Robert Wyatt

"I couldn't tell you much about that... I don't remember any particular movement happening there. I was at school there, I got married there and I lived there for a while. The school I went to had nothing special, there wasn't any particular interest for art, and I grew bored because I wasn't really good at school... If there ever was a Canterbury scene, it was when the Wilde Flowers became Caravan : they were Canterbury people...".

"I didn't even know it meant me until interviewers started asking me about it. As I say, because I'd bussed in from outside to go to school there I didn't really consider myself a Canterbury person. I think it really means people like Hugh Hopper and Richard Sinclair, who are genuinely based in that area. I met them there and I'm eternally grateful that I met someone like Hugh who provided something I don't think anyone else could have provided. My mind doesn't dwell on it as a place though, if I recall a former fantasy world upon which I draw, it's Harlem in the Forties and not Canterbury in the Fifties...".

The opening song "Share It" sounds strangely familiar, even upon first hearing. This upbeat jaunty Jazz-Rock number is very reminiscent of both Caravan and Camel. There's no doubting that Hatfield & the North are an English band from Richard Sinclair's clear-cut vocals, which sound as English as fish & chips. The obscure lyrics are a riddle wrapped in an enigma though, but that only adds to the quaint English charm of this catchy tune . Here's a brief opening taster of the lyrics:- "Tadpoles keep screaming in my ear, Hey there! Rotter's Club! Explain the meaning of this song and share it" ..... The bizarre meaning of this particular song will perhaps forever remain shrouded in mystery, when even the singer sounds baffled by the abstruse lyrics. And now for a little instrumental lounge music with "Lounging There Trying", which sounds like the kind of sophisticated improvisational Jazz you might listen to whilst coolly sipping a gin and tonic in a trendy cocktail lounge. There's no clue as to what the strangely-titled "(Big) John Wayne Socks Psychology on the Jaw" might be all about, because it's a brief 43 second instrumental, and the slightly discordant music bears little relation to the bizarre song title. This leads us into the even shorter "Chaos at the Greasy Spoon", which does indeed sound chaotic and a bit of a tuneless mess to be absolutely honest, so it's something of a blessed relief that it's less than half-a-minute long. Next up is "The Yes No Interlude" which is not so much an interlude, but more of an extended 7-minute instrumental jam session, where the musicians throw caution to the wind with gay abandon and let loose with some wild and improvisational Canterbury Scene Jazz. We're back to more familiar territory with "Fitter Stoke Has A Bath", which sounds like a typical lively Jazz-Rock song that Caravan might have recorded, although the meaning of the weird song title and lyrics are just as obscure as Hatfield & the North's instrumental numbers. Here's a brief example of the totally nonsensical lyrics:- "Bing billy bong - silly song's going wrong, Ping pong ping, clong cling dong, Tie me up, turn me on, Bing billy bang, Desperate Dan, frying pan, Cling clong cling, Bong bing bang, Michael Miles, Bogey man," ..... Yes indeed! Song lyrics don't come much sillier than that! They sound like the kind of wacky lyrics you might have heard in a typical Eurovision Song Contest entry from the 1970's. There's a return to some kind of normality - or whatever passes for normal in the bizarre musical world of Hatfield & the North - with "Didn't Matter Anyway". This is a gentle Caravan-esque song floating on a mellow wave of flute and delicate keyboards. It's the most approachable and easy-to-listen-to song on the album. You can just relax and let the worries and cares of the day slip away listening to this gorgeous insouciant song, because whatever might have been troubling you, it probably "Didn't Matter Anyway".

It's time now to don a dinner jacket and order a dry martini - shaken not stirred - for the Side Two opener "Underdub", because it's another pleasant cocktail lounge diversion to while away four minutes of spare time whilst waiting for your dinner date to arrive for the evening. And finally, we arrive at the 20-minute long suite "Mumps" to close out the album. The music is divided into four parts with the kind of weird and crazy titles that we've come to expect by now:- 1. "Your Majesty Is Like a Cream Donut (Quiet)"; 2. "Lumps"; 3. "Prenut"; 4. "Your Majesty Is Like a Cream Donut (Loud)". The Jazzy Canterbury Scene music is just as eccentric and off-kilter as the titles suggest, featuring another wild excursion into uncharted realms, occasionally sounding atonal and disjointed, but always unexpected and totally unpredictable. It's an endlessly complex arrangement that deserves to be listened to several times to truly appreciate the musical diversity on offer here.

