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Kevin Ayers (16 August 1944 – 18 February 2013) was an English singer-songwriter who was active in the English psychedelic music movement. Ayers was a founding member of the psychedelic band Soft Machine in the mid-1960s, and was closely associated with the Canterbury scene. Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock, (Hal Leonard, 2003), He recorded a series of albums as a solo artist and over the years worked with Brian Eno, Syd Barrett, Bridget St John, John Cale, Elton John, Robert Wyatt, Andy Summers, Mike Oldfield, Nico and Ollie Halsall, among others. After living for many years in Deià, Mallorca, he returned to the United Kingdom in the mid-1990s before moving to the south of France. His last album, The Unfairground, was released in 2007. The Unfairground liner notes (September 2006) The British rock journalist Nick Kent wrote: "Kevin Ayers and Syd Barrett were the two most important people in British pop music. Everything that came after came from them."
One product of the sessions was the single, "Religious Experience (Singing a Song in the Morning)", early recordings of which featured Syd Barrett on guitar and backing vocals. The lead guitar that appears on the final mix was often thought to have been played by Barrett, even appearing on various Barrett bootlegs, but Ayers said that he played the solo, emulating Barrett's style. However, the 2004 CD reissue of Joy of a Toy includes a mix of this song featuring Barrett's guitar as a bonus track.
Ayers was to all intents and purposes a member of Gong in 1971 when the band first toured the UK. He also played an instrumental role in Steve Hillage appearing in Gong in 1972, while Steve was touring France as a member of Ayers's band.
A second album, Shooting at the Moon, soon followed. For this, Ayers assembled a band that he called the Whole World, including a young Mike Oldfield on bass and occasionally lead guitar, avant-garde composer David Bedford on keyboards and improvising saxophonist, Lol Coxhill. Again Ayers came up with a batch of engaging songs interspersed with avant-garde instrumentals and a heavy dose of whimsy.
The Whole World was reportedly an erratic band live, and Ayers was not cut out for life on the road touring. The band broke up after a short tour, with no hard feelings, as most of the musicians guested on Ayers's next album, Whatevershebringswesing, which is regarded as one of his best, Sounds, 25 January 1972 featuring the mellifluous eight-minute title track that would become Ayers's signature sound for the 1970s.
Bananamour was the fourth studio album by Kevin Ayers and it featured some of his most accessible recordings, including "Shouting in a Bucket Blues" and his whimsical tribute to Syd Barrett, "Oh! Wot A Dream". After Whatevershebringswesing, Ayers assembled a new band anchored by drummer Eddie Sparrow and bassist Archie Legget and employed a more direct lyricism. The centrepiece of the album is "Decadence", a portrait of Nico.Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico (London: Faber & Faber, 2021), 235.
1974 was a watershed year for Ayers. In addition to releasing his most compelling music in this year, he helped provide other artists with access to a wider stage, most notably Lady June (June Campbell Cramer). The recording, titled Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy, made in a front room of Cramer's home in Vale Court, Maida Vale, NME, 18 January 1975 brought Lady June's spoken-word poetry together with the music and voice of Ayers, and also had contributions by Brian Eno and Pip Pyle. It was originally released on Ayers's own Banana Productions label (via Virgin/Caroline).
The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories marked Ayers's move to the more commercial Island record label and is considered by many to be the most cohesive example of Ayersian philosophy. The production was expensive, with Ayers quoting the recording costs in a 1974 NME interview as exceeding £32,000 NME, 31 August 1974 (a vast figure at the time). On this LP Mike Oldfield returned to the fold, and guitarist Ollie Halsall from progressive rock band Patto began a twenty-year partnership with Ayers.
On 1 June 1974, Ayers headlined a heavily publicised concert at the Rainbow Theatre, London, accompanied by John Cale, Nico, Brian Eno and Mike Oldfield. The performance was released by Island Records just 27 days later on a live LP entitled June 1, 1974. Tensions were somewhat fraught at the event since the night before John Cale had caught Ayers sleeping with his wife, What's Welsh for Zen by John Cale (Bloomsbury 2003) prompting him to write the bile-soaked paean "Guts" that appeared on his 1975 album Slow Dazzle.
In 1976, Ayers returned to his original label Harvest and released Yes We Have No Mañanas (So Get Your Mañanas Today). The album was a more commercial affair. and secured Ayers a new American contract with ABC Records. The LP featured contributions from B.J. Cole and Zoot Money. That same year Harvest released a collection entitled Odd Ditties, that assembled a colourful group of songs that Ayers had consigned to single B-Sides or left unreleased.
Despite the positive reception Falling Up received, Ayers by this point had almost completely withdrawn from any public stage. An acoustic album Still Life with Guitar recorded with Fairground Attraction surfaced in France on the fnac label and was subsequently released throughout Europe. After a European Tour in April/May 1992 his musical partner Ollie Halsall suddenly died of a drugs-related heart attack. Collaborations with Ayers fanatics Ultramarine and with Liverpool's Wizards of Twiddly completed his output in the 1990s. The Wizards of Twiddly collaboration encompassed a couple of concert tours of the U.K./ Europe during 1995 and a resulting live album, 'Turn the Lights Down' Market.
