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Book Review; ?Different Every Time ? The Authorised Biography of Robert Wyatt? by Marcus O’ Dair.

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by Ian Mann

December 21, 2014

The story of a remarkable life and an indomitable spirit that addresses its subject with sympathy and honesty allied to painstaking detail. It's also highly readable and good value for money.

Book Review;

“Different Every Time ? The Authorised Biography of Robert Wyatt”

by Marcus O’ Dair

(Serpent’s Tail Publishing)


Somewhere along the line Robert Wyatt,  born in 1945, unknowingly made the transition from wilful outsider to national treasure. His is a remarkable story and it has now been catalogued with painstaking detail in this highly readable authorised biography by the journalist, musician and educator Marcus O’ Dair, a regular contributor to Jazzwise Magazine as well as writing on music for the Guardian, the Independent and the Financial times. O’Dair is also head of the Popular Music course at Middlesex University and is one half of the electronic music duo Grasscut who have included covers of Wyatt material in their repertoire. The book also includes a foreword by the best selling author Jonathan Coe, a tireless champion of the so called “Canterbury Scene” which spawned Wyatt and others and whose novel “The Rotter’s Club” - later adapted for a successful TV series- borrowed its title from an album by Hatfield and The North.

Anyone likely to be reading this will probably already know that Wyatt first came to prominence as the drummer and vocalist with the progressive rock group Soft Machine. After leaving the band in acrimonious circumstances following the release of its fourth album he recorded two albums with his own group Matching Mole before the incident that was to change his life forever. In 1973 he fell from a fourth floor window while attending a party, an accident that irreversibly damaged his spine and left him paralysed from the waist down. For over forty years he has continued to make music from a wheelchair, recording a series of acclaimed albums that have featured his talents as a vocalist and songwriter as well as a player of keyboards, trumpet, cornet and hand played percussion. Perhaps his most widely known performance is his vocal on the song “Shipbuilding”, Wyatt’s singing adding an almost unbearable poignancy to this commentary on the Falklands War written by Clive Langer and with lyrics by Elvis Costello.  Central to Wyatt’s creative process has been his wife, muse and collaborator Alfreda (Alfie) Benge who Wyatt married in 1974. This book is almost as much her story as Wyatt’s. 

O’Dair’s book was written with full co-operation of Wyatt and Alfie, both of whom gave the author extensive interviews relating to the project plus access to a wealth of archive material. O’Dair also spoke to many of the musicians who have worked with Wyatt, including such famous names as David Gilmour, Brian Eno and Paul Weller. But the book is no hagiography, along the way O’Dair chronicles Wyatt’s struggles with his disability, and with alcoholism, stage fright and depression.

O’Dair divides his book into two distinct parts which he likens to the two sides of an LP. Side One is entitled “The Drummer Biped” (Wyatt’s term) which covers Wyatt’s life and career from early childhood until the life changing incident that Wyatt refers to as “the fall”. Side Two, “Ex Machina”,  deals with the aftermath of the fall, plus his solo career and his many guest appearances on the recordings of others as the respect for his unique talent continued to grow. 

Born in Bristol Wyatt was brought up first in London and later in Kent.  O’Dair gives thorough coverage of Wyatt’s somewhat unorthodox family background which included various step siblings who also contribute to the book. Wyatt’s love of jazz, wordplay and surreal humour stemmed from his father, George Ellidge and Wyatt grew up as part of a “Bohemian” household that loved music, literature and travel. Wyatt’s parents were part of the literary circle of the poet Robert Graves and the young Wyatt spent several summers at Graves’ home in Majorca.

It was at grammar school in Canterbury that Wyatt first encountered bassist Hugh Hopper and Mike Ratledge who would eventually become his bandmates in Soft Machine. Another influential figure was the Australian beatnik Daevid Allen who lodged with Wyatt’s family and nurtured the young Robert’s interest in modern and avant garde jazz ? Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Cecil Taylor and Thelonious Monk were all early Wyatt heroes.

