A great look at the work of Kevin Ayers (yes again!) and Urbanaspirines have revisited the reissue of his first two 'solo' albums Joy of A Toy from 1969 and 'Shooting At The Moon' (with The Whole World) Once again his notes are really worth a read and help the context of Kevin in the panoply of music makers with Eno, Cale, Nico to Soft Machine, Mike Oldfield, Lol Coxhill etc. The Whole World featured Mike Oldfield on bass (no less!) and the ubiquitous Lol Coxhill who played a lot around the free festivals I used to go to and we had him play MOMA under the auspices of Marco Livingstone (art expert curator, gallerists and actually a very fine musicologist who started out interviewing rock and pop people - not a lot of people know that - and they should - he introduced me to Nick Cave but I digress . . .) Coxhill played that time with perhaps one of the finest piano players I have ever witnessed ( I use the term accordingly) Veryan Weston (of Stinky Winkles - still my favourite name for a band! sic) Enjoy!
Kevin Ayers - Joy of A Toy and Shooting At The Moon 69/70 - Urbanaspirines
the intro begins thusly:
Kevin Ayers (16 August 1944 – 18 February 2013) 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. . . . . . . . . .
By the late 90s Ayers had become something of a recluse He died in his sleep on 18 February 2013 in Montolieu, France, aged 68
Ah...Kevin Ayers.
ReplyDeleteOne of those musicians that hides under the radar, but when you go and re-listen, you realise what a treasure he was....
On an unrelated note...thanks for the reference to Edna St. Vincent Millay.... a new one on me , but I am smitten...
J
Oh thanks for dropping by JC! Great comments as always. Loved your last postings. Ayers was a discovery at (Art School) college and loved his humour and work always. The Edna is a recent discovery(well in the last ten years or so), shared with a number of friends and fans both here and in the USA.
ReplyDeleteShe is fascinating and uniformly & reliably a great poet
Hope for you in the is heat - I really don't do well with it me'sen!