLUM FOR THE ARGUS ROCK BOTTOM
IN BOOMLAND MUSICALLY INSANE MCA, 1972 VIRGIN, 1974
DECCA, 1970 HARVEST, 1969 A sterling Hipgnosis sleeve just Fated to spend the rest of his life in
Rescued from the bargain bins A uniquely garish post-Yellow about nudges Sounds magazine’s a wheelchair after a 1973 fall from a
after selling in pitiful quantities at Submarine sleeve sets the tone for Album Of The Year for 1972 from window, the once-hyperactive Soft
the time, power trio T2’s lone LP is the first of the Birmingham weirdies’ hard rock into the prog section. The Machine drummer entered a dreamy
prized as an underground classic two LPs. A performance-art troupe Torquay act’s twin-guitar assault netherworld for this crushingly
now, by virtue of a frenzied opening gone bad, the hellbound Bonzo Dog had them pegged as the British brilliant mood piece, Ivor Cutler’s
track (“In Circles”) and an all-action ambience of “Armchair Theatre” Allman Brothers, but if they had cameo on “Little Red Robin Hood Hit
side-long suite, “Morning”. sums up their challenging ethos. Stateside appeal, the glum mood The Road” a defining moment. l
is very much Brit-prog.

PROG ROCK
VAN DER
GRAAF
GENERATOR
Prog’s “intensity engine”, beloved even of punks. Peter Hammill and band
channel the electric crackle of convulsing times. By Nick Hasted
V
AN Der Graaf Generator were tensions, as their music’s black-hole
always too fearsome to heaviness was matched by currents around
comfortably fit even prog’s it, forcing them to regularly split up when it all
open house of public school got too much. “We were fuelling this intensity
freaks and outsized ambitions. engine,” Evans believed, looking back.
Though they filled vinyl sides with song- The charge-sheet of weirdness is extensive,
suites performed with hurricane virtuosity, reading like a cross between the Fortean
their inherent extremity was nearer to punk. Times and The Godfather. In short order in
“A true original,” Johnny Rotten enthused July 1977, a booking at Ibiza’s first music
of the band’s leader Peter Hammill, when festival saw the successive near drownings
he played two tracks from his glam-garage of bassist Nic Potter and then Evans’ seven-
solo record Nadir’s Big Chance (1975) on year-old daughter, witchy black-clothed old
Capitol Radio in 1977. “I love all his stuff.” women giving the evil eye at their gig, a
David Bowie, Mark E Smith, Nick Cave and widely reported UFO apparition, and a sense
Graham Coxon have also been in Hammill’s of oppressive psychic dread that followed
catholic if select fan club. Evans back to London, as if he and the band
Van Der Graaf’s uniqueness certainly were briefly cursed.
centres on their singer-songwriter, perhaps An infamous 1977 tour of Italy resulted in
prog’s only great example of each discipline masked forces – either Fascist or Communist,
(Peter Gabriel and Roger Waters’ the lines were blurred – raining potentially
compositional peaks notwithstanding), fatal missiles onto the stage, before the Van
who has consistently mined gold from his Der Graaf truck ploughed through the
theme of fated human foolishness over more venue’s glass wall to escape. The truck’s luck
than 50 group and solo records, sung in a ran out when the Mafia kidnapped it. “It all
vaulting, possessed voice that was compared spoke of ‘Van Der Graaf must be stopped,’”
at the time to Hendrix’s use of guitar. Jackson believed. “We’re not a political
In the band’s classic ’70s lineup, electric band, but our music was bloody weird,
twin-sax showman David Jackson, Brian powerful stuff, exciting enormous emotions,
Wilson-influenced organ innovator Hugh and the authorities would not accept it. The
Banton and jazz-schooled drummer Guy police escorted us to the border.”
Evans were equally essential to their power. These incidents happened to Van Der
But what is just as striking is how much Graaf at such frequency in such convulsing
VDGG acted as a lightning rod for the ’70s’ Latin nations because this was their

VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR

THE AEROSOL GREY MACHINE
MERCURY, 1969
5/10

THE LEAST WE CAN DO IS WAVE
TO EACH OTHER CHARISMA, 1970
6/10

H TO HE, WHO AM THE ONLY
ONE CHARISMA, 1970
7/10

PAWN HEARTS
CHARISMA, 1971
8/10
PETER HAMMILL NADIR’S BIG

CHANCE CHARISMA, 1975
8/10

GODBLUFF CHARISMA, 1975
6/10

STILL LIFE CHARISMA, 1976
9/10
PETER HAMMILL
OVER CHARISMA, 1976
8/10

WORLD RECORD
CHARISMA, 1976
6/10
VAN DER GRAAF THE QUIET

ZONE-THE PLEASURE DOME
CHARISMA, 1977
5/10
PETER HAMMILL
SINGULARITY FIE!, 2006
7/10

TRISECTOR FIE!, 2008
7/10
PETER HAMMILL
THIN AIR FIE!, 2009
9/10

tumultuous music’s natural home. A cult at
best in the UK, their 1971 masterpiece Pawn
Hearts made them Top 10 icons in Italy,
where their clothes were ripped by mobs in
the street. Though apparently very English
in style, the band’s pursuit of what Hammill
terms a Fellini-like “serious laugh” in their
music was understood here. “The game was
to ride it,” he once told me of these dangerous
social currents. “In terms of live experience,
this was such a privilege. Because a lot of our
touring was in the Baader-Meinhof era, and
Brigada Rossa in Italy. This energy, and
electric crackle, it wasn’t just about music, it
was culture-wide.”
The teenage Hammill began from a very
different spot when an unstable childhood
settled down in Derby in 1960, where the
influence of “British beat groups, R&B and
soul” made him an enthusiastic if unlikely
mod, while also being taught by Jesuits
“inspirational in their obsession”. The
addition of science-fiction, psychedelics
and Hendrix were sufficient to steer him
from novelistic ambitions to the nascent
prog movement of “seasoned beat group
members, public-school boys and art-school
students” such as The Soft Machine and
Pink Floyd, after he formed the first Van Der
Graaf Generator with Chris “Judge” Smith at
Manchester University in 1967.
“Fire”, the B-side of this quickly junked
prototype group’s sole single, “People You
Were Going To”, is wildly overwrought, with
whinnying electric guitar backing
Hammill’s distraught vocal. There are no
Reunited (again): Van
such dead-ends two years later, with Smith Der Graaf Generator in
edged out by Hammill’s burgeoning Paris, May 25, 1975 –
(l–r) Hugh Banton, Guy
songwriting and Banton and Evans on Evans, Peter Hammill
board for The Aerosol Grey Machine (1969), and David Jackson
an intended solo record reconfigured as a
band debut owing to contractual contortions
that saw it barely released in the UK. Evans’ spreads to other songs on the album, the
drums make a hesitant start to an album embers of the ’60s counterculture’s bright
recorded in 12 intense hours, while Hammill Twin saxes give high hopes and accompanying, inviting
can be lyrically callow (warning “you will
lose your sane” in “Necromancer”, inspired animal snorts as they chamber-rock still aglow.
“Killer”, the opening track on H to He, Who
by their acquaintance Graham Bond, then
in his Crowleyite phase). But his voice is
ride over a trampling Am The Only One (1970) put a stop to that. Set
“on a black day, in a black month, at the black
already pushing further out than his peers, rhythm section’s bottom of the sea”, Jackson’s opening
hurling words from some existential parapet
on “Running Back”, and essaying extreme pistol-shot drums swagger of threatening sax gives way to
Hammill’s sneering description of his
crooning. On “Into A Game”, Who-like protagonist: “And you kill all that come near
acoustic guitar strums rev into extended a heroically sought sanctuary where gentle you/But you are lonely.” Jackson’s twin saxes
R&B charges, as VDGG cohere on the spot, young hippies might find respite from a then give high animal snorts as they ride
roaring through climaxes of crushing gravity. looming apocalypse. Strings, flute and over a trampling rhythm section’s pistol-
With David Jackson’s crucial addition, harmonies carry the limpid melody of this shot drums, and Hammill’s big, blasting
1970’s The Least We Can Do Is pastoral English science-fiction
p voice becomes implacably demanding. The
Wave To Each Other is considered vignette. The “Hendrix of the
v blessed release of a piano and Hammond
by many, Hammill included, to voice” stays restrained, painful
v soul groove recalls Hammill’s soul-boy
be their proper debut. “Darkness memories perhaps inspiring a
m days, a bright ’60s pop element which the
(11/11)” serves notice of heaviness vocal that defines yearning youth
v band have retained for occasional
to come. But a different, achingly ((when he sings it aged 70 these deployment, just when it seems existential
beautiful path not taken is days, the song’s moving defiance is
d angst is their only MO. “Killer” still teeters
caught on “Refugees”, a single as all the greater).
a heedlessly on the edge of hysterical
well as album track. The song’s Quests in the face of indifferent absurdity with its none-more-black tale.
prosaic source was the fleeting ccosmic forces would prove a Because Hammill has always hidden a
IAN DICKSON/GETTY IMAGES
blues of Hammill, 21, at the finish rregular theme. “And then one of heady sense of romance within his seeming
of a west London flat-share with us or something would blow up,”
u message of human futility, “Killer” anyway
friends Mike McLean and actress Hammill has laughed of Van Der
H concludes with him singing “we need love”,
Susan Penhaligon. But when he Graaf’s similar pursuit of some
G voice softening on the last word.
sings that “west is Mike and undefined, tantalising Grail. At
u H To He… kept some of the earlier albums’
Susie” here, it seems to describe any rate, the warmth of “Refugees”
a approachability, and Van Der Graaf’s

c
combined with the lack of financial
rreward to make first Banton and then
JJackson bail. Evans and Hammill
rremained for the renamed, Generator-
less Van Der Graaf’s relatively slick
The Quiet Zone-The Pleasure Dome
((1977), and that Ibiza meltdown.
Following a live double album,
Vital (1978), a third split seemed
understandably final.
u
Hammill retreated from the spotlight
he’d been seared by in Italy, building
h
a cottage industry solo career of
prolific quality. Rather than slow him
p
down, a near-fatal 2004 heart attack
d
merely gave him more material, on
m
tthe late high-water marks Singularity
((2006) and Thin Air (2009), the latter
a truly haunted reckoning with death,
ttaking in 9/11.
2018’s massive eight-hour solo
boxset Not Yet Not Now shows the
variety he can now display with just
v
piano, guitar and that voice. The
woman-beater described in “Like
w
Veronica Lake” makes him quiver
and growl with outrage, and his
guitar rattle and clang as if shaking
a cage. And among rock songwriters,
Reed ’em and maybe only Ray Davies is contemplating
weep: David ageing and death so readily. “Patient” is
Jackson
with alto, one of many songs confronting “all that we
soprano and can’t control”, its piano circling, like
tenor saxes,
March 1975 someone treading water before they sink.
“The Mercy”, from 2009’s Thin Air, takes the
Captain Oates exit from existence (“I might
be some time…”). Against this, “A Better
Time” from X My Heart (1996) comfortingly
resolves: “Just go on/Just go further.”
After a May 6, 2005 comeback at London’s
Royal Festival Hall, Van Der Graaf Generator
also resumed their part in a prog catalogue

sponsor Tony Stratton-Smith, who had the intensity machine then resumed. that only Robert Fripp can now match for
founded Charisma Records in part to Godbluff (1975) accompanied that crazed capacious, insistent intent. David Jackson
promote them, sent them on a momentum- Italian tour of crashing and kidnapped Peter left in fractious circumstances soon
building, budget UK “Six Bob Tour” with trucks, but was merely a dry run for Still Hammill afterwards. Trisector (2008) saw the
shortly after
Genesis in support, putting Hammill in brief Life (1976), perhaps even more than Pawn the release remaining trio respond with brisk soul
contact with one of his few peers in prog Hearts the ultimate expression of the band’s of fourth grooves, and “Over the Hill”’s heroic tribute
solo LP In
individuality, Peter Gabriel. Van Der Graaf mixture of bleak realism and fragile Camera, to “comradeship”: one last grand, doomed
nevertheless doubled down on “Killer”’s hope, heavy instrumental pressure and August
g 1974 charge g against g extinction. l
portrait of alienation with Pawn Hearts exhilaration. The introspective quiet of
(1971), and its side-long centrepiece “A “My Room”, all contemplative piano and
Plague of Lighthouse Keepers”. This is Van brushed drums, gives piquant contrast
Der Graaf at their most definitively divisive. to a sequence of epics. “Still Life”
Really a collage of nine songs that Hammill imagines the bitter ennui of endless
forced on his dubious bandmates, its sea- existence. Then Van Der Graaf’s quest
monster saxes and steam-engine drums are climaxes with the majestic “Childlike
balanced by phases floating in atmospheric Faith in Childhood’s End”, which
limbo, its oppressive storms always contemplates a truer immortality, as
eventually clearing. “I feel I am drowning, our brief lives contribute to humanity’s
hands stretched in the dark,” Hammill’s incremental progress. “The peak’s
latest majestic loner declares, as he presses distance breaks my heart, for I shall
on towards some sort of redemption. never see it/Still I play my part,”
Three 1972 Italian tours to capitalise on Hammill roars, his voice blasting
Pawn Hearts’ success, complete with tear- through the barriers to eternity.
gas and riots, served to shatter the band. It was all too much, again.
“We could never find the hotels, Banton Returning from tour to find his long-
recalled, “but we always knew where the term partner Alice gone, Hammill
hospitals were.” So VDGG split for a second wrote one of the great break-up
time, Hammill went briefly “batty”, and, albums, Over (1976), and the band
undaunted, recorded five solo albums in pressed on with the year’s third
quick succession. Getting the band back release, World Record. The strain
together to play on 1975’s Nadir’s Big Chance, inherent in making this music

“There’s one epic

lasts 25 minutes
somewhere”
A one-time Jesuit schoolboy writes songs of glorious
isolation. Despite turbulent beginnings, he gathers
around him not so much a band as a “meeting place”:
VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR, a visionary but restless
group. “It’s more neurotic,” says Peter Hammill

work which
Spark life: Van Der
Graaf Generator circa
1970 – (l–r) Nic Potter,
Guy Evans, Peter
Hammill, Hugh Banton
and David Jackson
lying around

MELODY MAKER 14 MARCH, 1970

VAN DER Graaf Generator
is a name that will probably
be familiar to you, even
if their music isn’t.
Through many trials and
tribulations, they’ve been
around for quite a while.
Now they’re on the point
of surfacing, and if there’s
any justice in the world, their new album, The
Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other, will
bring praise showering on their heads from
every quarter.
Although the group is uniformly brilliant,
the voice and songs of 21-year-old Peter
Hammill are the immediate mind-grabbers. It
was he who, just over a year ago, put together Perhaps their worst setback came when
the first group with the aid of manager Tony all their gear, plus an extra drum kit, was stolen
Stratton-Smith, a band which included organist four days after they’d bought it.
Hugh Banton, bassist Keith Ellis and drummer “Tony was in the States and we were on our
Guy Evans. own,” said Guy. “We borrowed and hired gear
Let Peter tell his story: “I began writing songs overnight, so the sound was different at each gig.
when I was at a Jesuit boarding school, and every It turned into a complete aggression thing. We
night after lights-out I’d make up songs and write were so pent up, and the only way we could get it
the words down. I was 14 or 15 then, and I couldn’t out was by playing.”
play anything, but later I got a harmonica and Peter: “So one night after a gig at the Marquee
then a £5 guitar. It was the kind of obvious stuff we came back to the office and sat around for a
that anyone would write at that age. couple of hours discussing the prospects, and
“Then came summer ’67, when I started writing decided to split.”
more things and at the same time stopped writing They were apart for five months. Peter played
rubbish. I’d spend a week on a song rather than a on his own, at the Lyceum and at Plumpton; Guy
couple of days. joined The Misunderstood; and Hugh “went off
“I couldn’t get into my course at Manchester on his own to experiment”. The old recording
[University], and after I’d discovered the piano contract brought them back together when Pete
there I didn’t stop writing at all. Now, writing’s a had to record an album, and decided he wanted
less conscious thing for me. I jot down little riffs to have the band on it with him.
Thar he blows: David
and eventually a whole song comes together.” “We inhabited the studios for 12 hours, and Jackson with alto and
At university Peter began singing and playing discovered we’d made an LP.” The LP, The Aerosol tenor saxes as VDGG
play the Plumpton
guitar with a bunch of people, specifically in a Grey Machine, was released only in America. Festival, East Sussex,
duo with another guy named Chris. “That really was what decided us to get together May 24, 1970
“The original band started when we got Hugh, again, although the idea had been in all our
Keith and Guy, and then Chris left. That was the heads quite separately.”
old working band – of course, we were in London Keith had joined Juicy Lucy by this time, so they audience when I’m by myself and writing a song.
by this time. recruited Nic Potter from The Misunderstood on If it works, it works.”
“We had a bad hang-up because Chris and I had bass, and added David Jackson on alto and tenor Guy: “That’s really the approach of the whole
signed a terrible recording contract, in our saxes and flute after they had heard him with a band. We often rehearse things and get them
innocence, and it looked like we wouldn’t be able band led by Chris, Peter’s old partner. completely together, and then we decide not to do
to get out of it.” This was some four months ago, and them because they’re not completely successful
already the band has changed greatly. They in terms of the audience.”
no longer do material from before the split, Peter: “There’s one epic work which lasts 25
Bassist Nic Potter,
previously in The and indeed some songs – like the superb minutes lying around somewhere, which we can’t
Misunderstood with “Refugees”, which will be their first single do as a band because it’s putting down my very
Guy Evans, 1969
– have already been played to what the personal views of a very personal relationship.
band consider is exhaustion. I used to do it when I was playing by myself.”
Typical of their honest outlook is their Guy: “The band is more a meeting point than a
demand, when they were asked to make completely self-sufficient unit. We’re all different
“Refugees” a single, that they should and have our own ideas which at some time we
not be expected to play the song in live hope to be able to explore. That’s not to say that
performances, because it was no longer the band is a compromise, because we play
a part of their current repertoire. together on what we’ve found to be common
Peter says: “The old band was very ground.” RICHARD WILLIAMS
loud and very gross. It was indulgent,
and there was no subtlety. Everything MELODY MAKER 1 MAY, 1971
was either very quiet or an attempt to AN EXTREMELY short story
blow people’s heads off – there was of a ride in Millwall’s team
nothing in between. Now it’s much coach, Southport laid bare,
more of a dynamic thing – and it’s and what turned out to be
more neurotic, too!” a duff Van Der Graaf gig
Guy: “The songs are written for the – Dear reader, if only you
band now. Before, they were band knew the trials of having to
adaptations of Peter’s songs.” travel to Southport. Not only
Peter: “I can’t really think about the is it not near Portsmouth, it

also exists in a far corner of Lancashire, nay, a far Peter explains that after the violence of “Killer” never a loss of temper. It boils, simmers, and
corner of some surrealistic wilderness pocked by comes the explosion of “Lost”. A hurdy-gurdy develops to a conversation. “Well, we can do
sleepy towns, old ladies and a lack of ale houses. opening, Hammill weaves about the stage again. better, and we know it. Let’s keep it cool, and
Far from what people think of group life, all gigs His ability is to hold a mouthful of song, and then happy,” says Peter.
aren’t at Fillmore West, or on the banks of some plunge downwards with it, taking the band, like a
N
sun-drenched lake in Switzerland. In Britain lies nightmare on the dipper. Jackson breaks out into OW the scene is a small reading room in
our roots, and the Charisma tour has sought out a spreading disease of rash brass, exploding full a Southport hotel. It’s raining, and the
all corners of human existence in this land. The of fire. No longer does he sound anything like a rather unkempt-looking figure near the
Charisma tours have also brought Van De Graaf to windows shivers and groans. Yet no matter what
the forefront. The Millwall team coach has never time you meet drummer Guy Evans, he always
had such longhaired, weird travellers.
It’s good that we have run dry of conversation, “EVERYTHING WAS looks as though he’s just fallen out of bed.
“I played semi-pro at school and university, and
for the gig is near, night is falling, and another EITHER VERY QUIET had a brief excursion with The Misunderstood
period is arising. The Floral Hall, Southport.
But it seems few people in Southport were aware OR AN ATTEMPT – to learn how to be funky. After university I got
into lorry driving, and things like that. I couldn’t
of the gig, and a mere 300 line the echoing hall. TO BLOW PEOPLE’S really decide what to do, and had this thought
HEADS OFF”
Hammill hunts around stage during “Killer”. about going to Morocco. Three days before I was
He dresses in white, Hugh in a nondescript colour, to set off, I got this phone call regarding Van Der
Guy in red and blonde and Dave in New York
blue. It’s a rambling, vicious riff, topped by
PETER HAMMILL Graaf. I decided to give it a try.”
Guy, who is forever coated with wool cardigans
slicing chords. The band have the ability to and pumps, wakes up a little, but manages to
produce an album on stage, but at times they saxophonist. It stops every while, gathers texture, look the same.
are a little lethargic. Something’s not gelling and roars. But again, it’s not a good gig. “There’s a certain satisfaction with Van Der
too good tonight. Then a hymn of joy, Hammill on piano, it settles. Graaf, in the fact that we’ve all really learned
Nevertheless, Hammill’s voice is an instrument, Evans plays in the air, Banton dabbles, then drifts to play while we’ve been together. I’m not
following the riff, and offering something unique into neo-church music. It all ends with “Octopus”, saying we couldn’t play before; I think Hugh,
to the voice, seldom found in an instrument which writhes and grapples with the air. In the for instance, has always been amazing, but
– that’s failure to reach ambition, the voice is dressing room a casual argument. They all we’ve all developed together. As a drummer
pushed beyond its limits and something raw acknowledge a bad gig, work out why it was bad, with a band like this I’m required to change roles
and wild emerges. criticise each other quite strongly. But there’s a hell of a lot, sometimes I’ve got to be like a

VDGG at the Royal
Festival Hall, London,
where they appear
along with Audience,
East Of Eden and DJ
John Peel, June 1, 1970
O
machine, and then I’ve got to be dramatic. I’m RGANIST Hugh Banton is cultured, cool,
“WHAT INFLUENCES
usually very aware of drums as theatrical things, and rather curly. Like the others he’s prone
as dramatic things.” to outbursts of uncontrollable mirth, but
Guy is certainly dramatic. In action he becomes
ORIGINALITY? AND if there is a quiet one in the band, it’s Hugh.
APART FROM THAT,

totally obsessed with what’s going on. Not only Banton is a master of sound. He is deeply into
is he full of emotion himself, but that feeling electronics, his organ is littered with gadgets.
spreads throughout band and audience.
“You can get into emotional playing in all sorts
ORIGINALITY IS NO You see, Banton used to be a BBC engineer.
“I’ve been playing organ since I was 11, and
of ways on drums. Peter’s songs require drama, PROOF OF MERIT” piano since I was seven. I used to play the school
and as a drummer you can underplay that, and organ, and do the services at the school chapel.
build up to a very strong effect, like the guy with
PETER HAMMILL “Van Der Graaf have been my one and only
Procol Harum. It’s one thing to play for maximum group. My brother knew Peter at Manchester, and
effect or to be incredibly elaborate – but I use both Hollingworth: “David, are you a freak?” when the original group organist left, I got the
depending on how I feel.” Jackson: “Yes, but a controlled freak. Van Der job. I’d had virtually no experience, and in fact
How much satisfaction does he find with Van Graaf is a band in the true sense of the word. We used to keep it quiet that I was into folk music.
Der Graaf? “An awful lot, but wherever you are, expand music no end. But at the moment I feel Since then I’ve found out that my classical
you are always aware of what you want next. limited to what I can do. Not limited because I training has maybe been too adequate – my
I think we have all reached a point knowing can’t play enough, well enough, but sometimes technique is dropping off as I become more
we can further the band best if we have outlets when we aren’t playing so well. Maybe that’s involved in electrical music. But you see, I am
into different areas, and I hope we can maintain why we change numbers so much. trying to develop an electric organ that sounds
that freedom.” “There are vast areas in my playing and like a real pipe organ.
writing, and only patches are suitable for Van “As a player I wouldn’t say I was like anyone in
S
CENE: a bar typical of nearly all bars on a Der Graaf. I mean the stuff I write couldn’t particular. With the band having no guitarist,
pier. David Jackson sips grapefruit juice and possibly be sung, because I use the sax as a voice. I find myself usually doing about four things at
eyes the sunset. He talks to Hollingworth. My solo track on the album is either going to be once, which is often the case in classical music.
Jackson: “There never has been four walls an incredible success or a failure. It will be me, Because of this similarity, I began to realise what
around this band. We are allowed to work freely and my girlfriend, who’s a classical pianist. As I have lost. I’m hardly influenced by rock as such,
on the outside, and really record for who we want. for me with the band, well I suppose
I’ve been doing things for Brinsley Schwarz, and we are a little fashionable to talk
dug it. They are so groovy to blow with. One day about now.” Hugh Banton:
I played footie with them, and then blew with Hollingworth: “What do you “cultured,
cool and
them for nine hours. Finally I had to be dragged mean ‘fashionable’?” rather curly”
away, with my lead still plugged in.” Jackson: “You know what I mean.
Hollingworth: “Do you ever feel you might get But I’m glad people are talking
too freaky with electric sax?” about us. I’ve believed in the music
Jackson: “I know I’m far too freaky for most so long, that it’s good to see it getting
bands. With having to do so much with Van Der across – it’s going to get a lot better
Graaf, I wouldn’t be able to leave spaces for other as well. We’ve got to get into new
players in different units. There’s so much material. I think the next album is
freedom with Van Der Graaf, and not as much going to be another temporary
with other bands. Conclusion: with other bands stage. But I know I’ve never been as
I’d have to play less.” emotional as I have with this band.”