"The Rotters' Club" is undoubtedly an essential album for fans of the Canterbury Scene sound, but it's not so essential for Prog-Rock fans generally. The album won't be to everyone's taste, because this is wild and improvisational Canterbury Scene music that's nowhere near as approachable and easy to listen to as the more melodic and harmonious sound of Caravan and Camel for instance. "The Rotters' Club" album is not for the uninitiated. If you've dipped your toes into the Canterbury Scene with Caravan, then Hatfield & the North by contrast are like jumping into the deep end. Their complex music veers more towards the Jazz Fusion end of the musical spectrum, than the more traditional British Jazz-Rock sound. On the other hand, if you're in the mood for some uninhibited and unrestrained Jazzy flights of fancy, then head on up the Great North Road to the sound of Hatfield & the North

"Fish Rising" consists of three long suites of music and two shorter songs. The album opens radiantly with the four-part "Solar Musick Suite", the longest piece on the album at nearly 17 minutes long. The first part "Sun Song (I Love It's Holy Mystery)" bursts into view like a brilliant ray of sunshine. This warm and melodic prog is positively glowing in rainbow colours with some simply sensational soaring guitar riffing from Steve Hillage. He's in fine voice too with his rich silver-toned vocals adding to the sense of warmth. It's a joyous and uplifting song with a flower-power message of love and peace and eternal optimism as these lyric reveal:- "So people look into each others eyes and gaze at them with certainty, We're gathered here today from all around to celebrate eternity, The spirit in the air is never far immersed in our totality, And the answers that we sit and hope to find, Are living here in side of we." ..... This joyful and invigorating music feels like the burgeoning arrival of spring, where colourful flowers are blooming in a twisting and transitional dance of new growth, as mother nature shakes off winter's cold embrace. This is warm and radiant music to stimulate and rejuvenate the soul. The "Solar Musick Suite" merges effortlessly into "Canterbury Sunrise", a lively Jazz-Rock instrumental, giving Steve Hillage a chance to really shine with some impressive soloing and with Dave Stewart providing sterling accompaniment on the organ. Next up is "Hiram Aftaglid Meets the Dervish", a wild and uninhibited whirling dervish of stirring Canterbury Scene music that's very reminiscent of some of Caravan's wilder Jazz-Rock freak-outs. Finally, there's a brief reprise of the glorious opening "Sun Song", to leave one feeling in joyously buoyant mood. Next comes the simply-titled "Fish", which is a bit of a tuneless mess to be perfectly honest, with the discordant music thrown together in a seemingly haphazard fashion. This is a fish that would have been better left in the ocean. The only good thing about this musical mash-up is it's less than 90 seconds long. Moving swiftly on now with the dreamweaving "Meditation of the Snake", a swirling and twisting magic carpet ride of transcendental ambience that washes over the listener like a blissful dreamwave of sound.

Opening Side Two now, we're going fishing with the 9-minute aquatic suite, "Salmon Song", and it's a pretty good catch too. It's a psychedelic rainbow trout swimming in a sea of spacey guitars, combined with some heavy sonorous riffing, and not forgetting those trademark Hillage guitar glissandos which soar right up into the stratosphere. This is one fish you won't want to throw back into the sea. And now we come to the album highlight, the 15-minute-long seven-piece suite, "Aftaglid", to bring the album to a dramatic and powerful conclusion. This is a real psychedelicatessen of musical styles, featuring gently pastoral acoustics, wild psychedelic riffing and Middle Eastern mantras, all combined together into a magnificent musical melange of sound.

"Fish Rising" is an album full of psychedelic delights, featuring super soar-away soloing, spacey New Age ambience, dynamic keyboard virtuosity, and jaunty Jazz-Rock, all combined together into a delicious potpourri of Canterbury Scene music. This fish-themed album will have you hooked.

It's sunny side up for the 7-minute-long opening number "Sol Caliente" (Spanish for "Hot Sun"), a warm and inviting sunburst of fuzzy guitar-driven, psychedelic Jazz-Rock. This long uptempo instrumental piece really gives the musicians a chance to shine in a psychedelic jazz guitar freak out, with a nifty keyboard player in his element and with the drummer pounding away on his kit with frenetic energy as if his life depends on it. It's not exactly a toe-tapper, because your feet could hardly keep up with the frantic pace of this upbeat and offbeat piece of music with its unusually complex time signature, so just lie back and enjoy it. There's more funky fusion on the way with "Trumpets with Motherhood". It's anybody's guess what this bizarrely- titled piece of music is all about, because it's another instrumental number. You might at least be expecting to hear some trumpets though in a piece of music titled "Trumpets with Motherhood", but no, there's not a toot of a brass trumpet horn to be heard anywhere, because this is another uptempo fuzzy guitar and electric piano combination. It's less than two minutes long though so there's barely time to nip out the room and make a cup of tea, so you may as well stick around for the next number, "Bargain Classics". You're unlikely to find this rare album in the bargain classics section of your local store though, as it's a pretty hard album to get hold of these days. So, what does the music sound like you may well ask. Well, it's a very offbeat and "off-piste" piece of music in a highly irregular time signature, which is intricately complex and fascinating to put it kindly, but which is all over the place, to put it unkindly. It all depends on your point of view: if you're an aficianado of Jazz Fusion, then you may go into rhapsodies of delight upon hearing this musical mayhem, but on the other hand, if Jazz-Fusion is not your thing, then you may want to skip to the next piece of music, which is "R.F.D.". The meaning of the initials "R,F.D." are shrouded in mystery, but this is a pleasantly soothing, laid-back mellow number to close out Side One, so lie back, relax, and let the music play as the cares of the day drift away, because this gorgeous piece of music is like a bright ray of sunshine on a hot sandy beach.

