Original run (1966–78) Early releases and The Soft Machine (1966–1968) In mid-1966,
Mike Ratledge (keyboards),
Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals),
Kevin Ayers (bass, vocals),
Daevid Allen (guitar) and Larry Nowlin (guitar) formed Soft Machine, who were billed as The Soft Machine up to 1969 or 1970. Allen and Wyatt first played together in 1963 as part of the Daevid Allen Trio, and were occasionally accompanied by Ratledge. In 1964, Wyatt and Ayers were founder members of
The Wilde Flowers; by 1966, they had both left that band and rejoined Allen to form the short-lived band Mister Head, which also included Nowlin. The four members soon joined with Ratledge to form the Soft Machine. Ayers suggested the band's name, which comes from
William S. Burroughs's novel
The Soft Machine (1961). The band became a quartet when Nowlin departed in September 1966. During late 1966 and early 1967, the Soft Machine became involved in the early
UK underground scene. Along with
Pink Floyd, they became one of the major resident bands at the
UFO Club, and played other London clubs like the
Speakeasy and
Middle Earth. According to Wyatt, the Soft Machine received negative reactions when playing at venues other than these underground clubs; this led to their penchant for long tracks and segued tunes because continuously playing deprived their audiences chances to boo them. In February 1967, the band released their first single "
Love Makes Sweet Music" on
Polydor Records. Polydor later released these demos in 1972 as
Jet Propelled Photographs. Later in 1967, the band began touring in mainland Europe, becoming especially popular in France. When returning from a tour of France in August, Allen, an Australian, was denied re-entry to the UK, The Soft Machine, who shared the same management as
the Jimi Hendrix Experience, supported them on two North American tours during 1968. The band signed to
Probe Records and recorded their eponymous
first album in New York City in April at the end of the first tour, though it was not released until December. In London, guitarist
Andy Summers, later of
the Police, joined the Soft Machine. The band's new line-up began a US tour with some headlining shows before supporting Hendrix in August and September 1968. By the time the Hendrix tour began, Summers had been fired at Ayers' insistence. Ayers himself departed amicably after the final tour date at the Hollywood Bowl in September, and the Soft Machine disbanded. Wyatt stayed in the US to record solo demos while Ratledge returned to London and began composing.
Transition into jazz; Volume Two, Third, and Fourth (1969–1971) In December 1968, to fulfil contractual obligations, Wyatt and Ratledge re-formed the Soft Machine with their former road manager
Hugh Hopper replacing Ayers on bass. Hopper, like Ayers and Wyatt, was a founding member of The Wilde Flowers. In 1969, the Soft Machine recorded their second album
Volume Two, which started a change to
jazz fusion. The album fulfilled the band's contract with Probe and they signed with
CBS Records by the beginning of 1970. In May 1969, the Soft Machine played as the uncredited backing band on two tracks of
The Madcap Laughs, the debut solo album of Pink Floyd's
Syd Barrett. Shortly after the Barrett recording, Hopper's brother
Brian Hopper, another Wilde Flowers co-founder, joined the Soft Machine on saxophone. Around this time, the band recorded the soundtrack for a multimedia show called
Spaced, which ran in London for five days in mid 1969. The soundtrack was commercially released in 1996 by Cuneiform Records. In October 1969, following Brian Hopper's departure, the Soft Machine expanded to a septet; Wyatt, Ratledge and Hugh Hopper added a four-piece horn section composed of the saxophonists
Elton Dean and
Lyn Dobson, cornet player
Mark Charig and trombonist
Nick Evans. After two months, Charig and Evans departed the band. The quintet continued until March 1970, when Dobson departed. The remaining quartet recorded the double album
Third (1970) and its single-album follow-up
Fourth (1971).
Third was mostly instrumental save for Wyatt's song "Moon in June", the last Soft Machine song to have lyrics.
Third is unusual for its time in having each of the four sides feature one suite.
Fifth to Softs and breakup (1972–1978) , West Berlin, supported by
Family,
Yes and
Man. After differences over the group's musical direction, Wyatt was fired in August 1971 and formed
Matching Mole (a pun on "machine molle", French for "soft machine"; also said at the time to have been taken from stage lighting equipment "Matching Mole"). During 1977, Soft Machine recorded the live album
Alive & Well: Recorded in Paris, which was released early the following year. In 1978, Soft Machine gave only one live performance, which was at the Sound & Musik Festival in
Dortmund,
West Germany, on 8 December, with a line-up of Marshall, Jenkins, Cook and Holdsworth. After this show, Soft Machine disbanded.
Occasional reunions (1980–81; 1984) The name Soft Machine was resurrected for the 1981 album
Land of Cockayne. Soft Machine also briefly reformed for a series of concerts at London's
Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in mid 1984 that featured John Marshall, Karl Jenkins, Ray Warleigh, John Etheridge, bassist
Paul Carmichael and pianist
Dave MacRae.
