Why I never

Just discovered that Karl Jenkins (ex Soft Machine) once played with John Cale (Velvet Underground) - in one of the Welsh youth orchestras of the 60's. Jenkins claims they were musically polls apart even then.

I agree Jenkins did little for Machine, and perhaps worse allowed the band to stagger on well passed their sell by date (witness "Land of Cockcayne"). However, I'm sure Mike Ratledge was responsible for pushing Machine in the direction of Nucleus and bringing KJ in. They also worked together afterward with their advertising jingles agency - but Manfred Mann had long gone in the same direction - and made a fortune with the best known British Airways ad, (the music of which has reappeared on British TV in the last few weeks). Jenkins and Ratledge's serious muzak caused  the classical cross-over chart to be introduced. However, by reputation KJ is an honest man, e.g he has long said he was never the best of composers, and he insisted that a reluctant Machine try out Allan Holdsworth because Jenkins did not like his own solo work, wanting a stronger and more improvisional player.

Edited by Dick Heath