Side Two opens with one of the most bizarrely-titled pieces of music of all time: "Mummy was an Asteroid, Daddy was a Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil". It's just as well it's an instrumental piece, because if this song had lyrics, they'd probably make no sense at all, although that's never been a problem in the wierd and wonderful world of prog, where just about anything goes when it comes to song lyrics. Anyway, back to the music we have here, and it's another intense and fast-paced Jazz-Fusion freak out, which is *almost* as freaky as the track title implies, but don't let that put you off, because the music is very impressive. It's also pretty wild and "finger-licking" good, so be prepared to hear some fast and furious acid guitar riffs. We're off at a "Trot" for Song No. 6 now, a 5-minute-long piece of uptempo Jazz-Fusion which gallops along nicely to bring us to the closing piece of music on the album, "Rongwrong". It's another bizarre track title in an album full of peculiar and offbeat track titles, and at times, peculiar and offbeat music to match. "Rongwrong" is the longest song on the album at nearly 10 minutes in duration. It's also the first real song on the album, as it actually includes lyrics for the first time. If you think the song title is bizarre though, take a look at these off-the-wall lyrics:- "I'm looking in my little black book, to see if I was right or rongwrong, within the confines of whoremonger logic, to even try to sing this song. I could have asked the I Ching, but that would have taken up too much time, And with the time before fall, I didn't see there was no time to lose, If things got bad it could always turn into a blues, Like they do back home on the Delta ? grunt and groan." ..... Confused? You will be! Never mind the lyrics though, what about the music? It's joyful, uplifting and exuberant, but also quite offbeat, which is just what we've come to expect by now from an album that is a little bit off the beaten track.

This Canterbury Scene album of Jazz-Rock/Fusion is certainly not "Mainstream" and it may not be to everyone's taste, but it is pretty good and definitely worth a listen. One can't help feeling though, that the album could have been better if most of the tracks had included vocals instead of just the final song on the album. It certainly would have made the music more memorable if most of the tracks had included lyrics. That said, if you're heavily into Jazz-Fusion, then this rare long-lost album might be right up your street.

"Space Shanty" opens in spectacular style with the title track, a song of awe-inspiring power and versatility, demonstrating the musical prowess of the four talented musicians to the fullest extent. This is Prog-Rock at its absolute best: heavy and loud and proud and displaying breath-taking musical virtuosity, guaranteed to leave the listener enthralled and astounded at the same time. Next is "Stranded", a beautifully melodic song which warms the heart with its lush harmonics and emotionally charged vocals. The song features an intricate, instrumental Jazz-Rock break to delight and entertain the listener. This memorable song represents another perfect demonstration of the musical virtuosity of these four amazingly talented musicians. Song No, 3 "Mixed Up Man of the Mountains" continues the album in similar epic and dramatic style, with a powerful Hard Rock sound combining well together with some complex Jazz-Rock sequences. Side Two opens with the longest song on the album "Driving To Amsterdam", a 9-minute-long song which displays its Canterbury Scene credentials to the fullest extent, with a heavy "Caravan-esque" Jazz-Rock sound and featuring some masterly guitar riffs and keyboard virtuosity from the combined talents of Steve Hillage and Dave Stewart. The penultimate song "Stargazers" is another heavy Jazz-Rock number with some interesting changes of time signature and dramatic changes of pace. "Hollow Stone" brings this memorable album to a suitably impressive close with emotionally wrought vocals and a spectacularly heavy and powerful sound, very reminiscent of some of Uriah Heep's epic songs.

The "Space Shanty" album is a classic which has stood the test of time, and still sounds as fresh and original today as it did at the time of its release way back in 1972. Thanks to ProgArchives and YouTube, this album is now receiving the acclaim and recognition it truly deserves. "Space Shanty" will delight and astound Progressive Rock lovers everywhere with its awesome power and virtuosity. It's an absolutely essential album for any discerning collector of classic early 1970's Prog-Rock.