O’Dair presents an extremely thorough account of the development of Soft Machine which grew out of the Wilde Flowers, the now almost legendary spawning ground for both Caravan and Soft Machine. At various times Wilde Flowers involved Wyatt, Hugh Hopper, Brian Hopper, Kevin Ayers, Richard Sinclair, Dave Sinclair and Richard Coughlan, the last three ending up in Caravan.

Wyatt moved to London, living in a communal house and forming a group with Daevid Allen, Kevin Ayers and Mike Ratledge. Originally named Mister Head they adopted the name Soft Machine from the title of the novel by Beat Generation author William Burroughs who famously gave the young Brits his blessing to use the name by drawling “can’t see why not”.

Allen had left before the recording of the first album which was released in 1968 by which time the Softs were the darlings of the London underground music scene playing all nighters at the UFO club alongside Pink Floyd, their performances enhanced by the visuals of the Sensual Laboratory lightshow.

The band also toured America supporting the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Wyatt was much influenced by Mitch Mitchell’s drumming style. The intense touring schedule proved a bit much for Ayers and Ratledge who returned to England as soon as they could but Wyatt stayed on in the states until his visa ran out, recording with Hendrix on bass, the sessions being released by Cuneiform Records as “Robert Wyatt ‘68” some thirty five years later. They still sound terrific.

A second Soft Machine album was recorded with Hugh Hopper replacing Ayers on bass. With Wyatt now handling all the vocals “Volume 2” is widely regarded as being among the band’s best. Originally recorded to fulfil a contract its success saw Soft Machine continuing as a working band but the tensions between Wyatt on one hand and Hopper and Ratledge on the other began to grow. Famously ascetic and intellectual Hopper and Ratledge favoured increasingly obtuse, complicated pieces, the hedonistic and more spontaneous Wyatt still favoured song based works. “Third”, a double set which added saxophonist Elton Dean to the line up managed a successful compromise between the two approaches with Wyatt’s side long “Moon In June” widely considered as a masterpiece.  Nonetheless the rift began to widen leaving Wyatt increasingly frustrated, with Dean now on board he was effectively outnumbered three to one and felt himself as being frozen out of his own group. “Fourth” included no vocals whatsoever and for the first time Wyatt was uninvolved in the writing process. It was all too much for him and he quit, the resulting bitterness lasting for many years. Ironically it was Wyatt’s love of jazz that saw the group experimenting with a short lived horn section that had included Elton Dean, as Wyatt puts it “I was hoist by my own petard, the architect of my own downfall”. 

Wyatt had been moonlighting with Kevin Ayers’ band The Whole World and had played with Keith Tippett’s large ensemble Centipede as well recording a solo album “The End Of An Ear” while still a member of Soft Machine. He subsequently formed Matching Mole , the name a pun on the French “mache moule” meaning Soft Machine and a thinly veiled swipe at his former bandmates. Matching Mole attempted to create the blend of songs and free jazz that Wyatt had been seeking. The line up included future Hatfields guitarist Phil Miller plus bassist Bill MacCormick. Ex Caravan keyboard player Dave Sinclair appeared on the eponymous first album, the more jazz orientated Dave McRae replaced him for the second, “Little Red Record”. The song “O Caroline” with a melody by Sinclair and with lyrics by Wyatt is the group’s best known song, a disarmingly simple piece   plaintively and movingly sung by Wyatt to the object of his affection, the artist, activist and one time NME journalist Caroline Coon. Matching Mole folded partly as a result of financial struggles and partly due to Wyatt’s reluctance to be a band leader “in Soft Machine I didn’t like taking orders, in Matching Mole I didn’t like giving them” he explains to O’Dair.

The paradoxes of Wyatt’s musical career were reflected in his troubled private life. The famously shirtless drummer ( in those days he looked like a young Greek god) was something of a ladies man and was serially unfaithful to his young wife Pam (nee Howard) who was left at home while Wyatt, in his own words “shagged his way” around America. When the inevitable parting of the ways came it was all fairly amicable, a reflection of the “free love” ethos of the 1960s. Their two children were raised by Pam and her new partner Pip Pyle, drummer with Gong and Hatfield and The North. In this warts and all biography O’Dair also makes reference to Wyatt’s two suicide attempts, once as a troubled teenager and later after the break up with Caroline Coon which further fractured a fragile sense of self confidence already badly punctured following his exit from Soft Machine. 

