Voiceprint Music - Release

Release

£14.99

In stock

Catalogue number

VPDVD45

Release date

05/05/2008

Format

DVD

Region: 0

Ratio: 16:9

Sound: Stereo

Classification: E

Label

Voiceprint

Soft Machine

Alive In Paris 1970

Disc 1

1. Facelift 2. Eamonn Andrews 3. Backwards/Mousetrap Reprise 4. Out-Bloody-Rageous 5. Robert Wyatt 6. Esther's Nosejob

Soft Machine grew out of a meeting between two former members of the legendary Canterbury band The Wilde Flowers (Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers) An Australian beatnik (Daevid Allen) and an Oxford University student (Mike Ratledge) in 1966. Once the band had got together courtesy of a financial benefactor who agreed to finance the band they contacted William Burroughs to ask his permission to use the name The Soft Machine. Burroughs agreed and the band was in business. Along with other bands including Pink Floyd Soft Machine were at the vanguard of the new London Underground music scene and regularly played gigs at celebrated clubs like UFO and more famously at the launch of the International Times magazine at the Roundhouse. The band were signed to Polydor records and recorded a single which featured a track called Feelin’Reelin’ Squeelin’ which featured the talents of Jimi Hendrix who was a Soft Machine fan. The single however was unrepresentative of the bands sound, which leaned heavily on free form improvisation. Following a gig in St. Tropez the band returned to England however Daevid Allen was refused entry to the country due to visa problems and the band were forced to carry on as a trio. Allen stayed in France and went on to form Gong while the remaining members of Soft Machine went on to tour America supporting Jimi Hendrix where during a short break in the tour the band recorded their debut album which was released by Probe records in America. Following the tour Kevin Ayers left the band and took up residence in Ibiza.

The band recruited Hugh Hopper as their new bassist and made another album entitled Soft Machine 2. By the time of the bands third and fourth albums (Soft Machine Third and Soft Machine Fourth) the band had moved into a jazz-fusion direction.

This DVD captures THE Canterbury Sound legends Soft Machine live in France filmed at a concert for French television in 1970. The line up of the band at the time of this concert included, Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean and Lyn Dobson. The concert took place on the 2nd of March 1970 at the Theatre de la Musique in Paris. This rare footage has only recently been rediscovered and as such is a rare insight into one of the classic British genre defining bands of the sixties and seventies captured at their creative height. Tracks include Out-Bloody-Rageous, Eamonn Andrews, Facelift and Esther’s Nose Job.

Filmed in superb clear quality this DVD will be eagerly anticipated by the fan base of this uniquely British band.

Licensed courtesy of Joe Sweetinburgh at Impressiverecs.com - Impressive Records [ Consultants ] LLP

Reviews

"Recorded in Paris on the 2nd March 1970 this film, directed by Claude Ventura and presented by Patrice Blanc-Francard, was initially recorded for Pop 2 and, in keeping with the avant-garde nature of the band in question, is filmed in a rather unusual way, either from the side or the back of the stage, don’t let this put you off however as the sound is fine...and the visuals, whilst odd, are also perfectly good. Featuring, what some consider to be, the finest Soft Machine line-up – the band behind Third - with Robert Wyatt, High Hopper, Mike Ratledge, Elton Dean and Lyn Dobson and an audience so up for it attempts are made to dance like chickens on hot-plates to even the most arrhythmic and atonal passages...given that there’s precious little decent footage of this line-up in existence – Wyatt would leave/be fired (delete as applicable) very soon after this and form Matching Mole - this really is manna from heaven for fans."

Andy Basire, Total Music Magazine, April 2008

The Soft Machine
Alive In Paris 1970
Voiceprint VPDVD45 * * * *
A love affair with France preserved on film
Shot with tangible cinematic flair at Paris' photogenic Theatre De La Musique in March 1970 this superb quality live footage of the Softs at their freewheeling peak was originally broadcast on French Television's Pop 2 slot in two 30 minute segments in the wake of the band's extensive French tour of February and March 1970. Like the sounds fashioned onstage by Messrs Wyatt, Hopper, Ratledge, Dean and Dobson the visual style here is both highly fluid and refreshingly free of the stylistic cliches all too familiar from countless lookalike in concert films. Interestingly, the one thing the footage conspicuously lacks is a surplus of conventional head on camera angles with instead vantage points from side stage and from behind Robert Wyatt's drum kit and the band's backline much in evidence. With the Softs flying high sans safety net and previewing material from their upcoming album Third, the audience in raptures, Robert Wyatt looking like the younger brother of Brian Jones and the sight of Orangina bottles decorating the top of the amps this is a hugely evocative period piece made all the more vivid by the warm hues of the colour film stock. They sure don't make 'em like this any more.
Grahame Bent, Record Collector, April 2008

"Soft Machine, the kings of the Canterbury scene, played in France as early as 1967, but the year 1970 when this gig shot for television at Théâtre de la Musique in Paris was performed was the artistic peak of the band according to a lot of people. The septet that recorded the III album in the beginning of 1970 was down to five people, and in addition to Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper and Mike Ratledge the band includes Elton Dean on alto sax and saxello and Lyn Dobson on soprano sax, flute, voice & harmonica. The latter two are pretty high in the mix in this great quality mono recording. The band is in excellent shape and it's very enjoyable to watch the bare-chested Wyatt in his Kurt Cobain-styled hair-do all sweaty on his face in a sexy way, Hopper looking very cool with his bass and Ratledge with sunglasses funnily on top of his girly hair. The two horn players look like they hadn’t combed their hair for at least six months. The magnificent theatre that was built in 1860 is full-packed with 1500 enthusiastic fans that are very clearly enjoying the show. The filming works pretty well including surprisingly also a lot of takes from behind the band. The DVD also sounds totally okay, and the only little minus are the randomly overdubbed false applauses....So this is the band's almost totally instrumental jazz rock/fusion period at its best, but there are still some psychedelic elements left, as well. At times the going gets rather progressive, but at some points there is even a bit too much repetition. The funniest moment is perhaps when Wyatt falls down after getting up from his drum stool after the first part of the gig... I'm more into the very early and psychedelic Soft Machine with Kevin Ayers and Daevid Allen, but I still have to say that this DVD is excellent stuff. Recommended!"
DJ Astro, Psychotropic Zone