| Roxy Music, Eno and David Bowie on whom he was a primary
influence.He is also one of rock's more important (and more humane) innovators,
launching Soft Machine in 1966 with Robert Wyatt, Daevid Allen and Mike Ratledge.Syd Barrett, Mike Oldfield, Brian Eno, Lol Coxhill, Steve Hillage, Ollie
Hassell, and John Cale.Kevin and the performances stand now amongst the strongest
he has ever committed to plastic.Kevin Ayers is one of the most significant
and influential musicians of his generation.Kevin Ayers an almighty star?Kevin Ayers' talent is so acute you could perform major eye surgery
with it.Kevin Ayers (born 16 August 1944 in Herne Bay, Kent) is an English songwriter and major influential force in the early English psychedelic movement.John Peel wrote in his autobiography that "Kevin Ayers' talent is so acute you could perform major eye surgery with it."He has recorded a series of albums as a solo artist and worked with Brian Eno, Syd Barrett, John Cale, Elton John, Robert Wyatt, Andy Summers, Mike Oldfield, Nico, Ollie Halsall and many others.Mallorca he returned to the United Kingdom in the mid 1990s.He now lives in the south of France and has completed work on a new album recorded in New York City, Tucson, Arizona and London.Ayers returned to England at the age of twelve, and in his early college years took up with the burgeoning musicians' scene in the Canterbury area.Soft Machine
The Wilde Flowers morphed into Soft Machine with the addition of keyboardist Mike Ratledge and guitarist Daevid Allen.Ayers switched to bass (and later both guitar and bass following Allen's departure from the group), and shared vocals with the drummer Robert Wyatt.The contrast between Ayers' baritone and Wyatt's reedy tenor, plus the freewheeling mix of rock and jazz influences, made for a memorable new sound that caught on quickly in the psychedelic 1960s.The album was one of the first released on the new Harvest label, along with Pink Floyd's releases.Joy of a Toy established Ayers as a unique talent with music that varied from the circus march of the title cut to the pastoral "Girl on a Swing" and the ominous "Oleh Oleh Bandu Bandong", based on a Malaysian folksong.Ayers' old mates from Soft Machine backed him, with the addition on some cuts of Rob Tait, sometime Gong drummer.One interesting product of the sessions was the single, "Religious Experience (Singing a Song in the Morning)", early recordings of which featured Ayers' close friend Syd Barrett on guitar and backing vocals.However the 2004 CD reissue of Joy of a Toy includes a mix of this song featuring Barrett's guitar as a bonus track.Shooting at the Moon, soon followed.David Bedford on keyboards.Ayers' signature sound for the 70s.Guts' that would appear on his 1975 album Slow Dazzle.The album was a more commercial affair and secured Ayers a new American contract with ABC Records.The LP featured contributions from B.Sides or left unreleased.He was quoted in a 1992 BBC radio 1 interview as saying he had "virtually no recollection of making those records".Falling Up, that received his first unanimously positive press notices in years.In 1988 he also recorded a vocal track for Mike Oldfield's single, "Flying Start".The lyrics of this song contains many references to the life of Ayers.Despite the critical acclaim Falling Up received, Ayers by this point had almost completely withdrawn from any public stage, a state further compounded by the sudden death, by a drugs overdose, of his musical partner Ollie Halsall.An acoustic album Still Life with Guitar recorded with Fairground Attraction surfaced in France on the FNAC label and was subsequently released throughout Europe.At a local art gallery he met American artist Tim Shepard who had studio space in the area, and the two became friends.Ayers started to show up with a guitar and by 2005, passed some new recordings onto Shepard, most taped on a cassette recorder at his kitchen table.MAX Records, Shepard found equal enthusiasm for the demos and after making some tentative enquiries, discovered a hotbed of interest for Ayers' work amongst the current generation of musicians.Ladybug Transistor set up rehearsals for a possible recording organised by bandleader Gary Olson, and Kevin flew out to New York.When the rehearsals gelled, the entourage which had now swelled to include horn and string players flew out to Tucson, Arizona where the first sessions were recorded in a dusty hanger known as Wavelab Studios.Bill Wells from the Bill Wells Trio rubbed shoulders with Euros Childs from Gorkys Zygotic Mynci and Francis Reader from the Trash Can Sinatras.The Unfairground was released in September 2007.See Copyrights for details.Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player.This video has been added to your favorites.The video has been added to your playlist.This video will appear on your blog shortly.Thank you for flagging this video.Content of this nature is not necessarily prohibited on YouTube, however we will review this video and take action as appropriate.We can only process copyright complaints submitted by authorized parties in accordance with processes defined in law.There may be significant legal penalties for false notices.Please refer to our Help Center for more information and the complete instructions.Thank you for sharing your concerns.In order to process a privacy complaint we need more information from you.Please refer to our Help Center for more information and the form to submit.Change this to see only comments above a certain value.Change the value of a comment by clicking on a thumb.Does anyone know if that is Mike Oldfield playing bass?Hyde Park Free Concert 1970.THANK YOU VERY MUCH.........Hi,Around about the time of this Clip Kevin Ayers appeared on the Old Grey Whistle Test and did an excellent version of shouting In a Bucket Blues.Would you like to comment?Kevin Ayers My I?Kevin Ayers My I?After making your selection, copy and paste the embed code above.KEVIN AYERS LIVE "Stop This Train!Get the latest Flash player.This video has been added to your favorites.The video has been added to your playlist.This video will appear on your blog shortly.Thank you for flagging this video.Content of this nature is not necessarily prohibited on YouTube, however we will review this video and take action as appropriate.Thank you for sharing your concerns.We can only process copyright complaints submitted by authorized parties in accordance with processes defined in law.There may be significant legal penalties for false notices.Please refer to our Help Center for more information and the form to submit.Would you like to comment?Irresistible Kevin Ayers with his blonde hair a...Irresistible Kevin Ayers with his blonde hair and brilliant song.The code changes based on your selection.KEVIN AYERS LIVE "Stop This Train!"Are you sure you want to block this user?This is what the British Press are saying
rich with strings, original ideas, lovely melodies and you realise this album is not about treading in those old footsteps song after song.It's about bringing new and old talent together to make a really lovely sound.It is a world of brightness and color......The sheer catchiness of the songwriting lends the material a straightforward initial appeal, which peels away over time to reveal something altogether more subtle and elusive at its core.John Peel, who once said: "Kevin Ayers' talent is so acute, you could perform major eye surgery with it."Energized by younger collaborators the results are often inspired.Ayers pours out some of his most emotional and reflective lyrics.Walk on Water is a peach, as is Friends and Strangers, which could be about death, betrayal or poisoned romance.Click to make your own visitor map.This myspace site is presented by Kevin Ayers' management.He wishes people still sent telegrams.Kevin Ayers is one of rock's oddest and most likeable enigmas.He is also one of rock's more important (and more humane) innovators, launching Soft Machine in 1966 with Robert Wyatt, Daevid Allen and Mike Ratledge.Kevin Ayers is one of the most significant and influential musicians of his generation."Are you sure you want to delete this comment?"Hello Luv,Like the new tune..Hope you have a great 2008 and think of me sometime..Wishing you and your friends and family a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year!!!Thanks so much for adding us!Hope to see you back in the US for a show or three!WHAT A WONDERFUL END OF 2007...WOTCHA KEVIN,LUV THE CD!!Only just discovered your beautiful music..Thanks for add and Happy New Year...WE WISH YOU ALL THE BEST...This year will be remembered as the comeback of Kevin Ayers with his superb album!Hi Kevin,Thanks for the firendship.Walk on Water execllent !!!Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !Thanks for the add,"May I ?"Hello,Thanks for the friendship!Special Show about me and my music plus interview will be broadcasted on Spirit within internet Radio at Live365 Radio Channel next Thursday, the 20th of December 2007, at 11 am and 8 pm (Central standard US time) !!You can hear many of my instrumental pieces and songs, plus me talking to interviewer Jon Nipp about my music, life, spirituality and so on.Shane Quentin's CRMK radio show THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS tonight!Italie in a City of Peace...Nous aimerions bien venir faire une apparition publique dans votre VILLAGE DE FRANCE...SON pour ce qui est de LA VOIX et vos fans ont 17 ANS en moyenne..."Urgent Security Alert","Warning: You are submitting information to an outside site.This could be an attempt to steal your username and password.This is not a MySpace login page, please do not enter your MySpace login information (email address or password).Id + " Link: " + targetLink.Id + " Text: " + targetLink.Archive searchArts and entertainmentBooksBusinessEducationGuardian.Kevin Ayers has spent 40 years making music and evading fame.Public school rocker with plummy accent: Kevin Ayers in Soft Machine (top) and on his own."It was an extremely dull grammar school, and I can't remember a single stimulating thing about Canterbury."Is Robert Wyatt, former Soft Machine drummer, singer and songwriter, being disingenuous?Ayers was easily assimilated into this magic circle.At first Ayers thought the music "weird" and even "utter gibberish", especially played on cutlery and kitchen instruments.Joy of a Toy, Shooting at the Moon, Whatevershebringwesing and Banana Amour.Carcassonne in southern France.Not that I ever did," he says, "which is why I'll have to make some more records and go on tour again, but I get terribly bored with all the travelling, the hotels and the general waiting around.Ayers tripped off to Ibiza with Daevid Allen.He has always liked sun, sea and freedom."The girls, today, are my two daughters, a couple of wives in the past...I'm afraid it's not quite my bag."Freedom was something he felt denied him when The Wilde Flowers metamorphosed briefly into Mister Head and then Soft Machine, with Wyatt, Ratledge and Allen, in the summer of 1966.Soft Machine's music was a rainbow of sounds and songs drawn from gamelan to pop, via jazz and Terry Riley's minimalism.They were, along with the likes of Pink Floyd and the Nice, one of the underground bands of the moment."He thought we were terribly cute," says Ayers, "and absolutely no threat to his sensational stage presence.Soft Machine Volume One.At first, Ayers went for the rock 'n' roll lifestyle hammer and tongs.But he soon tired of it.Mike Ratledge and I would just stay in.The sex, drugs and booze were one thing, the rock'n'roll, or what passed for it in Soft Machine's world, another.It's stuff you play for yourself, and 'fuck the audience'...In 1970 Ayers formed the Whole World, a particularly eclectic band that included a teenage Mike Oldfield on lead guitar.As Oldfield limbered up for global stardom, Ayers left for France to play with Daevid Allen's Gong.From then on, like some gentle Ancient Mariner, Ayers has played and recorded for whoever will stop for him or whenever the mood takes him.He kept away from Britain during the punk explosion, recorded a strangely conventional rock album, Diamond Jack and the Queen of Pain, with local musicians in Spain, and the lovely Falling Up, with songs of wine and love, made in Madrid in 1988.I'm not very good at it."Falling Up got Ayers back onto the British stage, but it was the acoustic Still Life with a Guitar (1992) that saw him happily on the road in Britain, the US and Japan.Kevin Ayers for the DJ generation, as did his later tours with the Wizards of Twiddly, a band that spawned, among others, the Coral.Useful linksKevin Ayers official siteWhy We Are Sleeping: Kevin Ayers fanzineBuy Kevin Ayers CDs at Amazon.Send any comments or feedback about this article to friday.Hours() * 3600 + newCurrentTime.Hours() * 3600 + currentTime.Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.Choose Express delivery at checkout.Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?The Unfairground' is the sixteenth studio LP from former Soft Machine mainman Kevin Ayers.Includes the tracks 'Walk On Water', 'Brainstorm' and 'Run Run Run'.This new album from Kevin Ayers is simply wonderful.Though Kevin Ayers is as authentic and as very convincing as he has ever been with his best work.And it is this he uses to take stock of life with heart wrenching honesty.What we have here with The Unfairground is a collection of 10 sublime tracks with music so honed that every note expresses something true to the song it accompanies."Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided to other Amazon.But who cares, 34 minutes of bliss is better than 70 minutes of dross.Was this review helpful to you?It must have been some session that had Norman Blake from Teenage Fanclub playing opposite Phil Manzanera from Roxy Music!Like it said in the NME Kevin Ayers has some "really cool friends".Well that's not surprising since Kevin Ayers pretty much single handedly invented British psychedelic music.See all 8 customer reviews...After a long loooong wait for a new studio album from one of rock's coolest characters, I was delighted to find The Unfairground at my local HMV.Just like he's been doing for the past forty years, and not a trace of cynicism after all those years...First time through I was wondering what all the hype was about.Gentle tunes, familiar themes (dreams, lost love), it lacks the edge of his best work.Fantastic harmonies, instrumentation, lyrics.See all 8 customer reviews...How to listen to Kevin Ayers: A list by D.Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
