The Amazing Pudding

1970 Part 2

So continuing with 1970 what were the albums I was buying then. In addition to consolidating my collection of albums by Cream I bought “Best of Traffic” – a collection of tracks from the first incarnation of that band,” “The World of John Mayall” – the spawning ground of a succession of guitar players such as Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor and “Blind Faith” – the supergroup that combined former members of Cream, Traffic and Family who sadly only made one album.

However in August 1970 I saw on television a group that would broaden my musical tastes and introduce me to the world of jazz. It was on 13^thAugust 1970 that the band Soft Machine were the first “pop group” to perform at the Proms – a month long series of concerts held at the Royal Albert Hall in London usually devoted to classical music. There have been many bands that have performed at the Proms since including this year another group that contains the word “Machine”. However they were the first and performed a set lasting just less than 40 minutes consisting of three pieces “Out Bloody Rageous”, “Facelift” and “Esther’s Nose Job” as a continuous suite that had appeared on their second and third albums. Their album “Third” had been released two months previously in June 1970 (and not 1969 as I suggested in a previous posting)

Soft Machine (the name based on the title of a book by William Burroughs) had emerged as part of the Canterbury scene in 1967 and initially were a pop band and previously contained Kevin Ayers and Daevid Allen. They were one of the first bands to appear at the underground UFO club in London along with Pink Floyd. By the time they released their second album in 1969 they were starting to ditch the songs and were moving in a jazz fusion direction. This progressed with the addition of saxophonist Elton Dean from whom a certain famous songwriter acquired his first name.

So the quartet consisting of Mike Ratledge on organ, Hugh Hopper on bass, Elton Dean on saxes and Robert Wyatt on drums were the lineup that perfomed at the Proms.

Sadly there appears to be no video footage of that concert but it was later released as an album which you can listen to hear:

I had by that time acquired a tape recorder and I’m fairly certain I recorded it off the TV. The piece starts off with a continuous tape loop as the introduction to “Out Bloody Rageous” and there is some delay before the band start playing with an electrical crackling sound which was Mike Ratledge kickstarting his organ. His organ playing was extraordinary with a constipated sound as it was played through a fuzz box and the speed of his soloing is breathtaking as you can hear. Hugh Hopper’s bass was also played through a fuzz box producing a buzzing sound. Elton Dean introduced me to the world of the alto saxophone and saxello and Robert Wyatt was of course an excellent drummer. So I was mesmerised and this led me to explore the world of jazz music and Jazz Rock which at that time was being performed by Miles Davis.

Here is another piece from the Melody Maker of September 1970 written by Richard Williams

I briefly mentioned the UFO club earlier. It was started by Joe Boyd who amongst many other things produced albums by Nick Drake and Fairport Convention. If you are interested to read more about the music scene of the 1960’s I would strongly recommend this book.

So the last concert I went to in 1970 featured the other band that regularly performed at the UFO club in 1967 – Pink Floyd. I had bought their fifth album “Atom Heart Mother” on the day it was released in October of that year. I can recall going to the record shop that was near the bus station after school. It was on the Harvest Label with its distinctive green and yellow logo in the centre of the record and the photograph of a cow on the cover.

I had also bought their first album “Piper at the Gates of Dawn”, which is the name of a chapter in the book Wind in the Willows, in the same month. This has “Astronomy Domine” written by Syd Barrett as the opening track with the sound of the separate instruments appearing from each speaker

I am sure people will be very familiar with their line up then with Rick Wright on keyboards, Roger Waters on bass and vocals, Nick Mason on drums and Dave Gilmour on guitar. They had an impressive light show and utilised quadrophonic sound. Nick Mason had a large array of drums and cymbals and a giant gong hanging behind him

Atom Heart Mother is a suite of six tracks occupying the first side of the album with names such as “Funky Dung” and “Breast Milky” inspired by the cover picture. The band were augmented by a brass section and a 16 piece choir. It had an original working title of “The Amazing Pudding” but this was changed when they saw an item in the Evening Standard about a woman being fitted with a Plutonium pacemaker.

So the concert on December 18^th at the Town Hall included a brass section and choir to perform Atom Heart Mother. However the concert started with the track “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” which is on the second side of the album. This included Nick Mason reproducing the sound effects by cooking breakfast on stage!  You would never get away with that today. This was followed by “Fat Old Sun” a Dave Gilmour track from the album and then a performance of “Saucerful of Secrets” before the interval. The second half was “Atom Heart Mother”.

Here is a copy of my ticket and a review of the concert.

So that concludes my memories of 1970.