most of my style comes from the way I’ve been Peter is the writer. His songs to me are of meaning that everybody was God, everybody was
taught. What I do enjoy… is the freedom for us to isolation. “They are really from me, and yes they the Universe. You see, it’s an ideas generator.”
work outside the band as well as within.” do dwell with isolation. But that doesn’t just mean Many people easily accept Peter’s voice
For the next album Banton will also be doing a terror, it can also portray glory, the glory found wrongly – calling it frail – when in fact he is
solo track. “I can see that becoming very strange, by one person. We are all God. It doesn’t mean to now attempting to use the voice, not as a perfect
as I’m very much into the 2001 thing, you know, say that the band are perpetually isolated from vehicle for lyrics, but as an instrument.
throwing away rhythm and melody. If there is to real life, but it’s a pressure. “It came to me a bit ago that nobody is singing
be a step forward in organ playing, then this will “We don’t have the shadow of that pressure so in an exploratory way. Emotionally they are
be it. I want to build up a complete sound from much in real life. The lifestyle of the band is succeeding, but nobody has attacked the voice
beginning to end, a thing you won’t be able to rather opposed to what we play. We are not so as a musician attacks his instrument.
break down, or pick out parts from. I’ve got to much a band, as a meeting place. We are four “Now I am trying to find new areas for the voice,
build that up as I go along.” The refined voice of musicians. If we had our heads completely away maybe areas that it is not intended to do. So
Banton becomes attractive. from each other, then the similarities would not maybe at times I’ll be selectively destroying my
be so obvious.” voice. It will be under control, but put beyond the
T
HERE’S a Sopwith Camel perched on Peter Did Peter think they were vastly original? “Yes, limits of endurance. I can’t really talk about it in
Hammill’s piano, or maybe it’s an SE5. I I think we are. The question is what influences word terms, because it’s only the beginning, but
can’t see too clearly, because Peter’s way originality? And apart from that, originality is no I can see the voice crystallising emotions to a far
down in the studio, and the control room is way proof of merit. We are giving over what we’ve got greater extent.
up. Whatever, it’s a First World War fighter, and in the best way we can, that is all we can do.” “The album I am doing on my own is songs that
Peter sings and growls. What did he feel about the last album, H To He…? have always been there – as opposed to music,
Now Peter Hammill, who wears flat caps from “I really dig it, and in fact I really dig the first, which Van Der Graaf is doing now. I know I’m
Accrington, is one driving quarter of what is Aerosol. But I can’t judge either objectively, that’s feeling very lucky at the moment, and I think
known as Van Der Graaf Generator. Frequently impossible. It does something to me, and if it we all are to be musically with each other. We
they meet and together make music, live and on didn’t I wouldn’t be able to relate. So I’m happy, spark off so many ideas in ourselves. We are poles
album. They are a group, but not a group full stop. and so the next album will be better. I wanted to apart really, but we overlap, and now we have an
With them a group is not a case of four people, a call the band H To He, or Who Am the Only One, audience.” l ROY HOLLINGWORTH
name, and a neat little pigeon-hole. In Hammill’s
words, Van Der Graaf is a meeting place.
Peter Hammill:
Peter is deep into his solo album; Bob Fripp was “So I’m happy, so
round helping the day before. In the studio sit Guy the next album
will be better”
Evans (drums), and Dave Jackson (who blows
things). We listen to Peter sing, sing HIS songs,
and they are purely songs. They couldn’t be
done by Generator, and they can be done with
Generator. They were songs that had to be done.
In the two years that has led up to the present
Generator form, this band have cracked barriers…
They are becoming recognised, at last it seems
to be working.
Peter has a habit of Accrington caps, bi-plane
fighters, football, and laughing. “I don’t know
what I expected a long time ago. I had no strange
illusions, or any particular dreams for the band.
I never saw us doing concert tours. The thing that
surprised me was the music, it was satisfying,
growing – and it didn’t offer total satisfaction.
Total satisfaction is the death of music. Yet there
is satisfaction in seeing people dig it now.
“I guess the best hopes I had were for a hit
record, you know, a catchy tune catching on
– and that’s so divorced from where we are
now. The reason for that is that we haven’t been
accepted before now. So we’ve had two years to
breathe, grow into each other, and now we are
here together. For a start a lot of people are writing
about us, there are people in the dressing room
after gigs, people know our songs, not just
popular things like ‘Killer’, but others.”
The band have completed three albums. None
have sold particularly well, there have been no
singles. But audience reaction has at last reached
an excellent level – mainly due to the success of
the Charisma tour, cheap prices and good bands.
Van Der Graaf now top the bill, and yet if you
wanted to put success in terms of figures, sales
and what have you, it couldn’t be done.
This is now the second phase of the band. A few
years ago it formed, didn’t really go anywhere,
certain people left, and it just about folded. But
Hammill’s ideas could not be killed, it formed
again, and looks like staying together for one
hell of a time. Hammill is not the dictator, but
undoubtedly the leader.

PROG ROCK
PINK
FLOYD
Experiments in the dark sides of sound and space cohere into prog’s
mightiest concepts, detailing madness, subservience and isolation,
and snapping at the hand that fed. By Peter Watts
I
T was no accident that when the Sex to traditional blues or folk-based concepts
Pistols wanted to advertise their of melody and rhythm and subverted the
counter-revolution against what they generally accepted pop/rock song structure.
perceived as the bloated vanities of This sort of stuff was all over More and
prog rock they chose to do so in T-shirts Ummagumma and reached fruition on the
that boasted “I hate Pink Floyd”. Floyd first side of Atom Heart Mother with what
would probably never have recognised has been described as “the first truly
themselves as prog, but they helped define, progressive side-long suite”. Provisionally
lead and develop much of what was great titled “The Amazing Pudding” as well as the
about the genre: there was their striking more appropriate “Untitled Epic”, this was
sense of musical (and personal) ambition, the first song to use the new eight-track
a fondness for dramatic visuals, classically 20-mic console at Abbey Road, and it
inspired instrumental passages, featured a series of related parts that utilised
psychologically inquisitive lyrics, great a wide variety of sound effects, orchestra,
artwork, recurring musical and lyrical brass band, choir and Rick Wright’s
themes, a striving for some sort of sonic keyboards to create a movement, with the
perfection and an interest in extended and rest of the band acting more as a backing
connected multi-part suites. track. Sounding as revolutionary as
All of this came together on a series of “Interstellar Overdrive” had four years
carefully composed and diligently recorded before, “Atom Heart Mother” was arguably
albums, from The Dark Side Of The Moon to a better-realised piece of music than the
The Wall, that were conceived as thematic three more conventional songs that led off
and conceptual song cycles rather than side two of its parent album and showed a
song-based collections of whatever they band with a fuller grasp of their own
had been messing about with in the studio. potential and capabilities.
You can get a sense of where they were The Atom Heart Mother album concluded
heading as early as “Interstellar Overdrive” with another proggy episode, the 13-minute
and “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The pseudo-Dada piece “Alan’s Psychedelic
Sun”, songs that helped create the prog- Breakfast”. This three-part instrumental
adjacent space-rock genre. “Pow R Toc H” about a roadie making breakfast had some
and “Let There Be More Light” also of the playful absurdism beloved by genre
introduced a feel of weightlessness to the protagonists. This combination of avant-
band’s music, a sound that was untethered garde music and food had previously

PINK FLOYD
ATOM HEART MEDDLE THE DARK SIDE WISH YOU ANIMALS THE WALL
MOTHER HARVEST/CAPITOL, 1971 OF THE MOON WERE HERE HARVEST/COLUMBIA, 1977 HARVEST/COLUMBIA, 1979
HARVEST/CAPITOL, 1970 9/10 HARVEST, 1973 HARVEST/COLUMBIA, 1975 7/10 10/10
8/10 10/10 8/10

PROG ROCK
insinuated its way F

Floyd while focusing on a but it also wasn’t their style – despite the
into the experimental ccentral concept of madness. increasing dominance of Waters, Pink Floyd
psychodrama The Man This was their first fully
T were a collective and they would rather
And The Journey, which cconceptual album and it show off their smarts than their chops.
was played live a couple eembraced many of their These ideas included Dark Side…’s use
of times in 1969 and used sstrengths and obsessions of snippets of conversations, answers to
excerpts from More and including
in
n the serendipitous questions written on flashcards and shown
Ummagumma interrupted beauty of unorthodox
b to whoever happened to be in the studio
by the band taking noise, delight in
n at the time. (Paul and Linda McCartney
afternoon tea on stage. eexperimentation and a played along, but in a neatly Floydian
Audience reception was mixed. need for perfect sound.
n touch their contributions were rejected
Much like The Man And The It was very ambitious, for trying too hard.)
Journey, the suite from “Atom even if it eschewed
ev Dark Side… was recorded on Abbey Road’s
Heart Mother” proved difficult the “Atom Heart
th new 16-track desk and had a quadraphonic
to perform live. There were Mother”/“Echoes” idea
M mix by Alan Parsons, which allowed Floyd
numerous effects, the section of extended instrumental
o to experiment with sound and space, most
timings were complex and the ssuites in favour of more notably when they created the impressive
brass band and choirs too rrecognisable individual effect of somebody running from speaker
expensive to take on the road. But the band’s songs. These were then sequenced to to speaker on “On The Run” or the brilliant
interest in unusual and extraordinary produce two continuous pieces of music, symphony of coins and cash registers on
visual spectacle had been an important part one for each side, both telling a related “Money” – one of the few Floyd songs to
of their act since their days at UFO, when narrative. Importantly, it could be played experiment with another prog staple, the
psychedelic light shows enhanced the vibe live – indeed, the band debuted the album unusual time signature (in this case 7/4).
and gave the audience something different in its entirety at the Rainbow a year before Now, Dark Side… is seen as monumental
to stare at. When it came to recording their it was released – although this did require and groundbreaking, but at the time
first concert film in October 1971, they did so filling three lorries with nine tons of sound members of the band weren’t entirely sure
with much of the classical grandiosity that and lighting gear. about what they had created. It was only
would be associated with prog – albeit with Boasting exceptionally proggy cover art when Roger Waters played it to his wife and
a very Floydian twist. The band went to Italy by Hipgnosis, The Dark Side Of The Moon she was moved to tears that he came to
to perform at the old Roman amphitheatre spoke to many of prog’s finest impulses believe in what they had made. “Wow, this
in Pompeii – but without any audience. while disregarding some of its more is a pretty complete piece of work,” he
Instead, the camera cut away from the band superfluous clichés. Roger Waters was never remembers realising, and that desire to
to shots of heads and faces from Roman the sort of man who would write lyrics about create “complete pieces of work” defined
mosaics and statues, or scenes of oozing pixies, myths, history or poetry. Equally, the Floyd’s music for the rest of the decade.
lava, bubbling mud, volcanic sludge and band were not given to extended improvised Wish You Were Here was again dictated
steam. Importantly for Floyd, Live At Pompeii soloing – in fact, the most notable bit of by a theme devised by Waters, this time
sounded terrific, with the band bringing improv came from Clare llooking at the music industry
over their regular touring gear and a mobile Torry’s fabulous vocals on and reflecting Waters’ general
a
eight-track studio to ensure the sound was “The Great Gig In The Sky”. dissatisfaction with the place
d
as pristine and stereo-friendly as possible. Generally speaking, the band found themselves in
th
Live At Pompeii began and ended with the type of virtuoso following the spectacular
fo
sections from “Echoes”, another side-long musicianship beloved by ssuccess of Dark Side…. Wish Between
two shows
suite. This appeared on 1971’s Meddle and some leading proggers You Were Here was once more
Y in Tokyo,
didn’t go quite as far as the “Atomic simply wasn’t Floyd’s forte focused around a multi-part
fo March 1972
Heart Mother” suite in terms
of choirs, sound effects and
orchestration, but instead embraced
structural complexity through time
and chord changes as well as a
variety of effects engineered through
the creative use of guitar, piano and
amp, such as plugging a wah-wah
pedal the wrong way round or
utilising tape delay. Partly recorded
on 16-track consoles at AIR and
Morgan studios as well as Abbey
Road’s eight-track, “Echoes” would
be easier to reproduce on stage than
“Atom Heart Mother” and “Alan’s
Psychedelic Breakfast”. There’s
a sense that the band wanted to
find ways to continue pushing
boundaries in the studio while also
creating something they could
perform before an audience.
KOH HASEBE/SHINKO MUSIC/GETTY
Slowly but surely, Pink Floyd

were working their way towards a
masterpiece that would take many
of these elements and mould them
into a progressive landmark. This
was The Dark Side Of The Moon,
an album that went back to the
spacey themes and feel of early

Headlining the
Amsterdam Rock
Circus at the
Olympic Stadium,
May 22, 1972
suite, the Syd-inspired “Shine On You Crazy glory was in the mise-en-scène, as Floyd
Diamond”, although this was then split in embraced some of the gimmicky excesses
two with one half opening side one and the associated with mid-’70s live prog stadium Floyd helped define,
second half closing side two. There are more
solos than usual – notably from David
shows. As well as Algie, the inflatable pig
from Battersea, there was now an entire lead and develop
Gilmour – while the symphonic qualities
of “Shine On...” and the increased use of
inflatable nuclear family and their
possessions – pinstripe-suited father,
much of what was
Wright’s synths ensured it remains just
about on the proggy side of things.
couch-ridden mother, 2.5 children, TV, ’50s
Cadillac and a fridge. This collection of
great about the
Waters was still in a hell of a bad grump balloons was inflated and raised during prog rock genre
when it came to Animals, one of the Floyd’s “Dogs”. At a critical point the fridge door
most curious albums and one better known would open and half a dozen fat worms, sharp standalone singles “Another Brick In
for the quality of the cover art than the looking rather like candy-striped penises, The Wall, Part 2” and “Comfortably Numb”.
musical content. This featured the beautiful would burst forth. Makes you think, eh. Once more, the ambition was impressive.
fragment “Pigs On The Wing”, repeated This somewhat judgmental view of Algie the When taken on tour, a literal physical wall
inflatable pig
twice to bookend the album, and three modern society and, by association, Waters’ promotes the was built between band and audience,
longer passages – “Dogs”, “Pigs (Three own audience led to Pink Floyd’s final prog 1977 tour which collapsed at the end of the night.
Different Ones)” and “Sheep”. masterpiece. The Wall saw There were more of Floyd’s
An angry response to Britain’s social Floyd repeat and possibly beloved inflatables and
decay, the prog-punk Animals was recorded surpass the “complete piece nightmarish animations by
n
in the band’s new Britannia Row studio and of work” concept that made Gerald Scarfe were projected
G
saw Waters obsessing over ideas of power Dark Side… such a success, onto the wall. The project
and authority, and reaching for Orwellian even though it was written as sspawned an international No 1
metaphors of animals to explore this theme. the band were falling apart. ((“Another Brick In The Wall,
It was illustrated with a memorable Conceived as musical theatre, Part 2”) as well as an Alan
P
photograph of an inflatable pig over The Wall had Waters’ usual Parker feature film featuring
P
Battersea Power Station. As a result, Floyd interest in authority, the music Bob Geldof and Bob Hoskins
B
became so associated with pigs that one business and insanity but also and Scarfe animations. It was
a
promoter gave them a piglet as an after-show explored the alienation he had a fitting last hurrah for the
gift – the terrified animal proceeded to shit experienced on tour in 1977, Waters-Gilmour-Wright-
all over the hotel room. represented by a metaphorical Mason lineup that had
M
Waters had originally commissioned the wall between the rock star dominated the 1970s,
d
inflatable pig so it could be taken on 1977’s protagonist and the outside rreleasing some of the most
expansive In The Flesh Tour. This saw Floyd world. Tracks like “The Thin progressive, challenging and
p
playing Animals for the first half and Wish Ice” and “Run Like Hell” were plain brilliant music of the
p
You Were Here in the second. The real pure prog, but there were also era, whatever the genre. l

PINK FLOYD
“The
dark
side is
inside
people’s
heads”
A catalogue of neuroses, paranoia and “the pressures
that can drive a young chap mad”, PINK FLOYD’s
The Dark Side Of The Moon is capturing the fractured
SMITH COLLECTION/GADO/GETTY IMAGES
imagination of 1973. But they’re not prophets, just

well-adjusted, football-loving humans, contrary to
fan opinion. “We’ve always felt like we have led some
sort of cult,” says David Gilmour. “I’m sure our public
image is of 100 per cent spaced-out drug addicts.”

PINK FLOYD
The power of the
dark side: Pink Floyd
play Merriweather
Post Pavilion in
Maryland, June ’73

PINK FLOYD
MELODY MAKER MAY 19, 1973 wallowing on S-bends and locals driving
OH Floyd– wherefore art dented grey Cortinas at speed.
thou? What lies yonder – on Arriving at the village at the appointed hour,
the dark side of the moon? a further 60 minutes were spent following
Madness they do say, and tthe conflicting directions of rustics pushing
present death. In their bicycles. Still lost, I consulted a map that seemed
b
seventh year together, tto have been drawn up in 1932. Hurling this
paranoia and fear seem to aside, my gaze perceived a fissure in the hedge
a
haunt their music, despite, opposite. It seemed scarcely possible I was
o
or perhaps because of, parked outside the Gilmour estate and had
p
success. Much of the Pink Floyd’s latest album passed it innumerable times in the last hour.
p
(actually over a year old in terms of studio time) Such was the case. In a secluded courtyard an
reflects the pressures and obsessions that afflict alsatian stood guard and a venerable old horse
a
the itinerate rock musician. Without the cclomped about. A youth in faded blue jeans and
lifestyle, there would not be music; and without sstraggly black hair appeared like Heathcliffe at
the music, the lifestyle could not be supported. tthe cottage door. “Mr Gilmour’s abode?”
Mad laughter and sane voices intermingle in “Yes indeed. Come in and have a cup of tea.
the Floyd’s measured, timeless compositions, IIt will calm you.” My motorist’s fury began to
and it would be easy to read into the characters abate as I drank in the ornate but tasteful décor.
a
of the men who make up one of the most Low beams, a jukebox here, wood carvings there
L
original and fulfilling of groups, a kind of – since taking over the abandoned Victorian
omniscience. Fans – and journalists – can and farmhouse a couple of years ago, the guitarist
have been disappointed, or surprised, to find had worked hard at improvements. When he
that the Pink Floyd are but human. Their moved in there was no electricity or heating,
output is not prolific, they have been known and he lived rough as he created an open-plan
to repeat material at concerts, they have yet to living area, constructed a music room, dug the
announce details of any plan to save the world, venues from coast to coast; The Dark Side Of The aforementioned pool and cleaned out stables for
and what is more, they operate and enjoy taking Moon has taken world charts in its stride; while Vim, his retired brewers’ dray horse. He had even
part in a moderately successful football team. their forthcoming London concerts at Earls Court permitted himself the luxury of a swimming
Time wasted, the curse of money, ambitions – for charity – sold out as quickly as tickets could pool, following the satisfactory sale of many
unfulfilled, these are all matters that concern be passed over the counter. of the Pink Floyd albums.
the Floyd, and form the basis of many of their The Floyd have doubtless earned an attractive Then came Nemesis, not in the shape of a writer
musical ideas. They are not esoteric subjects and penny in their time, but unlike many other to Mailbag, but a man from the council, only
should be easily assimilated without recourse to successful artists, they do not wallow in riches. minutes before my arrival. He had presented a
mystical interpretation. Rogers Waters lives in a modest house in copy of the council’s plans to build a housing
Yet even today, the Floyd occasionally Islington, where his wife bakes pots in the garden estate on the surrounding greenbelt land, and
ANDREW WHITTUCK/GETTY IMAGES
feel misunderstood. But they can also feel a shed. And while David Gilmour lives on a farm in to compulsorily purchase great chunks of the
tremendous satisfaction in the knowledge that the country, it is through his own efforts that the Floydian paradise.
the band said to be “finished” when Syd Barrett establishment has been made habitable. He might “We’ll have to pack our bags and move,” he said
left them all those years ago has reached a peak boast an ornamental pool in the garden, stocked with hopeless resignation.
that is impressive even in this age of supergroups. with gaily coloured fish, but he dug it himself. Our eyes turned to megalopolis creeping over
Acceptance of the Floyd’s poised and delicate It was to this rural retreat that I drove one sunny the horizon, the threatening blocks of Harlow,
music has never been greater. On their last day last week, wending through the fields of poised ready to march. We toyed with ideas to
American tour they casually sold out massive Hertfordshire,
ertfordshire, made
made fearful by juggernauts
jugggernauts build a wall of fire around the premises, to
bui
be touched off at an instant the bulldozers
arrived, and I suggested sowing landmines in
a
There was a king who Vim’s meadow. Eventually we decided it would
V
ruled the land: (clockwise be more cheering to speak to the Pink Floyd.
b
from top left) band leader
F
Syd Barrett, Nick Mason,
Richard Wright and Roger OR the benefit of new reader George
Waters in 1967
Loaf (12), it should be explained that
the group was born in 1967 during the
heady days of flower power and UFO. Mr
h
Gilmour replaced the legendary Syd Barrett
G
on guitar, who had written such chart hits as
o
““See Emily Play”. The Floyd went through a
bleak period when they were written off but
b
quietly drew about them an army of fans,
q
and went about their creative work, wholly
a
unmoved by the shifting fortunes and
u
ffashions that affect their contemporaries.
They are a proud, pioneering and somewhat
T
detached group who sometimes look upon
d
tthe cavortings of some of their fellow groups
with faint dismay, not out of sour grapes, but
w
ffrom purely aesthetic considerations.
But first, what had the Floyd been doing
tthese last few months, and how long had it
ttaken them to conceive The Dark Side Of The
Moon, which I believed was their best yet?
M
“We did the American tour,” said Dave.
““We only ever do three-week tours now, but
tthat one was 18 dates in 21 days, which is

