The Soft Boys were an English
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band led by
Robyn Hitchcock
Robyn Rowan Hitchcock (born 3 March 1953) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano, and bass guitar. After leading the Soft Boys in the late 1970s and releasing the ...
primarily during the 1970s, whose initially old-fashioned music style of psychedelic/folk-rock became part of the
neo-psychedelia
Neo-psychedelia is a diverse genre of psychedelic music that draws inspiration from the sounds of 1960s psychedelia, either updating or copying the approaches from that era. Originating in the 1970s, it has occasionally seen mainstream pop su ...
scene with the release of ''
Underwater Moonlight
''Underwater Moonlight'' is the second studio album by English rock band the Soft Boys, released on 28 June 1980 by record label Armageddon.
Initially unsuccessful, the album has gone on to be viewed as a psychedelic classic, influential on th ...
''.
The band formed in 1976 in
Cambridge, England
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge became ...
as Dennis and the Experts comprising Robyn Hitchcock (guitar), Rob Lamb (half-brother of radio host and author
Charlie Gillett
Charles Thomas Gillett (; 20 February 1942 – 17 March 2010) was a British radio presenter, musicologist, and writer, mainly on rock and roll and other forms of popular music. He was particularly noted for his influential book ''The Sound of t ...
) guitar,
Andy Metcalfe
Andy Metcalfe (born 3 March 1956, Bristol, England) is an English bassist, keyboardist and producer, who played mainly with The Soft Boys (with Robyn Hitchcock, 1976–1979), Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians (1984–1994), and with Squeeze off ...
(bass), and Morris Windsor (drums).
Alan Davies replaced Lamb after only four gigs late in 1976, and
Kimberley Rew
Kimberley Charles Rew (born 3 December 1951) is an English rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as a member of Katrina and the Waves from 1981 to 1999 and of Robyn Hitchcock's Soft Boys from 1978 to 1981. Two of his better-kn ...
eventually replaced Davies.
Matthew Seligman
Matthew Seligman (14 July 1955 – 17 April 2020) was an English bassist, best known for his association with the new wave music scene of the 1980s. Seligman was a member of the Soft Boys and the Thompson Twins, and was a sideman for Thomas Do ...
replaced Metcalfe in 1979.
The band broke up in 1981 after ''Underwater Moonlight''. Rew formed the more mainstream pop group
Katrina and the Waves
Katrina and the Waves were a British rock band widely known for the 1985 hit " Walking on Sunshine". They also won the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Love Shine a Light".
History Pre-history (1975–1980)
The band's earliest inc ...
, while Hitchcock went on to a prolific career with a similar whimsical, surrealistic style,
forming Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians in 1984 with fellow Soft Boys Morris Windsor and Andy Metcalfe, who went on to tour and record for ten years. They were briefly joined by Rew and Seligman in a re-formed Soft Boys for a UK tour in 1994 to mark the release of a box set of their work, and then reformed again in 2001 without Metcalfe for the 20th anniversary of ''Underwater Moonlight'' and the release of a new album, ''Nextdoorland'', in 2002. They disbanded once again in 2003.
Seligman died in 2020 of complications from
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
Discography
Albums
*''
A Can of Bees
''A Can of Bees'' is the debut album by English band The Soft Boys. The album was reissued in 1984 with a different track listing on the second side.
Both versions of Side 2 appear on the CD reissue first put out by Two Crabs in 1990, subseque ...
'' (1979)
*''
Underwater Moonlight
''Underwater Moonlight'' is the second studio album by English rock band the Soft Boys, released on 28 June 1980 by record label Armageddon.
Initially unsuccessful, the album has gone on to be viewed as a psychedelic classic, influential on th ...
'' (1980)
*''Nextdoorland'' (2002)
Compilation and live albums
*''Two Halves for the Price of One'' (1981) (Studio rarities and live tracks)
*''Live at the Portland Arms'' (cassette, 1983; LP, 1988)
*''Invisible Hits'' (1983)
*''Wading Through a Ventilator'' (EP) (1984) (Contains ''Give It To The Soft Boys'' EP, plus extra tracks)
*''Raw Cuts'' (EP) (1989) (A retitled version of ''Wading Through a Ventilator'')
*''1976-81'' (2 CD) (1993) (Best-of, plus rarities, out-takes and live tracks)
*''Where Are The Prawns'' (cassette, 1994)
*''Underwater Moonlight... And How It Got There'' (2 CD) (2001) (Contains all of ''Underwater Moonlight'', plus an additional disc of demos, rehearsals, and out-takes)
Singles and EPs
*''Give It To The Soft Boys'' 7" EP: "Wading Through a Ventilator" b/w "The Face of Death" and "Hear My Brane" (1977)
*"(I Want to Be An) Anglepoise Lamp" b/w "Fatman's Son" (1978)
*''Near the Soft Boys'' 7" EP: "Kingdom of Love" b/w "
Vegetable Man
"Vegetable Man" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd, written by the frontman, Syd Barrett, and recorded in 1967. It was considered for a release as a single or for inclusion on their second album, '' A Saucerful of Secrets'', but went un ...
" & "Strange" (1980)
*"I Wanna Destroy You" b/w "Old Pervert" (1980)
*"Only the Stones Remain" b/w "The Asking Tree" (1981)
*"Love Poisoning" (1982)
*"He's a Reptile" b/w "Song No. 4" (1983)
*"The Face of Death" b/w "The Yodelling Hoover" (1989)
*''Side Three'' (CD EP) (2002)
An album financed by
Radar Records
Radar Records was a UK-based record label formed in late 1977 by Martin Davis (managing director) who had previously worked at United Artists Records, and Andrew Lauder, who had previously been head of A&R at the UK divisions of Liberty Recor ...
was recorded at Rockfield Studios in 1978, at the same time
Rush
Rush(es) may refer to:
Places
United States
* Rush, Colorado
* Rush, Kentucky
* Rush, New York
* Rush City, Minnesota
* Rush Creek (Kishwaukee River tributary), Illinois
* Rush Creek (Marin County, California), a stream
* Rush Creek (Mono Cou ...
was recording ''
Hemispheres'' there. The resultant album was never released, although one or two of the tracks have had subsequent release as part of compilations.
References
External links
The Asking Tree database of Soft Boys and Robyn Hitchcock live appearances and releases
The Glass HotelThe Soft Boys collectionat the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
's live music archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soft Boys, The
English post-punk music groups
English new wave musical groups
Musical groups established in 1976
Musical groups disestablished in 1980
Musical groups reestablished in 2001
Musical groups from Cambridge
English alternative rock groups
Neo-psychedelia groups
Attic Records (Canada) artists
Radar Records artists
Rykodisc artists
Matador Records artists