Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt (born Robert Wyatt-Ellidge, 28 January 1945) is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career.

During his adolescence in Lydden, Wyatt was taught drums by visiting American jazz drummer George Neidorf. It was during this period that Wyatt met and became friends with expatriate Australian musician Daevid Allen, who rented a room in Wyatt’s family home.

In 1962, Wyatt and Neidorf moved to Majorca, living near the poet Robert Graves. The following year, Wyatt returned to England and joined the Daevid Allen Trio with Allen and 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 disintegrated, and Wyatt joins Soft Machine by Kevin Ayers and Daevid Allen.

In 1970, after chaotic touring, three albums and increasing internal conflicts in Soft Machine, Wyatt released his first solo album, “The End of an Ear”. A year later, Wyatt left Soft Machine and formed his own band Matching Mole, a largely instrumental outfit that recorded two albums.

Matching Mole were about to record their third album when, on 1 June 1973, during a birthday party, an inebriated Wyatt fell from a fourth-floor window. He was paralysed from the waist down and consequently uses a wheelchair.

The injury led Wyatt to abandon the Matching Mole project, and his rock drumming (though he would continue to play drums and percussion in more of a “jazz” fashion, without the use of his feet). He promptly embarked on a solo career and released his solo album “Rock Bottom” on 1974.