Kevin Ayers Dies In France Aged 68

There are very few musicians on the planet who could boast that Mike Oldfield used to be their bass player. Kevin Ayers could, although I don't know whether he ever did.
Although Kevin could not be described as a RockBottom in the literal sense, he did have, what is often called, "a good innings" although these days I think most of us would like to get well into our seventies or eighties before heading for the final gig in the great stadium in the sky.
My angle with Kevin, stay with me on this, is that he never seemed to get quite as far as he could have done, given his considerable talent and extensive network of contacts in the industry.
Kevin's long career started in the mid-sixties when he became a founder member of the Canterbury-based Wilde Flowers. This band became a starting point for several other notable musicians and two principal bands came into being from the ashes of Wilde Flowers when it fell apart in the mid-sixties, namely Caravan and Soft Machine which Kevin formed with drummer Robert Wyatt, Guitarist Daevid Allen and bassist Hugh Hopper.
Keyboard player Mike Ratledge soon completed the lineup and Soft Machine became successful in the UK and toured the USA supporting Jimi Hendrix in 1968.
After this tour Kevin left Soft Machine to follow a solo career and released a number of fine albums with the Harvest label following which he moved to Island Records and released the critically acclaimed "The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories" with Mike Oldfield making a comeback into the lineup.
As the seventies wore on, Kevin performed less and almost disappeared from the scene until, in 1988, he released "Fallin Up" which met with considerable acclaim and also recorded a vocal for Mike Oldfield's "Flying Start".
After this, Kevin again became a virtual recluse and spent much of his time in his adopted French home, the medieval village of Montolieu.
After a brief burst of activity in 2007 with the release of "The Unfairground" which, once again, gained considerable critical acclaim, Kevin once again retreated into obscurity and died in his sleep on 18 February 2013 aged 68.
Rolling Stone magazine referred to Kevin as "Britain's Carefree Psychedelic Genius" when announcing his death - I think that says it all.

Recommended Listening & Reading
It's worth setting some time aside and listening to a selection of Kevin's work but if I had to choose a few for you, which is a task I happily take upon myself, then we'd have to include:


Joy Of A Toy
Kevin's first album, still plenty of overtones, or are they undertones? of the Soft Machine. This is hardly suprising since several of his old colleagues from Soft Machine were featured on the album. This is one I urge you to listen to first although if you want a great value option covering the early years of Kevin's career then the following is probably a better bet:


The Harvest Years 1969-1974
All four of the albums Kevin created with Harvest records before moving to Island Records. He did return to Harvest in 1976 but those recordings are not on this compilation.

My favourite Kevin Ayers track is May I?, from his second album, Shooting At The Moon with Mike Oldfield, Lol Coxhill and David Bedford. This is the one you should really get if you only want a flavour of the man's work, (although there is much that you would be missing), here is the MP3 download link

Other great Kevin Ayers & Soft Machine stuff can be found in the "Celebrated Rockbottoms Store" or check out the currently listed items available on eBay.