Alternative bands (1978–2015) Soft Heap / Soft Head (1978–88) Soft Heap was formed in January 1978 by
Hugh Hopper and
Elton Dean from Soft Machine, and
Alan Gowen and
Pip Pyle from
National Health. is an acronym that is composed of the initials of the members' first names. The band toured in the early-to-mid 1978 as
Soft Head because Dave Sheen replaced Pip Pyle due to Pyle's commitments to National Health. to avoid confusion with Peter Mergener's band
Software. Soft Works made their live debut on 17 August 2002 at the
Progman Cometh Festival at Moore Theater in
Seattle, Washington; and a live album of the performance was released on 29 July 2003. Their only studio album
Abracadabra, consisting of new material and recorded at Eastcote Studios, London, on 5–7 June 2002. The album was toured in Japan in August 2003, Italy in January and February 2004, and Mexico in March 2004. The two-part "Soft Mountain Suite" extracts the best thirty minutes from each improvisation. In June 2004, Elton Dean and Hugh Hopper formed the band Soft Bounds with
Sophia Domancich on keyboards and Simon Goubert on drums); they played at the Festival "Les Tritonales" in
Les Lilas, Paris, France. This concert was partially released in 2005 as the Soft Bounds' album
Live at Le Triton.
Soft Machine Legacy (2004–15) In October 2004, the members of Soft Works, with John Etheridge permanently replacing Holdsworth, took the name "Soft Machine Legacy" and performed two festival shows; one on 9 October in Turkey and the other on 15 October in the Czech Republic.
Liam Genockey temporarily replaced John Marshall who had ligament problems. The new band's line-up was Elton Dean, John Etheridge, Hugh Hopper and Liam Genockey. the studio album
Soft Machine Legacy (2006), After Elton Dean died in February 2006, the band continued with the British saxophonist and flautist
Theo Travis, formerly of Gong and
The Tangent. In December 2006, the new Legacy line-up recorded the album
Steam in
Jon Hiseman's studio.
Steam was released in August 2007 by
Moonjune Records before a European tour. Hopper left the band in 2008 because he was suffering from
leukaemia, so for live performances
Fred Thelonious Baker deputising for Hopper. Following Hopper's death in 2009, the band announced they would continue with Roy Babbington again replacing Hopper on bass. Soft Machine Legacy released their fifth album in October 2010; the 58-minute record
Live Adventures was recorded live in October 2009 in Austria and Germany during a European tour. Founding Soft Machine bassist Kevin Ayers died in February 2013 at aged 68, and 77-year-old Daevid Allen died in March 2015 following a short battle with cancer. On 18 March 2013, the Legacy band released a new studio album titled
Burden of Proof. Travis stated: "legally we could actually be called Soft Machine but for various reasons it was decided to be one step removed".
A return to the name "Soft Machine" (2015–present) Reformation and Hidden Details (2015–2018) In September and October 2015, it was announced Soft Machine Legacy, which was composed of drummer John Marshall, guitarist John Etheridge, bassist Roy Babbington, and sax, flute and keyboard player Theo Travis, would be performing under the name Soft Machine in late 2015 and early 2016: they would perform two shows in the Netherlands and Belgium in early December 2015, and seven UK shows in March and April 2016. In December 2015, it was confirmed the band were dropping the word "Legacy" from their name, becoming known as Soft Machine for the first time since 1984. On 7 September 2018, Soft Machine released
Hidden Details on Dyad Records in the UK and Tonefloat Records in the US, their first new studio album since
Land of Cockayne (1981). In late 2018 and until February 2019, they toured the world to mark their 50th anniversary and to support the new album.
Further tours and Other Doors (2019–present) On 20 March 2020, Soft Machine released
Live at The Baked Potato, their first original live album since
Alive & Well (1978). It was recorded live on 1 February 2019 at
The Baked Potato, Los Angeles, and was initially only available as a twelve-track limited-edition double vinyl LP of 200 copies but it has since been released on Compact Disc (CD). The album documents their extensive 2018–2019 world tour. On 7 December 2021, Soft Machine announced Babbington was retiring from the band and would be replaced by Fred Thelonious Baker. In June 2023, Soft Machine released the new studio album
Other Doors, which was recorded with John Marshall before he retired from music. Marshall died on 16 September 2023. , the line-up of Soft Machine was Etheridge, Travis, Baker and drummer
Asaf Sirkis. They embarked on a seven-date UK tour beginning on 3 February 2023 at the
New Cross Inn in London and ending on 26 May 2023 at
City Varieties in
Leeds. The band began touring again in November 2023 with dates booked until November 2024. Co-founding member
Mike Ratledge died on 5 February 2025. On 4 March 2025 in Manchester (at Band On The Wall), the band embarked on an 8-date UK Spring tour which concluded on 4 April in London (at The Vortex Jazz Club), celebrating on that occasion John Etheridge's 50 years with the band (since 12 April 1975). Soft Machine toured Europe from 9 May in London (at Signature Brew) to 25 May 2025 in Zoetermeer, The Netherlands (at De Boerderij): the 10-date Spring tour also included Sweden (four dates), Norway (one date), Finland (two dates) and Germany (one date). Ater a special show dedicated to Mike Ratledge on 1 September 2025 in London (at the Pizza Express jazz club), Soft Machine are due to embark on 2 November 2025 in
Cardiff (at Acapela Studio) on an 8-date UK Fall tour which should conclude on 30 November 2025 in
Southampton (at 1865) (with
Colosseum), also visiting
Market Harborough,
Barnard Castle,
Hull,
Bristol and London again (2 dates at Sound Lounge and at Cadogan Hall (again with Colosseum)). ==Musical style==