Canterbury Scene Music

SHORT WAVE       Tune in your radio for this short-lived Anglo-French jazz combo led by Hugh Hopper.

RICHARD SINCLAIR     The most instantly recognisable face and voice in the entire Canterbury Scene, although still virtually unknown outside of the progosphere. 

SOFT MACHINE       Inspired by the title of a William S. Burroughs novel, The Soft Machine formed in Canterbury back in 1966 and went on to become arguably the third-best-known Canterbury Scene band in the world (after Quantum Jump and Caravan). The Soft Machine line-up featured a veritable Who's Who of future Canterbury Scene legends, including Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, Gong-founder Daevid Allen, and later, Welsh Adiemus maestro Karl Jenkins. Soft Machine are the kings of the comeback, and as one door closes, another opens.  Just when you thought it was all over for Soft Machine in 1976 with the break-up of the band, there was a Live Paris reunion album in 1978, followed by three three more studio albums spread out over the next 45 years, including a brand new album for 2023: the aptly-titled "Other Doors".  

Soft Machine - Sprouting up Live in Brussels in 1971. 

SOFT MOUNTAIN      Not to make a Soft Mountain out of a Matching Mole hill, but this is the kind of rambling, unlistenable and unstructured free-form jazz album that gives Canterbury Scene music a bad name. You'd be better off listening to Moleslope or Soft Machine Legacy instead. 

STUBBS      The Japs may not be prime movers in the Canterbury Scene, but they're no lumps of lard either. 

SUPPLY DEMAND & CURVE     Irish Canterbury Scene bands are obviously in short supply, as this band are the only one there's ever been, but then again, there's not much of a demand for Canterbury Scene music in the Emerald Isle where the local pub goers are more likely to enjoy a jolly old craic and knees-up with an Irish fiddler and a pint of Guinness in hand until they're banjaxed at the end of the evening, begorrah. 

An all-female, contemporary, Canterbury style band from Devon UK. Billie bottle has played with David Sinclair from Caravan and Richard Sinclair guest on their debut lp on Bass. These gals are fab and should be much better known in the (predominantly all male) prog world!

TORTILLA FLAT     Named after an early John Steinbeck novel, German band Tortilla Flat are flat out one of the best Canterbury Scene outfits you're ever likely to hear, especially for those of us who've experienced the height of sophistication in Leeds city centre at night. 

VOLARE      A band from the United States, not from Italy, and named after an American motor car, not an operatic aria. 

THE WINSTONS      One of three Italian Canterbury Scene bands, alongside Homunculus Res and Picchio dal Pozzo, although you'd never guess The Winstons were Italian from their name or their music, when  they sound as British as spaghetti bolognese and chips. Arrivederci amici.