2nd Vision was a British jazz-rock band notable for including guitarist John Etheridge and violinist Ric Sanders, both former members of Soft Machine. It released the album First Steps, which has been re-released on Blueprint Records (Voiceprint Group) in 2006.
The roots of 2nd Vision were sown in 1977 when Sanders invited keyboard player Dave Bristow and drummer Mickey Barker, both of whom he'd already played with in his Birmingham days, to form an improvising unit named Surrounding Silence, which debuted at the Riverside Jazz Festival in August 1977.
After Etheridge and ex-Gryphon bassist Jonathan Davie joined them, the band, renamed 20/20 Vision, played a well-received gig at the Alexandra Palace in May 1979. The band were offered a management deal by Jo Lustig, who had already represented the likes of Richard Thompson, Pentangle and the Chieftains, and signed with Chrysalis, recording their debut LP in the autumn of 1979, with John Cameron producing. The material was composed by either Sanders or Bristow, with Etheridge contributing one piece, a new version of his Soft Machine solo acoustic guitar piece "Etika".
"It was a jazz-rock group, in the mould of Weather Report, Mahavishnu, that kind of things", Etheridge remembered. "The one album we made was a very good record. It sounds dated now of course, because it was done using the Yamaha CS-80... But of all the records that I've made, it's the one that the most trouble was taken over making. I was very pleased with the guitar on it, we took a lot of time to do it. I was quite happy with that... But this was in the late 70's, so it was all punk and new-wave...".
The album was launched with a four-night residency at London's Riverside Studios in Hammersmith on 7–10 May 1980, with a different guest (Richard Thompson, Gordon Giltrap, Jethro Tull's David Palmer, June Tabor) joining the band each night. Unfortunately, all the British music papers went on strike for several weeks, so there was almost no coverage of the event, and the album failed to sell.
There was an attempt to continue the band with a revised line-up, including bassist Fred Thelonious Baker and drummer Nick Twyman (his predecessor Barker would go on to join heavy-metal band Magnum in 1985), which toured the UK extensively as the John Etheridge/Ric Sanders Group in May 1981, but sadly this was to be its swansong.
A supergroup is a musical group formed with members who are already successful as solo artists or as members of other successful groups. The term became popular in the late 1960s when members of already successful rock groups recorded albums together, after which they normally disbanded. Charity supergroups, in which prominent musicians perform or record together in support of a particular cause, have been common since the 1980s. The term is most common in the context of rock and pop music, but it has occasionally been applied to other musical genres. For example, opera superstars the Three Tenors have been called a supergroup.
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater. They started out influenced by American folk rock, with a set list dominated by Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell songs and a sound that earned them the nickname "the British Jefferson Airplane". Vocalists Judy Dyble and Iain Matthews joined them before the recording of their self-titled debut in 1968; afterwards, Dyble was replaced by Sandy Denny, with Matthews later leaving during the recording of their third album.
Soft Machine are a British rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen and Larry Nowlin. As a central band of the Canterbury scene, the group became one of the first British psychedelic acts and later moved into progressive rock and jazz fusion, becoming a purely instrumental band since 1971. The band has undergone many line-up changes, with musicians such as Andy Summers, Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, John Marshall, Karl Jenkins, Roy Babbington and Allan Holdsworth being members during the band's history. The current line-up consists of John Etheridge, Theo Travis, Fred Thelonious Baker and Asaf Sirkis.
Dave Pegg is an English multi-instrumentalist and record producer, primarily a bass guitarist. He is the longest-serving member of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention and has been bassist with a number of folk and rock groups including the Ian Campbell Folk Group and Jethro Tull.
Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins,, HonFLSW is a Welsh multi-instrumentalist and composer. His best known works include the song "Adiemus", the Adiemus album series; Palladio; The Armed Man; his Requiem and his Stabat Mater (2008).
Rise Up Like the Sun is a British folk rock album released in 1978 by The Albion Band. The album is in part a collaboration between John Tams on vocals and melodeon and Ashley Hutchings on electric bass. This is not the first album on which the two worked together but it remains the most fulfilling for listeners. To build the sound Hutchings brought in two of his former compatriots from Fairport Convention, Dave Mattacks on drums and tambourine and Simon Nicol on vocals and electric and acoustic guitars. In addition another ex-member of Fairport, Richard Thompson, contributed songs and backing vocals. Having assembled the principal contributors and an ambiance that encouraged their friends to drop in, Hutchings gave Tams the freedom to act as the project's musical director. They were joined by Philip Pickett on shawms, bagpipes, curtals and trumpet, Pete Bullock on synthesiser, piano, clarinet, sax, and organ, Michael Gregory on percussion, Ric Sanders on violin and violectra and Graeme Taylor on electric and acoustic guitars. Kate McGarrigle, Julie Covington, Linda Thompson, Pat Donaldson, Martin Carthy, Andy Fairweather-Low and Dave Bristow make guest appearances.
Richard "Ric" Lee is an English drummer of the blues rock band Ten Years After.
Roy Babbington is an English rock and jazz bassist. He became well known for being a member of the Canterbury scene progressive rock band Soft Machine.
John Goodsall was a British-American progressive rock and jazz fusion guitarist most noted for his work with Brand X, Atomic Rooster, and The Fire Merchants.
Gary Husband is an English jazz and rock drummer, pianist, keyboard player and bandleader. He is also a composer, arranger and producer.
John Michael Glyn Etheridge is an English jazz fusion guitarist, composer, bandleader and educator known for his eclecticism and broad range of associations in jazz, classical, and contemporary music. He is best known for his work with Soft Machine from 1975 to 1978, 1984 and 2004 to present.
Richard Sanders is an English violinist who has played in jazz-rock, folk rock, British folk rock and folk groups, including Soft Machine and Fairport Convention.
Softs is the ninth studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in 1976.
Alive & Well: Recorded in Paris is a (mostly) live album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in 1978.
Jon (Jonathan) Davie is a bass guitar player with British folk rock bands including Gryphon and Home Service. He was also, using the name John Thomas, a member of The Banned, a British punk/new wave band in the late 1970s.
"Huffin" is an instrumental song written by Karl Jenkins and performed by Soft Machine. It was only released as a live recording, on their album Alive & Well: Recorded in Paris. It is the last section of a suite of seven connecting songs which comprise the first side of the album, and is preceded by a short song titled "Puffin" which serves as an introduction to "Huffin".
Fred Thelonious Baker is an English guitarist and jazz bass guitarist from Tibshelf, Derbyshire. He is known for playing in Phil Miller's Canterbury scene band In Cahoots.
Patrice Meyer is a French electric guitarist active in Jazz, Jazz rock, Progressive rock and Canterbury scene bands.
Hidden Details is the eleventh studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in September 2018.
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