BORN: August 16, 1945, Herne Bay, Kent, England
If music be a child of rich diversity, there are few artists who qualify more than Kevin Ayers for its highest accolades. Beyond his first tentative musical footsteps in the seminal Canterbury band, the Wilde Flowers, lay the foundations of the surrealistic early Soft Machine and the building of a solo career now boasting a discography large enough to surprise people who equate Ayers with eras and fashions long past, without realising that he has always been working within music, though often in a semi-obscured, peripheral way.
Moreover, the qualities of paradox that permeate the life of this self-effacing, cultured man both intrigue and frustrate. With the credibility of collaborating with musicians of the calibre of Mike Oldfield, Robert Wyatt, Ollie Halsall and David Bedford and a matchless talent for writing lyrics of poignant introspection, Ayers has nonetheless never come to terms with the vagaries of promotion. His way of being has been simultaneously his charm and his downfall - a legacy of missed opportunities but glorious secrets.
Kevin Ayers was born in the UK on the 16th August 1944 in Herne Bay, Kent. Childhood years from the age of 6 till 12 were spent, however, in Malaysia where father Rowan Ayers was a District Officer. Ayers was to be more influenced by the spontaneity, freedom and informality of the Eastern lifestyle that surrounded him than by the overtones of Colonial privilege that had placed him there. Back as a youth in grey, conservative Herne Bay, it would be his search for these earlier values that would so attract him to the circle of Robert Wyatt and his unconventional friends in Canterbury.
The Georgian mansion belonging to Robert's mother, Honor, was a focal gathering place for the local Bohemians into avant-garde jazz, Dadaist art and poetry. Mike Ratledge, brothers Hugh and Brian Hopper and later, 'the world's first beatnik', Australian Daevid Allen drifted in and out. Ayers thought them 'weird', and the music 'utter gibberish' but persevered with their company because he so liked the people. The decision to form a band probably grew from an impromptu jam performed largely on saucepan lids....
The Wilde Flowers (the 'e' is an Ayers tribute to Oscar) were formed around June 1963. Wyatt on drums, Hugh Hopper on bass, elder brother Brian on guitar and saxophone, the young Richard Sinclair on rhythm guitar and Ayers, lacking the confidence to play an instrument, on vocals formed the earliest incarnation of a band that was later to spawn the giants of the Canterbury dynasty, Soft Machine and Caravan.
Some scratchy demo tapes were recorded in early 1965 at Wout Steenhuis' studio in Broadstairs (these have been included on a recent CD compilation on Voiceprint VP123CD). Included is Ayers' earliest documented attempt at songwriting, the commercial, Beatlesque 'She's Gone'. In mid-1965, however, Ayers left to travel to Ibiza with the influential Daevid Allen. The lure of travel, sun, sea and wine has never left Ayers - a free spirit ever tantalised by distant exotica. A frustration to his career to disappear at critical moments, it has nevertheless acted as a safety valve whilst others of his trade fell victim to Rock's excesses.
The Soft Machine was born in August 1966, named after the metaphor for humanity used by William Burroughs in his 1961 novel of the same title. Ayers and Allen in Ibiza had run into American freak and millionaire Wes Brunson (the 'Stoned Innocent Frankenstein' of Allen's later 'Bananamoon' album) who had lavished money upon them to start a band. Returning to Canterbury, the duo enlisted Mike Ratledge on keyboards, Wyatt on drums and, fleetingly, guitarist Larry Nolan. Their arrival in London in early 1967 coincided perfectly with the genesis of underground psychedelia and the band quickly secured a residency amongst the incense and flowers of the UFO Club in Tottenham Court Road. Enmeshed in the lightshow of Mark Boyle's Sensual Laboratory, the Soft Machine's influence on myriad bands is inestimable and worthy of an article in itself.