However a form of salvation was on the horizon when Wyatt met Alfie, ironically Pyle’s ex, but this, was a partnership that worked. Wyatt had found his soul mate but just as his life seemed to be taking an upturn came “the fall”.  Wyatt was highly intoxicated at the time of the accident, but in a typical piece of irony it was the fact that his body was relaxed as a result that saved him from certain death. Following a lengthy spell recovering in Stoke Mandeville Hospital Wyatt eventually emerged to find himself obliged to look at both life and music in a totally different manner  

Following the accident Alfie’s importance in Wyatt’s life was intensified. Of Polish and Austrian descent she had lived in England since the age of seven and was a talented artist and illustrator.  She also worked as an editor in the film industry and was on first name terms with Hollywood stars such as Julie Christie and Warren Beatty and film directors such as Nicolas Roeg.  Just prior to the accident Wyatt and Alfie had visited Venice where Alfie was working on the film “Don’t Look Now” directed by Roeg and starring Christie and Donald Sutherland. Christie became a good friend of the couple and helped to fund Wyatt’s healthcare in the immediate aftermath of the accident and beyond.

It was in Venice that Wyatt first starting working on the material that would eventually appear on “Rock Bottom” , his first solo album after the fall. It was during the spell in Stoke Mandeville that Wyatt expanded on the musical sketches that he had started in Venice as he made creative use of the piano in the resident’s day room. Following the now paraplegic Wyatt’s departure from hospital he was supported by friends from the artistic and music communities including Pink Floyd and Soft Machine who played benefit gigs. Alfie stayed with him, effectively his carer as well as his
lover and the couple married in a registry office on the day that “Rock Bottom” was released.

O’Dair discusses the music on Wyatt’s albums in considerable detail, but these are not record reviews, he doesn’t go overboard on technical details but instead sets the music within the context of Wyatt’s overall life story. Forced by necessity to become a pioneer of home recording “Rock Bottom”, released by Virgin, was an important album for Wyatt, proof that he could still be a creative musician despite his physical disabilities. Wyatt plays keyboards and sings and other contributors include Mike Oldfield, Fred Frith, Richard Sinclair, Gary Windo and Mongezi Feza. Other vocals came from Alfie, who also designed the cover and the Scottish humourist Ivor Cutler, also signed to Virgin at the time. “Rock Bottom” was a great critical success and gave Wyatt confidence and a follow up recording, “Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard”, comprised mainly of outside material was released on Virgin in 1975 and was also very well received.

At around this time Wyatt even had a hit single, a radical cover version of The Monkees “I’m A Believer”. Even more improbably he got to appear on Top Of The Pops, I can still remember the thrill of seeing a band full of my prog rock heroes miming on Top of The Pops and making absolutely no attempt to disguise the fact.

Wyatt also performed the music from “Rock Bottom” at a concert at London’s Drury Lane Theatre, an experience that has never been repeated due to a combination Wyatt’s chronic stage fright and the sheer physical and logistical difficulties facing a wheelchair bound performer.

Wyatt left Virgin of his own volition just before punk’s “dinosaur cull” and is proud that he left of his own choosing rather than being dropped by the label like so many of his contemporaries. Crucially, thanks to Alfie’s management skills, he also regained his publishing rights and is the only one of the “first wave” of Virgin artists to retain control of his back catalogue for the label. One senses that these days he has little time for Richard Branson. 

Wyatt later established a healthy relationship with Geoff Travis’ independent Rough Trade label, releasing a number of singles for the company, many of them overly political and drawn from various world music sources. Much of this was inspired by Wyatt’s increasing involvement in left wing politics, something inspired by the injustices he had seen in the US when touring with Hendrix and Soft Machine, plus the more recent death from pneumonia of trumpeter Mongezi Feza in a British hospital, something Wyatt is still convinced would not have happened had Feza been white. Wyatt joined the unfashionable Communist Party Of Great Britain and became increasingly visible as a political activist. O’ Dair writes about his subject’s political beliefs with considerable depth.