In 1993, Ayers toured America twice, usually performing solo with occasional guests, including Daevid Allen, who was also touring America at the same time. Aside from a few New York shows in 1980 with Ollie Halsall, these tours were Ayers's first live performances in America since 1968. In 1998 and 2000 he returned for two California mini-tours, performing in Los Angeles and San Francisco and backed by local musicians. The 2000 concerts had Ayers double-billed with Gong. Longtime friend John Altman joined the Los Angeles band in 2000.
BBC DJ John Peel wrote in his autobiography: "Kevin Ayers' talent is so acute you could perform major eye surgery with it." (2026). 9780593052525, Bantam Press. ISBN 9780593052525
Signing with London's LO-MAX Records, Shepard found equal enthusiasm for the demos and after making some tentative enquiries, discovered a hotbed of interest in Ayers's work amongst the current generation of musicians. New York's Ladybug Transistor set up rehearsals for a possible recording organised by band leader Gary Olson, and Kevin and Shepard flew out to New York. When the rehearsals gelled, the entourage, which had now swelled to include horn and string players, flew out to Tucson, Arizona, where the first sessions were recorded in a dusty hangar known as Wavelab Studios.
With the tapes from the first sessions, Shepard set about getting Ayers to complete the album in the UK, where by now word had spread, and a host of musicians started gravitating to the studio. Shepard recounted meeting Teenage Fanclub at a Go-Betweens party and hearing their passion for Ayers's music, and wrote a letter to singer, guitarist Norman Blake. Mojo magazine reported that, within a couple of weeks, Ayers was in a Glasgow studio with Teenage Fanclub and a host of their like-minded colleagues, who had all assembled to work with their hero. Bill Wells from the Bill Wells Trio rubbed shoulders with Euros Childs from Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and Francis Reader from the Trash Can Sinatras.
Friends and peers from the past also visited the sessions. Robert Wyatt provided his eerie Wyattron in the poignant "Cold Shoulder", Phil Manzanera contributed to the brooding "Brainstorm", Hugh Hopper from Soft Machine played bass on the title track and Bridget St John, a British folk singer beloved of John Peel, duetted with Ayers on "Baby Come Home", the first time they had sung together since 1970 on Shooting at the Moon. The Unfairground was released to critical acclaim in September 2007.
Ayers died in his sleep on 18 February 2013 in Montolieu, France, aged 68. He was survived by three daughters, Rachel, Galen and Annaliese, and his sister, Kate. Rachel and Galen are also active as singers and musicians.
| The Soft Machine | ABC/Probe | December 1968 |
| Joy of a Toy | Harvest | November 1969 |
| Shooting at the Moon (credited to Kevin Ayers and the Whole World) | Harvest | October 1970 |
| Whatevershebringswesing | Harvest | November 1971 |
| Bananamour | Harvest | May 1973 |
| The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories | Island | May 1974 |
| Sweet Deceiver | Island | March 1975 |
| Yes We Have No Mañanas (So Get Your Mañanas Today) | Harvest | June 1976 |
| Rainbow Takeaway | Harvest | April 1978 |
| That's What You Get Babe | Harvest | February 1980 |
| Diamond Jack and the Queen of Pain | Charly | June 1983 |
| Deià...Vu | Blau | March 1984 |
| As Close as You Think | Illuminated | June 1986 |
| Falling Up | Virgin | February 1988 |
| Still Life with Guitar | FNAC | January 1992 |
| The Unfairground | LO-MAX | September 2007 |
| "Love Makes Sweet Music" (with Soft Machine) | Polydor | February 1967 |
| "Joy of a Toy" (with Soft Machine) | ABC/Probe (USA) | November 1968 |
| "Singing a Song in the Morning" | Harvest | February 1970 |
| "Butterfly Dance" | Harvest | October 1970 |
| "Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes" | Harvest | August 1971 |
| "Oh! Wot a Dream" | Harvest | November 1972 |
| "Don't Let It Get You Down" | Harvest (FR) | November 1972 |
| "Caribbean Moon" | Harvest | April 1973 |
| "The Up Song" | Island | February 1974 |
| "Day by Day" | Island (NL) | February 1974 |
| "After The Show" | Island | July 1974 |
| "Falling in Love Again" | Island | February 1976 |
| "Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes" (reissue) | Harvest | February 1976 |
| "Star" | Harvest | April 1977 |
| "Mr. Cool" | ABC (USA) | April 1977 |
| "Money Money Money" | Harvest | February 1980 |
| "Animals" | Columbia (ES) | 1980 |
| "My Speeding Heart" | Charly | 1983 |
| "Who's Still Crazy" | WEA (ES) | 1983 |
| "Stop Playing with My Heart" | Blau (ES) | 1984 |
| "Stepping Out" | Illuminated | 1986 |
| "Am I Really Marcel?" | Accidentales (ES) | 1988 |
| "The Best We Have" | Accidentales (ES) | 1988 |
| "Thank You Very Much" | FNAC | 1992 |
| "Baby Come Home" | LO-MAX | September 2008 |
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