Ayers' confidence as a songwriter was rapidly growing. Signed by Polydor in January 1967, the single 'Love Makes Sweet Music' coupled with 'Feelin', Reelin', Squeelin'' was released in February. The A-side, produced by Chas Chandler after Ayers had sent a selection of his songs for consideration by the New Animals, twists and turns through the finest melodies and harmonies of mid '60's pop.
It is rumoured that Chandler's newest protege, James Marshall Hendrix, strummed an acoustic guitar on the session. The B-side, produced by Kim Fowley and credited as a Wyatt composition, shows the darker, looser side to the band. Ayers' renowned fascination with the Gurdjieff-inspired world of dreams and sleep growls through the lyrics. Today, the single is worth a small fortune in mint condition. It was also included in the 1976 Polydor 'Rare Tracks' compilation. The single reached number 28 in the Radio London charts but the provinces beyond London were to remain totally unreceptive and Polydor promptly dropped the band.
The Soft Machine entered De Lane Lea Studios in London in April 1967 to record a series of self-penned compositions with producer Giorgio Gomelsky. Described by Gomelsky as the basis of an album, the band remembers them more as 'demos', not necessarily connected with the current stage set. Released only in retrospect, but under various guises in the UK, most sleevenotes prepare you for the worst, but Wyatt's voice and drumming more than compensate for Allen's curious guitar playing. Ayers' compositions include the Wilde Flowers' 'She's Gone', the clever bass riff of 'I'd Rather Be With You' and a slightly lacklustre 'Jet-Propelled Photograph' which would later be remodelled as 'Shooting At The Moon'. A third version of 'She's Gone', produced by Joe Boyd in June 1967 as a planned but unreleased single can be found on the 1977 Harvest 'Triple Echo' retrospective set.
After a summer gigging and lazing in St. Tropez - 'Clarence In Wonderland' was written on the beach there - the band hit a snag when Daevid Allen was refused re-entry to the UK on the grounds of passport irregularities. The band continued as a trio whilst Allen went off to Paris to found the first incarnation of Gong. The final involvement of Ayers with the Soft Machine would be following a mammoth tour of America from February till August 1968 as support to the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The tour was a nightmare of endurance and Ayers became increasingly alienated from the madness of the plane, gig, hotel, plane, gig, hotel routine.
The self-titled Soft Machine first album was recorded in the space of three days in New York in April. Produced minimally by Tom Wilson of Velvet Underground fame and Chas Chandler, the trio essentially played a live set. Fresh, innovative and spontaneous, the album combines Ayers' eccentricity, Ratledge's seriousness and Wyatt's passion to produce a perfect whole. Essential listening for fans of the era, and very different from the improvised pretentions of later Soft Machines, the album was only released in the States but imported to the UK in some quantity with a choice of a revolving or normal cover. A single containing two Ayers compositions, 'Joy Of A Toy' and 'Why Are We Sleeping', was also released in the States. The exhausted Ayers fled to the solitude of Ibiza, refusing to rejoin the Softs when belated success of the first album demanded a touring band. His place was taken by Hugh Hopper who had been acting as roadie.
Ayers continued to write songs with an acoustic guitar and, on returning to London, procured a flat with room for a tiny studio and painstakingly - even incredibly for a self-confessed 'musical ignoramus'! - pieced together the demos that lead to the December 1969 release of 'Joy Of A Toy'. The thirteenth album release on Malcolm Jones' newly formed Harvest label, the album still has the capacity to delight. Wistful melody and joyous improvisation wind through a musical landscape darkened by melancholic lyricism. Songs were sensitively arranged by the unknown classical composer David Bedford.
Co-produced by Peter Jenner, whose Blackhill Enterprises managed Ayers, the album cost a then exorbitant £4000 but its achievement was remarkable, given Ayers' earlier disenchantment with the music business. Attractively packaged in a gatefold sleeve but advertised only in the underground press, the album did not sell in the quantities it deserved. 'Eleanor's Cake Which Ate Her' was released as a one-sided promo and would represent a fabulous rarity.