“Our music is rivalry, but he did admit to hearing with pleasure
about neuroses”: that an expensive piece of equipment belonging
David Gilmour
on stage at the to another group had collapsed. The group had
Amsterdam recently tried to poach the Floyd’s road crew.
Rock Circus,
May 22, 1972 Looking back over his six years or so with the
group, what milestones did he see in their
development?
“There haven’t been any particular milestones.
It’s all gone rather smoothly. We’ve always felt
like we have led some sort of cult here, but in
America it’s been slow but sure. This year in the
States it’s been tremendous, but I can’t say why –
specifically. We have been able to sell out 10-15,000
seaters every night on the tour – quite suddenly.
“We have always done well in Los Angeles or
New York but this was in places we had never
been to before. Suddenly the LP was No 1 there
and they have always been in the forties and
fifties before.
“No – success doesn’t make much difference
to us. It doesn’t make any difference to our output,
or general attitudes. There are four attitudes
in the band that are quite different. But we all
want to push forward and there are all sorts
of things we’d like to do. For Roger Waters it is
more important to do things that say something.
Richard Wright is more into putting out good
music, and I’m in the middle with Nick. I want
to do it all, but sometimes I think Roger can feel
the musical content is less important and can
slide around it.
“Roger and Nick tend to make the tapes or
effects like the heartbeat on the LP. At concerts we
have quad tapes and four-track tape machines.
So we can mix the sound and pan it around. The
heartbeat alludes to the human condition and
sets the mood for the music, which describes the
emotions experienced during a lifetime. Amidst
the chaos there is beauty and hope for mankind.
The effects are purely to help the listener
understand what the whole thing is about.
“It’s amazing… at the final mixing stage we
quite hard. We started recording the LP in May thought it was obvious what the album was
“WE THOUGHT IT
last year, and finished it around January. We about, but still a lot of people, including the
didn’t work at it all the time, of course. We hadn’t engineers and the roadies, when we asked them,
had a holiday in three years and we were
WAS OBVIOUS WHAT didn’t know what the LP was about. They just
THE LP WAS ABOUT,

determined to take one. On the whole, the couldn’t say – and I was really surprised. They
album has a good concept…” didn’t see it was about the pressures that can
Isn’t it their best yet?
“I guess so. A lot of the material had already
BUT A LOT OF PEOPLE drive a young chap mad.
“I really don’t know if our things get through,
been performed when we recorded it, and usually DIDN’T KNOW” but you have to carry on hoping. Our music is
we go into the studio and write and record at the about neuroses, but that doesn’t mean that we
same time. We started writing the basic idea DAVID GILMOUR are neurotic. We are able to see it, and discuss it.
ages ago, and it changed quite a lot. It was pretty The Dark Side Of The Moon itself is an allusion to
rough to begin with. The songs are about being in years. We’ve had lights again for the last couple the moon and lunacy. The dark side is generally
rock’n’roll, and apply to being what we are on the of years, but in the meantime we developed the related to what goes on inside people’s heads
road. Roger wrote ‘Money’ from the heart.” basic idea of the Asimuth co-ordinator. We did a – the subconscious and the unknown.
Money seemed to be a touchy subject for concert at the Festival Hall with the new sound “We changed the title. At one time, it was going
musicians and fans alike. Were the Floyd cynics? system, and none of us had any idea what we were to be called Eclipse, because Medicine Head did
“Oh no – not really. I just think that money’s the doing. I remember sitting on the stage for two an album called Dark Side Of The Moon but it
biggest single pressure on people. Even if you’ve hours feeling totally embarrassed. But we didn’t sell well, so what the hell. I was against
got it, you have the pressure of not knowing developed the ideas, and it was purely down to Eclipse and we felt a bit annoyed because we had
whether you should have it, and you don’t know setting moods and creating an atmosphere.” already thought of the Dark title before Medicine
the rights and wrongs of your situation. It can be a To digress, what did Dave think of Hawkwind, Head came out. Not annoyed at them, but
moral problem, but remember the Pink Floyd were the newest prophets of the UFO tradition? because we wanted to use the title. There are a lot
broke for a pretty long time. We were in debt when “I don’t ever listen to them, but they seem to be of songs with the same title. We did one called
I joined and nine months afterwards I remember having jolly good fun,” said Dave without the ‘Fearless’ and Family had a single called that.”
when we gave ourselves £30 a week, and for the trace of a smile. Did the Floyd argue among themselves much?
first time we were earning more than the roadies.” What about The Moody Blues? “A fair bit, I suppose, but not too traumatic.
For a band that relies on creating moods, good “I’m not too keen on The Moody Blues. I don’t We’re bound to argue because we are all very
sound was essential for the embryo Floyd. know why – I think it’s all that talking that gets different. I’m sure our public image is of 100 per
“We hardly had any equipment of our own. We my goat. It’s a bit like poets’ corner.” cent spaced-out drug addicts, out of our minds on
had a light show, but we had to scrap it for two Dave did not want to be drawn on the subject of acid. People do get strange ideas about us. In

BAND
PINK FLOYD
NAME
Dark Side-era publicity

shots: (l-r) Waters,
Wright, Gilmour, Mason
San Francisco we had a reputation from the Gay we got through – four or five a week. We couldn’t
“THERE’S HUMOUR
Liberation Front: ‘I hear you guys are into Gay do that now, not when you think of the equipment
Lib’; I don’t know how they could tell…” we carry. The roadies have to be there by eight
As a guitarist Dave had been somewhat
IN OUR MUSIC, BUT in the morning to start setting up. It’s a very
I DON’T KNOW IF
overshadowed by the Floyd’s strong corporate complicated business. Things still go wrong,
image. But his virile, cutting lines are one of their but we virtually carry a whole recording studio
hallmarks and a vital human element. Did he ever
ANY OF IT GETS around with us all the time.
THROUGH”
fancy working out on a solo album, or forming a “In 1967 no-one realised that sound could get
rock trio? better. There was just noise, and that’s how
“I get all sorts of urges but really nothing strong.
Put it down to excessive laziness. No I don’t do
DAVID GILMOUR rock’n’roll was. As soon as you educate people
to something better, then they want it better –
sessions. I don’t get asked. Any frustrations permanently. PAs were terrible in those days –
I might have about just banging out some This time Dave was smiling. (Geo. Loaf, please but we’ve got an amazing one now.
rock’n’roll are inevitable, but are not a destructive note. Musician’s joke: Gilmour does not really have “Before we do a gig, we have a four-page rider
element to our band. I have a lot of scope in Pink a ‘little blue book’. He was speaking lightly, in fun.) in our contract with a whole stack of things that
Floyd to let things out. There are specially “I remember after Mick Watts did his piece have to be got together by the promoter. We have
designated places where I can do that.” on us, we all gave him a complete blank in an to send people round two weeks beforehand to
In the past the Floyd have been subject to aeroplane. It wasn’t deliberate. We just didn’t make sure they’ve got it right, otherwise they
criticism, not the least appearing in the Melody recognise him. But he made some snide remark in don’t take any notice.
Maker. How do they react to that? the MM, so we sent him a box with a boxing glove “There have to be two power systems, for the
“React? Violently! People tend to say we play inside on a spring. Nick got them specially made. lights and PA. Otherwise the lighting will cause
the same old stuff – that we do the same numbers But it wasn’t taken in good humour. Syd Barrett a buzz through the speakers. Usually a stage has
for years. We don’t. We are playing all new would never have done a thing like that. All very to be built – to the right size. We’ve got 11 tons of
numbers now, except for ‘Set The Controls For The childish really. equipment, and on our last American tour it had to
Heart Of The Sun’. The Who are still playing ‘My “We don’t get uptight at constructive reviews, be carried in an articulated truck. Oh yes, it’s the
Generation’ and nobody complains about that. but when somebody isn’t the smallish piece death of rock’n’roll. Big bands are coming back.
We can take criticism when it’s valid, but we interested in what you are doing, then it’s no help “There was a long period of time when I was
are only human and we can only do so much. to them or to us. We did get uptight at what Mick not really sure what I was around to do, and
Sometimes it surprises me when we play really Watts said – it was very savage. But you can’t stay played sort of back-up guitar. Following someone
well, and spend some time on presenting a angry for long. We tried to turn the feud into a like Syd Barrett into that band was a strange
special show, like we did at Radio City in New kind of joke with the boxing glove. You’ve got to experience. At first I felt I had to change a lot
York, and we get knocked. have a sense of humour,” said Dave scowling into and it was a paranoic experience. After all, Syd
“Some people dislike the basic premise of his tea. “There’s humour in our music, but I don’t was a living legend, and I had started off playing
what we are all about. Then their criticism is a know if any of it gets through.” basic rock music – Beach Boys, Bo Diddley,
waste of time. For someone to criticise you who As a key member of a band with its gaze fixed and “The Midnight Hour”. I wasn’t in any
understands you, and can say where you have firmly on the future, it seemed unlikely Dave groups worth talking about, although I had a
fallen down – that’s valid. There are some people would want to reminisce, yet he was happy three-piece with Ricky Wills, who’s now with
who come to our shows with no real interest in enough to recall their origins. Peter Frampton’s Camel.
what we are doing, don’t like the group, so don’t “Nick Mason had got a date sheet 10 yards long “I knew Syd from Cambridge since I was 15, and
like the concert. We put all the bad reviews into with all the gigs in red ink – every one since 1967. my old band supported the Floyd on gigs. I knew
a little blue book.” It’s quite extraordinary when you look at the gigs them all well. They asked me if I wanted to join

Caption
when Syd left, and not being completely mad, rehearsal place in London. We’ve been trying to Gilmour, wearing a T-shirt that says “Didn’t
I said yes, and joined in Christmas ’68. I later get one for some time. they do well” in sewn-on white letters, is lounging
did the two solo albums with Syd. God, what “No, we don’t want our own label – but we do in a rocking chair in front of a gorgeous, ornate,
an experience. God knows what he was doing. have our own football team! We beat Quiver nine- teak altar-screen that just radiates antiquity.
Various people have tried to see him and get him one recently, and now there’s talk of a music This morning though, despite the surrounding
together, and found it beyond their capabilities. industries’ cup. Oh – and we played the North comforts and the presence of his lady at his side to
“I remember when the band was recording ‘See London Marxists. What a violent bunch. I bit my succour him, the Floyd guitarist is in a somewhat
Emily Play’, Syd rang me up and asked me along tongue – and had to have stitches.” fragile state, having visited the Marquee the
to the studio. When I got there he gave me a So that’s what lies on the dark side of the moon previous evening (in the company of Roger
complete blank. He was one of the great rock’n’roll – a pair of goalposts. But the Floyd will be all right Waters) to catch Roy Buchanan’s set.
tragedies. He was one of the most talented people – as long as they keep their heads. CHRIS WELCH He’s a little tired and he may, or may not, have
and could have given a fantastic amount. He really been a little inebriated the night before – he can’t
could write songs and if he had stayed right, could NME MAY 19, 1973 quite remember. Anyway, it isn’t important
have beaten Ray Davies at his own game. “DON’T take any pictures because this is the first interview he’s done for
“It took a long time for me to feel part of the of me outside the house,” ages and neither of us can quite remember the
band after Syd left. It was such a strange band, says David Gilmour, making procedure and there’s a lot to get through before
and very difficult for me to know what we were a quick, impatient gesture lunchtime ennui sets in.
doing. People were very down on us after Syd like brushing away flies. First off, David, congratulations on finally
left. Everyone thought Syd was all the group had, “I can’t stand the pop- attaining the exalted No 1 spot in the States with
and dismissed us. They were hard times. Even star-in-his-country-house The Dark Side Of The Moon. A slow smile spreads
our management Blackhill believed in Syd more syndrome.” across the Gilmour face.
than the band. It really didn’t start coming back Sure, David, but in the “Yes, it is nice, isn’t it? We’ve never really been
until Saucerful Of Secrets and the first Hyde Park broadest sense you are a pop star. And when above fortieth position before – but, even so,
free concert. you’re the guitarist for famous, best-selling Pink we’re still selling more albums there than we
“The big kick was to play for our audiences at Floyd, and you’ve made as many decent albums would in the English charts.”
Middle Earth. I remember one terrible night when as Pink Floyd have, and you’ve gone the whole He’s reluctant to be pinned down as to why this
Syd came and stood in front of the stage. He stared route long ago, and you’ve still got your wits should suddenly happen, after five years of being
at me all night long. Horrible! about you, and the money keeps rolling in, what a cult band in America (“I suppose we’ve always
“The free concerts were really a gas. The first else is there to spend the bread on? had this sort of underground image over there”),
one had 5,000 people and the second had And it has to be said that Dave Gilmour’s and he’s even more reluctant to define what
150,000. But the first was more fun. We tried to do spent his allotted share of the Floyd takings in a Floyd’s appeal is in the States, or even what type
two more singles around this time, but they didn’t manner befitting one of the most tasteful bands of audiences the group attract. In fact, he doesn’t
mean a thing. They’re now on the Relics album.” of our time. His Essex mock-Tudor residence seem particularly interested in anything, taking
Where lay the future for Floyd? positively screams good taste – the real sort, not the whole process with a combination of affable
“God knows. I’m not a prophet. We have lots of Ghastly Good Taste – and is conspicuous for its ennui and the tiniest hint of indifference.
good ideas. It’s a matter of trying to fulfil them. lack of middle-class accoutrements. “I don’t think it’ll make any change – I mean,
It’s dangerous to talk about ideas, or you get it All rooms are in that happy state of disarray that we’ve never had any problem selling out even the
thrown at you when you don’t do it. We have comes from a relaxed lifestyle, the world is fenced largest halls and I don’t really see how that can
vague ideas for a much more theatrical thing, out by a high hedge and the BMW in the garage change. We can still sell out the Santa Monica Civic
a very immobile thing we’d put on in one and the swimming pool out back give off identical two nights in succession and I’m not sure that the
place. Also we want to buy a workshop and expensive glints. album will make any difference to that.”

PINK FLOYD
Nonetheless, one is aware that perhaps the Other features from Dark Side…’s live
success of Dark Side… took the band a little by performance are also missing – noticeably
surprise, as no tour has been planned to actually “HALF OF US WANTED the taped finale, which uses extracts from the
coincide with the peaking of the album. Though
they are off again in June. Anyway…
TO PLAY A THEMATIC Collected Rantings of Malcolm Muggeridge.
“Yes. Well, you didn’t really expect we’d get his
Tea arrives and conversation briefly returns PIECE, THE OTHER permission, did you?”
to the Marquee, where Gilmour had been spotted
a couple of weeks ago. He seems to be a regular
HALF WANTED TO He confesses that he never really listens to
Floyd albums, and he’s reluctant to assess them
denizen. “In fact, I was down there that night PLAY SONGS” in retrospect – but I detect a leaning towards
to see Quiver.” Obscured By Clouds, which he has been known to
Gilmour was, at one time, a member of a
DAVID GILMOUR direct into the garden on a summer’s day. Others?
group which included one of the present Quiver Well, he likes some of the tracks on A Saucerful Of
lineup, and Gilmour takes an interest in the markedly since I saw it premiered at the Rainbow Secrets, mainly the title track and “Set The
group’s progress. in 1972. Gilmour agrees, mentioning that the Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”.
An interesting sidelight is his reference to Floyd entire show had been on the road for about six Atom Heart Mother he admits to having been an
as – “this band – I’ve been five years in this band” months before the group took the project into experiment, not a new direction, and he would
– as if he expected Floyd to finish tomorrow; and the studio. record it completely differently now, had he the
then you realise that he’s first and foremost a “Normally, we go into the studio, often without chance or the inclination.
musician and the lead guitar chair in Pink Floyd any concrete ideas, and allow the circumstances “The trouble was, we recorded the group first
is just another gig. to dictate the music.” and put the brass and the choir on afterwards.
Floyd may one day disappear but Gilmour Sometimes, though, this results in filler tracks Now, I think I’d do the whole thing in one take.
intends to keep right on playing… (for example, the jokey sides on Ummagumma I feel that some of the rhythms don’t work and
Back to Dark Side…, and I advance the and Atom Heart Mother) and besides, isn’t it some of the syncopations aren’t quite right.”
hypothesis that the album shows a marked an expensive way to record? “No. We don’t pay. Another period which Floyd dabbled in, but
return to solid purpose that, for me, had been EMI do.” which didn’t really communicate itself to our ears
somewhat lacking in Floyd’s last three or so Another marked feature of the album is via concrete Floyd music, was their flirtation with
albums, good though they’ve been individually. Gilmour’s own blossoming into a tough, bluesy the French avant-garde and with ballet.
Gilmour ponders this. player – especially on “Money”, which features “In fact, we did that ballet for a whole week
“I suppose so. Certainly there’s a sort of theme several verses of really hard, spectacular licks. in France. Roland Petit choreographed it to some
running through it which we haven’t really Gilmour shrugs this off modestly, although of our older material… but it’s too restricting
done for a long time. There’s two opinions about Ginger, his lady, chimes in with her agreement for us. I mean, I can’t play and count bars at the
this in the group – half of us wanted to play a that it represents Gilmour at his best. He thinks same time. We had to have someone sitting on
thematic piece, the other half wanted to play a some of his playing on Obscured By Clouds is stage with a piece of paper telling us what bar
collection of songs.” better, but concedes that “Money” was designed we were playing…
Which half did he belong to? A reappearance as basically a guitar track. “We also did the music for More. We hadn’t done
of the slow smile. “I didn’t object, anyway. It’s film scores before, but they offered us lots of
basically Roger’s idea. We’d all written songs money. We wrote the whole thing in eight days
beforehand, and then Roger got the theme and from start to finish.
the words together.” “We did Zabriskie Point for Antonioni, and in
I point out that, for the first time, the band have ffact we wrote much more than he eventually
considered album lyrics important enough to used. I feel, even now, that it would have been
u
print on the sleeve. “Yes, I generally don’t like better if he’d used most of what we’d written.”
b
sleeve lyrics.” End of subject. I put it to Gilmour that these wanderings from
The theme behind Dark Side… is, of course, the band’s direct line of progression have been
the various pressures that can drive one mad received by fans with disappointment.
– “pressures directed at people like us, like He gets a little heated. “That’s the trouble – you
money, travel, and so on”. can’tt really break out of the progression-from-
can
I remark that the
th
he piece hhas
as changed your-last-LP rut. People’s minds
yo
are set to expect something and
a
if you don’t provide it, well…”
One for the Many Floyd aficionados still
money: Floyd
circa 1973 feel that Ummagumma was the
fe
group’s high point. Gilmour
gr
disagrees. “For me, it was just an
d
experiment. I think it was badly
ex
recorded – the studio side could
re
have been done better. We’re
ha
thinking of doing it again.”
th
But we don’t have time to
explore the meaning behind
ex
that because now it’s time for
th
Gilmour to show off his music
Gi
room and, for the first time
ro
since this interview began, he
si
ccomes to life.
Earlier, he’d told us that his
opinion
opp of the music press was
that it was, well, irrelevant
th
to Pink Floyd (“We don’t really
need the music press and they
n
don’t really need us”) and his
d
attitude during the interview
at
had been one of mild
h

xxxxx
The Dark Side Of The Moon,

th last album, was the main
their
basis of operations, and the Floyd
b
faultlessly combined quadrophonic
fa
sound, prerecorded tapes, lights,
so
ssmoke and theatrical effects into
a kind of rock son et lumière.
“Home, home There were many shocks and
again”: between surprises along the way, and not
su
stints in North
America, Floyd having seen the Floyd for some
h
play two dates ttime, I was frequently pinned back
at Earls Court,
west London, iin
n my seat or ejected into the aisles,
May 18/19, 1973 heart beating wildly.
h
Heartbeats in fact commenced
amusement coupled with disbelief at the “A kind of rock proceedings, pulsating through the auditorium
and stilling the more excitable elements in the
workings of the journalistic mind. But when we
cross the carpet and enter the little room full of son et lumière” crowd. Clocks ticked mysteriously and with
perfect precision the Floydmen slotted their live
electronic equipment, he becomes a New Man. PINK FLOYD/SOFT MACHINE: instruments into the recorded sound.
Most private music rooms I’ve seen have been RAINBOW THEATRE, LONDON The Floyd have a tremendous sense of pace.
sterile, formal places, not, in my opinion, suited Occasionally they seem to overstate a theme
vibewise to the creative process – but Gilmour’s MELODY MAKER NOVEMBER 10, 1973 or extract the last ounce from an idea, but the
is lived-in and it works. The usual tape recorders PINK FLOYD and Soft total effect is like coral growing on the seabed,
and eight-track stuff are there but there’s also Machine stunned fans establishing something deep, eternal and
a drumkit (Nick Mason’s? “No, mine”), about with two sensational occasionally flashing with colour.
12 guitars, ranging from a Strat through a ’59 Les shows at London’s Overhead was suspended a huge white balloon
Paul Custom to a Les Paul Junior hanging on the Rainbow Theatre on to represent the moon, on which spotlights
wall, a Les Paul-type electric guitar (“custom- Sunday night. It was played, and not long after the performance
made, naturally”) and a beautiful classical guitar a splendid evening of began, searchlights began to pierce the gloom.
(“custom-made, naturally”). rock-co-operation, in Meanwhile the music continued apace, Nick
But pride of place goes to the newest toy, a which both groups gave Mason excelling with his terse, economical
special synthesiser made by EMS (who make the their services in aid of disabled drummer drums, hammering home the heavy stuff where
VCS3), which, Gilmour assures us, is not on the Robert Wyatt. required, and tastefully bringing down the
market and never will be. He plugs in the Strat Compere John Peel was pleased to announce volume whene’er a new tack or shift in course
and this device, rather like a plastic pulpit with that some £10,000 was raised. He said that was signalled.
pedals mounted underneath, gives off some of Robert intended to carry on with a singing and Dave Gilmour has one of the most difficult
the most incredible sounds we’ve ever heard. recording career. The ex-Softs drummer was guitar jobs in rock, having to contain his own
And that includes every Pink Floyd album. not present but was acknowledged by cheers exuberance for the benefit of the greater whole,
There’s a fader that lowers the note an octave, from the audience. but making every note felt on his own inventive
a whining fuzz device which couples into that, As two complex shows were performed on the solos. Dave was particularly effective on the
and, most uncanny of all, a phase “Itchycoo same night, there were lengthy delays between funky “Money”, which should have been a
Park”-type effect that resembles a Phantom sets… When the Softs finally came on for the single hit for t’lads.
doing a ground strike somewhere in South East second house, they were still dogged by sound Rick Wright’s keyboards were immensely
Asia. Believers, you’re in for some hair-raising problems. From my position near the right- tasteful and melodic, gently spurred by Roger
sounds when Gilmour gets this weapon on the hand bank of speakers, only John Marshall’s Waters’ mighty bass lines. Instrumentally the
road, as he says he intends to. superb drumming could be heard with any Floyd are a finely tuned mechanism that surges
Looking at David Gilmour as he coaxes these clarity, although the combined keyboard riffs ahead like an armoured cruiser, oblivious to
apocalyptic noises from his guitar, one can see of Karl Jenkins and Mike Ratledge wove an the smoke of battle.
why he and the rest of Pink Floyd feel remote insidious pattern of great power and menace. Indeed the band were enveloped in smoke
STEVE MORLEY/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES
from the workings of the music business. The Softs employed a cataract of sound throughout the performance, glowing red
Gilmour in our interview never really came to in which improvised solos seemed of less lights adding to the illusion of inferno and
life because he hasn’t any stake in successful significance perhaps than the overall blitzkreig, hellfire. A choir of ladies cooed like angels
musicbiz rapport with the press – but he’s but John’s drums employed a fascinating range of mercy and as a silver ball reflecting
said more about Pink Floyd in 30 seconds of of tones, and his attack was at times frightening. myriad beams of light began to revolve
divebombing with the Strat and the Synthi Hi-Fli There were no problems affecting the Floyd and belch more smoke, the audience rose
than all the interviews in the world would ever however, and they presented one of the best to give them an ovation. They deserved
do. And, really, isn’t that what it’s all about? l concerts seen this year; certainly one of the a Nobel prize or at least an Oscar.
TONY TYLER most imaginative and cleverly executed. CHRIS WELCH

