It was thanks to a rather furious online bookshop review that I realised how much time I’d wasted by not listening to Soft Machine.
Looking for a bookshop in Toronto, I read of one that was staffed by “confused people who are probably on heroin”. Buying a stack of counter-cultural peculiarities, I asked what music they were playing. It was Soft Machine’s first album. Then, I went to do a show with an astronaut. Life’s alright.
Radio 3 is celebrating Soft Machine’s original drummer and a solo artist for many years since, Robert Wyatt, with a Late Junction recorded in his home. It is a lovely, relaxed conversation with Verity Sharp, broken up with smatterings of off microphone kitchen conversation as coffee is made and cheese is mulled over.
Robert Wyatt lives in the market town of Louth having given up on Twickenham many years ago, partly down to its restrictions. These included the problems of neighbours complaining about the noise when Brian Eno came around and they started creating sounds and music. How many would dream of their neighbourhood noise disturbance being Eno and Wyatt?
When Björk came to Louth to record, Wyatt was frozen with fear so sent her into town. She created the sort of spectacle that becomes saloon bar chatter for decades.