Ayers recorded 'Singing A Song In The Morning' in January 1970 with old friends from Caravan and featuring a guitar solo uncannily like the work of fellow Harvest signing Syd Barrett. It is said that Barrett was present at the session but any contribution was mixed out of the final edit. The song was released as a single in April 1970 but sank without trace.
The problems of solo promotion lead to the formation in March 1970 of the Whole World. There would be various incarnations of the band - as its name suggests, it was to offer an open door - but the nucleus of David Bedford, veteran saxophonist and busker Lol Coxhill and a shy, young guitarist called Mike Oldfield would later permeate much of Ayers' work. The Whole World was a melting point of disparate styles and backgrounds that, on a good night, wove a magical, warm anarchy around the structure of Ayers' songs. 'Shooting At The Moon', released in October 1970, is an album that combines the melodic and lyrical excellence of its predecessor with a harder electric aura. The self-indulgence of 'Pisser dans un Violon' detracts but the lush vignette of 'May I?' is ever more charming and the tortured acid of Oldfield's guitar on 'Lunatic's Lament' is spinechillingly wonderful.
A non-LP single 'Butterfly Dance' was released in October 1970. Its B-side contains 'Puis-je?', a French language version of the classic 'May-I?'. The A and B sides were reversed in France. Ayers also produced and appeared on Bridget St. John's single 'If You've Got Money'/'Yep' on Dandelion. The B-side is a unique Ayers/Daevid Allen composition.
The Whole World collapsed terminally in the summer of 1971. Ayers cited the pressures of being both a solo performer and a band member as a contributory factor but there seems to have been little ill feeling in the long term. Ayers collaborated on albums by both Coxhill and Bedford, whilst Oldfield borrowed Ayers' tape recorder for the demos of 'Tubular Bells'. A final single from the Whole World coupled 'Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes' with 'Stars' in August 1971, but Ayers had by then decided to try his luck elsewhere. He joined Gong and old friend Daevid Allen in France and toured the UK and Belgium but the alliance was an uncomfortable one and dissolved in early 1972.
January 1972 also saw the release of a third solo album with members of both the Whole World and Gong. 'Whatevershebringswesing' was not perhaps as cohesive as its predecessors, but the quality of its individual parts - the limpid clarity of the title track, David Bedford's multilayered 'There Is Loving' and the tortured mayhem of 'Song From The Bottom Of A Well' in particular - was indisputable.
Bandless and unable to promote it, Ayers went off at a tangent and recorded some old songs with arrangements by Bedford for a 12-piece orchestra. The project was aired on a BBC 'In Concert' but expense prohibited taking the ensemble on the road. In contrast, casual playing with bassist Archie Legget, whom Ayers knew via Daevid Allen, led to a successful theatrical soiree called Banana Follies, also broadcast as an 'In Concert' programme. Ayers' tribute to Syd Barrett, 'O! Wot A Dream', was released as a single, with 'Connie On A Rubber Band' on the B-side, the latter a version of 'Clarence In Wonderland' backed by reggae group Greyhound.
The release date of the album 'Bananamour' was delayed from January until May 1973 and in the meantime, following a holiday in Jamaica, Ayers released the single 'Caribbean Moon'. Conceived as a deliberate attempt to score commercial success, the single was to be reissued both in 1975 and 1976 and eventually sold in greater, though still insufficient numbers. There are yet further variations on the picture sleeve to be found on the Continent but they surface rarely. To add further confusion, 'Caribbean Moon' was included on the US issue of 'Bananamour', on Sire Records, whilst not on the UK Harvest version. Moreover, some UK copies were originally issued with an explanatory booklet. The album remains many fans' favourite, a direct, piquant trip past Ayers' personal icons - wine, Nico, Barrett, Gurdjieff.
Ayers signed his next contract with the smaller Island label in the hope of keener promotion which was duly delivered but, it is felt, at a price. 1974's 'Confessions of Dr Dream' has some fine moments but the involvement of so many session musicians and Rupert Hine's production give it a colder, more clinical feeling than earlier works. One significant introduction was that of ace guitarist Peter 'Ollie' Halsall who happened to wander in from an adjoining studio. His talents have spiced both Ayers' live and recorded work ever since.