PROG
MIKE
OLDFIELD
Tubular Bells resounds across the globe, and propels a reluctant superstar
towards paganism and disco. By David Quantick
F
OR many reasons, progressive Born in 1953 in Reading, Mike Oldfield had
rock is often best suited to the a troubled home life, escape from which was
group format – all those time provided by his sister Sally, a brilliant singer
changes, feats of virtuosity and who took her teenaged brother on the road
the sheer stamina required to with her. The Oldfields formed a duo, The
play the stuff suggests the advisability of a Sallyangie (the “angie” added as a nod to
team effort as well as some other men to help the Davy Graham instrumental), whose
with the heavy lifting: so much so that when material matched Sally’s Mary Hopkin-like
someone from prog goes solo – normally a vocals with Oldfield’s impressive folk guitar.
former member of Genesis – their new They were signed to Transatlantic Records
direction is often snappier, poppier, trimmer and released one album, Children Of The
of hair and lapel and much more portable. Sun, which still sounds good, and the pair
Mike Oldfield is the exception: while his have continued to work together on each
career as a multi-layering studio genius, other’s projects ever since.
releasing largely instrumental albums In 1970, Oldfield joined Kevin Ayers’ band,
(Richard Branson begged him to put vocals The Whole World, on bass, an instrument
on Tubular Bells) – and making records new to him but which he effectively treated
whose complexity and scope takes them like a lead guitar with four strings. It’s hard
far away from the New Age slop they’re to imagine the very young Oldfield fitting in
sometimes lumped in with – has taken as a member of a touring band, particularly
him into poppier directions, Oldfield has one led by such an extreme artist as Ayers,
remained one of the few solo artists who but it was a time of learning for Oldfield (and
has always returned to his concept album presumably more fun than playing in the pit
roots. With at least four variants on Tubular band for Hair!, which was also one of his
Bells in his back catalogue, as well as one early experiences). During this time he
brilliant revisit of another ’70s classic, Mike began to put together a demo tape for a piece
Oldfield may dress like his former Virgin of music he called “Opus One”. The story of
label boss and enjoy a similar lifestyle (to Tubular Bells’ origins has been told many
which this writer can attest, having once times around the campfires of prog – how
had a go on Oldfield’s jetski in the sea near Oldfield’s demo was rejected by everyone,
his Ibiza home), but musically at least he how it came to the attention of Richard
remains the introspective outsider who Branson, and how its enormous worldwide
created Tubular Bells in 1973. success not only made Mike Oldfield

MIKE OLDFIELD
TUBULAR BELLS HERGEST RIDGE OMMADAWN INCANTATIONS PLATINUM RETURN TO

VIRGIN, 1973 VIRGIN, 1974 VIRGIN, 1975 VIRGIN, 1978 VIRGIN, 1979 OMMADAWN
10/10 8/10 7/10 7/10 7/10 VIRGIN EMI, 2017
8/10

caption
a household name, but also funded ma
mana but is the product of has it, when Branson said he’d give him
one of the best-known business a solitary,
s introspective his Bentley, and he shunned publicity,
empires in the world – and I’ve just iindividual.
nd Hergest Ridge retreating to his new home, The Beacon.
told it again, so on we go. also encapsulates a version
als The Beacon and its environs were clearly
Tubular Bells dominates of tthe hippie dream in its a huge influence on Hergest Ridge, which
Oldfield’s career, much as Tommy sound and its artwork –
sou is probably one of the last albums to reflect
does The Who’s, and it’s not hard Oldfield is pictured, long-
Old the 1960s ideal of getting back to the
to see why. Shiny, sparkling, haired
hai i and floppy-clothed, country. Musically, Hergest Ridge is
tuneful and frankly beautiful, iin
n a rural environment, woodier than its predecessor, dreamy
Tubular Bells’ genius is that as tto promote a record that is a and rural, and if at times it’s a little more
an instrumental album it can masterpiece of contemporary
ma understated than Tubular Bells, that’s only
be anything you want it to recording technology.
rec to be expected in a follow-up. It remains one
be: background music, Oldfield promoting anything
O of Mike Oldfield’s best records. Obsessives
emotional epiphany and was an unlikely concept at the
wa please note that a rather wonderful
even – thanks to The time: he once described being
tim orchestral version was also recorded with
Exorcist – horror movie interviewed as like being raped.
inte longtime Oldfield collaborator David
soundtrack. It remains an Even now, the cheerful, funny
Eve Bedford; although not considered suitable
essential album, endlessly and slightly bemused Mike for release, it can be found on YouTube.
imitated – often by its creator – Oldfield wasn’t happy with this version,
but always unique. There are many but for some it brings the pastoral qualities
variants available, from the original of the piece to the fore.
demos to the orchestral version, but Her
Hergest Ridge is Ommadawn (1975) came out the same year
the best will always be the one that
ends with Vivian Stanshall’s drunk,
dreamy and rural, as Physical Graffiti, A Night At The Opera
and Born To Run and it resembles none of
Pythonesque commentary over “Sailor’s
Hornpipe”, the album’s finale (“a human
and a little more those albums in any way. Its sleeve – later
changed – shows Oldfield looking out of
failing, some say a disease”). understated than a rain-streaked window like Jesus stuck at
Its successor, Hergest Ridge (1974),
suffered at the time, as all follow-ups to Tubular Bells home on a wet Monday. The album itself is
probably the most New Age set that Oldfield
massive successes do, from essentially not has recorded, replacing the surprise and
being the same as its predecessor. And while Oldfield of the 21st century refers to world melodicism of its precursors with a
it’s not as striking as Tubular Bells – but then phenomena like Brexit and Trump as consistent, dream-like layering of choral
what is? – it’s probably the record that rejections of the notion of community – an vocals and synthesisers. There are, this
reflects its creator’s personality the most. idea that presumably appeals to Oldfield the being Mike Oldfield, many moments of
Now a huge star, Oldfield refused to tour or Now with loner. It’s hard to imagine a greater contrast beauty and excellence – nobody plays the
wings: Mike
publicise his records, and with Hergest Oldfield on to the man whose career evolved in tandem guitar in quite the same way as Oldfield –
Ridge – an album named after his new Hergest to his, the showman and show-off Richard but the overall effect is of smoothness rather
Ridge, near
home near Offa’s Dyke – made a record the Welsh/ Branson, to whom Oldfield must have than shock. The effect is confirmed on side
that perfectly illustrates the paradox of his English presented a frustrating challenge. Oldfield two, traditionally the home of Oldfield’s
border and
music: an epic, multi-instrumental piece his new refused to perform Tubular Bells live and more reflective pieces, which more closely
that sounds like the work of more than one house, 1974 only agreed to playing the concert, legend resembles one of his collaborations with

David Bedford in its unresolved melodies British druids and a series of
and sense of restraint. suites based on a sequence of
Ommadawn also contains the nearest 12-key fifths was not quite as
thing to a statement of intent that Mike cool as once it might have
Oldfield has ever recorded in the form of “On been. None of which is to say
Horseback”, one of the very few songs he’s that Incantations is a bad
written and sung himself. An ode to life on album; it is musically
Hergest Ridge, drinking beer and eating ambitious, well crafted and,
cheese, “On Horseback” sees Oldfield as with most of Oldfield’s work,
identify with the solitary freedom of has a fire in its belly and a sense
horse-riding; it’s understated, funny and of determination far removed
beautiful. There’s a whole page to be written from the sloppiness of overly
somewhere about Mike Oldfield’s 1970s ambitious concept albums.
singles, from the Morris dance-y stomp of Incantations is also
“Portsmouth” and “In Dulce Jubilo” to the remarkable for the fact that by
what-were-they-thinking hilarity of “Don the time it came out, Mike
Alfonso” – “I’m Don Alfonso,” sings the Oldfield had undergone a
eponymous bullfighter, “I work for Oxo.” complete personal
The next release for Oldfield was a transformation, as evinced by Going for a song:
Oldfield at home in
compilation of the first three albums called the sleeve photo, where he Denham, Bucks,
Boxed. It’s most notable now for its fourth stands next to a rock in Menorca, around the time of
his poppier album
disc, Collaborations, which brought together clean-shaven, short-haired Five Miles Out, 1982
some of Mike Oldfield’s singles, as well as his and wearing a jacket
work with David Bedford. The shock for (Oldfield, not the rock).
teenage ears expecting to hear more in the In 1978, Oldfield syn
synths
n and disco hits embraced
vein of Tubular Bells but getting the undertook a course in all three. There may be more
extraordinary orchestral space music of Exegesis, a process extreme examples of this switch-
ext
“First Excursion” was quite something – and described by some as over than Mike Oldfield’s new
ove
in time you too will come to love Bedford and “cult therapy” that direction,
diir but it’s hard to think of
Oldfield’s version of the old parlour ballad involves the breaking a bigger
bi leap than that from the
“Speak (Tho’ You Only Say Farewell)”, down of the current self. four-sided conceptual album
fou
which has never been the same since. Boxed Oldfield, who says he Incantations to its follow-up, the
Inc
was a brilliant introduction to Mike Oldfield. underwent a birth disco single “Guilty”, which is
dis
And it’s got the proper “Sailor’s Hornpipe” experience, was visibly aggreat record but hardly the
on it (“…but a disease that Sir Francis transformed by the sort of thing to accompany a
sor
Dashwood knew and used well”). process, and became an mug of foaming ale and a chunk
mu
1978’s Incantations was a landmark record outgoing, if not extroverted, of Stinking Bishop.
for Oldfield in many ways. As well as being person. The musical result Oldfield’s last album
O
his first double album, it was his first of this transformation was of the
t 1970s, Platinum
concept album, revolving around a loose immediately apparent. (1979),
(199 was his first to
theme of paganism, composed to a specific In the 1970s, it was not iinclude
nc short pieces,
musical discipline – and it was also the last uncommon for artists who had several of which have
sev
album by Oldfield to be played in its entirety clung on to the trappings of the ’60s disco
diis drums. It’s a great
on the John Peel Show (just at the height of for too long to undergo a sudden record, and is most notable
rec
punk – you could hear Peel wondering if change of heart. Album groups for “Punkadiddle”, whose
he’d committed to a foolhardy plan as he became singles bands, long hair semi-comic folk-punk
sem
announced side three). The world was became short hair, lapels stylings conceal a greater
sty
changing, and a double album that narrowed and artists who had rage
rag g at the new music –
encompassed the Roman goddess Diana, railed against commercialism, much of it on Virgin –
mu
that
tha a Oldfield felt he’d
accidentally funded. And,
acc
Goiing green:
Going perhaps symboli
symbolically,
ica it initially contained
Oldfield at “Sally”, a song that harked back to the
Knebworth,
June 21, 1980 silliness of early Oldfield (“Sally, I’m just a
gorilla” indeed) but which Branson made
him take off the album as it didn’t fit in.
Mike Oldfield’s future career would take
PETE STILL/REDFERNS; GAB ARCHIVE/REDFERNS; FIN COSTELLO/REDFERNS
him everywhere from movie soundtracks to

entire albums of songs, along with several
more nods to Tubular Bells, but he would
revisit the musical style of his 1970s pomp
only once more, with arguably his best work
of the modern era, 2017’s self-explanatory
Return To Ommadawn. He remains an
extraordinary, underrated talent (maybe if
Tubular Bells had sold six copies and Virgin
Records had ended up being best known for
its excellent series of early Gong albums,
things might have been different) who
managed, unlike some of his peers, to
overcome the insane success of his
landmark debut and make music that,
even now, defies categorisation. ●

MIKE OLDFIELD
“I’m going
through a
bad phase”
Defying the curse of The Exorcist, cash registers
are ringing globally to the sound of Tubular Bells.
To its dazed and distracted creator, MIKE OLDFIELD,
however, it’s “meaningless” and he wants the world
to leave him alone with his hate mail, to work on a
follow-up only an army of guitarists could perform.
“I find life a strain,” he tells ROY CARR
NME MARCH 23, 1974 enterprising Virgin label put out the red carpet and
THE STORY so far: the scene opened its doors.
is the 1973 Midem Festival in This week, Tubular Bells entered the American
Cannes, the Music Biz’s annual Top 5 and seems certain to achieve both gold and
orgy of international wheeling platinum status before the month’s out. In Australia,
and dealing, and Virgin Records the album has just taken the top slot on import sales.
boss man Richard Branson is Meanwhile, back in Britain, Tubular Bells has
doing the rounds with a master racked up sales far in excess of 200,000 since it first
tape of Mike Oldfield’s then just- chimed into the bestseller lists on July 21, 1973. If the
recorded Tubular Bells. He’s just album continues to move at its current rate – and
played it to one US label representative and been told: there are no indications that it’s about to slow down
PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
“OK, slap some vocals on it and I’ll give you $20,000.” – it could eventually eclipse the success of Pink
Which is about the most positive reaction so far Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon and even rival
from a whole host of US labels displaying varying Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water
degrees of apathy to Branson’s search for an as an all-time recording phenomenon.
American outlet. In fact the rest of them – including Not bad going for an introverted little bloke just
the mighty CBS – were so apathetic they didn’t even turned 20, who hardly anyone wanted to know a year
put in a bid. “It’ll never sell in America” seemed to ago! The man in fact is as docile as Lewis Carroll’s
be the consensus of opinion from all sides – the shagged-out little dormouse and about as animated
Midem saga in itself being a repeat of Oldfield’s own as a day-old corpse. Experienced journalists have
difficulties in finding a British label before Branson’s been known to stagger away from Oldfield

For whom the
Bells toll: Mike
Oldfield in 1974

interviews bemoaning Struggling to the barmaid at the Marquee.
stay in tune:
the fact that they have recording In his defence, however,
insufficient copy to cover Hergest Ridge, I suppose I may have
spring 1974
a G-string, and harbouring manifested myself at an
an overwhelming desire to inopportune moment for,
return to their old vocation after spending six weeks
of writing readers’ letters working on his new
for Forum. masterwork Hergest Ridge,
If the truth be known, I Oldfield (sweat-stained
thought I’d blown it with my armpits and all) is currently
second question, through in a state of stagnation and
which I was attempting to acute frustration.
create some kind of rapport Apparently he’s just
with the reluctant Oldfield. scrapped one complete
We’d been labouring to section of recorded music
establish interviewer- and was attempting to work
interviewee relations in up some enthusiasm to
the claustrophobic control finish the task within the
room of The Manor recording next two weeks. The
studio somewhere in the previous day spent
Oxfordshire outback, and I’d constructing and flying
asked him his feelings about model gliders hadn’t
The Exorcist. brought forth a much-
What with Tubular Bells needed burst of inspiration.
being used as the soundtrack, “I’m going through a
and all those blood-curdling bad phase at the moment,
tales (fact or publicist’s things aren’t going quite
fantasy) circulating about right for me,” husked
how people connected with the voice of mental
the making of the movie constipation. “Nothing
are being beset with all is turning out the way
kinds of personal traumas – that I want it and, at the
accident, death and madness moment, I’m not quite sure
– I wondered if Oldfield how to go about rectifying
was aware of the nasties it. Everything keeps going
currently being dealt out right out of tune, so I’ve
of Satan’s pack. had to re-string just
A look of fear rapidly about everything.”
replaced the tranquillity of Suspect tuning, he
his placid blue eyes; his frail body trembled admits, can in some instances enhance the sheets
“MOSTLY I LIKE
ever so slightly as he mumbled: “I wish you of sounds. But he goes on to reveal that this is by
hadn’t told me that. Anyway, that’s it, you’ve no means his only dilemma: “I also have a lot of
finally convinced me; I’m definitely not going
CLASSICAL MUSIC, trouble keeping time.”
CHURCH AND
to see that film now. He slumps over the 24-track console, fiddles
“Even before you told me all this,” he continued with a battery of knobs and switches and
in a dry wavery voice, “I was much too frightened
to see it. Judging from what I’ve read in the
CHORAL THINGS. suddenly the room is filled with the celestial
sounds of hallucinogenic voices, sky-diving
papers, coupled to what you’ve just said, that’s it. NOT MUCH ROCK” guitars, macaroni mandolins and other heady
I don’t wanna know.” noises that slurp’n’slide in and out of the giant
His cause for concern goes deeper than
MIKE OLDFIELD playback speakers.
that of the thrill-seeking cinemagoer averse to “This is the bit that’s giving me a helluva
performing a Technicolor yawn all over the lady In fact, he didn’t do very much at all, and lot of trouble.”
peddling albatrosses on a stick. The fact is, the said even less. We listen for a moment, before he bashes
four-minute segment of Tubular Bells used for the the stop mechanism.
“I
soundtrack of the film was, states Oldfield, taken ’M telling you, you’ll have to peg Mike “I’ve got a dreadful sense of timing… can’t
without his prior permission. down if you want to get anything out of understand it. I think it’s OK at the time, but when
“The thing nobody realises,” said Oldfield him,” was the word-to-the-wise advice I come to play it back I find I’ve slowed down and
in a voice that starts in a strained whisper and whispered in my right ear by sound engineer Tom speeded up in all the wrong places. I must have
invariably trails off mid-sentence into thin air, Newman when I first arrived at the rambling had my mind on other things.”
h
“is that I knew absolutely nothing at all about old Manor house. After rewinding the tape to another
this. It’s not that I really minded, but honestly, At which point, Oldfield ssection, 95 guitars in full array
I wish you hadn’t told me all those stories.” shuffled by grunting about tickle our senses like 40,000
tic
There was a long silence. “Scottish Tom” being on Headmen galloping across
H
As it transpired, when the man spoke up the other end of the one’s lobotomy on leapers.
on
again and the “interview” progressed, Oldfield phone. When one Very impressive.
Ve
didn’t suddenly start carrying on in an alarming finally “pegs Mike “Christ, how could
manner. Neither did heavy objects begin to down”, he appears so I eever possibly hope to
levitate around the control room. To his credit, anonymous that we re
recreate that live?”, he
this man didn’t start screaming obscenities, could have quite easily ponders with a voice
po
spew green bile in my face, make his head rotate printed a photograph of so dejected I felt like
a full 360 degrees or perform unmentionable our own Steve Clarke on slashing my wrists, but at
sla
acts on his person with the guitar that he was this page and no-one would th
the same time giving some
carefully re-stringing. have been the wiser, except insight as to why Tubular Bells
ins

MIKE OLDFIELD
has only been performed twice in public. Once danger of becoming involved in a sophisticated
in concert, once on television. exercise in recording technique.
“I don’t like doing gigs, and won’t do any “All I’m doing is just making some music that
until such time as the whole concert thing is I can listen to… well I think it’s that! There’s not
so incredibly rehearsed, well equipped and I’ve a lot of music that I enjoy listening to. Mostly
got the right people to play with. If eventually I I like classical music, church and choral things
am to do gigs, I want each and every one to be a – there’s not too much rock that I can get off on.
satisfying thing to go out and do. And only then “I’ll tell you something,” he continues without
will I consider it. You see, I want people who are prompting. “I always thought that once I had
p
not only musically capable but also emotionally made my own album, held the cover in my hands
m
equipped to do it. and read my name, I’d think it was wonderful.
a
“To be truthful, I think I’d be much happier But, you know, it’s not like that at all.”
B
conducting and engineering it than Jeez, Oldfield, I’ve got enough problems of my
actually participating. The engineering own without you crying on my
is twice as complicated as any of the “I don’t shoulder as if I was some rock’n’roll
like doing
parts. When we did that concert at the gigs”: Marjorie Proops.
M
Queen Elizabeth Hall, we didn’t use at the “If I do get any sense of achievement
Rainbow
any amplifiers – all the guitars were Theatre in ffrom what I’m doing,” he blubs, “it’s
fed straight into the mixing board, London, when I’m mixing the thing. After that
w
1974
which a lot of people didn’t realise. II’m so exhausted I couldn’t really care
But even that had a lot of major lless about things. I’m a bit too dazed
technical hang-ups.” tto know if I’m really satisfied or
dissatisfied with what I’ve done.”
d
D
ESPITE this, Oldfield feels Indeed it appears Mike Oldfield gets
that eventually such problems his kicks in some very strange ways. He
h
can be surmounted. But as may have received unanimous praise
m
to whether the effort and expense ffrom the world’s press for Tubular Bells,
will justify the result, all he can but nevertheless he encountered great
b
offer is a non-committal: “It might… difficulty in relating to it.
d
but I dunno.” As he tells it the only printed comment
As yet he hasn’t managed to tthat made any real impression was
overcome all the limitations of the a reader’s letter in the musical press
recording studio. “The electronics describing Tubular Bells as the biggest
d
stand in your way,” he quietly lload of rubbish ever recorded.
drones, “they get between you and “Believe it or not, that letter made
your final thing, so until such time me feel quite good inside. The fact
m
that someone invents a control board tthat somebody hated it was great, but
that has inbuilt aesthetic judgement, quite honestly, I can’t understand why
q
that’s the only way to do it.” tthat one letter had such a wonderful
It’s a line of conversation that eeffect on me. It gave me much more
prompts him to dismiss any ssatisfaction than any of those positive
suggestion that by going it alone and rreviews I read.”
playing most instruments he’s in But then – as you many have
already gathered – Mike Oldfield
a
“It’s probably the iis an introverted personality beset
curse of The
Exorcist”: Oldfield with screaming contradictions, out
w
tries to laugh off of which here’s one little gem:
o
the film he hasn’t
yet dared to see “Basically I’m very insecure.
In fact, I’m a bit worried about
what’s gonna become of me. I’ll
w
ttell you, if I’d have started going
on tour right away, I’m quite
ccertain that something very nasty
would have happened to me. I’m
w
positive I wouldn’t have come
p
back in one piece.”
b
Again this conversation is
MICK GOLD/GETTY IMAGES; PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
punctured with a strained pause

p
as he attempts to detect the root
a
ccause of his fears. He fails, and
dismisses it and the remainder
d
of the interview thus:
o
“It’s probably the curse of
The Exorcist,” he says with
T
an unconvincing laugh.
a
“After what you’ve told me
about that film, I’m really
a
very worried.”
v
And with that he dashes
off to take a call from the
o
elusive Scottish Tom. Hey Mike,
ccareful as you go, don’t walk
under any ladders. ●
u

PROG
GENESIS
Some wild things floating about! Escaping public school, an English band
frolic on the playing fields of their imagination. By Mark Beaumont
T
HE flower head, flute interludes Banks’ precocious classical skills play-
and keyboard fanfares. The fought with Gabriel’s blues and soul
batwing headpiece and flowing thumping, as much Nina Simone as The
red fox-gown. Twelve-string Yardbirds. “I felt I could repress the middle-
acoustic guitars duelling class English person with soul music,”
through a 23-minute song-cycle about an Gabriel told NME’s Paul Morley in 1980.
apocalyptic battle for the future of Their musical marriage to guitarist
humanity. A seated band of virtuosos Anthony Phillips, drummer Chris Stewart
outshone by a singer dressed variously as a and bassist Mike Rutherford was one of
lascivious poltergeist pensioner, Britannia convenience – between them, they were
and a venereal disease. Music that was both the last remains of Charterhouse’s
rock and baroque – part gig, part recital – disintegrating two-band rock scene. And
full of macabre fairy-tale imagery, religious the album that King produced for them in
and mythological references and characters two days, having wangled a deal with
worthy of Lewis Carroll’s worst nightmares. Decca, is best consigned to history, not least
Audiences – or rather, congregations – at because King still owns the rights.
Genesis shows during the early 1970s must 1969’s From Genesis To Revelation –
have felt they were witnessing both the “a bunch of kids in their holiday time”,
ascendance and epitome of progressive according to Rutherford – consisted of
rock. Arguably, they were right. pastoral ’60s pop nodding to US soul and
They might also have noted that nothing Motown, Woodstock folk, Love and The
could be more public school. But the Who, bearing little resemblance to the band
Charterhouse school songwriting collective they’d become, besides a rarefied airiness
(unnamed and yet to play live together, they and a grand conceit. At King’s suggestion,
baulked at calling themselves a band) that its 13 charmingly naive tracks were designed
conspired to get a demo tape to old boy to trace the evolution of man from a Biblical
Jonathan King during his January 1967 visit perspective, pitting the Garden Of Eden of
to his alma mater weren’t your standard side one against the apocalypse of side two.
starch-collared toffs. Both Peter Gabriel and Spirituality and religion, King deduced,
Tony Banks considered themselves were becoming hip in the age of the
outsiders amid the hallowed cloisters and Maharishi. Before Godspell and Jesus Christ
brutal regimes of the Surrey boarding Superstar, King christened them Genesis.
school. They bonded at the piano, where Two singles flopped, the album sold

GENESIS
FROM GENESIS TO TRESPASS FOXTROT THE LAMB LIES A TRICK OF THE TAIL WIND &
REVELATION CHARISMA, 1970 CHARISMA, 1972 DOWN ON CHARISMA, 1976 WUTHERING
DECCA, 1969 6/10 9/10 BROADWAY 8/10 CHARISMA, 1976
5/10 CHARISMA, 1974 8/10
NURSERY CRYME SELLING ENGLAND 7/10
CHARISMA, 1971 BY THE POUND
8/10 CHARISMA, 1973
6/10

