Syd Barrett and the Soft
Machine
When the
Pink Floyd started to perform live, they often shared the stage of underground
clubs such as the UFO with another similar psychedelic band: The Soft Machine. They
also shared the lighting techniques and projection of coloured liquid on a
screen behind the scene invented and managed by Mark Boyle. Nowadays, a light
show is simply almost always a part of a live rock concert, Mark Boyle simply
invented it. Some members of the Soft Machine later played on Syd Barrett's first
solo LP.
Members of
the Soft Machine had the same backgrounds as Pink Floyd: they reffered to
themselves as "architects of space time" rather than musician and
quoted the painter Picabia: "Art is the cult of the errors".
Soft Machine line up in 67:
Mike Rattledge: Organist, and doctor in
philosophy
Robert Wyatt: Singer and drummer
Kevin Ayers: Bass player and singer
Hugh Hopper: Guitar player
The line up of Syd's first solo album:
Mike Rattledge: Organ, piano
Robert Wyatt: Drums, percussions
Hugh Hopper: Bass
The Soft Machine's contribution to Syd's first
solo album:
Mike Ratledge at the organ, Hugh Hopper on the
bass, and Robert Wyatt on the drums and tambourines overdubbed various parts
onto the 8 track copies made the previous session. In contrast to their own
recordings, Syd's tracks were very erratic and unpredictable. Although Syd
booked them he wasn't very good at explaining to them what he wanted. 'Love You' for example was a simple overdub of jangle piano and
drums, plus of course, Hugh Hopper on bass. Lack of adequate rehearsal gave the
Soft's performances a rather ragged aspect.
The
recording engineer said:
"I must take responsibility. If I had been
able to give them more studio time they would have delivered better backings,
although I must add that over the years the erratic quality of these tracks has
been what endeared them to Barrett fans. I can't help feeling, though, that the
Soft Machine themselves were not very proud of their own contributions!
Kevin Ayers
Kevin left the Soft Machine soon after their
first record and started a briliant solo career, though commercial success was
never met. He deeply appreciated Syd Barrett's work, and was often considered
as an alter ego to Syd, musically speaking. Obviously albums such as "Joy
of a toy", "Bananamour", with the strange combination of
seemingly simple pop tunes and noisy experimentation, as well as the deep and
low vocals, can only speak straight to the heart of Syd Barrett worshippers. On
one occasion, he played live with an impressive line up of musicians: John
Cale, Brian Eno, Nico, and his guitarist Mike Oldfield who became very famous a
few years later. The performance is available on a CD titled "June 1,1974". His latest album is "Still life with
guitar", 1992.
Traces of Syd do exist in Kevin's recordings,
see "Singing a Song In The Morning" and
"Oleh Oleh Bandu Bandong" in the songs section.
Robert Wyatt
After the accident who
left him paralized with both legs, Robert continued to play drums but also
organ and various other instruments on his numerous solo albums. "Rock
bottom" and "Richard is stranger than Ruth" are legendary
albums, but his latest productions such a "Old
Rottenhat", "Shleep" are pure jewels.
Nick Mason and him
recorded a wonderful jazz-fusion album, "Fictitious sports" see the
Nick Mason discography in this site.
Mike Rattledge
Together with Hugh Hopper and David Allen, and
later Steve Hillage, and a line up of french musician, he formed Gong, an
incredible insane psychedelic band from the seventies long forgotten since.
Daevid Allen
After his departure from Soft MAchine, Daevid
Allen founded one of the craziest post psychedelic band, Gong, who left quite
an impression on the french underground audience at the time
Vernon Fitch tells us: "I was fortunate to
meet Daevid during this tour and I asked him where he learned to play the
fantastic glissando guitar technique he used in many of his songs. His reply
was that Syd Barrett taught it to him! Even over a decade after knowing Syd,
Daevid still acknowledges his influence." On many occasion, on stage and
in two books he wrote, Daevid mentionned Syd as someone he admires a lot.
Larry Nolan
Larry Nolan, of California, was the Soft
Machine's original lead guitarist, and reported on a Pink Floyd concert at the
London Free School Sound Light Workshop in IT #5, Dec. 12- Dec. 25, 1966. He
had left soft machine by this time. Here is this testimony:
"Since I last saw the Pink Floyd they’ve
got hold of bigger amplifiers, new light gear and a rave from Paul McCartney. This
time I saw them at Powis Gardens, W.11, on Tuesday 29th, the last of their
regular shows there."
"Their work is largely improvisation, and
lead guitarist Sid (sic) Barrett shoulders most of the burden of providing
continuity and attack in the improvised parts. He was providing a huge range of
sounds with the new equipment, from throttled shrieks to mellow feedback
roars."
"Visually the show was less adventurous. Three
projectors bathed the group, the walls and sometimes the audience in vivid
colour. But the colour was fairly static, and there was no searching for the
brain alpha rhythms, by chopping the focus of the images."
"The equipment that the group is using now
is infant electronics; lets see what they will do with
the grownup electronics that a colour television industry will make
available."