A celebrated Rainbow concert with fellow Island artists Nico, Eno and John Cale was edited for the 'June 1st 1974' album. Side 2 is a pleasant and unique Ayers live set and the album was the fastest release of its day, a mere 28 days after the event. The year also saw two singles containing non-LP tracks that can be found reasonably easily today. Not all of 1974 was high-profile, however. A hidden highlight was Ayers' involvement in 'Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy' on the Caroline label. Ayers sang, played, composed and put his foot through a windscreen, and the evident sheer fun and freedom from pressure makes this rarity an essential purchase. Today, Lady June lives only a stone's throw from Ayers' former home in the Mallorcan village of Deya, a long-established refuge for writers and artists.
The dream turned sour in early 1975 as the final Island Lp 'Sweet Deceiver' was savaged by the critics for being lacklustre in spite of Elton John's involvement. In truth it suffers from a leaden production rather than poor material, but Ayers' fragile self-confidence was shattered and he fled to sunnier climes for the remainder of the year. His artistic credibility was restored by Harvest's budget reissue of the first two albums and, in early 1976, by the release of the wonderful 'Odd Ditties' retrospective which gathered in singles tracks and unreleased material from the classic 1969 to 1973 period. One of the best compilations ever made, it can still be found easily today and provides a very accessible route to Ayers' music for the new and tempted listener. Island released a final single, a cover version of Marlene Dietrich's 'Falling In Love Again' in February 1976.
Ayers in the meantime re-emerged with a new contract with Harvest, who welcomed him as a prodigal son, and a fine set in 'Yes We Have No Mananas'. This sparkling, observant, witty and tender record laid the ghost of 'Sweet Deceiver' to rest and Ayers entered a Silver Age, touring extensively with a tighter band than ever, including Andy Summers, later destined for fame with the Police, on guitar. A further single coupling 'Star' with 'The Owl' was released in 1977 and plans made to tour America for the first time since the Soft Machine days. The tour did not take place but 'Mananas' was released in the US on ABC Records, together with a DJ version of 'Mr Cool' in stereo and mono. 'Rainbow Takeaway', the 1978 successor to 'Mananas, was equally strong but the media was in the grip of Punk and the album was unpromoted, unnoticed and ignored. Ayers slipped just as quietly back to Deya for the next two years.
'That's What You Get Babe' was delivered in 1980 to close Harvest's contract. Possibly one day the songs will be rescued and given the treatment they deserve, rather than the gross sentimentality of producer/ multi-instrumentalist Graham Preskett. Reviews were negative and, apart from a few small club dates - at last - in New York and one shaky support slot at the London Rainbow, Ayers was to turn his back on the UK and concentrate on less fickle audiences in Europe, particularly in Spain and the Low Countries. A picture sleeve single of 2 non-LP songs, 'Animals' and 'Don't Fall In Love With Me', was released in Spain on Columbia.
The next album, 'Diamond Jack and the Queen Of Pain', is very close in essence to mainstream rock, with Ayers' endearing eccentricity buried too deeply beneath synthetic polish. Recorded in Spain, largely with Spanish musicians and producer Juan Ruiz, the record was released originally in the Netherlands on Roadrunner in 1983 and picked up in the UK by Charly Records who also put out the perennial 'Champagne and Valium' as a single. Greater attention was paid in the UK, however, to a good See For Miles compilation of previously issued material from the period 1969 to 1980.
Curiously, 'Diamond Jack' was not released until 1984 in Spain on the WEA label in a different, if equally garish, sleeve. A rare 12" single was also released in Spain only and interest in Ayers was sufficient for the tiny Mallorcan label Blau to release an LP of eight songs and a single recorded on the island back in the winter of 1980 ('Animals' and 'Don't Fall In Love With Me' almost certainly date from the same session). A handful of the LPs found their way to the UK on import but the set, 'Deia Vu', is now rare in Spain itself.
