Soft Machine - Live in Europe 1970

2024

Here are two radio broadcast performances by Soft Machine recorded in Rotterdam and Paris in 1970. At this point the band were arguably more popular on the continent than at home in England where there seemed more of an appetite for the almost exclusively instrumental nature of the sets from this period.

Notable British Jazzer Elton Dean had joined the band by this time and helped move The Softs towards a more powerful jazz-rock sound epitomised by Mike Ratledge's cutting organ and Wyatts powerful drumming and further away from the Canterbury sound psychedelia of the Kevin Ayers era.

Disc 1 features the entire album "Third", recorded earlier in 1970, plus other favourites such as "Noisette" etc. Disc 2 has only 1 track from this album but contains a look back to "Volume Two" with the "Esthers Nose Job" suite as well as a nod to the future with "Teeth", which appears on "Fourth" released the following year.

This double disc presents Soft Machine as they would have been experienced at the time by their discerning fan-base. Live they were a hard driving band of great musicians capable of bringing jazz and rock together without diminishing either form in the presentation of the whole.

Disc 1: 'Pop Deux',Theatre de la Musique, Paris, France March 2nd 1970 ORTF

Disc 2: De Doelen, Rotterdam, Netherlands October 24th 1970 VPRO