An Introduction to Prog Rock

Lecture 4 – The Canterbury BandsIAP 2018

Prof. J. Paradiso – MIT Media Lab

Session 1: Intro - Things your dad should have told you about ProgSession 2; Canterbury

Session 3: Rock in OppositionSession 4: Zeuhl

Session 5: Space Rock and NeopsychedeliaSession 6: French & Quebecois ProgSession 7: Rock Progressivo Italiano

Session 8: Germany, Berlin, and Krautrock (perhaps some Scandavania too)Session 9: Japanese Prog

…and a few fascinating detours!

The City of CanterburyLondonUp Here

An amazingly creative bunch of emerging musicians hung out at Robert Wyatt’s House & environs in the mid 60s

Brian & Hugh Hopper, Richard Sinclair, Kevin Ayers formed The Wilde Flowers in the early 1960s – Daevid Allen, David Sinclair, Richard Coughlin, etc. in the mix too

Leading to Soft Machine, Caravan, Gong, and Kevin Ayers solo career

Memories

Enter Soft Machine!

Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper, Mike Ratledge (Daevid Allen, Kevin Ayers)

Jimi was their colleague, friend, and fan

He gave them their sound…

Early Soft Machine

1968 1969

Why Are We Sleeping? As Long as he Lies Perfectly StillHung out and toured with Jimi Hendrix

Fuzzbox and pedals on organ are iconic in Canterbury Music

We Did It Again

Very intense live band

Hope for Happiness (Live @ Middle Earth Club) - 1967

Live in France - 1968

Kevin Ayers splits for his solo career

1969 1970 1972 1974

Rheinhardt And Geraldine / Colores Para Dolores (1970)

The Confessions Of Doctor Dream: Irreversible Neural Damage (1974)

Becoming a (psychedelic) Jazz Band

1970 1971 1972Last album with Robert Wyatt

Third was a breakthrough in psych jazz!!

Live in Brussels 1971

6:18

Robert Wyatt splits to get back to rock with Matching Mole

1972 1972With Phil Miller, David Sinclair, Bill MacCormick, David McRae

Matching Mole Live in France, 1972

Robert Wyatt post Matching Mole, post accident

1974 1975

Released strong records, often with political overtones, through 2010

Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road (1974) Pigs (In There) - 1982

Later Soft Machine – Enter Karl Jenkins & Alan Holdsworth

1973 1973 1975 1976John Etheredge guitarAlan Holdsworth guitar

The Soft Weed Factor (1973)

Nettle Bed (1973)

Bundles (1975)Still together as Soft Machine Legacy

(Etheredge, Babbington, et al)

Caravan

1971 1972 1973 1975

Nine Feet Underground Memory Lain, Hugh

Richard Sinclair, David Sinclair, Pye Hastings, Richard Coughlan…

Uriel

David Stewart, Mont Campbell, Clive Brooks, Steve Hillage

Arzachel (1969)

Garden of Earthly Delights 1972 releaseBy Hillage, Stewart, etc.

Egg

Egg - 1970 The Polite Force - 1971 The Civil Surface - 1974 The Metronomical Society2007

David Stewart, Mont Campbell, Clive Brooks

A Visit to the Newport Hospital (1971)Show Business…

David Stewart was in ‘The Ottawa Company’ with Chris Cutler after Egg and before…

Enter Virgin records!!

Richard Branson’s then Prog Label launches in 1972

Hatfield and The North

1973 1975Son Of 'There's No Place Like Homerton’ (1973)Big John Wayne Socks Psychology on the Jaw, Chaos at the Greasy Spoon,

The Yes/No Interlude (1975)

Phil Miller, David Stewart, Richard Sinclair, Pip Pyle (& many friends)

National Health

1977 1978 1982

The Bryden 2 Step (for Amphibians) Part 1 (1978)Tenemos Roads (1977)

Phil Miller, David Stewart, John Greaves, Pip Pyle (Alan Gowen, Georgie Born, etc.)