The mid '80's found Ayers at a low spiritual ebb. A diversion that will interest collectors was his production of a mini LP by Belgian combo Starvin' Marvin Siau and the Paranoid Androids in 1985. Ayers' own 1986 album 'As Close As You Think' was a limp lettuce, however, with tired reworkings of three 'Diamond Jack' songs and only 'Wish I Could Fall' and 'Heaven Only Knows' displaying some saving grace. Released in the UK on the independent Illuminated label, the album and accompanying single had such a stamp of oblivion about them that they are now extremely hard to find and have been 'reissued' only on a scurrilous Japanese bootleg.
Something broke through Ayers' depression in 1987 to convince him he did possess the talent and confidence to continue. One happy event was a vocal contribution to Mike Oldfield's 'Islands' album. The track is 'Flying Start', a biographical track written by Oldfield for his old mentor. Ayers also appeared bemusedly in Oldfield's 'Wind Chimes' video.
In the meantime, Ayers' strongest album since 'Mananas' was released in February 1988. 'Falling Up' is a treasure, a journey of self-discovery through the dreamlands of wine and love, the deserts of depression and failure and beyond, to the distant plains of hope. Recorded in Madrid with a mixture of Spanish and English musicians, the production has a wonderful velvet bass sonority. Released in Spain on Grabaciones Accidentales with two Spain-only picture sleeve singles, the UK version was picked up, courtesy of Mike Oldfield perhaps, by Virgin. Most significant was the fact that Ayers himself was enthusiastic about the release and, following a tour of Germany in support of Arlo Guthrie, was at last back on a handful of stages in the UK for the first time in eight years.
The record shelves in the late '80's also began to fill with Ayers reissues, courtesy of the CD boom, and a double compilation from Harvest, though the advertised 'Diminished Not Finished' is erroneously 'Circular Letter'. The CD version, unusually, contains four tracks less. The earlier See For Miles compilation was also reissued in 1990 and there seemed a danger that the promotion of Ayers' past would totally swamp his newest current album.....
A longer wait than ever and then, almost four years to the day, came the rumoured next album and the anticipation of a rare gig or two. 'Still Life With Guitar' returns to an acoustic feel, with Mark Nevin and Danny Thompson joining older friends like Ollie Halsall, Mike Oldfield and Anthony Moore. With a production refined enough perhaps to attract a more mainstream audience, it breathes an air of effortless, calm, quiet, intimate pedigree. A tour throughout Europe promoted the album and culminated with Ayers back on an English stagebut the seeds of success seemed smashed as a bombshell struck in May 1992 when Ollie Halsall was found dead in Madrid. The loss of Kevin's spiritual brother and constant friend through the twists and changes of the past 18 years was a blow that seemed insurmountable. But.....
The show went on, and, ironically, the past four years have seen Ayers busier than ever. With a string of appearances as an acoustic duo with guitarists Kevin Armstrong or Marvin Siau or solo, Kevin has performed in the past three years in Japan, the States and throughout Europe. The small venues and intimacy of acoustic guitars create the perfect ambience for many of his introspective songs. Yet, bucking the trend as ever, Kevin recorded a version of 'Hymn' in full techno-ambient glory with longstanding admirers Ultramarine. Late 1994 and early 1995 saw Ayers team up with the multi-talented Liverpool band the Wizards of Twiddly and a string of magnificent gigs throughout the UK and Europe followed. For many, the sight of the Great Man backed by the sheer electrical power of an almost telepathic band rolled back the years to herald a renaissance........
It's quiet again at the moment - one day there will be a new album and Kevin will amble on stage again to make sweet music. He'll probably still wear faded jeans and a black silk shirt, hair defying gravity and he'll ask for the lights to be turned down low.......a pause for a glass of red wine and we're all back in business again.....
