42-431: Robert Wyatt (born Robert Wyatt-Ellidge , 28 January 1945) is an English retired musician. A founding member of the influential Canterbury scene bands Soft Machine and Matching Mole , he was initially a kit drummer and singer before becoming paraplegic following an accidental fall from a window in 1973, which led him to abandon band work, explore other instruments, and begin a 40-year solo career. A key player during
84-437: A Believer", on the grounds that his use of a wheelchair "was not suitable for family viewing", the producer wanting Wyatt to appear in a wicker chair. Wyatt won the day and "lost his rag but not the wheelchair". A contemporary issue of New Musical Express featured the band (a stand-in acting for Mason), all in wheelchairs, on its cover. Wyatt subsequently sang lead vocals on Mason's first solo album Fictitious Sports (1981),
126-646: A further tribute to Wyatt, on the B-side of the single, Orzabal performs a cover version of "Sea Song", from the Rock Bottom album. This recording later appeared on the compilation album Saturnine Martial & Lunatic and the remastered versions of Songs from the Big Chair . "Sea Song" was also covered by Rachel Unthank and the Winterset on their 2007 album The Bairns , and The Guardian ' s David Peschek said of
168-639: A greater sense of commitment and meaning in their singing." October 2014 saw the release of Different Every Time: The Authorised Biography of Robert Wyatt by Marcus O'Dair . In promotion of the book Wyatt appeared at the Wire 's "Off the Page" festival in Bristol on 26 September, and at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 23 November. A companion compilation album, Different Every Time – Ex Machina / Benign Dictatorships
210-470: A means of clever dicks asserting their superiority in pubs ... It's so unlike Robert, because he's so appreciative of the strengths of pop music. So that, I think, is a real unfairness. The man who coined it, I should like to punch him in the nose." Wyatt is married to English painter and songwriter Alfreda Benge . Text by Robert Wyatt and illustrations by Jean-Michel Marchetti : Canterbury scene The Canterbury scene (or Canterbury sound )
252-599: A new band in England to record these numbers, but on 1 June 1973, during a birthday party for Gong 's Gilli Smyth and June Campbell Cramer (also known as Lady June ) at the latter's Maida Vale home, an inebriated Wyatt fell from a fourth-floor window and broke his spine. He was paralysed from the waist down and has used a wheelchair for mobility ever since. On 4 November, Pink Floyd performed two benefit concerts, in one day, at London's Rainbow Theatre , supported by Soft Machine, and compered by John Peel . The concerts raised
294-518: A reported £10,000 for Wyatt. In a BBC Radio 4 profile aired in 2012, Wyatt revealed that he and his wife Alfreda Benge were also given generous help by friends of Benge's, including supermodel Jean Shrimpton , who gave them a car, and actress Julie Christie , who gave them use of a flat in London, which they later bought from her. In the same interview, Wyatt also observed that his accident probably saved his life – although he did not drink at all when he
336-499: A stage rock band. In 1970, after chaotic touring, three albums and increasing internal conflicts in Soft Machine, Wyatt released his first solo album, The End of an Ear , which combined his vocal and multi-instrumental talents with tape effects. A year later, after becoming increasingly unhappy about his musical ideas being rejected by the others, Wyatt left Soft Machine. He participated in the fusion bigband Centipede , performed at
378-484: A suite of songs composed by American jazz musician Carla Bley . His follow-up single, a reggae ballad remake of Chris Andrews 's hit " Yesterday Man ", again produced by Mason, was eventually given a low-key release, "the boss at Virgin claiming that single was 'lugubrious', the delay and lack of promotion denting Wyatt's chances of a follow-up hit." Wyatt's next solo album, Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard (1975), produced by Wyatt apart from one track produced by Mason,
420-804: Is a pride in [stopping], I don't want [the music] to go off." He is married to English painter and songwriter Alfreda Benge . Wyatt was born in Bristol . His mother, Honor Wyatt , was a journalist with the BBC , and his father, George Ellidge, was an industrial psychologist . Honor Wyatt was a cousin of Woodrow Wyatt , whose political stance influenced Robert in joining the Communist Party of Great Britain . Wyatt had two half-brothers from his parents' previous marriages, Honor Wyatt's son, actor Julian Glover , and George Ellidge's son, press photographer Mark Ellidge . His parents' friends were "quite bohemian", and his upbringing
