Actuel Festival 1969-10-28
Actuel Festival, Amougies, Belgium
Set 1
Soft Machine:
Moon In June
Facelift
Eamonn Andrews
Mousetrap / Noisette / Backwards / Mousetrap Reprise / drumlink
Esther's Nosejob (incl. Pigling Bland) (15:15) 6. Hibou, Anemone And Bear
Robert Wyatt - Drums & Vocals
Mike Ratledge - Lowrey Organ & Hohner Pianet Hugh Hopper - Bass Elton Dean - Alto Sax Lyn Dobson - Soprano Sax Marc Charig - Cornet Nick Evans - Trombone
Moon In June
Facelift
Eamonn Andrews
Mousetrap / Noisette / Backwards / Mousetrap Reprise / drumlink
Esther's Nosejob (incl. Pigling Bland) (15:15) 6. Hibou, Anemone And Bear
Robert Wyatt - Drums & Vocals
Mike Ratledge - Lowrey Organ & Hohner Pianet Hugh Hopper - Bass Elton Dean - Alto Sax Lyn Dobson - Soprano Sax Marc Charig - Cornet Nick Evans - Trombone
Set 2
Set 3
Comment
This is the only performance known to be recorded of a complete concert by the shortlived septet line-up of Soft Machine. Amougies wasn't quite their debut (they played a warm-up gig in Liverpool a few days before) but this is certainly where most people heard them for the first time.
Although a major change in the band's instrumentation, the addition of a brass section didn't actually alter their basic set all that much, the only composition written especially for this line-up being "Pigling Bland", the new coda to "Esther's Nosejob". Everything else (including the rare coda to "Facelift" which shows up on the September trio gig from Amsterdam) had been played by the trio (and quartet with Brian Hopper). Similarly, the fact that Robert Wyatt doesn't sing much was not so much a consequence of the enlarged line-up than one of its causes - apart from Hopper and Ratledge's new compositions being all-instrumental, Wyatt just couldn't cope with his dual role very well.
Actually, the Amougies concert has some of his best live singing, particularly the "New York" sequence of "Moon In June". This was in part due to the band's recent acquisition of an Echoplex echo chamber. But most of "Moon In June", alas, is played instrumentally... but it is played very well, particularly by Ratledge who makes expert use of fuzz and wah-wah. All in all, this is a precious document of an exceptional line-up, a welcome complement to what little is available commercially (on "BBC Radio 1967-71" and "Backwards").
Apparently, the first half of this set was broadcast on radio at the time, on either the Belgian RTBF or Luxemburg's RTL
Although a major change in the band's instrumentation, the addition of a brass section didn't actually alter their basic set all that much, the only composition written especially for this line-up being "Pigling Bland", the new coda to "Esther's Nosejob". Everything else (including the rare coda to "Facelift" which shows up on the September trio gig from Amsterdam) had been played by the trio (and quartet with Brian Hopper). Similarly, the fact that Robert Wyatt doesn't sing much was not so much a consequence of the enlarged line-up than one of its causes - apart from Hopper and Ratledge's new compositions being all-instrumental, Wyatt just couldn't cope with his dual role very well.
Actually, the Amougies concert has some of his best live singing, particularly the "New York" sequence of "Moon In June". This was in part due to the band's recent acquisition of an Echoplex echo chamber. But most of "Moon In June", alas, is played instrumentally... but it is played very well, particularly by Ratledge who makes expert use of fuzz and wah-wah. All in all, this is a precious document of an exceptional line-up, a welcome complement to what little is available commercially (on "BBC Radio 1967-71" and "Backwards").
Apparently, the first half of this set was broadcast on radio at the time, on either the Belgian RTBF or Luxemburg's RTL
Sources
| SHNID | Date | Venue | City | State | Archive Identifier |
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Created At
Fri May 22 2009 09:55:24 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Updated At
Sun Mar 12 2006 12:25:07 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
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