Soft Machine

The Soft Machine: Hammersmith Palais, London

Live Review by Miles, NME, July 1976

IT WAS a surprise to see so many people in the heat and the gloom of the Hamersmith Palais to see Soft Machine, because in ...

The Soft Machine: The Soft Machine (ABC)

Review by Miles, International Times, November 1968

SEVERAL exotic people were sitting on the floor at an Indica Gallery opening in 1966, the tall one with the Dr Strange cape was called ...

Soft Machine

Interview by uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, December 1969

"INDEPENDENCE" and "freedom" are words much used today to justify any act from dossing down in Piccadilly to running naked through Trafalgar Square, but Soft ...

Pink Floyd/Soft Machine: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, November 1973

PINK FLOYD and Soft Machine stunned fans with two sensational shows at London's Rainbow Theatre on Sunday night. It was a splendid evening of rock-co-operation, ...

Kevin Ayers: Keeping the ’67 faith

Profile by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, February 1974

It begins with a blessing (but ends with a curse)Making life easy (but making it worse)... ...

Soft Machine, part 1

Retrospective by Ian MacDonald, NME, January 1975

CLASS OF '61 at the Simon Langton School, Canterbury – an exclusive, private establishment for the sons of local artists and intellectuals. Very free, emphatically ...

Soft Machine, part 2: The End of an Ear at the Proms

Retrospective by Ian MacDonald, NME, February 1975

IN LAST week's issue, Part One recounted the history of the Softs from their schooldays to the break-up of the group following the recording of ...

Ike and Tina Turner, Caravan, John McLaughlin et al: Startruckin' 75

Report by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, August 1975

WHERE THE HELL is Lou Reed?Good question, if a trifle academic, but eminently suited for whiling away times in the coach by discussing. ...

Kevin Ayers/Soft Machine: Edinburgh Playhouse

Live Review by Miles, NME, September 1976

AN INTERESTING booking, Kevin Ayers – one of the founding members of Soft Machine – playing on the same bill as their present, 14th, line-up ...

Soft Machine

Retrospective and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, June 1997

Oh what larks they had. Psychedelic poesy with a May Ball beat. Jolly Japes with Jimi Hendrix. Frolics with the Floyd. Soft Machine: a very ...

Kevin Ayers: An Interview

Interview by Mike Barnes, unpublished, Fall 2008

2013 NOTE: The interview was ostensibly for the "Hello/Goodbye" feature in MOJO 184 (March 2009), on Ayers's time in Soft Machine, but was opened out ...