hi people!!

Soft Machine and Caravan are the most known but...

I think Hatfield & the North is the sumum of this musical scene. Intrincate and delicate songs, Stewart and Sinclair in their best moments of creativity, and Miller's guitar is amazing!!!

My vote for them.

Good poll.

Damn, can only vote once.

Has to be Soft Machine I guess (first & second album era)as this is where the Canterbury scene started for me; followed by Gong, Egg and Caravan. Although I really like Hatfield, Bob Wyatt and matching mole as well. I could vote for them all

I like Caravan!!!!

But I admit my Canterbury knowledge is not great (only owing Caravan and Hatfield and the North cds and some Matching Mole and Gong mp3)

I believe that Hathfield and the North and National Health are the fore runner, I also feel that the two band are very similar sound...I could easily confuse them.

Caravan and Camel were probably the most famous of all Canterbury bands. Soft Machine came from Canterbury and memebers played in Canterbury bands but I would hardly consider the music they played Canterbury, they were more to the JAZZY edge...free jazz for that matter.

Oh and the fact tht many state that Camel are the outcasts of Canterbury...Pooh on them, They are canterbury. ready for the arguments.

I like National Health, too. "Tenemos Roads" makes my top ten list, and that's just a beginning.

Bruford should probably be listed as a Canterbury band. I would be inclined to vote for them, if it were. Bruford, Holdsworth and Dave Stewart all in one band. How could they be overlooked?!

Matching Mole get's my vote they're worth it... very underrated band though.

This is the genre that I've got the most problem with, I mean with Caterbury polls... so many good bands I get all sweaty 

I've got albums with all of them and love them deeply, this is too hard for me 

flying teapot wrote: I believe that Hathfield and the North and National Health are the fore runner, I also feel that the two band are very similar sound...I could easily confuse them.

well, they are more or less the same band, except for the bass player; the rest of the musicians stayed the same

From your list, Soft Machine.

My all time favourite Canterbury band is Henry Cow.

Chris_Kemp wrote: Bruford should probably be listed as a Canterbury band. I would be inclined to vote for them, if it were. Bruford, Holdsworth and Dave Stewart all in one band. How could they be overlooked?!

I agree with you. I don't think they are overlooked, but the PA genre squad have decided that Bruford is fusion, not Canterbury  .

BaldJean wrote: a lot of Canterbury IS fusion; Canterbury refers more to a group of musicians that formed various bands, swapping members all the time, than to a specific style of music, in my opinion

In the early days, yes, but for the rest I disagree: from the mid-70's on, Canterbury is also a specific brand of jazz rock, not big band jazz rock, not very loud jazzrock, but more intimate, subtle music, with lots of unusual chords, with a great sense of humour in the song titles and often with some musical trademarks, like the organ sound with the wah wah - effect, the presence of one or more Northettes, to name but a few.

I think there is a large musical similarity between bands as Hatfield, National Health, Bruford, mid- to late seventies Gong and mid-to-late seventies Soft Machine.

I can't really prove my point, but that's how I think and feel about and I'm not the only one.

Syzygy wrote: Similarly, Art Zoyd and Univers Zero could be listed as RIO/Zeuhl.

Then... is Henry Cow exactly Canterbury or RIO?? I not included them in the list for this reason...

BaldJean wrote: there were times when National Health and Gilgamesh did concerts as an 8-piece band (2 drummers, 2 bass players, 2 keyboarders and 2 guitar players). I would have liked to see one of them. this is of course also an argument against Gilgamesh not being essential . sadly the keyboarder of Gilgamesh, Alan Gowen, died of leucemia (which is why Hatfield and the North recorded "D. S. Al Coda", an album consisting only of Alan Gowen compostions (the front cover of that album is a photo of Alan Gowen). he (Alan Gowen) also played in the bands Soft Head and Soft Heap

Thx BaldJean for that great information, always learning something interresting from you 

krauthead wrote: BaldJean wrote: there were times when National Health and Gilgamesh did concerts as an 8-piece band (2 drummers, 2 bass players, 2 keyboarders and 2 guitar players). I would have liked to see one of them. this is of course also an argument against Gilgamesh not being essential . sadly the keyboarder of Gilgamesh, Alan Gowen, died of leucemia (which is why Hatfield and the North recorded "D. S. Al Coda", an album consisting only of Alan Gowen compostions (the front cover of that album is a photo of Alan Gowen). he (Alan Gowen) also played in the bands Soft Head and Soft Heap   Thx BaldJean for that great information, always learning something interresting from you

Seconded!

Incidentally, I am trying to get hold of an album with Alan Gowen called Before a Word is Said, which also has Richard Sinclair playing on it, as well as a couple of other Canterbury musicians if I'm not mistaken. It was  released in 1981 and really tough to find anywhere... I was not aware that Mr. Gowen had succumbed to leucemia, how sad...

And as for this poll, sadly I can't yet take part in it, no matter how much I would like to. I am just getting seriously into all this Canterbury stuff and so far my collection amounts to three CD's by Caravan, two CD's by Hatfield... and a CD each for Gong, Bruford and Robert Wyatt. (I do have Mirage as well, if that counts.)

