Hopefully, you'll have seen the new issue of Uncut by now, which includes a terrific cover story on The Who's early ascendancy, plus Cream, Matthew E White, Jeff Lynne, Kurt Vile, and more - including a piece by Allan on Kevin Ayers.
When I first started reading what used to be Melody Maker, in a time now shrouded not so much in what are usually called the mists of time as they are in a fog as dense as anything that might gather over Dogger Bank, I used to accept its weekly delivery in the manner of some kind of jackal, cur or otherwise fanged and ravenous critter.
Kevin Ayers, one of Britain’s most gifted and idiosyncratic singer-songwriters, has died at the age of 68.
Ayers was born in Kent in 1944. Though he spent his childhood in Malaysia – moving there with his mother and British district officer stepfather – he returned to London at 12, only to be told to leave the city by a magistrate five years later following a drug bust. Ayers always maintained the bust that sent him into exile (and more importantly, into Canterbury) was a set-up. Whether it was or wasn’t, it was certainly an act of fate.
In the issue of Uncut dated December 2008 (Take 139), Kevin Ayers talked us through the making of some of his finest albums - including the Soft Machine’s debut, through his collaboration with Brian Eno, John Cale and Nico, his much-loved solo album Whatevershebringswesing, and more.
Interview: John Robinson__________________
It's been a couple of months since I wrote about Robert Wyatt's excellent "Comicopera", which still isn't out until October. In the meantime, one of Wyatt's old sparring partners has sneaked under the wire ahead of him. Kevin Ayers, of all people, has a new album out at the start of September, and it's rather good.
