Alfreda Benge is a lyricist and illustrator. She was born in 1940 in Austria to a Polish mother, and came to England in 1947. [1] Her stepfather, Ronald Benge, was a prominent librarian who established library schools in developing countries. She has been married to musician Robert Wyatt since 1974. [2] She has contributed lyrics to many of his compositions, and has written lyrics for French musician/producer Bertrand Burgalat, and for Brazilian singer Monica Vasconcelos.
Benge studied painting at Camberwell Art School, graphics at the London School of Printing, film at the RCA, worked in film, and served as an assistant to the editor Graeme Clifford for Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1973). She has provided cover artwork for all solo albums by Robert Wyatt since 1974, as well as for albums by other musicians including Gravity by Fred Frith, Alice by Klimperei and Spanish Dance Troupe by Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. She has illustrated two children's books written by Ivor Cutler.
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice is an English lyricist and author. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote, among other shows, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Evita; Chess ; Aida ; and for Disney Aladdin, The Lion King, both the stage adaptation of Beauty and the Beast and the live-action film adaption. He also wrote lyrics for the Alan Menken musical King David, and for DreamWorks Animation's The Road to El Dorado.
Robert Wyatt is a retired English 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.
Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) is the second solo studio album by Brian Eno (mononymously credited as "Eno"), released in November 1974 by Island Records. Unlike his debut album Here Come the Warm Jets, which featured 16 musicians, this album utilized a core band of five instrumentalists: Eno (keyboards, guitar), Phil Manzanera (guitar), Brian Turrington (bass guitar), Freddie Smith (drums), and Robert Wyatt (percussion). Manzanera also participated in the writing and production. To help guide the musicians, Eno and Peter Schmidt developed instruction cards called Oblique Strategies to facilitate creativity during the recording process.
John Foxx is an English singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer. He was the original lead singer of the new wave band Ultravox, before leaving to embark on a solo career in 1980 with the album Metamatic.
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" is a song by Bob Dylan, recorded on January 14, 1965, and released as a single by Columbia Records, catalogue number 43242, on March 8. It is the first track on the album Bringing It All Back Home, released some two weeks later. It was Dylan's first Top 40 hit in the United States, peaking at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also entered the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart. The song has subsequently been reissued on numerous compilations, the first being the 1967 singles compilation Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits. One of Dylan's first electric recordings, "Subterranean Homesick Blues" is also notable for its innovative music video, which first appeared in D. A. Pennebaker's documentary Dont Look Back. An acoustic version of the song, recorded the day before the single, was released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 1961–1991.
The End of an Ear is the debut solo album by Soft Machine's Robert Wyatt.
Rock Bottom is the second solo album by former Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt. It was released on 26 July 1974 by Virgin Records. The album was produced by Pink Floyd's drummer Nick Mason, and was recorded following a 1973 accident which left Wyatt a paraplegic. He enlisted musicians including Ivor Cutler, Hugh Hopper, Richard Sinclair, Laurie Allan, Mike Oldfield and Fred Frith in the recording.
Cuckooland is the eighth studio album by jazz rock artist Robert Wyatt. It was released in 2003 on Hannibal Records. The artwork is by Alfreda Benge. The Wire named Cuckooland the record of the year in its annual critics' poll.
Shleep is the seventh album by Canterbury scene and progressive rock veteran and musician Robert Wyatt, released in 1997.
Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard is the third solo album by Robert Wyatt.
Nothing Can Stop Us is a compilation album by Robert Wyatt released in 1982.
Laurie Allan is an English drummer, best known for stints in Delivery and Gong.
"Shipbuilding" is a song with lyrics by Elvis Costello and music by Clive Langer. Written during the Falklands War of 1982, Costello's lyrics highlight the irony of the war bringing back prosperity to the traditional shipbuilding areas of Clydeside, Merseyside, North East England and Belfast to build new ships to replace those being sunk in the war, whilst also sending off the sons of these areas to fight and, potentially, lose their lives in those same ships. According to Robert Sandall, the best version of the song is the one recorded and released as a single by English singer-songwriter Robert Wyatt in August 1982 a few months after the Falklands War, although it was not a hit until it was re-released eight months later on the first anniversary of the conflict.
Comicopera is the final album by Robert Wyatt, released on 8 October 2007 and available on both CD and double vinyl formats. The vinyl's fourth side contains no music and has a poem etched into its surface. It is Wyatt's first release on the Domino Records label. It features many other musicians, including Brian Eno, Paul Weller, Gilad Atzmon and Phil Manzanera, and was recorded in Wyatt's house and Manzanera's recording studio. The song "Del Mondo" is a cover from Ko de mondo, the second album of Italian post-punk band Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti.
Serafina Steer is an English harpist, and songwriter based in London. She is best known as a regular collaborator with Jarvis Cocker. In addition to harp, she plays keyboards, bass guitar and has composed for theatre and TV.
Old Rottenhat is the fourth studio album by Robert Wyatt. It was released in November 1985, and in 1993 it was reissued in its entirety as part of the CD Mid-Eighties. The album was produced and performed solo by Wyatt, and is dedicated to Michael Bettaney, a UK MI5 intelligence officer who in 1984 was convicted for acting as an agent-in-place for the Soviet Union.
Dondestan is the fifth studio album by Robert Wyatt, released in 1991 on Rough Trade Records. The title is a phonetic rendition of the Spanish expression "Donde están", i.e. "Where are they". The cover art is by Wyatt's wife, Alfreda Benge.
The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & the Johnsons, the fifth album by English folk group the Unthanks and the first to be recorded live, was released on 28 November 2011. Its extended title is: Diversions Vol. 1: The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & the Johnsons: Live from the Union Chapel, London.
Jennifer Maidman is a British musician, singer, producer, songwriter, actress and author who has collaborated extensively with many internationally well known groups and artists. Her work appears on hundreds of recordings from 1976 onwards and she has received numerous awards, including a platinum award from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for the album 'Hormonally Yours', on which she worked as part of the band Shakespears Sister. She was a core member of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra from 1984 until 2007. She is best known as a bass guitarist but also sings and plays guitar, keyboards, drums, percussion, ukulele, cuatro and Chapman Stick. In June 2016, her website announced that she was working on a solo album in Woodstock, New York featuring amongst others, Jerry Marotta, Annie Whitehead, and David Torn. The album, entitled 'Dreamland' was released on 1 August 2017 and features Marotta, Torn and Whitehead, with guest contributions from Paul Brady and Robert Wyatt amongst others. Since 2017, she has also been collaborating frequently with New York-based arts cooperative The Secret City. In 2021, she reunited with Joan Armatrading for a live stream concert at the Asylum Chapel in London. In 2022, the concert was broadcast in the UK by the BBC and released as a double album on CD and streaming services.
Theatre Royal Drury Lane 8th September 1974 is a 2005 live album by English progressive rock musician Robert Wyatt, documenting a concert on that date at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. The concert took place the year after Wyatt had fallen from a fourth-storey window and become paralysed from the waist down. Since the accident, Wyatt has used a wheelchair. The concert remains Wyatt's first and only live performance as a headlining solo artist.