I really, really like all those CD's I have aqcuired so far, though (with Rock Bottom and In The Land of Grey and Pink battling it out at the top) so hopefully I will be able to cast a vote in a poll like this in the not too distant future!

BaldJean wrote: Fritha wrote: krauthead wrote: BaldJean wrote: there were times when National Health and Gilgamesh did concerts as an 8-piece band (2 drummers, 2 bass players, 2 keyboarders and 2 guitar players). I would have liked to see one of them. this is of course also an argument against Gilgamesh not being essential . sadly the keyboarder of Gilgamesh, Alan Gowen, died of leucemia (which is why Hatfield and the North recorded "D. S. Al Coda", an album consisting only of Alan Gowen compostions (the front cover of that album is a photo of Alan Gowen). he (Alan Gowen) also played in the bands Soft Head and Soft Heap   Thx BaldJean for that great information, always learning something interresting from you  Seconded! Incidentally, I am trying to get hold of an album with Alan Gowen called Before a Word is Said, which also has Richard Sinclair playing on it, as well as a couple of other Canterbury musicians if I'm not mistaken. It was  released in 1981 and really tough to find anywhere... I was not aware that Mr. Gowen had succumbed to leucemia, how sad... And as for this poll, sadly I can't yet take part in it, no matter how much I would like to. I am just getting seriously into all this Canterbury stuff and so far my collection amounts to three CD's by Caravan, two CD's by Hatfield... and a CD each for Gong, Bruford and Robert Wyatt. (I do have Mirage as well, if that counts.) I really, really like all those CD's I have aqcuired so far, though (with Rock Bottom and In The Land of Grey and Pink battling it out at the top) so hopefully I will be able to cast a vote in a poll like this in the not too distant future! Incidentially, I confused National Health and Hatfield and the North in that post  (which is an easy thing to do with both bands consisting of almost the same musicians; only the bass player is different). So it was Hatfield and the North who played with Gilgamesh as an 8-piece band, and it was National Health who recorded "D.S. Al Coda". Sorry for causing that confusion.

Aha, so you tried to trick us huh??? 

Only kidding with you there BaldJean 

Nice story anyhow, though it was very nice of you to tell the right one 

Syzygy wrote: Dave Stewart played keyboards Hatfield & The North, National Health and Bruford, so the resemblance isn't that surprising - members of all the key Canterbury bands cropped up on each other's albums all the time. It may be that at some point we'll be able to have some bands in multiple categories, so Bruford could be Jazz Fusion (ehich they definitely are) and Canterbury (which they also fit into). Similarly, Art Zoyd and Univers Zero could be listed as RIO/Zeuhl.

Spoken like a real prog genre specialist

geezer wrote: Moogtron III wrote: Syzygy wrote: Dave Stewart played keyboards Hatfield & The North, National Health and Bruford, so the resemblance isn't that surprising - members of all the key Canterbury bands cropped up on each other's albums all the time. It may be that at some point we'll be able to have some bands in multiple categories, so Bruford could be Jazz Fusion (ehich they definitely are) and Canterbury (which they also fit into). Similarly, Art Zoyd and Univers Zero could be listed as RIO/Zeuhl. Spoken like a real prog genre specialist Yes, but aren't Art Zoyd and Univers Zero the most perfect examples of avant-prog rather than RIO?? That's at least how I see their music. Please educate me.

I'll pass that one on to Syzygy. I was only reacting to what he said about Bruford / Canterbury. I don't know about Art Zoyd and Univers Zero.

Mr. Syzygy, if you have a spare moment?

Caravan is not exactly a canterbury band IMHO (apart from their early period, after 1973 they are more symphonic)
Despite the great tendency towards Soft Machine, I don't like their style: too jazzy...
Never heard Hatfield & the North, National Health, Khan, Nucleus and Gilgamesh...
Only debuts from Robert Wyatt's solo stuff and Egg. (Egg's debut is great, though)

There remains the ultimate band: Gong. I love their eclectic approach (canterbury mixed with Hawkwind style space rock, including humourous stories concerning Planet Gong and pothead pixies! Later on great Fusion stuff with Pierre Moerlen)

OK, to clarify matters:

Art Zoyd and Univers Zero were both part of the original RIO festival in 1978, so for that reason they're both (quite rightly) classified as RIO bands.

On the other hand, Univers Zero had a strong Magma connection - Daniel Denis played onstage with Magma as second drummer for a few weeks, and keyboard player Patrick Gauthier left Univers Zero to join Magma and played on Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh. Although they had their own sound, Univers Zero were heavily influenced by Zeuhl, and are considered a Zeuhl band by most fans. When I interviewed Guapo they asked me why UZ weren't categorised as Zeuhl.

Art Zoyd also had a strong Zeuhl influence, at least for their first 5 albums, and are also generally accepted as a Zeuhl band. If you check out the online version of Ork Alarm you'll find articles and reviews about both Art Zoyd and Univers Zero.

For that reason, I'd classify both bands as RIO/Zeuhl.

Henry Cow and Zammla Mammas Manna I would consider to be RIO/Avant Prog, the difference being that they both make extensive use of free improvisation, where Zeuhl is tightly structured.

We could (and probably will) carry on debating this for a long time to come, which is why I enjoy visiting this site so much.