Robert Wyatt | Artist
Robert Wyatt is an English progressive rock musician born 1945 in Bristol, UK. He is a founding member of the influential Canterbury scene bands Soft Machine and Matching Mole, and an accomplished solo artist. Wyatt was with Soft Machine for their early classic albums but left in 1971 as a result of a serious accident which left him paraplegic. Although he has enjoyed very little commercial success, Wyatt is one of the foremost progressive rock musicians to have come from the '60s Prog/Jazz scene, and his solo works have been consistently excellent. As a teenager Wyatt lived with his parents in Lydden near Dover, where he was taught drums by visiting American jazz drummer George Neidorf. It was during this period that Wyatt became friends with expatriate Australian musician Daevid Allen, who rented a room in Wyatt's family home. Wyatt, Allen and others would later form Soft Machine, and Allen went on to lead Gong. Wyatt spent several years living in Majorca in the early 60's then returned to England and joined the Daevid Allen Trio with Hugh Hopper. Allen subsequently left for France, and Wyatt and Hopper formed the Wilde Flowers, with Kevin Ayers, Richard Sinclair and Brian Hopper. Wyatt was initially the drummer in the Wilde Flowers, but following the departure of Ayers, he also became lead singer. In 1966, the Wilde Flowers split into two bands—Caravan and the Soft Machine—and Wyatt, along with Mike Ratledge, was invited to join Soft Machine by Kevin Ayers and Daevid Allen. Wyatt both drummed and shared vocals with Ayers, an unusual combination for a stage rock band. After chaotic touring, three albums and increasing internal conflicts in Soft Machine, Wyatt released his first solo album, The End of an Ear, which combined his vocal and multi-instrumental talents with tape effects. A year later Wyatt left Soft Machine and formed his own band Matching Mole, a largely instrumental outfit that recorded two albums. Matching Mole gradually disbanded, and Wyatt began writing for his second solo album. He began to assemble a new band to record these numbers, but on 1 June 1973, during a birthday party for Gong's Gilli Smyth and June Campbell Cramer at the latter's Maida Vale home, an inebriated Wyatt fell from a fourth-floor window and broke his spine. He was paralysed from the waist down and has used a wheelchair ever since. After a period of convalescence Wyatt embarked on a solo career, and with musician friends including Mike Oldfield, Ivor Cutler and Henry Cow guitarist Fred Frith, released his solo album Rock Bottom in July 1974. Wyatt went on to release a total of ten solo albums, plus many excellent EP's and Singles. His undoubted masterpiece is Rock Bottom (1974), with other outstanding albums including Ruth is Stranger Than Richard (1975), Old Rottenhat (1985), Shleep (1997), Cuckooland (2003), and the compilations Eps (1999), His Greatest Misses (2004), and Different Every Time (2014). Also recommended is Theatre Royal Drury Lane 8th September 1974, a live album in honour of Wyatt held one year after his accident, with an impressive lineup of prog-rockers. Wyatt's solo music has covered an individual musical terrain ranging from covers of pop singles to shifting, amorphous song collections drawing on elements of jazz, folk and nursery rhyme. The artist retired from his 40 year solo career in 2014. He is married to English painter and songwriter Alfreda Benge.
Artist Website: strongcomet.com/wyatt/
Featured Albums: Robert Wyatt
Related Artists: Soft Machine, Matching Mole, Centipede, Daevid Allen
Collections: Music Visionaries
