The Canterbury scene 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.
Soft Machine are a British rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers and Daevid Allen. 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.
Kevin Ayers was an English singer-songwriter who was active in the English psychedelic music movement. Ayers was a founding member of the psychedelic band Soft Machine in the mid-1960s, and was closely associated with the Canterbury scene. He recorded a series of albums as a solo artist and over the years worked with Brian Eno, Syd Barrett, Bridget St John, John Cale, Elton John, Robert Wyatt, Andy Summers, Mike Oldfield, Nico and Ollie Halsall, among others. After living for many years in Deià, Mallorca, he returned to the United Kingdom in the mid-1990s before moving to the south of France. His last album, The Unfairground, was released in 2007. The British rock journalist Nick Kent wrote: "Kevin Ayers and Syd Barrett were the two most important people in British pop music. Everything that came after came from them."
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 forty-year solo career.
Hugh Colin Hopper was a British progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and other bands.
Caravan are an English rock band from the Canterbury area, founded by former Wilde Flowers members David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, Pye Hastings, and Richard Coughlan in 1968. The band have never achieved the great commercial success that was widely predicted for them at the beginning of their career, but are nevertheless considered a key part of the Canterbury scene of progressive rock acts, blending psychedelic rock, jazz, and classical influences to create a distinctive sound.
Third is a live and studio album by the English rock band Soft Machine, released as their third overall in June 1970 by CBS Records. It is a double album with a single composition on each of the four sides, and was the first of two albums recorded with a four-piece line-up of keyboardist Mike Ratledge, drummer and vocalist Robert Wyatt, saxophonist Elton Dean, and bass guitarist Hugh Hopper. Third marks a shift in the group's sound from their psychedelic origins towards jazz rock and electronic music.
Phillip "Pip" Pyle was an English-born drummer from Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, who later resided in France. He is best known for his work in the Canterbury scene bands Gong, Hatfield and the North and National Health.
The Soft Machine is the debut album by the British psychedelic rock band Soft Machine, released in 1968. It is the group's only album to feature Kevin Ayers as a member.
In the Land of Grey and Pink is the third album by English progressive rock band Caravan, released in April 1971 on Deram Records. It was produced by David Hitchcock and was the last album to feature the original lineup of Richard Coughlan, Pye Hastings, Richard Sinclair and Dave Sinclair until 1982's Back to Front.
David Sinclair is a British keyboardist associated with the psychedelic/progressive rock Canterbury Scene since the late 1960s. He became famous with the band Caravan and was responsible as a songwriter for creating some of their best-known tracks: "For Richard", "Nine Feet Underground", "The Dabsong Conshirtoe", "Proper Job/Back to Front".
Richard Stephen Sinclair is an English progressive rock bassist, guitarist, and vocalist who has been a member of several bands of the Canterbury scene.
Caravan of Dreams were a British progressive rock band from the Canterbury scene. Led by Richard Sinclair, it evolved from the short-lived Going Going.
Richard Coughlan was an English musician, best known as the drummer and percussionist of the Canterbury scene progressive rock band Caravan. He was one of the founding members of Caravan in 1968 and remained with the band until his death. AllMusic called Coughlan "one of art rock's longest tenured musicians".
Caravan is the debut album by the British Canterbury scene and progressive rock band Caravan. It was released by Verve Forecast in January 1969 and was the group's only album for the label.
Joy of a Toy is the debut solo album of Kevin Ayers, a founding member of Soft Machine. He is accompanied on the LP by pianist and arranger David Bedford as well as his erstwhile Soft Machine colleagues Robert Wyatt and Mike Ratledge, and his eventual replacement Hugh Hopper, who had previously worked with him in the semi-pro band Wilde Flowers. Among the session musicians are cellist and arranger Paul Buckmaster, jazz bassist Jeff Clyne, oboist Paul Minns and drummer Rob Tait.
"Singing a Song in the Morning" was the first solo single released by Kevin Ayers, one of the founding members of the band Soft Machine. It was issued three months after Ayers' debut solo LP Joy of a Toy, and the artist was credited on the record label as Kevin Ayers and the Whole World. Although the song was not included on the original Joy of a Toy album, the single's B-side, "Eleanor's Cake ", was on the album.
All Over You...Too is the second compilation album volume of the 1990s reformation of the progressive rock band Caravan released in 2000.
Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales (2015) is the third in a series of feature-length documentaries about Progressive rock written and directed by Adele Schmidt and José Zegarra Holder. This one focuses on the music of the Canterbury scene.
