RIP Mike Ratledge

[Chromatic]

Mike Ratledge who played the organ with Soft Machine died today.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs441a1O658

 

[ColinJ]

R.I.P. Mike!

I was a big Soft Machine fan in the early 1970s, upto about the 6th album.

I will listen to those first 6 albums again over the next few days in his memory.

I can't remember if I liked the seventh album. I will listen to that too.

 

[bluenotebob]

I think Rob Wyatt is the only one left of the original band. I'm sure I read somewhere that Kevin Ayers had passed a few years back.

Play those albums loud, @ColinJ .. particularly the first two.

Nice bit of cross-over with the Language thread elsewhere on the forum - Kevin Ayers' song "Plus Belle Qu'Une Poubelle" .. haha.

 

[ColinJ]

Play those albums loud, @ColinJ .. particularly the first two.

A friend of mine bought the third album at the time that it was released and I really liked it.

Shortly after that I remember going to a sale at a record shop in Coventry and picked up the first two Soft Machine albums for a pittance. I was expecting them to be like the third album, but of course they are very different. At first, I was disappointed but I soon grew very fond of them.

The same friend had a recording on reel to reel tape of a fantastic concert broadcast by the BBC that Soft Machine had done after the third album. I copied that on my reel to reel and played it so many times that I almost wore through the tape! I have a feeling that it might have been this broadcast...



I was thinking earlier that Mike Ratledge might have made a big contribution (along with other band members) to my now poor hearing... (I had too much to drink before the gig!)

The most stupid thing I did was to stagger to the stage at one gig and put my head into the flared horn of a massive bass bin while the band were playing LOUD!

There are certain frequencies that I can't hear at at all now. I'm not talking about the usual loss of high frequencies with age - frequencies below and above which I can still hear.

 

[ColinJ]

I am listening to that BBC concert now. It is definitely the one that my mate and I used to listen to. It is very early 70s recording quality but at least it is clear and in stereo. Ours was the muffled mono a.m. radio broadcast!

 

[bluenotebob]

I was thinking earlier that Mike Ratledge might have made a big contribution (along with other band members) to my now poor hearing... (I had too much to drink before the gig!)

Not clear what gig you mean .. you saw the Softs live somewhere ?

The only time I saw the original trio was at a free concert in Hampstead in the summer of 1970.

I did see Kevin Ayers at a Kingston Poly gig in 1971 (or possibly 1972). He was joined on stage by Rob Wyatt on drums - but Mr Ayers was sooo drunk that Rob Wyatt gave up trying to accompany him. But Kevin Ayers as drunk as a skunk was still more entertaining and imaginative than other things I've had the misfortune to see over the last 50 years.

Anyone else got any Softs stories? Favourite tracks/albums? Gigs?

 

[Grant Fondo]

Sad news, a bit before my time but have appreciated the music over recent years.

 

[ColinJ]

Not clear what gig you mean .. you saw the Softs live somewhere ?

I mentioned it in the following quote. I should have put the quote first!

Yes - they played a gig at the then Lanchester Polytechnic in Coventry (now Coventry university). According to THIS detailed gig list, it was March 21st, 1975. (Blimey, that half a century went by quickly!! )

There wasn't a dedicated building for concerts so they used the gymnasium! The poly used to put up a little stage at one end for gigs. The PA system consisted of two stacks of speakers, one either side of the stage. The audience were mainly sat on the floor of the gym, but a bunch were standing at the back smoking various things. One drunken 19 year old idiot decided that it would be a great idea to insert his head in the RH bass PA speaker. The only reason that he still has some hearing left is that more sober and sensible audience members dragged him back to a safer distance!

 

[ColinJ]

Oh - that recording finished very abruptly. We had a bit more on our old tapes.

 

[ColinJ]

I think Rob Wyatt is the only one left of the original band.

Nice bit of cross-over with the Language thread elsewhere on the forum - Kevin Ayers' song "Plus Belle Qu'Une Poubelle" .. haha.

What about Robert Wyatt's pun, when he named his post-Soft Machine** band Matching Mole**?



** French: Machine molle

 

[All uphill]

Thanks to the great link above I now know that I saw Soft Machine on 3rd November 1972 in St Andrews Hall, Norwich.

Some of their music is on my playlist and still sounds great.