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RARE PHOTOS: Soft machine - The Real Truth

“By day they worked on the official record. At night they taped an entirely different record, without the knowledge or approval of the label”: The story of Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera, Quiet Sun and their sly posthumous album

Guitarist’s mid-70s juggling act proved his previous band’s worth via their LP Mainstream, assembled in a rush while he was tracking solo debut Diamond Head

Louder

“I used Steven Wilson’s Mellotron in exchange for me guesting at his London Palladium show!”: Prog pioneers Soft Machine spared no effort on their new album, then took a risk by calling it Thirteen

Theo Travis on tempting fate, revisiting a tradition, being the best-tempered line-up since the beginning in 1966, and adding a posthumous appearance by co-founder Daevid Allen

Louder

“I listen now and think, ‘This is a young man’s game!’ I’m proud of the albums”: How future members of Marillion, Soft Machine and Caravan got their start via Darryl Way’s Wolf

The violinist’s post Curved Air band only lasted two years, but released three compelling albums in that time, and set his colleagues on course for prog greatness

Louder

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We celebrate Keith Emerson on the cover of the new issue of Prog Magazine, which is on sale now!

Plus Francis Dunnery, Pat Metheny, Gong, Clive. Nolan, Soft Machine, Ulver, Bill Nelson's Orchestra Futura, Godsticks, Magnus Martin and loads more...

Louder

“We got back together after 25 years and people came from all around the world, saying how important that album had been”: The Dutch quartet inspired by just five minutes of Soft Machine music

Their 1970 debut album, deliberately featuring no guitars at all, was inspired by the Canterbury band’s approach and Frank Zappa’s public persona – and it attained iconic status

Louder

“It was an awful mistake to overlook his album. But you could be excused for not sticking with it”: Fired by King Crimson, this prog poet assembled a group of A-list colleagues and took them on a trip into the unknown. They got lost – or so it seemed

His only solo release merged Genesis, Greenslade and Soft Machine vibes with an additional experimental edge. But the real beauty is that it couldn’t have been made any other time than the early 70s

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Soft Machine will release new studio album, Thirteen, in March

The new Soft Machine album, Thirteen, features a posthumous cameo from founding member Daveid Allen, recorded before he died

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"I was blown away!" The greatest prog albums, as chosen by prog legend Geoff Downes

He's been in The Buggles, Yes and Asia – but what does Geoff Downes consider the finest prog albums ever?

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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

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“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

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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

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"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

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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...

The Guardian - UK

Mike Ratledge obituary

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

Louder

"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

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"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

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“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

“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

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