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The Latest Breaking News from Soft Machine

Street battles, invented languages and gigs in psychiatric hospitals: France’s lost rock revolution of 1968

Bands such as Magma and Art Zoyd provided a soundtrack for the student protests that shook the country. Little remembered now, a new book reveals their decisive influence on later successes such as Air and Daft Punk

The Guardian - UK

“The sound universe that Soft Machine opened before me was almost unfathomable. It was a revelation, a musical epiphany”: Meet the Canterbury scene’s international next generation

The seeds of The Wilde Flowers have taken root all around the world. Here are just a handful of 21st-century musicians taking inspiration from the 60s and 70s

Louder

“We were playing things like Chuck Berry. I was just horrified, because I’m a choirboy”: How Richard Sinclair helped build the Canterbury scene with Caravan, Hatfield And The North, Camel and more

He shares memories of Pye Hastings, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Andy Latimer and many other collaborators from his rich heritage, soon to be include with his long, long awaited debut solo album

Louder

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“Astonishing and formidable music”: there’s more to British jazz rock than Soft Machine, Brand X, Bruford and Nucleus

Here are six underrated and overlooked albums from the 1970s that will reward investigation

Louder

"I felt out of place. That group didn't have much musical merit and I thought it was crap": The oddball career of Kevin Ayers, quintessential English songwriter

Kevin Ayers co-founded Soft Machine, influenced Bowie, shared acid trips and girlfriends with Hendrix, and knew Syd Barrett better than most

Louder

“Gong’s appeal? Not becoming too commercially successful”: Daevid Allen bade a grateful farewell with I See You – but he still believed in the future

Months before his death from cancer, he encapsulated his unique vision in a forward-looking album, then left others to continue his work

Louder

Jethro Tull grace the cover of the new issue of Prog Magazine, which is on sale now!

Plus Kevin Godley, Ghost Of The Machine, Mike Ratledge, Can, Cardiacs, Amplifier, Karmakanic, Envy Of None and more...

Louder

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Mike Ratledge obituary

Composer and keyboard player who was a driving force behind the experimental prog-rock band Soft Machine

The Guardian - UK

"Behind those dark glasses and unsmiling visage, he presented an inscrutable presence." Soft Machine's Mike Ratledge remembered

Prog writer Sid Smith pays tribute to the former Soft Machine founder and keyboard player Mike Ratledge, who sadly died after a short illness, aged 81

Louder

“If I were you, I’d get a haircut and disappear”: When author William Burroughs gave Daevid Allen permission to call his band The Soft Machine

A key moment in the Canterbury band’s history came when the future Gong mastermind made contact with his former collaborator in 1966

Louder

"He was the backbone of Soft Machine." Founding member and keyboard player Mike Ratledge dead at 81

Soft Machine's longest-serving member Mike Ratledge, who also worked with Syd Barrett and Kevin Ayers, has died after a short illness

Louder

“It’s ludicrous a song like that would go on an album at the height of our fame, but it got the most notice because it was so bizarre”: The Police’s Andy Summers on success, psychedelia and working with difficult people

The multi-faceted guitarist looks back on a career including stints with Robert Fripp, John Cale, Kevin Ayers and others

Louder

“The dynamic twists and thoughtful depths of the mix suggest these pieces aren’t so much produced as dramatised”: Soft Machine’s Softs vinyl remaster

John Etheridge’s arrival adds a harder, defined edge to the band’s 1976 album

Louder

“I found the underground a more realistic place – bodies all over the floor, film projections on various surfaces, and a right old racket coming from the stage… altogether rather dreamlike”: Robert Wyatt on his improvised life

Fuelled by jazz, socialism and an absurdist slant on the world around him, the retired Canterbury icon’s instincts served him well during a remarkable career

Louder

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Louder

“I’ve had prog dates because of our concerts… the great thing is that you don’t have to explain your weird musical tastes!”: Focus guitarist Menno Gootjes’ prog life

He discovered Canterbury bands in his teens before moving on to Frank Zappa, Opeth, Genesis, obscure Dutch trio Three Dwarves Make War – oh, and Kiss

Louder

“I know it sounds like a joke musical but one of my ancestors was a pirate in the Caribbean. He looked a bit like I did when I was 21 in Roxy Music”: The amazing things Phil Manzanera discovered when he looked into his past

After writing a memoir, the guitarist has done the musical equivalent with an 11-disc box set exploring his five-decade career. He explains how he landed his dream gig, how Robert Fripp beat him to a tonal ambition, and why, in a way, Roxy is still active

Louder

“I lie to them and change the goalposts… you build up techniques of throwing the curveball of discomfort. If it gets comfortable I change it”: David Thomas calls Pere Ubu “avant-garage” – but how prog are they?

They’re unmistakably American, but their lead visionary names Henry Cow, Soft Machine, Gentle Giant and Van der Graaf Generator among his motivators, and explains why his band is definitely not punk

Louder

“I’d just fed the gerbils and was practicing how to play the saw when this head popped around the door and asked politely if I would like to join Caravan”: Inside the weird and wonderful world of The Canterbury Scene

Soft Machine, Caravan, Gong, Hatfield And The North - how a small town in England changed progressive music forever

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Louder

“Gong is the band you listen to when you smoke your first joint or drop your first acid trip at school”: The mind-bending story of cult psychedelic heroes Gong

Looking back on the career of psychedelic oddballs Gong, one of rock’s most eccentric bands

Louder

Pink Floyd legend David Gilmour is on the cover of the new issue of Prog, on sale now!

Plus Focus, Gryphon, Tim Bowness, Leprous, Yes, Saucerful Of Secrets, Jadis, ELO, Caligula's Horse, Azure and loads more...

Louder

Soft Machine announce Ronnie Scotts date in April

Soft Machine will pay tribute to late drummer John Marshall at one-off Ronnie Scott's headline show

Louder

Guitarists Gordon Giltrap and John Etheridge team up for UK tour

Gordon Giltrap and Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge undertake their 2 Parts Guitar tour in May

Louder

“A unique, sometimes unsettling experience… His baritone gives the songs a shade of unorthodoxy which goes beyond typical English hippie eccentricity”: Kevin Ayers’ Joy Of A Toy (Remastered Gatefold Vinyl Edition)

Syd Barrett’s contribution is absent in an edition that sticks religiously to 1969 template

Louder

“I suppose what’s different is me. I’ve done a lot of exploring, particularly with Robert Fripp… Working with him was very easy, which doesn’t sit well with a lot of the public’s perceptions of him!” Theo Travis looks back

He’s worked with Soft Machine, Steven Wilson, The Tangent, Gong and more – but the saxophonist and flautist still has one collaborator on his bucket list

Louder

“When we started, it wasn’t necessarily going to be a trilogy… I like the fact that each one is a bit different. To this day that’s the best band I’ve ever been in”: Steve Hillage on Gong’s Radio Gnome Invisible era

The guitarist most associated with Daevid Allen’s band believes they launched a second wave of psychedelia with their 70s albums Chocolate Teapot, Angel’s Egg and You

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