462-410: Is largely defined by a set of musicians and bands with intertwined members. These are not tied by very strong musical similarities, but a certain whimsicality, touches of psychedelia , rather abstruse lyrics, and a use of improvisation derived from jazz are common elements in their work. "The real essence of 'Canterbury Sound' is the tension between complicated harmonies, extended improvisations, and
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#1732895786510504-468: The Brighton Dome , with Paul Weller and Danny Thompson , in support of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn , as the opening instalment of "People Powered: Concerts for Corbyn". It was Wyatt's most recent public appearance. The Tears for Fears song " I Believe " from their 1985 album Songs from the Big Chair was originally written by bandmember Roland Orzabal for Wyatt, and is dedicated to him. As
546-711: The JazzFest Berlin 's New Violin Summit, a live concert with violinists Jean-Luc Ponty , Don "Sugarcane" Harris , Michał Urbaniak and Nipso Brantner, guitarist Terje Rypdal , keyboardist Wolfgang Dauner and bassist Neville Whitehead , and formed his own band Matching Mole (a pun, "machine molle" being French for 'Soft Machine'), a largely instrumental outfit that recorded two albums. Matching Mole gradually disbanded, and Wyatt began writing material that would eventually appear on his second 'solo' album in Venice. He began to assemble
588-517: The Mercury Music Prize nominated album Cuckooland was released. In 2004 Wyatt collaborated with Björk on the song "Submarine" which was released on her fifth album Medúlla . He sang and played cornet and percussion with David Gilmour on Gilmour's album On an Island , and read passages from the novels of Haruki Murakami for Max Richter 's album Songs from Before . In 2006 Wyatt collaborated with Steve Nieve and Muriel Teodori on
630-511: The Canterbury scene never had anything to do with Canterbury, the place. The former Soft Machine bassist Hugh Hopper , who lived in Whitstable , near Canterbury, said: "I think it's a rather artificial label, a journalistic thing... I don't mind it, but people like Robert [Wyatt] , he in fact hates that idea, because he was born somewhere else and just happened to go to school here. In the time when
672-474: The North , Carla Bley , Eno, Michael Mantler , and Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera , contributing lead vocals to lead track "Frontera", from Manzanera's 1975 solo debut Diamond Head . In 1976 he was featured vocalist on Mantler's settings of the poems of Edward Gorey , appearing alongside Terje Rypdal (guitar) Carla Bley (piano, clavinet, synthesizer), Steve Swallow (bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums) on
714-555: The Rolling Stones ' " We Love You " which had additional backing vocals from Brian Wilson , he and his wife Alfreda Benge spent a sabbatical in Spain, before returning in 1991 with a comeback album Dondestan . His 1997 album Shleep was also praised. In 1999 he collaborated with the Italian singer Cristina Donà on her second album Nido . In the summer of 2000 her first EP Goccia
756-549: The UK Singles Chart, having reached number 2 in John Peel 's Festive Fifty for 1982-released tracks. In 1984 Wyatt provided guest vocals, along with Tracey Thorn and Claudia Figueroa, on "Venceremos (We Will Win)", a song expressing political solidarity with Chilean people suffering under Pinochet 's military dictatorship, released as a single by UK soul-jazz dance band Working Week , also included on their debut album released
798-489: The Wilde Flowers started we hardly ever worked in Canterbury. It wasn't until Robert and Daevid [Allen] went to London to start Soft Machine that anything happened at all. They weren't really a Canterbury band [...] if it helps people understand or listen to more music then it is fine." In the 21st century, the Canterbury group Syd Arthur have been seen as latter-day practitioners. Poet, painter, and singer Lady June
840-568: The Wilde Flowers , with Kevin Ayers , Richard Sinclair and Brian Hopper . Wyatt was initially the drummer in the Wilde Flowers, but following the departure of Ayers, he also became lead singer. In 1966, the Wilde Flowers split into two bands— Caravan and the Soft Machine —and Wyatt, along with Mike Ratledge, was invited to join Soft Machine by Kevin Ayers and Daevid Allen . Wyatt both drummed and shared vocals with Ayers, an unusual combination for
882-560: The album Around Robert Wyatt by the French Orchestre National de Jazz. In 2008, Wyatt collaborated with Hot Chip on the EP Hot Chip with Robert Wyatt and Geese . Wyatt was one of the guest editors of BBC Radio 4 's Today programme, working on the 1 January 2010 programme. Among other things he advocated greater prominence for amateur choirs, and admitted to a preference for them over professional choirs "because there's