PROG
(From left) soon-to-

depart Peter Gabriel,
Tony Banks, Phil Collins,
Steve Hackett and
Mike Rutherford, 1975
Bats: Peter Gabriel in
“Watcher Of The Skies” an to 40 in British clubs the
and
garb at Newcastle City next. Against this backdrop
n
Hall, October 1, 1972
Gabriel’s theatrical
G
ambitions flourished. His
a
64
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Genesisis cu
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ties
ies with D
Decca Genesis lay fresh roots in stories became character
st
and King. Shrewd move; with King often the Edwardian macabre – set-pieces; he’d end “The
se
pruning Banks’ more exuberant flourishes the sinister nursery rhyme, Musical Box” licking
M
from the arrangements, it’s unlikely he the haunted doll’s house, the lasciviously
la
a from behind an
would’ve approved of the longer, elaborate twisted taxidermy. old man’s mask, or shave the
ol
compositions Genesis worked on during five Key to this time-warp was “The front of his head for an eccentric
fr
monastic months at a friend’s cottage in the Musical Box”, the ominous Egyptian effect. Whereas Bowie
E
autumn of ’69, immersed in the archaic story of Cynthia Jane De would inhabit singular creations
w
British imagery of Monty Python and the Blaise-William decapitating like Ziggy, Gabriel – whose
li
nonconformist dynamic of In The Court Of young Henry Hamilton- career was almost symbiotic with
ca
The Crimson King. It was here they found the Smythe with a croquet Bowie’s throughout the ’70s –
B
angular aggression that propelled “The mallet, only for him to emerge set out to inhabit his entire cast,
se
Knife”, written to emulate “Rondo” by The from a haunted musical box, and it proved the making of the
a
Nice and ultimately nine minutes of brutal, age rapidly and try to seduce band. One September night in
b
disjointed blues foretelling Pink Floyd’s her. A masterpiece of Dublin in 1972, inspired by Paul
D
“One Of These Days”. This savage set finale, gathering drama and Whitehead’s artwork for their
W
as well as Gabriel’s impromptu storytelling explosive resolution, it paired forthcoming third album,
fo
whenever the gear broke down (which was with the semi-metal “The Gabriel appeared wearing his
G
often), set Genesis apart as they began to wife’s Ossie Clark red dress
w
tour in earnest, and caught the attention of with a fox’s head; the following
w
Charisma boss Tony Stratton-Smith during week,
w eek
k GGenesis
enes would grace the cover of the
a Ronnie Scott’s residency. Genesis lay fresh roots Melody Maker.
1970’s Trespass, their first album for
Charisma, was more successful as a in the Edwardian The outfit was the iconic central image for
Foxtrot, the peak of Gabriel-era Genesis.
blueprint than a breakthrough. Paul
Whitehead’s fantasy medieval cover art,
macabre – the sinister Side-long apocalyptic song suites or no, here
there was no slack. Replacing musty fantasy
coupled with Gabriel’s Arcadian tales of
warring wolf kings (“White Mountain”) and
nursery rhyme, the with sci-fi gleam, propulsive opener
“Watcher Of The Skies” almost fell over its
moon-gazing poets (“Stagnation”), set a haunted doll’s house… own stampeding bass riff and churchy
mythical tone which an entire genre would Mellotron to tell the story of an alien arriving
follow. The restless structures of these six Return Of The Giant Hogweed”, in which on Earth to find humankind departed. “Get
pieces – by turns pastoral, grandiose, a toxic Victorian plant army took on the ’Em Out By Friday” was Genesis’s most
driving and stately – expanded on King human race in a fight to the death between successful song-play, a satire on money-
Crimson’s courtly premise and found a man and herb, to give 1971’s Nursery Cryme grubbing ’70s landlords who, come 2012,
unique sound in the whimsy of Phillips and the feel of a record dragged through the enforce a humanoid height restriction of
Rutherford’s 12-string guitars winding looking glass, darkly. four feet in order to squeeze more people into
around Banks’ stentorian synths. Indulgent, Further Genesis trademarks cohered tower blocks – an acerbic precursor to the
phantasmagorical and occasionally here too. “Harold The Barrel” was their next album’s contemporary social themes.
overwhelming, Trespass looked and first multi-character play-within-a-song, Foxtrot’s centrepiece, meanwhile, would
sounded like a first draft of ’70s prog rock. a farcical pre-Madness romp about a come to define the band’s first incarnation,
Like an upturned jigsaw, all of the pieces desperate Bognor restaurant owner if not prog rock as a genre, and with good
MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY IMAGES, JORGEN ANGEL/REDFERNS
of Genesis were present on Trespass, but in shunning all attempts to talk him down from reason. Few 23-minute musical montages
the wrong order. It took a new Mellotron, a a ledge. “Seven Stones” and the exquisite are as expertly paced, deftly dynamic and
change of personnel – Phil Collins the last “For Absent Friends” – Hackett and Collins’ consistently melodic as “Supper’s Ready”;
of a rotating cast of drummers and Steve first major contribution – were delicate particularly ones merging The Pilgrim’s
Hackett replacing a tour-broken Phillips to pencil sketches of age, wisdom and grief. Progress with The Book Of Revelations that
complete the classic lineup – and a decamp Nursery Cryme brought a fresh wit, character open on an ominous vision of hooded figures
to Stratton-Smith’s country pile Luxford and musical definition to Genesis, lifting the and end with an almighty cosmic battle
House to cement their aesthetic. Collins, an dense fog of Trespass and launching what between good and evil, via the Narcissus
ex-child actor with appearances in Chitty- Charterhouse associate Richard Macphail myth and a Pythonesque carnival detour to
Chitty Bang Bang and the West End would call “the golden era”. “Willow Farm”. Owning side two of Foxtrot,
production of Oliver in his resumé, came Like the two previous albums, Nursery “Supper’s Ready” pulled on its famous flower
with a certain vaudevillian impishness, and Cryme bombed in the UK, but its success headpiece and bellowed, “Follow that!”
the surroundings reminded Gabriel of his on the Continent saw Genesis playing to 1973’s high-minded social statement
grandparents’ dark Victorian home. Swiftly, crowds of 20,000 in Italian arenas one night Selling England By The Pound couldn’t.

GENESIS
It would take some years for the

import of The Lamb… to hit home;
its kinship to Quadrophenia rather
than …Topographic Oceans, its
uprooting of progressive rock
from misty mythology and
replanting in the musical future,
its never-to-be-spoken influence
on new wave. It was these elements
that Gabriel took with him when he
walked right out of Genesis’s
machinery to spend more time
with his growing family at the end
of the tour, and used to kick-start
one of the most boundless solo
careers in rock history.
Gabriel’s 1975 departure
benefitted both parties. Collins got
the frontman job thanks to his
natural vocal affinity to Gabriel’s
rich warble, but his sharper tone
and nose for a catchy twist helped
Genesis regenerate with two of
their most finely sketched and
accessible albums of the ’70s,
arguably trumping much of
Gabriel’s reign. A Trick Of The Tail
(1976) took on a Dickensian
aesthetic, reassuring the faithful
with hypnotic folk pop billows
like “Entangled” and ‘Ripples…”,
a signpost to their soft rock ’80s
output called “Squonk” and the
endearing title track, a cloven-
hoofed “Penny Lane” about a
Despite boasting graceful Old Albion New York netherworld, gets his heart New World, horned beast who flees his “city of gold” for
new face:
metaphors for the commercialisation of shaved, meets Death, shags a snake- Bill Bruford the kingdom of men, only to find we’re
’70s Britain on “Dancing With The Moonlit woman, gets castrated, realises he’s been (left) lends largely gits.
percussive
Knight” and their first actual hit in folk- searching for himself all along and dies, or assistance The post-Gabriel chart lull never arrived
funk servant’s anthem “I Know What doesn’t. Inspired by Kurt Vonnegut’s to Phil Collins – …Tail became Genesis’s first US Top 40 hit.
during a US
I Like (In Your Wardrobe)”, there was an Breakfast Of Champions and Jodorowsky’s tour, Central Assured, the four-piece rushed out Wind &
indulgence, lack of focus and clichéd 1970 acid western El Topo, interwoven Park, NYC, Wuthering that December, a somewhat
April 1976
courtliness to the record that Genesis had with Gabriel’s psycho-sexual dream daintier offering channelling the Brontë
seemed to transcend on Foxtrot. Any glory imagery and increased alienation from sisters and, song about Tom & Jerry
gleaned from reworking TS Eliot’s The Waste the band, it was perhaps best summed up notwithstanding, the band’s late-’70s high-
Land as a sweet folk ditty on “Cinema by Mark Radcliffe in 1998: “It may be some point. Wintry messiah epic “One For The
Show”, or from “Firth Of Fifth”, where kind of transcendental awakening, it might Vine” climaxed in a flurry of interweaving
Banks’ spectacular keyboard fanfares be a nightmare vision of the future, it may keyboard melodies that was one of Banks’
mated wonderfully with Hackett’s Floyd be a foetus on a fast-track to birth or it may finest achievements, and the prog
riffs, was soon tarnished by “The Battle Of be a load of old toss.” meandering of side two, predicting The
Epping Forest”, a cartoonish array of East One can only imagine the bewilderment of Wall, culminated in the stirring “Afterglow”,
End gangsters clashing over 11 messy audiences watching The Lamb… performed proof that ELO’s symphonic balladry hadn’t
minutes, all voiced by Gabriel like a Goon in full before the album was even released, gone unnoticed by them.
Show with knuckledusters. with a three-screen projection show that, Hackett’s departure in 1977 stripped
Nonetheless, Selling England… hit No 3 in according to Collins, synchronised correctly Genesis of another layer of florid and their
the UK and catapulted Genesis into arenas, with the music at one in every hundred imperceptible shift towards pop-rock song-
where Gabriel’s theatrics – “Watcher…” shows and, for “Colony Of The Slippermen”, writing was laid bare when “Follow You
batwings, Britannia costume, bouts of flight involved Gabriel emerging from an Follow Me” limboed onto the end of …And
– upstaged the music and alienated the inflatable penis dressed as an STD. Up to Then There Were Three… in 1978. 1980’s
band. The stage was set for a magnificent, “Lilywhite Lilith” they likely basked in seminal Duke would be the last Genesis
band-splitting folly. At Headley Grange, a Genesis’s transformation into album to entertain a prog
former Hampshire poorhouse still haunted a modernist marriage of The rock structure, but even here
ro
by Led Zeppelin’s magic, they conceived a Who and Sparks, wowing at they broke up a proposed
th
double concept album which, to refresh and the band’s most direct melodic 30-minute regal pop suite in
30
contemporise the band, transposed their punches yet: “In The Cage”’s order to bookend Collins’
or
fantastical visions to New York City, and pulsing rock, the Beatles- majestic divorce ballads. As
m
then went wildly off-script. aping “Counting Out Time” the most imaginative and
th
Considering even Gabriel claims to be and the gossamer, baroque form-challenging act of the
fo
unsure of the plot of 1974’s The Lamb Lies “Carpet Crawlers”. For the genre,
ge they’d guided prog
Down On Broadway (and he wrote it), we’ll weirder, patchier second half, rock
ro from genesis to
not try to unpick it here. Suffice to say, a they probably shifted in their numerous revelations. Now it
nu
teenage street punk named Rael goes in seats praying for anything as was time to write their
w
search of his brother John in a surrealist zippy as “Supper’s Ready”. stadium pop testament. ●
st

GENESIS
Flower power:
Peter Gabriel
on stage with
Genesis in 1973
“I’m excited
by the visual
aspect”
The failed pro golfer. The childhood
Artful Dodger. The one-man special-
effects department. The one with the
fox-head phobia – and the one who
“poodles about” in “silly costumes”.
Meet GENESIS: “People will either love or
hate us on the tour,” says Peter Gabriel.
“There’s no indifference.”
MELODY MAKER MARCH 3, 1973
GENESIS are in that exciting time when life seems
rosy and prospects are good. After many years of
toil, uncertainty and blind faith, their ambitions are
being realised and their talent recognised. America
beckons, the next album will probably be a smash
and concerts are a sell-out, wherever Peter Gabriel
unfurls his wings.
Genesis have always been determined to play their
own music without compromise, right from the days
when they played to five people in the room upstairs at Ronnie Scott’s
MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
Club. And they will concede no compromises now they have joined their
brother groups amid the hullabaloo of acclaim and exposure.
In many ways, Genesis are of the old-fashioned breed of group, who
originally laid the foundations of the whole modern group structure. Most
of them went to school together. Few have played with any other band.
When they started out they were rough and unready and held quaint ideas
about writing and playing that no one would touch. While other groups
went on to fame and fortune, they teetered on the verge of breaking up,
quarrelled, but slogged on and won an essential grass-roots following.

GENESIS
The music the band feature has been compared A man who could conceivably have devoted English at Edinburgh University, but I couldn’t
to Yes, and other bands that specialise in himself to hunting tigers in India explained go back again.”
arrangements. In fact, one of their earliest how he became a vital force in Genesis. “I started How did Mike intend to use his studies at
influences was The Nice. off writing with Anthony Phillips, our old university? “Actually, I wanted to be a pro golfer.
Genesis do not, however, place much emphasis guitarist. Just songs, y’know. I’ve always had I take clubs with me wherever we go. But we’re all
on solo work or extended improvisation, and the a thing about songs. unfit. I just play when I can.”
use of Mellotron and Steve Hackett’s “non-guitar” “When we left school, Peter was getting a band To what extent had Mike studied musical theory
guitar sounds don’t lead to any direct comparison together and I joined on bass and rhythm guitar. and the art of bass guitar?
with anything else that is happening. I love strumming. Never really wanted to be a “I sort of picked it up. I’m starting to learn to read
Genesis are eccentric and very English, and dynamic lead guitarist. We used to write pop music now. I suppose our present musical form
blues hardly enters their work; even the term songs, and I thought they were rather nice. started to develop about three years ago. We used
“rock” is irrelevant most of the time. Nevertheless “The first thing we wrote as a band was a to change much quicker than we do now. But, of
it is gripping, often startling, with a thorough 45-minute piece that we didn’t record, but we course, there were fewer people coming to see us.
understanding of the use of dynamics, light still use bits to this very day. When we started “I wish we could have had Phil then. His arrival
and shade. It is a textural montage in which the band we knew nothing about the business gave us an awful lot more confidence. There has
classical music, jazz and rock can all be seen or what bands did, which was good, really. always been a lot of friction in the band, but it’s
to have had an effect. We were incredibly green, but luckily we didn’t not too bad, really. When Phil joined and saw
sign anything. us all quarrelling, I think he thought we were
MIKE RUTHERFORD “We didn’t know how to set up the equipment splitting up! We argue a lot less now and there
A
CHARTERHOUSE school veteran, bass for a gig and we used to travel around with a is more give and take.”
guitarist Mike Rutherford treats a mean picnic basket, containing hard-boiled eggs, pots
pair of Mr Bassman pedals, which supply of tea and scones, that we set up in the dressing PHIL COLLINS
P
the mysterious bass pulse when he is strumming rooms. The other bands were frankly amazed. But HIL Collins, the drummer, is one of that
at an acoustic guitar with Steve. He also plays we were very fond of tea. breed of drummers with a fine technique
regular bass guitar and two 12-string guitars, “We had no conception of what would happen, who devotes it solely to the band’s music.
all of which help in the vital shading and pastel and I’m really glad we did it. I had led such a soft He rarely if ever solos, but the intelligent and
tones the band employ. He tends to ramble in a life up and until then, and being in a group dramatic shading that he employs is exciting
pleasantly coherent fashion, often a trait among doesn’t do you any harm at all. I was studying in itself.
public school chaps, and blithely admits if it He has played drums since the age of five, and at
wasn’t for this rock’n’roll business, he would one time pursued an acting career, which he now
probably have gone into the Foreign Office.
“We seem to be on the up at the moment,” he “WE USED TO TRAVEL prefers not to talk about, but like Steve Marriott,
included a stint in Oliver! as the Artful Dodger,
observed lightly. “We do feel there is a frightful WITH A PICNIC and a whole string of radio and TV appearances.
MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVE/GETTY
BASKET, WITH HARD-

lack of material. We write so slowly,” Mike shook “The only band I was in of any consequence
his head in sorrow. before Genesis was Flaming Youth,” he says.
He laughed and explained that “to me at
BOILED EGGS, POTS “I thought they were a good band and we were
OF TEA AND SCONES”

any rate” had been his favourite expression ever quite influenced by Yes. We would do a 15-minute
since he heard Peter Sellers use it, as Nancy version of ‘Norwegian Wood’. We did the album
Lisbon interviewing Twit Conway, on Songs For
Swingin’ Sellers.
MIKE RUTHERFORD Ark 2, but at all gigs we’d play half somebody
else’s material and didn’t please anybody.
The band
in 1973:
(l-r) Banks,
Collins,
Rutherford,
Hackett
and Gabriel

“My own playing was quite realise most of our ambitions in
influenced by Bill Bruford and John music and creative presentation. I
Bonham. But when I started out, hope what we do will be completely
I liked Joe Brown And The Bruvvers. new. We need two months in one
I’m not really a jazz freak, y’know, building to write and experiment.
although big bands always appealed At the moment we are still in the
to me. I liked the way the drummer first stage of audio-visual, in the
accented or filled in. It appealed to way that the first stereo engineers
me the way you didn’t have to play experimented with trains passing
a set rhythm between the accents. from one speaker to another. After
I used to watch all the big band a while people became bored with
drummers, and thought Harold Jones that, and after the train noises,
with Count Basie was excellent. gained a great understanding of
“I’d like Genesis to get a bit looser, the medium they were using.
while keeping the arranged things. “I wouldn’t say we have discovered
When you’re on tour, you begin to anything yet – we are still talking
want to change things. I want to get about it in wishy-washy terms.
more into different time signatures. But after the last couple of years
Some of my best playing is on the of development, we can now see
9/8 things on ‘Supper’s Ready’. It’s the possibilities. I hope we can
interesting to play. Phil Collins clear ourselves of debt from record
behind his
“I was taught by [the late drum Gretsch kit, royalties, and plough back any
tutor] Frank King. I realised that if I circa 1972 profit into realising more
wanted to be a pro drummer when I expansionist ideas.
was 40, I’d have to learn to read. I got “I don’t like the word ‘show’. It’s not
my first drums when I was five, and my father work when they are unexpected, when they sort of Hollywood dancing girls. It’s difficult to
used to hide them in the cellar. Later on, I sold my are timed to emphasise or illustrate some twist put into words the visual concept. It’s a visual and
train set to buy some drums. When I quit acting, in the lyrics. There is a great deal of humour in musical concept expressed at the same time. My
my parents were a bit upset, but I’d always seen Peter’s approach, but there is also a power that things are my own, and the more we present
myself as a drummer. cannot be dismissed. There is an opaqueness ourselves as a co-operative band, the happier I’ll
“I was a drum fan: I liked everyone, Ringo, to his character. An indefinable mist comes be. I don’t want to project myself above the band.
Keith Moon, there were such a lot of good down on certain subjects. He seems open enough I just poodle about and put on silly costumes.
drummers, Buddy Rich, of course, and guys you in discussion, but more lurks beneath the “I do have things I’m interested in outside of the
don’t hear so much about, Ian Wallace, and John surface. Asked if he believes in the characters he band. There is a songwriter called Martin Hall and
Halsey with Patto. But I don’t like rock drumming takes on during a stage performance, his simple there is a possibility of my doing an LP with him.
as such. I like to tune my drums properly and reply is “Yes.” As it is – the band comes first.”
A
IAN DICKSON/GETTY IMAGES; MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY IMAGES

there should definitely be a musical approach to Some years ago Will success change Genesis?
playing. I think my playing has improved a lot, there was a brief “Well, it will have to improve
and two recent influences have been Billy infatuation among on past performance if we are
Cobham and Bernard Purdie. groups for magic, going to keep together. We
go
“I’ve done some sessions to get the frustration by Black Widow, were losing money fast. We
w
out of me, and I even did a season at a holiday Sabbath and others. believed in what we were
b
camp, wearing a bow tie and playing waltzes. That Graham Bond has doing and that’s all. Yes, it
d
can be fun, too! If I’m not playing, I’m listening frequently talked does place certain pressures.
d
and learning. All will be revealed on the next LP. about the subject. A trap I hope we won’t fall into
“I think of myself as a drummer rather than But in Peter’s iiss that after an artist has
Genesis’ drummer. I’d like to get back into two performance there rreceived a certain amount of
bass drums sometimes. I heard a tape recently seems to be more ssuccess, he is given the
made when I was 15 and there are some things on than just an attempt cconviction that even his most
there I couldn’t do now. I think Mike and I work at theatre. The insignificant
in
nsignificant fart is a
together really well, and with Tony. I think the various efforts he
For fox sake:
band will loosen up. We actually had a jam makes to take an Gabriel onstage
session at the Rainbow rehearsal, and we never audience with him in London, 1971… …and 1973
normally do that kind of thing. I think some seem to have an
sparks are going to fly!” accumulative effect
that works. The
PETER GABRIEL wildness of the audience reaction at
T
HERE are many facets to Peter Gabriel’s role the Rainbow, for example, seems to
in Genesis. He is a remarkable singer, with confirm that the music by itself is not
a variety of tonal effects at his command, conducive to dancing in the aisle, in
from an unexpected soul shriek to clipped, the manner of a soul or rock band.
precise phrasing – agonising howls to grotesque Gabriel does seem possessed in some
rolling accents delivered with theatrical venom. way, when he performs, and his shy
Sometimes he sounds like Anthony Newley or stutter offstage in no way invalidates
Ron Moody. He teeters from angelic pose to this impression.
supernatural devilry, as he beats time on a Our conversation began in fairly
solitary bass drum, the remnants of some long normal fashion, but as his piercing
forgotten kit. He plays lyrical, in-tune flute, and eyes and crooked smile, beneath a
can also be seen practising the oboe. partially shaven head, bore into me,
Onstage he will remain motionless for minutes I felt in some way I had made contact
on end, or disappear, only to burst forth in some with the unknown.
stunning costume, perhaps the famous a head of “If our present success continues,
a fox. But as Peter realises, such tactics can only we’ll be in the situation where we can

