kevin ayers

Bio:

The Unfairground is now available on 180 gm vinyl beautifully packaged in a gatefold hard card sleeve. info ar http://www.musiconvinyl.com

signed limited edition prints on high quality art paper of Tim Shepard's artwork for The Unfairground are available from http://www.timshepard.co.uk

.. September 8 08: EMI Harvest release 'Kevin Ayers Songs For Insane Times' a 4cd box set '69-'80.

September 15 Lo-Max records release a beautifully packaged art card numbered limited edition 7" vinyl single Baby Come Home B/W Walk On Water taken from The Unfairground.

September 1 2008 Reel Recordings release 'What More Can I Say' a collection of early 70's home demos, outtakes from Kevin's personal reel to reel tapes. visit www.kevin-ayers.com for full details.

Kevin Ayers is one of rock's oddest and most likeable enigmas. There are few artists who qualify more than this recluse for music’s highest accolades. He is the bridge between the psychedelia that he helped create and the new sounds and sensibilities of Roxy Music, Eno and David Bowie on whom he was a primary influence. He is also one of rock's more important (and more humane) innovators, launching Soft Machine in 1966 with Robert Wyatt, Daevid Allen and Mike Ratledge. Later he performed as a solo artist, working with noted European musicians like Syd Barrett, Mike Oldfield, Brian Eno, Lol Coxhill, Steve Hillage, Ollie Hassell, and John Cale. A recent Record Collector publication celebrating the 100 greatest psychedelic records describes Kevin and Syd Barrett as two of the genre’s most important figures. Lured from his retreat in the South of France, Kevin is surrounded by a battalion of admirers both old and young on The Unfairground, his first album in over fifteen years. The empathy these performers bring to this album has summoned a new voice and honesty in Kevin and the performances stand now amongst the strongest he has ever committed to plastic. Kevin Ayers is one of the most significant and influential musicians of his generation. He has a unique sensibility, making ordinary lyrical subjects seem extraordinary with his rich low vocals, inventive wordplay, and bemused, relaxed attitude that belies the life of a poet and a bacchanalian lothario. Welcome to The Unfairground.

8mm film video for Baby Come Home -- shot and edited by Tim Shepard

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rich with strings, original ideas, lovely melodies and you realise this album is not about treading in those old footsteps song after song. It's about bringing new and old talent together to make a really lovely sound. OHM Gemma Hampson

As with the best of Ayers’ 1970s work, there is a sense that the listener is entering a self-contained musical universe, which defines itself on its own terms. It is a world of brightness and color......a bridge has been formed between the old and the new—between the 63-year old founding father of British psychedelia, and younger admirers such as Ladybug Transistor and Architecture In Helsinki, members of whom accompany him throughout.....The sheer catchiness of the songwriting lends the material a straightforward initial appeal, which peels away over time to reveal something altogether more subtle and elusive at its core. Stylus Magazine Mike Atkinson A-

what a result! top notch. BBC Charles De Ledesma

Ayers rich baritone settles in amongst the sumptuous instruments leaving the listener in the middle of an incredibly enjoyable experience... a bit like having a bath and a cigarette at the same time.Electric Roulette Mof Gimmers

The Unfairground, his first studio album since 1992 and, more important, his best work since heyday. Over 10 taut tracks, his deep rich voice still defiantly English middle-class vocals grace a beguiling mix of jaunting folk, while poetic lyrics look back over his life and reluctantly accept the arrival of his old age. The Sunday Times Lisa Verrico

The father of the underground........A new album Unfairground …10 songs of quiet weary beauty. The Daily Telegraph- Garth Cartwright

brings to mind the late John Peel, who once said: "Kevin Ayers' talent is so acute, you could perform major eye surgery with it." The Independent Pierre Perrone

Influences:

A vintage Harvest......hallmarked by it sonic joie de vivre......The Unfairground finds Ayers rejuvenated and stands comparison with his best work. Its A Grand Cru. Mojo Mike Barnes

There’s the bright, airy, deliciously skewed melodies running on one man’s woozy musical rollercoaster. The Sun Simon Cosyns

The results are replete with the languid charm that has been Ayers' stock in trade throughout his performance career, that amiable baritone marked by an amiable world-weariness he muses over the redemptive power of love. ......... The arrangements furnish some of the beguiling aspects of The Unfairground from the strings undulating like a carnival calliope on the title-track and the horns adding a stately mariachi tone to “Baby Come Home”, to the nightmarish soundscape of piano, eerie strings and squally lead guitars that tracks his fearful reverie in “Brainstorm”. But whatever the situation, Ayers amenability shines through regardless, a wave of warmth that can lighten the heaviest soul. Uncut-Andy Gill

The first album in 15 years from the mercurial Soft Machine founder features the contributions of a global troupe of fans, including Teenage Fanclub, Euros Childs, Candice Payne and the underrated Americans Ladybug Transistor. Energized by younger collaborators the results are often inspired. Walk on Water is just lovely, baby Come Home is a charming duet with Bridget St John. The Times-Steve Jelbert

The results are a joy exuding the same charm that has always characterised his best work even when staring mortality right in the face on Only Heaven Knows. Q Peter Kane

Songs are bathed in beautiful string and horn arrangements, the perfect setting over which - in damn fine voice - Ayers pours out some of his most emotional and reflective lyrics. Walk on Water is a peach, as is Friends and Strangers, which could be about death, betrayal or poisoned romance. Run Run Run which, with it's infectious chorus and final trumpet note, leaves you wanting more, as every perfect 10 song, 30 minute album should. Ian Shirley for Record Collector

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