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#1732895786510924-418: The album The Hapless Child and Other Stories . His solo work during the early 1980s was increasingly politicised, and Wyatt became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain . In 1983, his original version of Elvis Costello and Clive Langer 's Falklands War -inspired song " Shipbuilding ", which followed a series of political cover-versions (collected as Nothing Can Stop Us ), reached number 35 in
966-535: The arrangements to adjust to his new circumstances, and many of the lyrics were completed during this period. The album was met with mostly positive reviews. Two months later Wyatt put out a single, a cover version of " I'm a Believer ", which hit number 29 in the UK chart. Both were produced by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason . There were strong arguments with the producer of Top of the Pops surrounding Wyatt's performance of "I'm
1008-581: The cover: "That's the best version of that I've ever heard". In November 2011, The Unthanks released a live album, The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & the Johnsons , and Wyatt is quoted on the cover of the album as saying "I love the idea. It makes me happy just thinking about it." Dev Hynes credited Wyatt's album, Old Rottenhat as an influence on the song, "Take Your Time" from Hynes' 2018 album (as Blood Orange), Negro Swan . The verb "Wyatting" appeared in some blogs and music magazines to describe
1050-734: The early 1970s, and he felt that, had the accident not intervened to change his lifestyle, his heavy drinking and reckless behaviour would have eventually killed him. The injury led Wyatt to abandon the Matching Mole project, and his rock drumming (though he would continue to play drums and percussion in more of a "jazz" fashion, without the use of his feet). He promptly embarked on a solo career, and with musician friends (including Mike Oldfield , Ivor Cutler and Henry Cow guitarist Fred Frith ) released his solo album Rock Bottom on 26 July 1974. The album had been largely composed prior to Wyatt's accident, but during Wyatt's convalescence, he rethought
1092-423: The following year. In 1985 Wyatt released Old Rottenhat , his first album of original songs since Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard . The album featured strongly political songs with relatively sparse arrangements played largely by Wyatt alone. In the late 1980s, after collaborations with other acts such as News from Babel , Scritti Politti , and Japanese recording artist Ryuichi Sakamoto on his 1989 cover of
1134-463: The formative years of British jazz fusion , psychedelia and progressive rock , Wyatt's own work became increasingly interpretative, collaborative and politicised from the mid-1970s onwards. His solo music has covered a particularly individual musical terrain ranging from covers of pop singles to shifting, amorphous song collections drawing on elements of jazz , folk and nursery rhyme . Wyatt retired from his music career in 2014, stating "there
1176-579: The opera Welcome to the Voice interpreting the character 'the Friend', both singing and playing pocket trumpet. Wyatt released Comicopera in October 2007 on Domino Records , who went on to re-release Drury Lane , Rock Bottom , Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard , Nothing Can Stop Us , Old Rottenhat , Dondestan , Shleep , EPs and Cuckooland on CD and vinyl the following year. In 2009 he appeared on
1218-559: The practice of playing unusual tracks, in particular songs from Wyatt's album Dondestan , on a pub jukebox to annoy the other pub goers. Wyatt was quoted in 2006 in The Guardian as saying "I think it's really funny" and "I'm very honoured at the idea of becoming a verb." When asked if he would ever try it himself, he said: "I don't really like disconcerting people, but even when I try to be normal I disconcert anyway." However, Alfreda Benge said it made her angry "that Robert should be used as
1260-400: The scene as having "certain chord changes, in particular the use of minor second chords, certain harmonic combinations, and a great clarity in the aesthetics, and a way of improvising that is very different from what is done in jazz." There is debate about the existence and definition of the scene. Dave Stewart has complained at the nomenclature as he and many other musicians identified with
1302-457: The sincere desire to write catchy pop songs." "In the very best Canterbury music...the musically silly and the musically serious are juxtaposed in an amusing and endearing way." There is variation within the scene, for example from pop/rock like early Soft Machine and much Caravan to avant-garde composed pieces as with early National Health to improvised jazz as with later Soft Machine or In Cahoots . Didier Malherbe (of Gong ) has defined
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1344-557: Was "unconventional". Wyatt said "It seemed perfectly normal to me. My father didn't join us until I was six, and he died ten years later, having retired early with multiple sclerosis, so I was brought up a lot by women." Wyatt attended the Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys , Canterbury, and as a teenager lived with his parents in Lydden near Dover , where he was taught drums by visiting American jazz drummer George Neidorf. It