Wyatt’s choice of material was informed by his politics and his eclectic collection of singles for Rough Trade were subsequently collected on the albums “Nothing Can Stop Us” and “Work In Progress”. The best known of these songs is inevitably “Shipbuilding”, a piece that has taken on something of a life of its own.

The regular trickle of interpretations for Rough Trade helped to disguise a prolonged period of “writer’s block”  and it wasn’t until 1985 that Rough Trade released “Old Rottenhat”, Wyatt’s first album of original material for ten years. His most controversial and overtly political record to date it didn’t duck any issues and with its attacks on global economics still sounds remarkably prescient and perceptive.

As the 1980s came to a close the Wyatts upped sticks, left London and moved to Louth in Lincolnshire where they live to this day. The move to a less expensive part of the country allowed Wyatt to have a dedicated music room on the ground floor along with bathroom facilities,.The new house was much more suited to his physical needs and Alfie was able to have her own artist’s studio on the first floor. The new environment seemed to suit Wyatt and his next solo album “Dondestan” (1991) was a marginally more accessible collection that mixed the personal with the political and was inspired by winters spent in Spain and summers on the Lincolnshire coast.

Shortly after this Wyatt fell into one of his cyclical bouts of clinical depression and it wasn’t until 1997 that the next album “Shleep” appeared, recorded at Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera’s studios and featuring such luminaries as Brian Eno, Paul Weller and free jazz saxophonist Evan Parker. After a period in the critical wilderness “Shleep” was a great success and the album was universally lauded. Wyatt has been something of a critical darling ever since, it was here that the transformation into a “national treasure” and “elder statesman” began to occur, something underlined by his being asked to curate the Meltdown Festival at London’s Southbank Centre in 2001. Wyatt’s programming was wide ranging and adventurous, some old friends played but this was no re-tread of the past. Wyatt even made a guest appearance with Dave Gilmour’s band but this was a one off and definitely not an experience that he enjoyed though he remains very proud of his curatorship as a whole.

Again inspired by The Lincolnshire coast and recorded once more with Manzanera “Cuckooland” won even more plaudits and was nominated for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize. Mixing nostalgia for a kind of lost England with commentary on contemporary politics “Cuckooland” also featured an illustrious array of guests including vocalist Karen Mantler, daughter of Mike Mantler and Carla Bley, previous Wyatt collaborators. It also marked the first involvement on a Wyatt album by the Israeli multi instrumentalist and activist Gilad Atzmon, a musician with a parallel solo career who has been a frequent presence on the Jazzmann web pages. 

“Comicopera” , released on the Domino label in 2007 is the last of a kind of trilogy of acclaimed solo recordings and remains Wyatt’s last album as a sole leader to date. A semi conceptual affair divided into three “acts” it addresses the Iraq War in addition to more personal matters. It includes lyrics by Lorca as well as by Robert and Alfie and also experiments with the electronic manipulation of the human voice. Wyatt has always used his voice as an instrument and this represented another step in the process with the voices of Karen Mantler, Brian Eno and Monica Vasconcelos also subjected to manipulation. Over the years Wyatt has also developed his instrumental skills on keyboards, trumpet, percussion etc, the loss of his drummer/biped status resulting in the creation of a new musical vocabulary.

Despite the critical success of “Comicopera” Wyatt entered a dark place soon afterwards, a struggle with alcoholism that saw him enrol with Alcoholics Anonymous and quit the drink within twelve months, a considerable achievement for a man who had used the booze as his muse ? alcohol had always been an important component in Wyatt’s creative process. It was going on the wagon that saved his marriage, his drinking had driven Alfie to crisis point. The couple talk unflinchingly to O’Dair about these issues in some of the most moving passages of the book.