See AlsoGilgamesh

Bruford Solo Albums

1978 1979 1980

Hells Bells (1979)

Bill Bruford, David Stewart, Alan Holdsworth, Jeff BerlinSee also UK (Bruford, Holdsworth, Eddie Jobson, John Wetton)

David Stewart & Barbara Gaskin

1990 1991 2009 20091986

Barbara was from the Northettes and Spyro Gyra (70s Canterbury)

Henry and James (1986)

Supersister (Netherlands)

R.J. Stips and friends

Memories Are New (1970)A Girl Named You (1971)

Judy Goes on Holiday (1972)

The Muffins (USA)

1978 1981 1993 (1975) 1977-1980

The Adventures of Captain Boomerang (1978)Zoom Resume (1981)

Dave Newhouse, Tom Scott, Billy Swan, Paul Sears (and many friends)The Muffins Reformed several times over the next decades and issued great subsequent records!

Kojiro Yamashita (Japan)

2010

Untitled (Track 2)1985

Pondes Ete

Ain Soph (Japan)

Mizzle

HenryTennis (Japan)

2006

Luster Brain

MIA. (Argentina)

Crifana Y Tamilstenes

Cornonstipicum (1978)19771976

Schnauser (UK)

Band from Bath, Alan Strawbridge’s follow-up to The Lucky Bishops. Strong Canterbury moments, especially around the time of this album

Protein For Everyone - 2014

National Grid (goes Canterbury midway through)

Syd Arthur (UK)

Young ‘Canterbury’ Band

2012 2014 2016

Singularity

Garden of Time

Interlude – Wild new mathrocky ’prog’ bands from central France!

Ni PoiL Pryapisme Chromb!

Chromb! - Des Francis En Quinconce

Pryapisme - Boudin Blanc Et Blan BoudinPoiL - Trouille cosmiqueNi – Butor (see video next slide from Burg Herzberg 2015)

Perhaps a legacy in Etron Fou Leloublan, Albert Marcoeur, Moving Gelatine Plates…

Daevid Allen & Gong

Formed in France by Daevid Allen & Gilli Smythe in 1967 after he was unable to return to the UK with Soft Machine (visa issues)

Gong Live on French TV 1973

Prime Early Classic-Period Gong

1971 1973 1973 1974

Daevid Allen, Gilli Smythe, Steve Hillage, Tim Blake, Miguette Grandy, Pierre Morelin, Mike Howlett, Didier Mallerbe, Pip Pyle….

Zero The Hero and the Witch’s Spell (Flying Teapot)Castle in the Clouds (Angel’s Egg)Master Builder (You)

Planet GongTrilogy

Transition of Gong to Hillage then Pierre Morelin

1975 1976 1978 1979 1979

Alan Holdsworth replacing Hillage post ShamalGreat albums, but not Allen-driven psychedelia – more jazz fusion

Expresso (1976)

Steve Hillage Launches Solo Career

1975 1976 1977 1978 1979

Subsequent albums got funkierSteve went on to reinvent himself in Techno/EDM as ’System 7’

(w. Rundgren/Utopia)

Sea Nature (1978)

Daevid Allen in NYC

The Zu Festival October 1978

Organized by Giorgio Gomelsky

Daevid Allen & Gilli Smythe (Gong)Chris Cutler (Henry Cow)

Yochk’o Seffer & Neffish MusicThe Muffins

Bill Laswell and Pre-Material musiciansFirst appearance by No-Wave Bands in afternoon

Glen Branca, John Zorn, etc….

…I was there….

This event launched the ‘Downtown’ scene

Daevid re-emerges as New York Gong w. Laswell & Material

1979 1982

Daevid returns to Australia after, drives cab, lives on beach, etc. but puts out interesting records

1990

O My Photograph (NY Gong)

Collaborations with Here & Now, Kramer, Makoto, Robson, etc.

1978 (punky) 1999 - Brainville1992 - w. Kramer 2003 w. AMT

1992

Alphaville Beach (Brainville)

…Then reforms ‘classic’ Gong

2000 2009 2014

The Eternal Wheel Spins (2014)

RIP Daevid Allen (March 2015) & Gilli Smyth ( August 2016)

Posthumous Release 2016

44

JAP4/08

Watch These!

‘Romantic Warriors’ DVD set by Adele Schmidt & José Zegarra HolderIn MIT’s Music Library

Krautrock documentary in progress – Italian prog and perhaps space rock, etc. coming….

ResEnv Research Update 4/16 Joe Paradiso