1386-709: Was a musical scene centred on the city of Canterbury , Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Associated with progressive rock , the term describes a loosely-defined, improvisational style that blended elements of jazz , rock , and psychedelia . These musicians played together in numerous bands, with ever-changing and overlapping personnel, creating some similarities in their musical output. Many prominent British avant-garde or fusion musicians began their career in Canterbury bands, including Hugh Hopper , Steve Hillage , Dave Stewart (the keyboardist), Robert Wyatt , Kevin Ayers , Richard Sinclair , Daevid Allen , and Mike Ratledge . The Canterbury scene
1428-486: Was born in Oslo, Norway, the son of a composer and orchestra leader. He studied classical piano and trumpet as a child, and then taught himself to play guitar as he entered his teens. Starting out as a Hank Marvin -influenced rock guitarist with The Vanguards , Rypdal turned towards jazz in 1968 and joined Jan Garbarek 's group and later George Russell 's sextet and orchestra. An important step towards international attention
1470-565: Was curator of the Meltdown festival, and sang " Comfortably Numb " with David Gilmour at the festival. It was recorded on Gilmour's DVD David Gilmour in Concert . In January 2003, BBC Four broadcast Free Will and Testament , a programme featuring performance footage of Wyatt with musicians Ian Maidman, Liam Genockey, Annie Whitehead and Janette Mason, and interviews with John Peel, Brian Eno, Annie Whitehead, Alfie and Wyatt himself. Later in 2003,
1512-519: Was during this period that Wyatt met and became friends with expatriate Australian musician Daevid Allen , who rented a room in Wyatt's family home. In 1962, Wyatt and Neidorf moved to Majorca , living near the poet Robert Graves . The following year, Wyatt returned to England and joined the Daevid Allen Trio with Allen and Hugh Hopper . Allen subsequently left for France, and Wyatt and Hopper formed
1554-648: Was his participation in the free jazz festival in Baden-Baden , Germany, in 1969, where he was part of a band led by Lester Bowie . During his musical studies at Oslo university and conservatory, he led the orchestra of the Norwegian version of the musical Hair . He has often been recorded on the ECM record label, both jazz-oriented material and classical compositions (some of which do not feature Rypdal's guitar). His compositions "Last Nite" and "Mystery Man" were featured in
1596-452: Was more jazz-led, with free jazz influences. Guest musicians included Brian Eno on guitar, synthesizer and "direct inject anti-jazz ray gun". Wyatt went on to appear on the fifth release of Eno's Obscure Records label, Jan Steele/John Cage: Voices and Instruments (1976), singing two Cage songs. Throughout the rest of the 1970s Wyatt guested with various acts, including Henry Cow (documented on their Concerts album), Hatfield and
1638-562: Was regarded an "honorary member" of the Canterbury scene for having performed and recorded with some of the members, and being a "landlady" to many in her flat in Maida Vale , London. Terje Rypdal Terje Rypdal (born 23 August 1947) is a Norwegian guitarist and composer. He has been an important member in the Norwegian jazz community, and has also given show concerts with guitarists Ronni Le Tekrø and Mads Eriksen as "N3". Rypdal
1680-512: Was released and Wyatt made an appearance in the video of the title track. Wyatt contributed "Masters of the Field", as well as "The Highest Gander", "La Forêt Rouge" and "Hors Champ" to the soundtrack of the 2001 film Winged Migration . He can be seen in the DVD's Special Features section, and is praised by the film's composer Bruno Coulais as being a big influence in his younger days. In June 2001, Wyatt
1722-658: Was released on 18 November 2014. Wyatt performed the soundtrack to Jimmy McGovern 's 2014 BBC production, Common . In an interview with Uncut magazine in December 2014, Wyatt announced that he had "stopped" making music. He cited age and greater interest in politics as his reasons. In January 2015 Wyatt's biography Different Every Time was featured as BBC Radio 4 's Book of the Week , abridged by Katrin Williams and read by Julian Rhind-Tutt . On 16 December 2016 Wyatt appeared at
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1764-540: Was younger, he quickly fell into a pattern of heavy drinking while touring the United States in the late 1960s supporting the Jimi Hendrix Experience , and that he often caroused with heavy-drinking colleagues like Mitch Mitchell , Noel Redding and especially Keith Moon (who introduced him to the practice of alternating shots of tequila and Southern Comfort ). By his own estimation, he was an alcoholic by
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