In 2010 Wyatt collaborated with Atzmon and violinist Ros Stephen on the album “For the Ghosts Within”, a collection that featured a mix of jazz standards and original songs. The album also featured Stephen’s group, the Sigamos String Quartet and the voice of Atzmon’s wife, Tali. Reviewed elsewhere on the Jazzmann web pages the album features Wyatt’s unique interpretations of a series of jazz standards includes Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life”, a particularly poignant choice, and Duke Ellington’s “In A Sentimental Mood” where he hums the melody due to his dislike of Manny Kurtz’s lyrics. Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight” finds him whistling the tune due to a similar distaste for Bernie Hanighen’s words. There are also re-inventions of the Wyatt back catalogue and two new songs with lyrics by Alfie, the title track sung by Tali Atzmon and “Lullaby For Irena” dedicated to Alfie’s late mother. Credited to Wyatt/Atzmon/Stephen the album won praise from jazz and rock critics alike, and rightly so.   

Wyatt has been relatively quiet on record since but was tempted back on to the stage to sing and play cornet with Charlie Haden and Carla Bley at the Royal Festival Hall. He still makes public speaking engagements including the 2014 launch event for O’Dair’s book at the EFG London Jazz Festival but he remains terrified of actual musical performances.

My pr?cis of Wyatt’s life and career can only begin to scratch the surface. As his reputation has continued to grow he has become involved in literally dozens of collaborations across a variety of musical genres. In all of them he has remained himself, his plaintive , fragile voice always distinctive, his world view resolutely uncompromised. In an increasingly uncaring modern society his unrepentantly socialist world view looks increasingly sagacious. No wonder Robert Wyatt commands such respect from fans and peers alike. Wyatt’s guest appearances over the years have included albums by Charlie Haden, Carla Bley, Mike Mantler, Nick Mason, Dave Gilmour, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen, Brian Eno,  Hatfield and The North,Henry Cow, Scritti Politti, Ben Watt, Working Week, Ultramarine, John Greaves, Phil Manzanera, Anja Garbarek, Bjork, Hot Chip, Get The Blessing, Brian Hopper, Steve Nieve, Ryuichi Sakomoto and more. It’s like an A to Z of contemporary jazz and alternative rock.

O’Dair’s book leaves no stone unturned. All of Wyatt’s recordings are addressed and written about perceptively but this is primarily the story of a remarkable life that addresses its subject with sympathy and honesty but is still not afraid to present Wyatt in a less than flattering light. Wyatt come across as a multi faceted but often flawed figure, highly intelligent and restlessly creative yet prone to bouts of self pity - paradoxically these were often worse before the fall, the accident actually seemed to bring him some form of stability. What comes across throughout the book is Wyatt’s total honesty, both as a person and as a musician, what you see is what you get and although sometimes seemingly inscrutable he’s actually one of the most self referential rock artists since John Lennon.

As I stated previously the story is almost as much Alfie’s as Robert’s. It’s unlikely that he would would have achieved any of his post fall success without her help as lyricist, co-songwriter, sleeve designer, (from “Rock Bottom” onwards every release has featured her distinctive artwork), manager and all round rock. My only criticism of a near flawless book is the absence of colour illustrations of Alfie’s album covers, otherwise the book is very lavishly illustrated with some superb black and white photographs from every phase of Wyatt’s career. Signed prints of Alfie’s album designs are available for purchase however, so that’s probably the explanation for that. 

It’s sad to reflect that so many of the characters in this story are no longer with us,Jimi Hendrix of course but also Kevin Ayers, Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, Mongezi Feza, Gary Windo, Pip Pyle, Lindsay Cooper, Charlie Haden and Pink Floyd’s Richard Wright. 

“Different Every Time” is the story of a remarkable life and an indomitable spirit ? and an incredible creative and life partnership. The hardback edition retails at ?20.00 but at 460 pages it represents excellent value. There’s still a few shopping days to Christmas. No true music fan could fail to be enchanted by the story of one of the most unusual and characterful musicians of the last half century. 

 

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