GENESIS
work of art. Mumble, mumble, second verse visual act. They were never as good after that first
follows the first. time, and they weren’t half the band after the
“We go onstage and do a bad gig and guitarist left. It was all organ and I thought the
everybody says it’s the most brilliant thing they guitar was essential.”
have ever seen in their life. The time comes when “I like Yes quite a lot, and I liked The Yes Album,
you believe they are right. We should be cautious but I wasn’t impressed by Fragile and I haven’t
about that. We are learning all the time, and on heard Close To The Edge. I don’t feel influenced
the whole in this business, it is the easiest field in by them at all. I suppose when we did Nursery
which to be highly successful and mediocre at Cryme there was a superficial likeness, but if
the same time. One should be constantly you listen to the LPs for any length of time, the
maintaining higher aims.” similarities will disappear. We listen to a lot of
Is there a danger of Genesis being trapped music. There is no jazz influence on what I play,
into a formula? but Phil can make it sound like jazz and I like that.
“I’d like to change the act after every gig. One “We’ve all been evolving since we were at
gig should be totally theatrical, and the next one school, and Peter, Mike and myself never played
dressed in denim. I would feel happier if you with anybody else. It’s quite satisfactory, really,
come to a Genesis gig and not know what you’re write a complete offering and the group arranges because I never played organ before, and learned
going to see. But some people have already it. This doesn’t often happen! Otherwise we all through Genesis. Mike hadn’t played bass before
complained because we dropped the fox’s head. work together on a 10-second idea and then and was a guitarist.
I’d like to get a regular change in the music develop it. Each member takes a part in the “Everything you do changes you. I enjoy a lot of
as well. Eh? Oh, I’ve got the fox’s head at the writing. You see, we originally got together as aspects of being in a group. I don’t enjoy travelling.
moment. We’re thinking of giving it as a prize writers, and this is the strength of the band. I stayed a year at university and then when Genesis
in the Giant Hogweed Youth Movement In fact, each member writes enough to fill an started, I took one year’s leave of absence to see
competition. I must give a plug to the mask maker LP. When I write a lyric, I try to think of Peter, how it would go. I’ve never been back.”
– Guy Chapman, who made the pinballs for the who has to sing them. Peter’s own lyrics Tony admits he doesn’t always entirely enjoy
Tommy opera. Erika Issitt does the costumes. tend to be more abstract and I tend to have the visual aspect of Genesis and says there has
“I want to create a fantasy situation. The flower reservations about obscurity. I think he wrote been friction between him and Peter Gabriel
head should be hamming it up. It’s consciously ‘Supper’s Ready’ too hurriedly. in the past. “I don’t have much to do with the
supposed to be unreal. I don’t specifically want “I started playing classical music at school. presentation and didn’t always like it. But Peter is
to frighten. Let’s say I would prefer to be Fellini. When I was about 13 I went off classical piano and a natural for that and I’m more happy with it now.
In fact, the flower walk was probably more didn’t want to play it any more. I would pick out “We’ve tried never to compromise and we’re not
influenced by Shirley Temple, which is better Beatles tunes instead. But at 16 it was back to the going to now. I enjoy taking the music seriously
than ripping off Eric Clapton.” classics again. The first group I ever saw was The and we want more people to listen to us. I was
Next LP? “We’ve got our little bits ready. April Nice, and I didn’t think anybody played music irritated by the fox’s head that Peter used, and
we’ll start, but in the meantime we’re going to like that. It was pretty early days for them at the didn’t think it was justifiable. I always regretted
America. I’d like a more acoustic feel than we Marquee and it was pretty simple stuff I suppose. it. But now I’m getting more excited about the
did on Foxtrot. We want to extend the degree of But I was quite impressed by the possibilities of a visual aspect. And I’ve known Peter too long
contrast in the music. I want to spend the next to be frightened by him!”
50 years of my life learning.”
“I WAS IRRITATED BY STEVE HACKETT
S
TONY BANKS CREAMING effects and whispering melody
THE FOX’S HEAD THAT
T
ONY Banks is one of the main men when lines, unison work with the organ, brass,
it comes to unravelling who contributes
most to the Genesis sound. His mournful PETER USED, AND and gentle acoustic guitar behind the
vocals are all Steve Hackett’s forte.
Mellotron cries and sustained chords are DIDN’T THINK IT WAS One of the most recent members of the
vital in maintaining the mood and aura of a
performance, and by the nature of his instrument JUSTIFIABLE” band, which worked as a four-piece after their
original guitarist left, Steve has a dry humour,
he takes the lead in structuring the arrangements. TONY BANKS and enjoys telling the saga of his running
Ex-Charterhouse and Sussex advertisements
advertisemments in i the Melody Maker’s famed
University, his musical training ‘Musicians Wanted’ columns.
included nearly 10 years’ classical Educated at Sloane Grammar
Steve Hackett,
piano studies. He first played in The circa 1973 school in Kensington, Steve
Garden Wall, a school group with Peter enjoys composers Erik Satie,
and Anthony Phillips, original Genesis Albinoni,
A Scarlatti and Bach, as
guitarist. “My particular role in the well
w as King Crimson. He is one of
band? Well, I’m not an improviser in a tthe quietest members of the band
group situation. I can improvise and and onstage prefers to remain
a
will play away for hours on my own at static, rather than attempt
the piano. But when I’m restricted to a uneasy rock-style leaping.
u
riff or chord sequence, I find it difficult “Onstage I do tend not to use the
to improvise. I prefer to work out my guitar as a guitar, but rather as a
playing in advance. And I don’t have voice in the oneness of sound. A
v
any desire to improvise, as my sole llot of the time people say, ‘Where’s
concern is the composition and the
t guitar? I can’t hear it.’ It’s more
playing of the arrangement. of
o a special-effects department.”
“We spend weeks getting a song Does Steve covet the freedom to
together. We’d like to speed up the blow more?
b
MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY
process, because you can soon get “On the next LP I’d like to use the
bored playing the same thing each guitar as a guitar. The music does
night. But I’ve found I’m enjoying ttend to be over-arranged. On gigs
playing more than a year ago. 90 per cent of it is arranged. The
9
“There are two main ways we get rreason I want to sit down, by the
material together. One of us might way, is because of the battery of
w

Gabriel and co
deliver “relevant
entertainment”,
Allen Theater,
Ohio, 1973
foot pedals and fuzz boxes I use. There are a lot of lacked drive. Now with the addition of Phil it has Selling England By The Pound. And Reading
crescendos and diminuendos, and I have to keep got much stronger. I could see what the band were was the farewell, at least in part, to their old
level right with the pedals. But I admit I’m the trying to do and where it failed. I thought it could act. Now a new British tour looms, and plans are
most non-visual member of the band and I don’t be polished up. And I can’t emphasise enough the afoot to make it their most exciting ever, fire
find it easy to be onstage.” importance of the addition of the Mellotron. That regulations permitting.
Did Steve ever cherish the possibility of gave us a whole new spectrum of sounds, and a Peter and lead guitarist Steve Hackett were
becoming a frontman? wider perspective. consuming breakfast tea and toast at Peter’s cosy
“Not really. I’m pretty obscure, you know. I tried “I don’t really like playing long solos, and flat in Notting Hill, London – where cats roam
to form a band for two years and had 30 musicians prefer more short statements. You can say much and postmen get lost – one morning this week.
passing through. We played two gigs. more in two minutes than you can in 20. It’s like Settled at last on the sofa in a pocket-sized
“I used to play harmonica, so it was a kind of drumming. A drum solo would be completely out lounge, I attempted to question Peter forthrightly
John Mayall situation without any gigs. The band of context in this band. about the technicalities of their new stage act,
had several names, as well, like Sarabande and “I like to think we conjure up mental pictures making pertinent points about recording, the
Steel Pier. It was all down to lack of finance. for people and create moods. When Peter wears a future of Genesis, the influence of rock on
“I was one of the most regular advertisers in flower on his head or shouts ‘All change’ it could western society and the implications behind such
Melody Maker apart from A Able Accordionist. mean nothing. But within the context of the impressive new compositions as “The Battle Of
The style of the ads changed as time went on, music, it can help get the number across. Epping Forest”, a highlight of the album.
from ‘Blues guitarist/harmonica player’ to “We all relate to fantasy, although I’m a bit more
‘Guitarist writer seeks receptive minds down to earth. ‘Get ’Em Out By Friday’ is a more How did you enjoy your “farewell to the old
determined to strive beyond existing stagnant specific statement for me. I like John Lennon’s act” at Reading Festival?
musical forms.’ The last one – Genesis answered. lyrics. Simple, but effective. Bare bones and a bit PETER: I don’t think the music was very good.
It was a bit highbrow, but I still got a lot of nutters more honesty, that’s what I’d like.” STEVE: Your press write-up was very
replying, obviously completely hopeless. I could CHRIS WELCH complimentary compared to the
never bring myself to tell them. In the end I had actual performance.
to say, I don’t think we can work together. After MELODY MAKER OCTOBER 6, 1973 PETER: The reaction was very pleasing to us
Peter phoned up, we did two weeks’ rehearsals GENESIS have lain dormant from that point of view. We’ve never had that
and did our first gig, which was a disaster, of throughout the summer, at sort of reaction at a festival before. We are always
course. I forgot everything.” least as far as the public was very sceptical about working in the open air.
“When I first started to play guitar, my main concerned. Then came the We work very much on atmosphere, and that’s
influences were C, F, and G – they were good for sensational appearance at easier to create inside. We had a bit of power
the blues. I was a big fan of Jeff Beck and I still am. Reading Festival, when trouble, as well, which caused the long delay.
Eric Clapton, of course, and Peter Green. Then Peter Gabriel rose as a vision It wasn’t intentional.
something happened. I’d go to Eel Pie Island a lot upon a hydraulic ramp,
and hear all the blues guitarists. Then suddenly ensconced inside a white What was the thinking behind the hydraulic
the magic didn’t work. I’d come to the end of the pyramid. Of its significance, only the wind ramp on which you appeared inside the
blues. As I’d acquired more technique, I could knows. But there’s no doubting that Gabriel had white pyramid?
JOHN LYNN KIRK/GETTY
understand more what they were playing, and once again stunned his audience with another in PETER: Oh, that was a sort of fairground
the more I knew, the less the magic worked. his series of ingenious and baffling visuals. gimmick. I really enjoyed that, actually. It was
“When I joined this band, I thought I could Of course, the group had not been idle. They had quite a tight area in which I was crammed, and it
improve the guitar department, which was more been toiling in basement studios rehearsing and looked as if my body was all distorted. It’s quite
folky than it is now. I thought the acoustic side recording what they feel is their finest album yet, good for the science-fiction cosmos man.

BAND NAME
Cymbal-ism:
(l-r) Rutherford,
Banks, Gabriel
and Collins in
rehearsals, 1974
My legs were crossed, yes. The trouble was STEVE: It’s the best thing we’ve ever done. The
“THE NEW LP HAS

that the pyramid was a bit tighter than the one best played, the best material.
I’ve had before, and I had to fit my shoulders in PETER: I’m never very objective about albums
corner to corner.
LONGER SOLOS – AT just after we’ve finished them. This one has more
THE RISK OF BEING

flow. We’ve fully explored the roots of the band
When are you going to float in space like the on the past ones, when we’ve had contrast after
Mekon of Mekonta?
PETER: Well, with a laser beam projection I may
BORING. WE HOPE contrast. The solos are longer on this one and
we’ve played out things to their natural length.
be able to do that eventually. FANS STAY WITH US” In the past we rather nervously tended to cut
things short. The new one has longer solos – at
So you weren’t too happy about the band’s
PETER GABRIEL the risk of being boring. We hope the fans will
last performance? stay with us at any rate. They seemed to at
PETER: No, I don’t think it was our the Summerland disaster [when a fire killed Reading. There were a few shaven heads in
best musically. 50 people at a leisure centre on the Isle of Man the audience, I noticed.
STEVE: I think it showed we had been off the in 1973], the definition of a fire risk has been STEVE: Those were just guys in the audience that
road for some weeks. tightened up. Before, if you put a match to it, and we planted, actually.
it didn’t flare, it was OK. Now if it catches fire at all
So farewell to the old and on with the new. after holding the match there, you’re in trouble, Is there any significance in the title of the new
When does the tour start? so we had to throw out our ideas, which is a drag. album, Selling England By The Pound?
PETER: October 5. It’s a bit thinner on dates than The plan had progressed a lot. The trouble is PETER: Well Christ, it’s society’s doom, innit?
we originally intended. The new album is quite a lot of the places groups play include town halls Flogging England by the pound. We’ve always
hard on the heels of the “live” epic. where they don’t have safety curtains over the been keen on telling stories which we know
stage. We have got a new set, developing slowly. nothing about. We get off on fantasy, you know.
Is this a wise move? Ideas come from everybody in the group. I hate patriotism, but we try to be English, if
PETER: Well, I wasn’t keen for the live album to you know what I mean. A lot of bands try to
be released, but it has served to introduce a lot of Don’t you ever yearn for the days when you go American after their first tour there. I like
people to the band, which has been good. Due to a could just go out and play a gig without America, New York has got a great feel about
fault, and circumstances beyond our control, the worrying about presentation? it, and it’s a very exciting city, but as a visiting
shops have now run out of copies. But the live LP PETER: Well, yes. I mean, we do sometimes and rock’n’roll band I think your experiences are
has sold better than Foxtrot. The thing about most then think of doing one or two gigs with nothing limited and you don’t get much artistic insight
of our albums in the past is they’ve been slow at all, but as a band we are interested in getting into the nature of the city.
sellers. A lot are still selling on impulse sales. across as much as we can and this seems the best
P
way to do it. It’s relevant entertainment. Ron ETER was fast developing an attack of the
Are you feeling confident about playing Geesin will almost definitely be coming on tour mumbles, and it was obvious he thought the
the new album material live on the tour? with us. I’ve got to check up on him today. He’s music should be allowed to speak for itself.
PETER: Umm – I think we’ve got our side really excellent. I don’t know him at all, but he’s It is part of Gabriel’s strange personality that
of it together. The trouble is with things like a very strong character. I think people will either he combines a charm, menace and eloquence
DAVID WARNER ELLIS/GETTY
projection, which are all a bit haphazard at this love or hate us on the tour. There’s no indifference. onstage that is gripping, and a diffidence offstage
precise point in time. There’s not going to be as that is equally disturbing. They talk of madness
much back projection as we’d hoped. Originally What is the potential of the band in the in great ones, and Genesis and its merry crew are,
we had a set designed for us, a huge inflatable coming year? How much bigger can it get? inherently, a great group. It is enough that their
thing, and this would also act as a screen, so one PETER: I don’t know – the answer lies with the music should speak volumes. l
could get totally involved. Unfortunately, since album we’ve just made. CHRIS WELCH

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PROG
YES
An abundance of ideas creates a career played out on the edge, beset by
seething undercurrents but rarely adrift. By Jason Anderson
I
N 2018, Yes celebrated the band’s and vocalist Jon Anderson, 90125-era
50th anniversary in a manner that addition Trevor Rabin and the one and only
was entirely in keeping with their Rick Wakeman.
reputation for extraordinary displays While these competing units could not
of musicianship, thrilling songs of agree to share the same stage, they each
exceptional complexity and immediacy, commemorated the milestone in the same
and a degree of internal discord that may be way that every incarnation of Yes had done
unparalleled even in the fractious realm of before: by releasing a lengthy live album
progressive rock. with cover art by Roger Dean or a reasonable
Of course, Yes fans are well used to having facsimile thereof. (This time, the designer
their loyalties torn because of the endless gave the official honours to the Howe-led
series of lineup changes, breakups and version for Yes 50 Live). Sadly, the 2015
reconfigurations over the decades. Now they passing of bassist and vocalist Chris Squire
could choose to mark the half-centenary by meant that neither Yes included the one
seeing performances by one or both of the player who’d been the closest thing the
two iterations of the band doing anniversary band ever had to a fixed point amid constant
tours. One was the five-man group currently flux. Nor did Squire’s death apparently
operating under the Yes banner and neutralise the “seething undercurrents”
featuring guitarist Steve Howe and drummer that have always existed in Yes according
Alan White, neither of whom were founding to drummer Bill Bruford, who memorably
members but are still key contributors to the described the group to biographer Chris
imperial phase that began with their Welch as “a very tight, highly structured,
commercial breakthrough, The Yes Album, nerve-wracking organisation always short
in 1971, strengthened through the twin of money and always spending too much
triumphs of Fragile and Close To The Edge, and always in trouble”.
survived the dodgier waters of Tales From Yet the fact that both 2018-vintage versions
Topographic Oceans and ended in the acquitted themselves so satisfactorily at
rancour that surrounded 1978’s Tormato. their respective tasks should not be
The other was titled YES Featuring ARW, surprising either. That’s because the shared
a moniker whose use of capital letters may vision of what Yes could and should be has
have suggested an unwieldy conflagration always been the sum that’s greater than the
of acronyms but really only contained the individual parts, all of whom have turned
ARW to denote its driving forces: co-founder out to be replaceable at one or more

YES
YES THE YES ALBUM CLOSE TO THE EDGE TALES FROM GOING FOR DRAMA
ATLANTIC, 1969 ATLANTIC, 1971 ATLANTIC, 1972 TOPOGRAPHIC THE ONE ATLANTIC, 1980
7/10 9/10 9/10 OCEANS ATLANTIC, 1977 6/10
ATLANTIC, 1973 8/10
TIME AND A WORD FRAGILE YESSONGS 6/10 90125
ATLANTIC, 1970 ATLANTIC, 1971 ATLANTIC, 1973 TORMATO ATCO, 1983
7/10 9/10 8/10 RELAYER ATLANTIC, 1978 8/10
ATLANTIC, 1974 6/10
7/10

PROG
episodes in this long-running serial.

Somehow all parties have fostered a
remarkable sense of creative cohesion
even if the proverbial centre could never
hold for long.
That’s a testament to what Anderson
and Squire were able to forge in their
original decade of partnership, which
began when La Chasse owner and scene-
maker Jack Barrie introduced the two at
his Soho nightspot in the spring of 1968.
Though they had much in common as
young musicians with working-class
backgrounds, there was much that
separated the two. The loquacious
Lancashire-bred singer had been busy,
first as the frontman for The Warriors
then with a few prettier, poppier
singles under the pseudonym of Hans the
th
h heavy rockers’
Christian. More laid-back by nature in
innovative PA set-up
though equally ambitious, Squire was – helped sharpen the
a former choirboy whose schooling in focus, as did the
fo
church music lined up well with decision to replace
de
Anderson’s love of harmony vocals. Banks with Steve Howe.
Ba
There were more dramatic As he demonstrated
divergences when it came to the throughout his first
th by the boogie-friendly rhythm section and
musical affinities of the rest of the tenure with Yes, the
te the astonishingly dexterous Howe.
original lineup as Yes emerged out of guitarist introduced yet
g The swings between extremes would seem
Mabel Greer’s Toyshop, the psych more elements thanks
m even more pronounced – and more thrilling
band that featured Squire and not only to his psych
no – when the band jettisoned another original
guitarist Peter Banks. Whereas pedigree in Tomorrow
pe member to acquire a free agent. This time it
keyboardist Tony Kaye leaned more but his affinities for
bu was Wakeman, a more garrulous figure
mod in his sensibilities and on his flamenco, baroque
fla than Yes was used to but one who added
beloved Hammond, drummer Bill music and Chet Atkins.
mu another dose of firepower. He also supplied
Bruford clung to the hope he’d joined a A new
n partnership with a little cheek to the proceedings via
jazz band. (He’d finally form one called engineer Eddy Offord, and the
eng contributions like “Cans And Brahms”,
Earthworks in between and after his various band’s increasing acumen when
ban a quasi-classical interlude that provides
tenures with Yes and King Crimson.) iitt came
c to recording technology, led to a respite from the high-wire intensity that
Consequently, the first recordings bristle otherwise defines Fragile (1971).
with an air of restlessness as common What with Yes’s increasing affection for
ground was discovered and conquered. An
extraordinary take of The Byrds’ “I See You” Yes’s increasing multi-part compositions, it’s tempting to
see Fragile and the following year’s Close To
on the band’s 1969 self-titled debut is one of
the many radically altered and extended
acumen with The Edge as a band-defining diptych that
encapsulates all the major musical elements
cover versions that filled their early recording technology in a manner that’s consistently economical.
repertoire. Here is the sound of five
precociously gifted musicians who are led to another While that last adjective may seem strange
when used in relation to anything that tops
thrilled to have figured out how to
synthesise components – the three-part
evolutionary leap the 10-minute mark – or, indeed, anything
to do with prog – songs like Close To The
harmonies born out of Anderson’s devotion Edge’s swaggering “Siberian Khatru”
to The Association and Simon & Garfunkel, another evolutionary leap. But however epitomise the genre at its most ruthlessly
Banks’ acid-rock guitar lines, Kaye’s funky many tape edits were required to construct direct and to-the-point. A triple album that
Hammond and the tricky, quick-change the songs on The Yes Album, they remain was the first of the innumerable number of
rhythms by Squire and Bruford – that were vital, urgent and shockingly coherent given live albums in their career, Yessongs (1973)
irreconcilable to anyone else. What yoked the number of ideas they contain. Though is another essential document of the band
them together was the players’ collective internal tensions would ultimately have a in peak form.
urge to push beyond The Beatles with songs rather more negative effect, here they Alas, mere mortals can’t maintain that
GEORGE WILKES/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES, PETE STILL/REDFERNS
that matched compositional complexity benefit from a pronounced state of agitation kind of focus for long. Sure enough, the
with pop immediacy. The other rule for the as conflicting instincts are marshalled good men of Yes – minus Bruford, who
fast-evolving sound of Yes: no blues licks. behind shared ambitions. Unexpected helped put Plastic Ono Band vet Alan White
The lack thereof may have been why juxtapositions and transitions abound, with in his seat before leaving for Crimson –
Atlantic regarded their first UK signing as the music’s swirl of activity becoming even struggled to keep their collective eye on
a folk act – and focused much more on more bewildering thanks to Anderson’s the ball during the grueling process that
breaking Led Zeppelin. Pressured to hop freeform lyrics, which were increasingly yielded Tales From Topographic Oceans.
on the strings-and-brass bandwagon started steeped in his interests in Eastern religions. Inspired by a series of sacred Hindu texts
by Deep Purple’s Concerto For Group And The third album’s “I’ve Seen All Good – lines like “Our endless caresses for the
Orchestra, Yes made their identity harder to People” became a key step in the bonding freedom of life everlasting/Talk to the
discern with 1970’s fine Time And A Word. (Top) Yes, process between Yes and journalists, sunlight caller” were overripe for
Only intermittently was the young band August ’69: programmers and punters alike. As the interpretation – the four-part, 81-minute
(l–r) Chris
able to cut through the clutter in the overly Squire, Jon two-part track unfolds over seven work contained passages of great fluidity
busy arrangements for “The Prophet” and Anderson, captivating minutes, the beauty of the vocal and many that were turgid to the point of
Tony Kaye,
“Astral Traveller”. But a European tour with Peter Banks, harmonies is initially enhanced by gentler being indigestible. Wakeman hated it,
Iron Butterfly – after which they acquired Bill Bruford accompaniment before the song is hijacked which explains why his presence is so

No blues
allowed:
Wakeman
at the New
Victoria
Theatre,
London, 1976
and
a nd D
Downes gearing up for
the supergroup Asia, Howe,
th
White and the long-absent
W
Tony Kaye embarked on a
T
new band with South African
n
singer-guitarist
sii Trevor Rabin
limited, even in the invaluable remix-slash- sign the band had lost their to be named Cinema, with
restoration job by Porcupine Tree’s Steven rudder. “Release, Release” was Horn producing. When
H
Wilson released in 2016. even more baffling as an attempt Squire played Rabin’s demos
S
The album’s mixed-to-negative critical to get hip to the new wave. “Rock to Anderson after a chance
reception and Wakeman’s post-tour is the medium of our generation,” Anderson (Above, left)
f) meeting
ti in i Los
L Angeles, the stage was set for
departure helped establish another sang over what sounded like a misbegotten Yes live on the
Going For something no-one could’ve expected. This
pattern that would serve Yes well in the jam between The Vibrators and ELP: “Stand The One tour, tricked-out, ’80s-model Yes would soon be
years to come: an ability to regroup and for every right, kick it out, hear you shout/For Wembley
Arena, bigger than any previous iteration. And for
refocus in the face of setbacks and fissures the right of all of creation.” October 28, all of 90125’s slickness, there was no
that would have doomed others. Recorded While Tormato may have deserved the 1977
denying the power of “Owner Of A Lonely
in Switzerland with keyboardist Patrick genuine tomato stains Hipgnosis used on Heart” or the ingenuity of “Leave It”, a Horn
Moraz (who would himself be re-replaced the cover, it was nonetheless a commercial masterstroke that took Yes’s trademark
by Wakeman in 1976), 1974’s fusion- success, as was the accompanying stage vocal harmonies to a whole new level.
influenced Relayer best demonstrated show with its vanguard in-the-round Like every incarnation of Yes that
that renewal of gusto in “The Gates Of design. But the ever-worsening acrimony followed, this one wasn’t built to last.
Delirium”, a Tolstoy-inspired epic that and financial conflicts caused Anderson By the decade’s end, the band had
was their most successfully realised and Wakeman to walk out on the sessions begun its perpetual cycle of division and
long-form piece to date. for Tormato’s follow-up in Paris in the reconfiguration as the Rabin-and-Squire-led
Sensing the ground shifting in the music autumn of 1979. Yes competed for legitimacy and supremacy
world, the band opted for a more concise This rift would have marked the end in with the unfortunately monikered but
approach when they finished an inaugural a more conventional and predictable sort surprisingly robust group known as
round of solo albums and returned to the of rock saga. Instead, it was more like the Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe.
fray with 1977’s Going For The One. Mind turning point in a Thankfully, through it all, that
you, no newly minted punk was going to Marvel comic book collective idea of Yes would persist,
co
abide Yes songs that remained as elaborate when the budding all of those divergent ideas and
al
or richly adorned as “Turn Of The Century”, superhero gains ambitions cohering once again into
am
but there was a new sense of focus and even invulnerability by music of rare grace, power and oddly
m
fury even in “Awaken”, the one track that wholly implausible endearing pomposity. A standout of
en
topped 15 minutes largely thanks to the means. In the case of the mid-’90s reunion of the mid-’70s
th
frenetic to-and-fro between Howe and a Yes, those means were lineup, the 18-minute “Mind Drive”
lin
clearly re-energised Wakeman. The band Squire’s controversial onn Keys To Ascension II is vivid proof
also scored their biggest ever chart single decision to draft in that old fires still burned. Likewise,
th
with “Wonderous Stories”, a folky charmer Trevor Horn and Geoff Howe’s quicksilver
that highlighted their capacity for elegance. Downes – two ardent fretwork on the closing
And while the rock press may have moved Yes devotees who’d rendition of “Starship
on to newer, rawer enthusiasms than Yes, found success as The Trooper” on last year’s
EBET ROBERTS/REDFERNS, ANDREW PUTLER/REDFERNS
readers’ polls results confirmed their Buggles – to finish caption Yes 50 Live is another
continued dominance in punk’s year zero. Drama (1980). Though the reminder of the wilder
But these outward signs of health and gambit seemed a failure when energies and broiling
unity proved to be illusory – instead, the fans did not take to the new undercurrents that
band’s two founders were nearing the end of Anderson-less version propelled Yes to
the fruitful first phase for a partnership that and the musicians finally greatness whenever
would be decidedly intermittent from this scattered to the winds, Horn’s they weren’t tearing the
point forward. Tensions rose through the production wizardry would band asunder. Given
making of 1978’s Tormato, a much more be a crucial factor in Yes’s the evidence, there’s
erratic effort than its predecessor. With its unlikely rebirth. Yes in 1983: (l–r) Alan no reason to believe
White, Jon Anderson,
half-hearted flirtations with disco and With Anderson busy with Chris Squire, Tony they won’t somehow
heavy rock, “Don’t Kill The Whale” was one Jon And Vangelis, and Howe Kaye, Trevor Rabin last the century. ●

YES
“We’re
a people’s
band” 1972: As YESmania engulfs the
States, Jon Anderson finds himself
disgusted by “vulgar” Vegas,
Bill Bruford finds it all too much and
Rick Wakeman sends Chris Welch a
blood-stained letter from America…
MELODY MAKER APRIL 22, 1972

HOW powerful is Jon Anderson? Of all the lead
singers among groups, his role is possibly the
hardest to define. And his personality is the most
difficult to crystallise into succinct terms.
For Jon is apparently a quiet, almost diffident
character, dwelling in a dream world, with a
vivid if sometimes confused imagination. He has
a mass of thoughts which he sometimes finds
hard to convey with lucidity.
And yet… the soft exterior and gentle smile can be misleading. For
Jon is a dreamer who gets it on. Despite the powerful personalities in
Yes like eloquent Bill Bruford, determined Chris Squire, flamboyant
Rick Wakeman and showman Steve Howe – Jon is the leader.
Yes have always tended to dismiss the concept of their having a
leader. It’s a cooperative band and they play cooperative music. It’s
GIJSBERT HANEKROOT / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
often a loud band, and Jon has a husky voice. And he doesn’t even
move on stage, apart from shake the occasional pair of maracas or
beat time with his tambourine.
Watching a Yes concert, with all the intricacies, subtleties and
roaring dominance of the music, it often appears that Jon is floating
in an aura, slightly above them. One of the most significant moments
in their performance comes after the long build-up of the first line of
“America”. The band pause in their machinations and Jon, quiet and
positive, leans across to the microphone and says: “Let us be lovers,
we’ll marry our fortunes together.”

