Despite forming in 1966, prog rock-turned-jazz rock heroes Soft Machine only performed at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention for the first time this year, bringing an hour of classics to thousands of music fans braving the heatwave.
“It’s been a long time coming,” John Etheridge, the longest-serving member currently in the band, told Erazer after his performance.
“I’m very surprised we were invited. I think of Cropredy as a folk festival. We’re interlopers, I think that’s quite nice actually.”
Bassist Fred Thelonious Baker said he had played the festival before, so knew what the vibe was and knew what to expect from one of the UK’s longest-running festivals.
Early on in the set, John broke a string on his guitar, so while he fixed it live on stage, supporting musicians Fred, as well as Theo Travis and Asaf Sirkis, broke into an improvised piece, a moment some fans even called the best part of the show.
Blaming the broken string on his new guitar’s bridge, the issue drives John ‘up the wall,’ but he remains insistent on only bringing one instrument to a show.
“If I had a roadie who could change the string, I’d pick up a spare guitar, finish the tune and then get it back, but I’m not going to play a different guitar for the rest of the set.”
Breaking a string isn’t the worst thing to happen to John, however, with the 78-year-old recalling smashing the neck of his guitar after leaning over.
For saxophonist, flautist and keyboard player Theo, though, a promoter once stood on his flute at a gig in Bristol.
“That’s what happens when you play live,” he joked.
Cropredy Festival was set up by the band Fairport Convention, who have performed at the event every year since. Fairport’s fiddler Ric Sanders used to be in Soft Machine, and he reunited with the band at this year’s festival.
“I came back from holiday, and Ric had joined the band,” John said about the first time he met Ric, in the mid 1970s.
“I didn’t know anything about him, but he had a great energy.”
Soft Machine have broken up and reunited multiple times throughout the last 60 years, and John expects the band to continue touring even when he is gone.
“When I pop my clogs they’ll probably carry on,” he said. “Gong have carried on with no original members, and they sound fantastic.”
Fairport’s Cropredy Convention continues this weekend, with performances on the way from Hayseed Dixie, Will Pound & Jenn Butterworth and Richard Thompson.
