The Wilde Flowers Reviewed

A fine review (8/10 score) of the The Wilde Flowers compilation released on Floating World in Uncut no. 226 March 2016.

A total of three pages including a Q & A interview with Robert Wyatt by Tom Pinnock.

Wyatt is putting things straight by comments so dry you have to brush them off your shoulders smiling:

Q: What part did Daevid Allen play in the development of the group? I understand he introduced you all to a lot of music and art.
A: Yes, I´ve read that too. (before going on)

Q: Kevin (Ayers) must have seemed like a very exotic character when he first appeared in your circles..did he galvanise the group?
A: He certainly added the ´e´ to Wild. For Oscar of course. I don´t recall ´exotic´ being a feature of his presence.........

One of the tracks on the CD coming with this issue of Uncut is The Wilde Flowers´ "Memories" from 1966.

The Wilde Flowers

A repackaged and re-mastered collection by The Wilde Flowers seems to be out on Retroworld/Floating World, and is now expanded to include a bonus disc.

Copied from Floating World:

"The bonus disc features rare tracks by KEVIN AYRES,HUGH HOPPER and ROBERT WYATT with some intriguing newer material by BRIAN HOPPER including a re-work of the SOFT MACHINE CLASSIC “Hope For happiness” recorded by Brian in 2003.

Tracks:
Disc 1: Impotence, Those Words They Say, Memories, Don’t Try to Change Me, Parchman Farm, Almost Grown, She’s Gone, Slow Walkin’ Talk, He’s Bad For You, It’s What I Feel A Certain Kind, Memories, Never Leave Me, Time After Time, Just Where I Want, No Gain When You Lose, Impotence (alt. Version, Why Do You Care, The Pie Man Cometh, Summer Spirit, She Loves to Hurt, the Big Show, Memories(alt. version).
Disc 2: The Pieman Cometh, Mummie, That’s Alright Mama, Orientasian, Frentica, 3-4 Blues Thing in F, Slow Walkin’ Talk, Man in a Deaf Corner, Summertime, Belsized Parked, Where But For Caravan Would I, Hope for Happiness."

Also available from Amazon. Only on CD I guess.

In connection with the release Pennyblackmusic spoke to Robert Wyatt (published 24 December 2015).

"PB: As there was a “Canterbury Scene”, do you think there was also an identifiable ‘Canterbury Sound”? How would you characterise it?

RW: We knew a lot more than we could actually play."

Romantic Warriors III - Canterbury Tales

Would you be interested to help funding the film "Romantic Warriors III - Canterbury Tales"?
Then head on over to IndieGoGo for more info on the film and how to help funding.

The film makers promise they will "will guide you through the amazing history, development of the Canterbury school of progressive-rock and its influence on modern bands".

The Wilde Flowers LP

It seems like it is still possible to get the original Canterbury band Wilde Flowers in a physical format.

I visited the great record store Big Dipper in Oslo last week, and picked up a copy of the album "The Wilde Flowers" (Vinyl Lovers 2009).
Here you can hear people like Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper, Brian Hopper, Richard Sinclair, Graham Flight, Pye Hastings, Mike Ratledge and Richard Coughlan play Booker T and Chuck Berry tunes, and a lot of self made songs in 60s style, most of them composed by Hugh Hopper and Brian Hopper.

Kevin Ayers is on three tracks.

Here is an earlier blog post on Wilde Flowers, and if you compare the LP with the CD versions (Voiceprint 1994) containing this same material, you will find that the vinyl edition lack one version of "Impotence" (H. Hopper/R. Wyatt) and two versions (one instrumental) of "Memories" (H. Hopper).

See who play what, where on Discogs, with links to the CDs too.