Going for
the one: Jon
Anderson
on stage in
Rotterdam,
1972

YES
Like Churchill it’s as if all his life had been He is only just beginning to realise that he is not eating terrible food, and they all applaud a guy
leading up to that moment. And if it doesn’t seem sitting in the pictures any more, and it’s actually who’s telling them the truth. It’s very comical.
too grandiose a term to be using in terms of happening all around him. I couldn’t understand it at all.
running a successful rock band, Jon’s hour “Sometime it’s going to hit me, that I really “There is a section of Las Vegas where they
of destiny is at hand. don’t have any financial worries any more. lead normal lives, but the showbusiness side is
One of the pleasures of observing the rock But there are always other worries which are schmaltzy, it’s evil.
scene is seeing deserving talents get on and equally frustrating. Sometime the crunch will “I couldn’t get over the town. It’s so vulgar, we
hard work rewarded. It’s gratifying for those come. But I’ve never really been concerned about called it space city. There is so little of value or
that knew them as beatniks to see such merry money anyway. quality, but I’m glad we saw it and I’ve learnt a lot.
men as Rod Stewart, Marc Bolan, the Faces, “All the energy I have put into my life for the I also lost 20 dollars.
elevating to stardom. past five years has come back to me, and now “The restaurants never close and never get dirty
Jon may never cause Anderson mania, but all the good things are coming into my life…” and they never have any conversation. ‘What do
he has come a tidy step from the days when Jon paused to ponder the problems this in itself you want? That’ll be a dollar fifty.’ That’s all they
we stood together outside an abattoir in Cork, might cause. can say. If you tried to start a conversation like,
wondering how to get back to England from The cause of much of this baffling wealth has ‘What a nice day,’ they wouldn’t reply because
a festival gig that never was. been the sale of two successful albums and many they didn’t know how to talk.
For the first time, Yes are financially secure after packed concerts in the US. He cast his memory “A woman came into the restaurant every 20
years of almost permanent debt. And their music back to that hectic period earlier this year. minutes wearing a completely different set of
has been gladly embraced by the vast audience “We played solidly for six weeks and we only clothes. She was trying to sell them, and she
for rock at home and abroad. had three days off. The first day we got snowed in. talked about them like a machine that had been
It needs a certain amount of power and We went to Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas – and it switched on. We couldn’t stop laughing because
energy to get to such a happy position. And was like Butlin’s. We saw Lena Horne there and she wasn’t really communicating with anybody. It
it needs strength of character to weld the the place was filled with hundreds of middle- was just straight selling. It could have been a robot
individuals of Yes. aged Americans who go to Las Vegas to throw talking. In fact, they could all have been robots.”
Jon is still the quester who likes an acoustic their money away. Nobody ever wins. The Palace A couple of gold albums in their frames caught
to strum and a cigarette to smoke. But there is a is an amazing place – it cost 64 million dollars to my eye, while Jon considered being down in
firmer tone to his voice, capable of making direct build, and they herd everybody in to seat 10 the jungle living in a tent, cheaper than a prefab
decisions to circumvent muddle. people at a table, and they only go because it’s – no rent.
In the last few months, he and his wife Jenny Caesar’s Palace. “It’s probably Bing Crosby’s Greatest Hits,”
have moved home about half a dozen times, not “You read about Tom Jones in Vegas, and you smiled Jon at the gold-sprayed records labelled
to dodge the world, but to try to get a firmer grip. think, ‘That’s cool, maybe I’d like to play Vegas.’ ‘Fragile’ and ‘The Yes Album’.
Even if you have the bread, home hunting in But the show is so pretentious and obviously “The Who smashed theirs up. Great! They’ve
London is now a notoriously difficult pursuit, styled for ignorant people. A comedian comes out had so many, I suppose. I’ve never kept scrap
and Jon has been “gazumped” several times, as and says how ridiculous it is for them to be there, books or anything, but I suppose they are nice to
owners up their prices in a scramble for profit. keep. I was very surprised that The Yes Album
In a breathing space between their third and didn’t take off in the States. But it was Fragile
most successful tour of America and two-week
“WE HAVEN’T HAD there and Yes Album here.
ANY HYPE. WE’VE

holiday, Jon and Jenny cooked scrambled eggs in “We were lucky to tour with Jethro Tull the first
the kitchen of a basement off Earls Court Road. time because we were virtually unknown there
Jenny had to go out and book their holiday in the
sun, and Jon chatted enthusiastically about…
JUST MOVED ON THE a year ago. In a way something was bound to
MUSIC AND TRIED

happen when we got there. It isn’t a question of
everything he could cast his mind to. His soft how many records we sold, but whether the group
North Country tones remained unaffected by the
endless travelling, and he pronounced that Las
TO IMPROVE IT” is fulfilled and honest in making the LPs as
compatible entertainment on plastic.”
Vegas, the peak of civilisation, was “daft”. JON ANDERSON
W
ITH such a huge
T
HAT faraway look crept into Jon’s audience to play to who
“All the
eyes that always convinces me good things expect something in
that Lobsang Rampa is right are coming approximation to the records, was
a
into my life”:
about the silver cord and extraterrestrial Anderson in tthere still room for chance and
consciousness. Rotterdam, eexperiment in Yes?
1972
“Where are you, Jon?” I murmured. “Oh yeah. It’s surprising how
“I’m sitting in the pictures in a song goes through instant
Accrington,” he sighed. “I wish myself development. You can’t keep
d
GIJSBERT HANEKROOT/GETTY
away and think I’m going to play a gig in playing the same thing every
p
Germany tomorrow, or America, but night anyway because you would
n
everybody else in the pictures will be become a machine. At the same
b
staying at home.” ttime you have to remember most
That is just what Jon used to imagine people haven’t seen us before and
p
when he was an earnest lad with ideas we must not get self-indulgent.
w
above hhis
is station
station.
n. A guy in Connecticut might tell
G
a friend in Boston – ‘Go and see

tthem.’ And he goes because he
wants to hear what he’s been
w
ttold about. Basically we are an
eentertainment. We can be self-
Caption
iindulgent, or we can work for the
people, and that’s what we want
p
tto do. Yes are a people’s band. We
haven’t had any hype. We’ve just
h
moved on the music and tried to
m
iimprove it. That’s what we set out
tto do from the first.

YES
“ILLUSTRATIONS
SAY SOMETHING”
Roger Dean’s cover versions Roger Dean
in 1972; (left,
from top) his
MELODY MAKER APRIL 29, 1972 designs for
Virgin, Osibisa
YOU can tell a Roger Dean and Yes
cover most times by the
strange little jagged
monsters that work their fit. With Osibisa, though, he was drawn into i t
way out of his prehistoric their music by David Howells, A&R man at MCA.
fantasies. Over the last That cover now looks a bit like a very bad copy He went along to gigs with them and became
three years Dean has of a Roger Dean cover. But at the time it carried acquainted with their music.
become one of the most a lot of influence in cover designing. It moved “I think, to be honest,” said Dean, “the music
sought-after album sleeve away from the standard picture-and-graphics has never influenced me. But I do like to have
designers… from Osibisa and Yes to Motown cover that has been popular for a decade. Dean the music around. I think Osibisa was a classic
Chartbusters. His work is even being sought managed to capture, probably more so than the example of someone making me aware of the
after by some London art galleries. music, the fantasy world of rock. band. I don’t find music inspirational at all. Ideas
Dean lives in a large workshop flat near Dean – a quiet, unassuming, almost shy mainly come from the title or something else.
South Kensington Tube station in a small person nursing a broken wrist at the moment “With illustrations you can say anything, you
community of artists, including his brother, – wondered why we should want to interview can have any fantasy. Graphics are used for the
who designs furniture, and a dressmaker. him. But he does see the importance of a good quick ideas; it’s a joke, it’s an idea.
Through the flat, past the dining room which sleeve, and believes that it can help bands who “I think a lot of the stuff, like the Osibisa idea,
acts as a dressmaking workroom, and you enter are struggling to sell records. Retailers, he says, has to give someone a fairyland, instead of just
into a fantasy world that has been created by like to uses sleeves in window displays. And the Africa – an Africa that is as much fairyland as
Dean for album sleeves. A world that is every better the sleeve, the more chance it has. anything else.”
bit as compelling as the standard of the music “Some people don’t seem to realise the As well as covers, Dean has designed logos…
he is packaging. importance of a sleeve,” says Roger. “I have no including the Harvest logo for EMI and the
Little books of drawings done when he was idea how useful the Osibisa sleeves were for grotesque fly on the centre of Fly records. The
studying furniture design at Canterbury Art them, but they must have made some Harvest logo perhaps captures Dean at this
School and the Royal College of Art in London impression on people.” inventive best – although the graphics, which
sit on shelves in the room with his bed built up The flying elephant on the Osibisa covers, are not his, are not so good as the logo itself.
above the floor on a platform. Open them up, flying through a fantasy world, about to make Dean is expensive now, charging three-figure
and the ideas that now sit on covers are inside. contact with a grisly lizard, was originally an sums. And he thinks that perhaps he too should
Until three years ago, Roger was working idea for Virgin Records. It was used for one of get a percentage of the album. He feels that with
exclusively on furniture design with his brother their early adverts but when Virgin dropped certain albums, his covers have had a lot to do
Martin. They were commissioned to work on it in favour of the double-sided girl, Dean with getting them off the ground. And so he
the furniture for the upstairs at Ronnie Scott’s resurrected the animal from his sketch books. believes a royalty would be fairer. But that
club in London, bumped into the manager of The music that is going to be inside his covers brings in problems: Fragile sold more than any
Gun and Roger asked to design the cover for does not mean a lot to Dean; he doesn’t listen to other Yes album in Britain – and is still doing so
their
theiir fi
first
irst album. the
th
h sounds and then design the illustration to – but it was definitely not due to his cover. So
where would record companies draw the line
and say royalty for this and not that? Roger
doesn’t really know.
He also owns the copyright to his designs, and
makes a point of making sure that he gets his
original artwork back from record companies –

which is not always easy. There are companies
he especially likes to work for, who allow him
time to get a cover done without hustling him
over timetables. Keep hold of Dean covers, for if
specialists are right, he and other designers are
producing sought-after collector’s pieces.
MARK PLUMMER

YES
“We never became a blues band or a jazz the group. We’re hoping to form a company and the band seem to have attained an output of
band. Basically we have no direction. We can go get our own recording studio. And next year we’ll energy that becomes almost explosive.
anywhere. If we had a direction it was to good be getting a quad PA. We’ve got three roadies now And after four years of toil and music making,
singing and good music. because we need a good road crew. If things aren’t it might be that Yes have only just begun to tap
“I wouldn’t stand up and say we are doing plugged in right, we go crazy. their full potential. CHRIS WELCH
anything new. It would be so easy for someone “The musicians in the band are getting so good,
to put us down if we said it was new music. We but as more people buy our albums then we have MELODY MAKER OCTOBER 14, 1972
just hope that it’s a kind of music where all the a greater responsibility to the public. The only YES are such a tightly woven
barriers have fallen down. And that’s happening thing we can do now is make good music. It’s not musical endeavour, that a
all around. Dannie Richmond, one of the finest an egotistical thing, it’s a sensible attitude. I just sudden departure from the
jazz drummers, can now play with a group like feel a little humble that 10 years ago I was working ranks has much more impact
Mark-Almond, who are a very good band.” on a farm in Accrington. Most rock musicians and importance than in most
“I remember when Jimi Hendrix and Roland today are very lucky. Most young people in the other bands. If the drummer
Kirk played together. I was utterly amazed at how past would have been fighting wars.” quits Reg Catsmeat and His
well they blended together at Ronnie Scott’s that Jon rummaged around in his bedroom and Rhythm Boys, well, that’s
time. Jimi just got up and started to play and it produced a cassette tape of a gig. “Listen to just too bad.
was tremendous. Steve’s solo. This was on ‘Yours Is No Disgrace’, But when Bill Bruford quit Yes, it seemed like
“If we can learn from all this music, as we teach in Dundee about six months ago. I was just a prime mover and original inspiration had gone.
ourselves, so we teach our audience to respect playing some old tapes the other night and his What difference did his departure last month
other music rather than just rock music. The solo really stood out. Over the last year, he has make and how had Alan White settled into one of
finest singer I know is Gilbert Bécaud. I wish I really blossomed out. the more difficult percussion chairs in rock?
could do what he does. I’d be too afraid to go on a Jon maintains a fervent interest in his band Said Chris Squire, “Bill leaving was very odd.
stage with just a guitar and sing. I’ve never done it and fellow musicians that has not been rendered When he announced his intentions we presumed
and the nearest I came to it was with Peter, when blasé by success. Far from being tired or bored, he wanted to get a different viewpoint for his
we did an acoustic number together.” drumming. He felt he could get something
“I was always scared then, and my knees used different by working with Bob Fripp that he
to tremble. I’ve got a lot to learn about being an
entertainer. That’s why I stand pretty rigid on “WHEN BILL BRUFORD couldn’t get with us. I hope it works out.
“Playing with Alan is equally enjoyable. It’s
stage. I haven’t got much stage presence, LEFT, I THINK HE a case of some things people can do better than
GIJSBERT HANEKROOT/GETTY
WANTED TO LOOK
especially when you see somebody like Rod others. Obviously Bill can play some things better
Stewart. But if I jig up and down I think, ‘Oh, Joe than Alan, but Alan can play things Bill can’t. As
Cocker used to do that.’ But I have been going
AT MUSIC FROM drummers go – they are equally good. And after
ANOTHER ANGLE”
crazy with my tambourine lately! our tour with Alan, his playing is really excellent.
“The excitement for me comes from people “My playing hasn’t changed really, but Alan
accepting our music. Eddy Offord came to record
some of it live on the tour and now he has joined
CHRIS SQUIRE pushes you along. Bill had some strange ideas
about hitting the snare drum when he should
Yes men: (l–r)

Steve Howe,
Jon Anderson,
Rick Wakeman,
Bill Bruford and
Chris Squire,
Rotterdam, ’72
XXXXX
have been hitting the bass drum,
and the other way round. Alan is
heavier, but although he has made
his name working with Balls and
John Lennon, he’s into settling
down and being more than just a
sideman. He wants to be a part of
the group.”
Was Bill’s departure a shock?

“Yes… We went to the studio for
a mixing session and it was laid
upon us when Jon said something
important had happened. Bill had
told Jon the night before.
“Interestingly enough, Yes seem
to thrive on setbacks. The more
that is thrown in our face, the Close to
harder we work and try to come the edge
(corner
up with something better. A lot of pocket): Rick
groups just give up and give in. Wakeman
in 1972
But I really think this will be a
lasting situation and I can’t see
any reason for anyone else leaving now, until with us was a pleasant surprise. He’s been check and tune seven keyboards between the
after the group breaks up in 10 years’ time. through all the technique thing and he gets more warm-up band’s set and yours. The headline act
“There is so much more potential in the band enjoyment out of playing with people, rather than takes all the soundcheck time.
and I still can’t figure out why Bill left. There was playing flam-triplets. “Now we’re headlining. I can’t remember
no bad personal relationship, and I can only “The band sounds different now – it must. the last time a supporting band managed a
think he wanted to take a look at music from But none of us could tell you exactly how. You’ll soundcheck. It’s not deliberate, just an
another angle. He could have advanced himself have to tell me. Certainly I’m sure the band will understanding that the headliners get the perks.
with us just as much as with Bob Fripp. seem more solid and I gel more with Alan than But they also have the problems of getting involved
“Strangely enough, Yes is a well-balanced I did with Bill. There have been some changes, musically and spiritually with an audience that
group, and is the reason we are successful. It’s not but I can’t define it.” CHRIS WELCH has already sat through two hours of music.
a good thing to abuse it. We should think of the “America has its advantages, though, for the
public who put us there. We should try the MELODY MAKER OCTOBER 14, 1972 untiring listener. Its radio set up here is superb.
hardest we can.” IN neat inked capitals, Rick Every town is littered with AM and stereo FM
wrote from the Hotel Sonesta stations, run commercially and playing wide
Part of trying hard is devoted to improving in Hartford, Connecticut selections of music 24 hours a day. The radio is
Yes’s stage presentation. And the big tours one night, to while away almost an audio Melody Maker.
they make of America help finance their the hours twixt gigs. “The American Musicians Union has banned
growth. “Basically we have to spend a lot of Says Rick: “Imagine: the sale of Mellotrons, so the instrument well-
money to put the Yes show on the road, because You’re bigger than Kellogg’s used by an English band is as rare as arriving on
of the care and trouble we take. We spend a Corn Flakes in Manchester, stage in your own helicopter.
tremendous amount on equipment and the more but nobody’s ever heard of “Which brings me to my next point... transport.
we earn, the more we spend. It’s really endless. you in Leicester. The problem can be eased by “The majority of domestic airlines in America
No sooner have we got it all sorted out, than doing some gigs in Leicester as distances are are money grabbers. For the first two tours, they
someone wants something new. minimal in Britain. Not so easy in America, when made us purchase seats for each guitar we took
“It’s even got to the stage where we take a spare similar problems arise, and unfortunately a few on board. As our status improved on the third
Moog synthesiser on tour, and a spare Mellotron. Transatlantic statements are giving false tour, we reckoned that if we travelled first class
We don’t use it, but we take it around with us – in impressions of bands’ status because of this. they wouldn’t charge us for them. However, they
case. In the States we use a 100-foot articulated “New York State alone is bigger than Britain, charged us for first class seats instead.
truck to carry the equipment. It was the most and many a band knows the hard work and belief “Also the men who unload the equipment at
amazing sight I’ve ever seen. it takes in their music to break in Britain, so airports seem to suffer very badly from illiteracy
“We have a road crew of three and Eddy Offord in imagine if you had fifty Britains to break in? and hatred of other people’s property. Cases
charge of the sound. And Michael Tate organises “Very few bands make it everywhere here. bearing the word ‘Fragile’ or ‘This Way Up’ are
the lights. We get letters saying: ‘Why do Yes Some well-known English bands here at the invariably dropped from 15 feet – the other way
only work in America?’ Well the point is English moment are sending back incredible reviews up. By the time the fourth tour starts, it is
audiences had us for three-and-a-half years, when of the odd places they sold out. (The sixteen economic to charter your own plane.
they didn’t complain if they saw us or not. And it’s concerts that they either bombed out of, or “It is very worrying to notice the growing barrier
not just the money. It’s a good feeling to work in were cancelled because of low advance ticket between the police and audiences here. We
the States. The promoters are so efficient. One sales, are usually kept very quiet.) Which is the actually witnessed police at one concert here
feels everybody is working to put on a good show.” reason why a lot of American bands want to kicking and beating some kids because a few
break in Britain. stood up and came to the front of the stage. A far
Returning to the subject of Alan, how did he “If you’re accepted in Britain, then you’re cry from a recent concert in Scotland where the
actually get to join the band? “It was more guaranteed a hearing in America; but that police came round after the gig for a drink.
or less by accident really. He knew Eddy Offord hearing will be highly critical and being accepted “Basically playing America is a gas. Breaking
from a few sessions they had done together. He in Britain doesn’t guarantee you a mansion in the new ground means meeting new people, making
MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY
expressed an interest in the group and said he country, courtesy of America. new friends and drinking more beer.
liked what we were doing. He mentioned to Eddy “Concert production is down to a fine art here. “The musical rewards from Yes are endless.
how much he’d enjoy playing with us. The PA is always one hundred percent. Schedules Attempting to forget a problem-ridden Crystal
“I liked what he had been doing with Joe are tight, backstage passes are gold dust, and Palace, the band hasn’t looked back since Bill
Cocker, but he was capable of a lot more soundchecks are guaranteed –that is, if you’re left, and I’m convinced will continue to progress
technique than he’d been rated for. His playing headlining. If you’re not, it means rushing on to for some years yet.” l CHRIS WELCH

PROG ROCK – MISCELLANY
SELLING BY THE
ENGLISH POUND The 20 most collectable prog albums* By Mark Bentley
G
O to a decent second-hand record shop, ignore the racks, and look at releases. Condition is obviously vital, but so is supply and demand. There is
the rare, precious and beautiful albums they’ve chosen to display a clear theme among collectors to get museum-grade copies of the first-ever
on the wall. Half of them are prog, right? There’s something about a pressings of ‘key texts’. Records that rode high in the charts are in many cases
progressive rock album that feels intrinsically desirable: the industry-standard worth far more than obscurities that flopped.
elliptical artwork (thanks, Roger Dean, Hipgnosis et al), the preponderance Take Yes’s squillion-selling …Topographic Oceans – everyone needs a copy
of gatefold, the intricate paper engineering on the sleeves (think Tull’s in their collection. Ten quid will secure a ‘player’, but a UK first press, in near-
newspapery Thick As A Brick, or ELP’s fold-out Brain Salad Surgery). And so it mint nick, is now sailing past £250. Compare that with Carmen’s seldom-heard
is that prog is one of the most collectable genres out there, and its famous labels but ridiculously brilliant Fandangos In Space, on Regal Zonophone from 1973.
– Harvest, Vertigo, Deram, Charisma, Virgin – are a mark of artistic quality. Produced by Tony Visconti, this slice of Franco-American flamenco prog (yes,
Understanding what’s collectable, and why, is key. It’s not just about rarity really) blends bullfighting fugues with hard prog sounds, tap dancing and
– although you’ll note a few hens’-teeth-rare records in our highly subjective, castanets. If you get to hear it, you’ll love it – and yet it’s only worth a fiver…
in-no-way comprehensive list below, which focuses unapologetically on UK *Feeble disclaimers apply
1 KING CRIMSON 2 ICARUS 3 NORTHWIND 4 GENESIS

In The Court Of The The Marvel World Of Icarus Sister, Brother, Lover… From Genesis To Revelation
Crimson King ISLAND, 1969 PYE INTERNATIONAL, 1972 REGAL ZONOPHONE, 1971 DECCA, 1969
WHAT: Fripp and co’s first WHAT: The prog/comic crossover! WHAT: Breezy, bucolic soft prog WHAT: ’60s juvenilia from the big
masterpiece – still the freakiest, Beaty, bouncy Brit-jazz-rock novelty from Glasgow’s short-lived answer to stars of the ’70s stars spells value.
finest prog album there is. – featuring “Thor”, “Black Panther” Wishbone Ash – big on tasteful twin- WHY: Detail matters. Look for the
WHY: Anyone with any taste wants and the band styled as superheroes. guitar team-ups; sold well in France. unboxed Decca labels, silver lettering
an original copy. Initial UK pressings WHY: Withdrawn by Pye after a few WHY: A well-regarded obscurity from and front-laminated sleeve.
arrived with the solid pink Island months owing to cavalier copyright a band who lacked label support, HOW MUCH: Even ‘very good’ copies
label, and an A1/B1 matrix in the infringement – Marvel demanded although they did open for Fleetwood can make £2,000.
run-off groove. 50 per cent of sales. Mac, Deep Purple and Yes.
HOW MUCH: £300 for a ‘VG’ copy – ie HOW MUCH: Pristine originals HOW MUCH: The reissue age has
played but not abused – and around are listed at £250-plus, but can dented prices, but we still see copies
£1,500 in as-new condition. make more… for sale at £500.
5 LEAF HOUND 6 PINK FLOYD 7 SINDELFINGEN 8 RAW MATERIAL

Growers Of Mushroom The Dark Side Of The Moon Odgipig Raw Material
DECCA, 1971 HARVEST, 1973 DEROY SOUND SERVICE, 1973 EVOLUTION, 1970
WHAT: Highly rated, proto-stoner WHAT: We think you know this one. WHAT: Tull-ish folk prog, from WHAT: Rollicking psychedelic prog,
rock, recorded in Mayfair in 11 hours. WHY: Floyd fans suffer from early- a Brit act named after a town in perfumed with Crimson and Peter
WHY: These guys were also known pressing-itis. You want the first of Baden-Württemberg. Heavy on Hammill. And surely one of the
as Black Cat Bones – the band more than 800 different versions, the glockenspiel, and features the coolest covers you will ever see.
where Paul Kossoff served his guitar with a raft of details in place, opus “Mark’s Bach”, by guitarist WHY: A London band big in
apprenticeship in the ’60s. This including solid blue triangle label, Mark Letley. Europe, but ignored at home.
genre-hopper is a true holy grail silver lettering, black inner, two WHY: This was limited to 99 copies Single “Time And Illusion” is
for all rock aficionados. posters and two stickers. for tax reasons. a great early prog moment.
HOW MUCH: Less than a decade HOW MUCH: Pristine copies hitting HOW MUCH: Lots. One copy sold for HOW MUCH: £400 to £500 seems
back, but still a bone-shaking £3,500. £500 these days. £2,805 in 2014. a fair starting point.

