Monday 21 May 2012

KEVIN AYERS: Wherefore art thou Kevin?

There are so many people who made records in 1970 or 1971 whose subsequent careers have been a crashing disappointment. Rod Stewart and Elton John, for example, although it must be said that Sir Elton has redeemed himself to a certain extent with his last few releases.

Here, I should once again make the point that any comments I make about the dodginess or otherwise of people's careers is my own opinion and now't to do with any of those jolly nice fellows and fellowesses at Gonzo Multimedia.

Their subsequent careers were a crashing disappointment because most of the records they produced after their first amazing burst of enthusiasm and creativity just weren’t terribly good. However, other people’s subsequent careers were a crashing disappointment because although the records they made were stunning, they just didn’t make very many of them, either because they died relatively young, or because – for whatever reason – they just decided to withdraw from the limelight.

A case in point, and probably as far as I am concerned, the biggest case in point is Kevin Ayers. Originally the singer with Soft Machine, he made a series of solo albums so unutterably brilliant that he only put one foot wrong. That was when he stopped making them. Over the decades his records became more and more infrequent, although they were still brilliant. His most recent CD, 2007's The Unfairground featuring such notable guests as Teenage Fanclub and Robert Wyatt was bloody magnificent. But it’s been five years, and not a peep from the man.

I understand from many sources that he is a very private man and just doesn’t like to be bothered, which is fair enough, but I and all the other fans of his unparalleled song writing, sorely miss him. When I found out that there were a couple of Kevin’s albums on sale through Gonzo I decided to plug them on the website. Check out his artist page:

http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/artists/6795/Kevin%20Ayers
http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/artists/6786/Kevin%20Ayers%20and%20The%20Whole%20World
and in the meantime feast your ears on this:

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What happens when you mix what is - arguably - the world's most interesting record company, with an anarchist manic-depressive rock music historian polymath, and a method of dissemination which means that a daily rock-music magazine can be almost instantaneous?

Most of this blog is related in some way to the music, books and films produced by Gonzo Multimedia, but the editor has a grasshopper mind and so also writes about all sorts of cultural issues which interest him, and which he hopes will interest you as well.