Biography All Music GuideWikipedia
Group Members: Hugh Hopper, Hugh Hopper and Lisa S. Klossner, Hopper S.Klossner, Hugh Hoppe And Frances Knight, Hopper/Kramer, Dave Sinclair, Brian Hopper, Brian Hopper And Robert Fenner, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Kevin Ayers & The Wizards of Twiddly, Hugh Hopper & Yumi Hara Cawkwell (Humi)
All Music Guide:
The Wilde Flowers never released a record during their existence, but their influence exceeds that of many groups with lengthy discographies. The band served as the wellspring of the so-called Canterbury sound: future Soft Machine members Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, and Hugh Hopper all played with the Wilde Flowers before the Soft Machine were founded, and Pye Hastings, David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, and Richard Coughlan played in the group at various points before forming Caravan. The musicians who wandered through the Wilde Flowers (who went through several lineups between 1963 and 1969) came from a far more intellectual, artistic, and jazz-oriented background than was the norm for pop musicians in the mid-'60s. Thus, although the group played beat fare much like thousands of other British combos in their formative days, when they began to write their own material, it betrayed the bemused whimsy -- replete with odd jazzy flourishes, droll obtuse lyrics, and adventurous chord changes -- that would come to characterize the Canterbury bands, and prove influential on the development of psychedelia and progressive rock. At long last, a wealth of the Wilde Flowers' demos and unreleased recordings was released in 1994.
Wikipedia:
The Wilde Flowers were a popular music group based in the vicinity of Canterbury, England. The group was active between 1964 and 1967 but never released any records during its existence; however it led to the formation of two other groups that became well-known and influential: Soft Machine and Caravan.
Band members included, at various times, Hugh Hopper (bass), Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals), Kevin Ayers (vocals), Graham Flight (vocals), Richard Sinclair (rhythm guitar, vocals), Pye Hastings (guitar, vocals), David Sinclair (keyboards), Richard Coughlan (drums) and Brian Hopper (lead guitar, alto saxophone, vocals).
A compact disc of previously unreleased recordings by the Wilde Flowers was issued in 1994. It is now available from Voiceprint Records (Blueprint BP123CD)