PROG ROCK – MISCELLANY
9 ROOM 10 GENTLE GIANT 11 KESTREL 12 STEEL MILL

Pre-Flight Octopus VERTIGO, 1972 Kestrel Green Eyed God
DERAM, 1970 WHAT: Hypnotic, hard-rocking, CUBE, 1975 PENNY FARTHING, 1975
WHAT: That rarer thing: female- medieval cosmic insanity – inspired WHAT: Did someone say melodies WHAT: Not Springsteen’s first
fronted prog. Skilful, symphonic by the literary works of Rabelais, and Mellotron? Poor-selling, band; instead, Brit proggers big in
jazz rock, from Dorset, lifted by the Camus and RD Laing. precision-tooled pop-prog. Germany, and produced by easy-
smoky tones of vocalist Jane Kevern. WHY: You can never have too much WHY: The right music at the wrong listening legend John Schroeder.
WHY: Bombed on first issue – and Gentle Giant – this fourth LP is a high time. Has since scored ‘lost classic’ WHY: First released in ’72 on the
much bootlegged since; decreed a point for one of the most musically status with prog diehards. German Bellaphon label, the UK
‘lost classic’ by the prognoscenti. literate, creative, complex bands the HOW MUCH: UK originals bear Penny Farthing reissue is much
HOW MUCH: £1,000-plus all day UK has ever produced. frightening price-tags. £2,000-plus hankered after.
long; great copies are pushing HOW MUCH: Great-nick original for a near-mint iteration. HOW MUCH: £250-plus.
three grand. Vertigo ‘Swirl’ label copies are
spiralling past £200.
13 CZAR 14 ARZACHEL 15 COMPLEX 16 VAN DER GRAAF

Czar Arzachel Complex 1970 GENERATOR
FONTANA, 1970 EVOLUTION, 1969 PRIVATE PRESSING, 1970 The Least We Can Do…
WHAT: The act formerly known as WHAT: Quality salvo from Steve WHAT: Homemade psych musings CHARISMA, 1970
Tuesday’s Children specialised in the Hillage and Dave “It’s My Party (And from the Blackpool Yes: wispy WHAT: The rarest VDGG item is the
heavier, beatier end of psych-prog, I’ll Cry If I Want To)” Stewart; the of vocal, crisp of chord change, £1000-plus “Firebrand” single on
spin-rinsed in Mellotron. first gestation of the band that would recorded and pressed on the cheap. Polydor from ’68, but this art-rock
WHY: Decent, if hardly ground- become Egg. WHY: Intended as a demo to excite classic is desirable too.
breaking. But it’s stupidly rare. WHY: It’s on the deeply desirable the major labels, this was another WHY: You’re seeking the first
HOW MUCH: A copy sold on Discogs Evolution label, and it stands limited 99-copy run. withdrawn (different!) mix, on the
recently for £941. comparison with the best HOW MUCH: An autographed copy pink scroll Charisma label, with
‘Canterbury Scene’ stuff. apparently sold for £10,000 in 2015. accompanying poster, and no letter
HOW MUCH: A covetable £1,000 ‘G’ in the run-off groove.
item. HOW MUCH: Up to £500-ish.
17 MEGATON 18 NICHOLAS 19 CATAPILLA 20 DARK

Megaton GREENWOOD Changes Dark Round The Edges
DERAM, 1971 Cold Cuts KINGDOM, 1973 VERTIGO, 1972 SIS, 1972
WHAT: Serviceable Led Zeppalike WHAT: Former Arthur Brown WHAT: Insane, questing prog and WHAT: Northampton quartet’s
heavy rock, with prog leanings. bassist’s solo joint – great cover, jazz rock, with much clarinet action. much-counterfeited, six-song album,
WHY: As with EMI’s Harvest imprint, groovesome time signatures, WHY: Swirl label Vertigo releases are the long-acknowledged holy grail for
releases on Decca’s progressive sub- Gabriel-like way with words. hugely desirable. This is one of the scene obsessives.
label Deram are much sought after. WHY: From three-part opener hardest to find, and its die-cut cover WHY: Private pressing. Only 64
HOW MUCH: We’ll say a grand. “A Sea Of Holy Pleasure” onwards, one of the easiest to destroy. copies ever made, most of which
Although one UK first press recently it’s really good. Plus it’s one of only HOW MUCH: £1,000-plus. ended up with family and friends.
sold for £1,900. a few albums to appear on the HOW MUCH: £10,000? The NME
obscure Kingdom records label. rated this the 17th most valuable
HOW MUCH: £1,000 is realistic – record of all time.
some sellers will place it much higher.

A knight to remember:
Rick Wakeman’s King
Arthur On Ice stage
show, Empire Pool,
Wembley, May 1975
TALES OF TOPOGRAPHIC
NOTIONS
25 tropes of the golden-age progressive rock experience. By Mark Beaumont
ADAPTATIONS OF DIFFICULT TIME SIGNATURES grabbed the ’70s imagination though. Before
CLASSICAL WORKS Most prog-rock drummers were forced to learn Pi you knew it, Pink Floyd were flying pigs over the
Nothing thrilled the prog rocker more than to 47 decimal places just to keep time with their crowd and building gigantic walls across the
sharing a co-writing credit with the classical band’s visionary compositions, rehearsal rooms venues and Yes had a revolving stage.
greats. The Moody Blues sought “inspiration” often ringing to the words, “Yeah, interesting, but
from Bach, while ELP had cracks at reimagining what would it sound like in 17/4?” Never mind VASTNESS OF KEYBOARD SET-UP
Ginastera, Bach, Prokofiev and a hefty chunk of “Apocalypse In 9/8”, Genesis dipped into 15/16 on The only thing rivalling the classical monuments
Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition. “Firth Of Fifth”, while Floyd were prone to a spot that prog bands played in front of was the
of the old 7/4 on “Money”. veritable amphitheatre of keyboards towering
ILLUSTRATED ARTWORK over their synth players. Keith Emerson’s
No mere photograph could capture the exotic ELABORATE/FINANCIALLY mountainous Moog wall of wires and dials was
worlds evoked by the music of Yes, ELP, Gentle RUINOUS STAGINGS most notable; you’d think he was moonlighting as
Giant or Genesis. So it was to the likes of Roger Wakeman led the charge into the grand stage a NASA comms expert between solos.
Dean, George Underwood and Paul Whitehead folly. His Journey… included inflatable dinosaurs
that they turned, inspiring a mini-industry and he accidentally put King Arthur on ice due to ADAPTATIONS OF BOOKS
whereby anyone who could knock together a near double-booking of Wembley Arena with Yes based Topographic Oceans on a footnote in
a half-convincing unicorn or planet of the Ice Follies. These onstage loss-leaders the Autobiography Of A Yogi, but their former
icicles could make a living keyboards maestro Rick Wakeman took the
designing prog sleeves. literary prog biscuit. He gave Jules Verne’s
MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY IMAGES; , BARRY PLUMMER
Journey To The Centre Of The Earth the full

FLUTES orchestral prog treatment, slapped King Arthur
Those public-school music lessons in the face with a Moog gauntlet and recorded a
certainly came in handy when “light-hearted” take on Orwell’s 1984 with Kenny
expanding the parameters of rock. Lynch. Camel? They crammed all of The Lord Of
Genesis smattered their early LPs The Rings into 10 minutes on ’74’s Mirage. Take
with flute, while the likes of that, Peter Jackson.
Hatfield And The North, Camel,
Crimson, Caravan and Gong were
Dino wars: Rick
Wakeman & the LSO’s DAVID BEDFORD
all prone to a tootle. The strange inflated Journey To The Sounds like a provincial truck hire firm; actually
Centre Of The Earth,
allure of silver on untrimmed Crystal Palace Garden the composer of choice for prog-rock acts making
beard made Jethro Tull superstars. Party, July 27, 1974 the leap into full orchestration. Most notable for

his work with Mike Oldfield, but Roy Harper, SOLO DIASPORA
Kevin Ayers, Camel, Robert Wyatt and Yes’s With so much time spent waiting for keyboard
Alan White have all been touched by the solos to finish, it’s no surprise that prog
baton of Dave. spawned so many offshoots. There are probably
studio cleaners who tidied up after Genesis or
DOUBLE/TRIPLE ALBUMS Yes recording sessions who have their own solo
You’re already 28 minutes into the song cycle projects, and in Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and
that’s taking up all of side two and you haven’t Roger Waters we’ve seen some of the most
even got to the cowbell jazz interlude about successful post-prog careers in history.
Narcissus yet. Face it, you’re making a double To baldly go:
album. Unless you’ve promised the drummer his
Genesis
fugitive Peter “CLASSIC LINEUP”
own side too, in which case make yours a triple. Gabriel, 1978 Every prog rock band had the definitive lineup
Prog rock is a thematic quest, not a sprint. who recorded the totemic works, virtually all
of which were active in 1973. It was brave and
SNOBBERY SINGING BASSISTS naive indeed for Cozy Powell to settle easily into
Socially, prog’s people could be a little elitist. Such was prog rock’s respect for the art of Carl Palmer’s seat in ELP claiming “lots of
TV was Whistle Test not TOTP, radio was Peel musicianship, it even let some bassists sing. drummers’ names start with P”.
not Blackburn, formats long-playing not 7”, and Check Greg Lake, Roger Waters, John Wetton
music for listening not dancing. If a band had a and even, across the waters, Geddy Lee. EDDY OFFORD
hit, chances were you might go off them shortly As engineer and co-producer on albums by Yes
after. Gigs were taking place on the uni circuit, VANITY LABEL and ELP, Offord had a major hand in crafting the
which might account for some of the above. Once the money got big, the perceptive proggers sound of prog. ELP’s 1971 track “Are You Ready,
wanted a larger slice of the conceptual pie. Eddy?” is a tribute to him.
HIPGNOSIS COVERS Hence ELP launched Manticore, while
Music of such magnitude and The Moody Blues fired up Threshold. “CLASSICALLY TRAINED
imagination deserved a grand MUSICIANS”
parade of life-enhancing BIG IN ITALY Bit of a myth, this one – most prog virtuosos were
packaging. And none The Italians have always proudly self-taught, and simply rated Brahms as
came grander than Storm appreciated lofty classicism, much as The Beatles. Even Rick Wakeman, the
Thorgerson and Hipgnosis, so no wonder they rioted to most high-profile classically trained musician
put on the map by a series Van Der Graaf Generator and in the genre, left the Royal College Of Music early
of striking Floyd covers filled arenas for Genesis when to become a session musician. Carl Palmer and
– the cow, the prism, the they were still little more than Gentle Giant’s Kerry Minnear certainly studied
burning handshake – and a pub band back home. The ‘big their arts, mind.
quickly gaining a reputation in Japan’ of the 1970s.
for eye-catching profundity. MOOG SYNTHS
SUITES If technology drives innovation, it was
CARRYING YOUR ALBUM It’s fair to say that prog rock had heard Abbey undoubtedly the arrival of the Moog synthesiser
Before badges of honour (or, if you were The Dark Road. It too had seven or eight songs it could link that sparked prog rock. Its heavy use on Emerson,
Side Of The Moon, stickers and posters of honour), together with misty synth interludes; all it needed Lake & Palmer’s “Lucky Man” in 1970, combined
you could show your allegiances by using the was a Homeric myth or surrealist metaphor for with the introduction of the luggable MiniMoog
simplest possible promotional strategy: carrying middle-class sexual inhibition to hang it all on. that same year, made it the progressive rock
your favourite record about. Possibly en route to atmosphere provider of choice – Rick Wakeman
the sixth-form common room. was allegedly hired by Yes largely because he
already owned one.
LISTENING RITUAL
The beauty of the packaging and the care ENGLISH VERNACULAR
lavished on the music and its concept, time COCKERNEE BUSINESS
signatures, etc, meant that listening to the actual Pretentious? You WOT, my son? Posh proggers
“sounds” was something of a ritual. Joss sticks employed the odd characterful oik (see: Collins,
lit. Cloud of patchouli immanent. No female P), but it didn’t stop there. Meet song characters
presence whatsoever. such as “Harold The Barrel” (Genesis),
“Jeremy Bender” (ELP) and the entire
Time lord: Phil Collins
gives it a bit of Hoskins-esque cast of “The Battle Of
apocalyptic 9/8 at Epping Forest”.
FIN COSTELLO/REDFERNS; NIGEL OSBOURNE/REDFERNS; IAN DICKSON/REDFERNS
Newcastle City Hall,

October 23, 1973
CONCEPT ALBUMS/SONGS
On a psychotropic journey, it helps to feel as
though you’re going somewhere. So prog’s
lengthy indulgences swiftly sprouted
narratives and themes – apocalyptic battles
(“Supper’s Ready”), insanity (The Dark Side
Of The Moon), isolation (The Wall), Hindu
scriptures (Tales From Topographic Oceans)
and even taking the piss out of concept albums
(Tull’s Thick As A Brick).
GATEFOLD SLEEVES
Whether drawn by Roger Dean or montaged by
Hipgnosis… if you opened them out you could
either pore over the inner panorama, or use them
as “the surface” on which to skin up. Probably
just the latter, to be honest. l

OUTRO
Roger Dean, Hipgnosis co-founder]. I didn’t know him well, he

holdinga book of was doing film. But he lived in the same building
his work, at the
ICA, London, 1976 as me on the junction of Harrington Road and
Brompton Road in a place called Egerton Court.
We lived on the third floor and he was on the first
– Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd lived, briefly, in our
apartment. What was he like? What do you expect
I
me to say? Strange; not very communicative.
“But Storm was a friend, they were making
marbled wallpaper down there. They did
Saucerful Of Secrets and got that marbling out
of their system and they pretty much went for
photography or subcontracting other illustrators.
But I don’t think I had much competition, so that
WAS
gave me the good fortune to learn my skill in
public without being swarmed by people who
were much better than me. Hipgnosis were very
good, very disciplined, mad as a box of frogs.
“What we were doing was making an integrated
and holistic gift – the LP cover with the music was
a fantastic gift to receive and give. The packaging
THERE!
was an integral part of the gift. It was a magical
process. If an album came with a plastic toy, that
was treated as an important icon. If it was given
away with a box of cornflakes, it would be thrown
in the bin – it was all about the context. The zipper
in the Sticky Fingers cover didn’t make the music
play better, but it was part of this gift culture.
“Jon Anderson [Yes singer] mostly let me get on.
He always wanted something added. He wanted
birds in Relayer, and
“A holistic gift…” artist ROGER DEAN tells John ssome slipstream thing in
too. I didn’t mind him
to
Robinson about game-changing ’70s sleeve art, wanting to interact.
w
But when I went out to
Bu
a “sky ark”, and sharing a flat with Syd Barrett
“I
Montreux when they were
M
doing Going For The One
do
WAS working at Vertigo on “I was mostly interested in Yes’s ideas [1977]
[19
9 I had what I thought
stuff which was essentially about where the music was coming from. was my most powerful
w
jazz, but I wanted to do How to put it? What planet was Yes cover to date. It was
Ye
something which was more their music coming from, and Floating Islands, and I had
Fl
rock’n’roll. I went and saw how to make it feel at home. They that painting with me.
th
David Howells at MCA and he were pretty good about letting But when I got to the studio, Jon
Bu
was quite interested in me me hold the reins visually. was painting a picture and my
w
doing some stuff. The first was Osibisa. I was sent “I was a teenager in Hong Kong. recollection, though vague, was
re
to watch them play and talk to the guys. For me it I loved it there, it was noisy, it was that he was painting flowers. He
th
was very successful. I remember walking down colourful and strange. I had a told me he wanted to use that as
to
Oxford St and there was a whole window of comic from England called The the album cover.
th
Osibisa covers in a record shop. It blew me away. Eagle which had a character in it “I had this great album cover
“Peter Ledeboer was art director of Oz called Dan Dare, Pilot Of The with me, but instead of
w
magazine, and he had a poster company. He saw Future and it was then I decided I showing everyone what
sh
the Osibisa cover and he agreed to do posters was going to design the future. I was Ihhad, I decided to take a
which were very successful, so I was beginning to interested in natural history; I had couple of days and walk
co
have a bit of a profile. But I still wanted to do more painted and drawn animals and round the mountains and
ro
rock’n’roll. I took my portfolio round and met Phil insects obsessively. I thought I was calm myself down. Then I
ca
Carson, who was boss of Atlantic in Europe. He going to do something involving said to Jon, ‘I can’t do that –
sa
was really sweet, said, “I love your work, but I designing the future and painting I’m going home.’ The irony
only have two bands: Yes and Led Zeppelin.” animals – but there was no art college was – which made my actions
w
“He introduced me to Yes and my recollection is course for that. I often denied any seem so ridiculous – was that
se
they had a title, Fragile, and their idea was a flight obvious influence, but the Chinese landscape
scape they didn’t use Jon’s cover, but
th
case, stickered. Obviously there was no need for paintings I saw in Hong Kong, I loved. I’d have to because I wasn’t ’t there
th they went to Hipgnosis. I
me to be involved if that was going to be the case. say Dan Dare was an influence philosophically. think Chris was friends with Storm and Po.
But they liked my work, and I came back to them “I was at art college with Storm [Thorgerson, “It was an incredible help to my career to be
with an idea for a story and they liked it and said associated with Yes, and it was nearly always
I could work on a metaphor – the world breaking brilliant fun. I wasn’t asked to do the logo; for
EVENING STANDARD/GETTY IMAGES
up. The story was carried out over Fragile, me it just seemed natural. It was just something
Yessongs and Close To The Edge. “HIPGNOSIS WERE I thought we’d do. The Tales From Topographic
VERY GOOD, VERY

“It was in essence a creation myth. A child living Oceans tour… no-one had ever done a coast-to-
on a tiny planet has a dream that the planet will coast merchandising programme for a band
break up and gets his family and friends to build
a space ark. As the planet breaks up they shepherd DISCIPLINED, MAD AS before, or a brand identity or a theatrical stage.
Musicians had been theatrical, Peter Gabriel,
all the segments off to find a new home. Phil
Carson was brilliant and went for it.
A BOX OF FROGS” David Bowie… but there hadn’t been a theatrical
stage before. There were a lot of firsts.” l

JOE STEVENS
.
PROG ROCK
FROM THE MAKERS OF
DAVID WARNER ELLIS/REDFERNS
From PINK FLOYD to GENESIS, THE MOODY BLUES to YES,

JETHRO TULL to EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER and more…
the story of how progressive rock let the concept take centre stage
FEATURING, FROM THE ARCHIVE…

“The dark side is in people’s heads”,
“I tend to fall for extremes in music”,
“You could say that pot-head pixies come before Gong”
and other gems from the prog interview stronghold.
There’s a cup of tea with DAVID GILMOUR
and the truth about IAN ANDERSON’s dressing gown
New in-depth reviews offering deep thought on the sounds of

CARAVAN, SOFT MACHINE, GONG, and VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR.
If they could do it all over again, they’d do it all over you…
PLUS!
40 amazing UK prog albums
Collectable prog in stats
Prog in stuff
What’s Roger Dean got up his sleeve?
MORE FROM
WWW.UNCUT.CO.UK

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How did progressive rock evolve from psychedelic rock?

How did progressive rock evolve from psychedelic rock?

What were some common visual themes among progressive rock artists?

What were some common visual themes among progressive rock artists?

PROG

London Planetarium, they Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

ULTIMATE GENRE GUIDE | 3

Mike Ratledge with

club scene and suits for classical

basement visionaries bring shock

50CARAVAN 70 CLASSIC INTERVIEW!

Classical, jazz and beyond!

112 CLASSIC INTERVIEW!

stabbing prog behemoth anarchists, flying

122I WAS THERE...

4 | ULTIMATE GENRE GUIDE

All content copyright BandLab UK

*Some archive pieces in this publication use

ULTIMATE GENRE GUIDE | 5

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DAYS OF FUTURE ON THE THRESHOLD A QUESTION SEVENTH SOJOURN

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album’s liner notes: “The Moody Blues established as The Moody

On In Search Of The Lost Chord the

8 | ULTIMATE GENRE GUIDE

were now openly sneering. The “Pseudy

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heard before. In the end, we realised that we dug

12 | ULTIMATE GENRE GUIDE

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Crimson’s remarkable rise from abject storied predecessor, with “Pictures Of A

Crimson their only appearance than four months of auditioning various

16 | ULTIMATE GENRE GUIDE

KC, 1980s: (l-r)

St Vincent’s Annie Clarke,

ULTIMATE GENRE GUIDE | 17

King Crimson before

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new album, which they hope to And Mike’s definition of ‘hype’:

20 | ULTIMATE GENRE GUIDE

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I DON’T LIKE SOFT

TO FALL MORE FOR

22 | ULTIMATE GENRE GUIDE

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26 | ULTIMATE GENRE GUIDE

MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY IMAGES

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“THE CRITICISM HURT,

BACK, THE SLAGGING