Here we have the third installment of the Romantic Warriors video series on progressive rock, from the duo of Adele Schmidt & Jose Jegarra Holder, a Zeitgeist Media LL Production. This time around, the focus is on the important Canterbury scene, which emerged out of Britain in the late '60 and early '70s. Influenced greatly by jazz and jazz-rock-fusion, some of the Canterbury bands no doubt clearly influenced the growing 'fusion' scene that really took off in the early '70s after a few well received albums by Miles Davis that merged jazz and rock for the first time. Plenty of space is given here to Soft Machine, perhaps the first Canterbury band, as the film takes you through their early formative stages and their time on the road opening for Jimi Hendrix, all the way to their more avant-garde period, the jazz-fusion period with Allan Holdsworth, and eventually in more recent years as Soft Machine Legacy. It's not all about Soft Machine however, as acts like Gong are discussed (with short interview segments from Daevid Allen, who recently passed away), Caravan, Egg, Matching Mole, Hatfield & The North, National Health, Gilgamesh, In Cahoots, Moving Gelatine Plates, Supersister, and many more, but we also get to hear from some of the more recent bands associated with the Canterbury sound, like The Muffins, Forgas Band Phenomina, Syd Arthur, Planeta Imaginario, and The Wrong Object.
Surviving members of many of these vintage & current acts are interviewed, as well as others associated with the prog/Canterbury scene, adding plenty of depth and fun facts about the music, the influences, the touring, and the scene in general. While there plenty of vintage live concert clips splattered throughout the 2 hour film, all are brief and there's no complete songs by any of the acts, which for some might be a disappointment, but you can always head over to YouTube to check out any of them in their unedited formats. There is some fine original music written exclusively for this documentary from Birds and Buildings and Deluge Grander multi-instrumentalist Dan Britton, which adds a nice proggy flavor throughout the film.
For any van of progressive rock, and of course especially the famed Canterbury scene, Canterbury Tales will be a must see documentary. It's another fine release in the Romantic Warriors series, and hopefully we will see more from the Zeitgeist Media team in the not too distant future.
Those interviewed for the film: Pye Hastings & Geoffrey Richardson, (Caravan) Dirk "Mont" Campbell (Uriel, Egg, National Health), Brian Hopper, (Wilde Flowers, Zobe), David Sinclair (Caravan, Hatfield and The North), Bill MacCormick (Matching Mole, Quiet Sun), Robert Jan Stips (SuperSister), Didier Malherbe (Gong) Phil Miller (Delivery, Hatfield and The North, National Health, In Cahoots), Roy Babbington (Nucleus, Delivery, Soft Machine), John Etheridge (Soft Machine), Didier Thibault (Moving Gelatine Plates), Patrick Forgas (Forgas), Benoit Moerlen (Gong, Pierre Moerlen's Gong, Mike Oldfield's Band, Gongzilla), Theo Travis (Soft Machine Legacy, Steven Wilson), David Newhouse (The Muffins), Richard Sinclair (Caravan, Hatfield & The North, Caravan of Dreams), and Daevid Allen (Gong, University of Errors).
Other commentary from a panel of experts include:
•Michel Delville
•Marc Capel
•Alfonso Muńoz
•Vasco Trilla
•Liam Magill
•Joel Magill
•Raven Bush
•Fred Rother
•Bruce Gallanter
•Leonardo Pavkovic
•Aymeric Leroy
See more about this release on our recent YouTube show!
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