An expedition to the 1865 in Southampton to see a prog-tastic double bill (or so we thought) of Colosseum and Soft Machine, both in their 2025 incarnations.
The venue filled up with, to quote a review of a previous night on this tour, "97% old white men who go and watch 70's bands."
Soft Machine kicked off proceedings : the mighty quartet of guitarist John Etheridge, saxophone and keys player Theo Travis, bassist Fred Thelonious Baker and drummer Asaf Sirkis gave the audience a complete and utter masterclass in progressive jazz-rock. Such a powerful display we were left wondering how Colosseum could follow it.
Unfortunately, they couldn't. Their bassist Mark Clarke came onstage and took the mic to announce that guitarist Dave "Clem" Clempson had been taken seriously unwell, and thus Colosseum couldn't perform without him.
After exchanging a few conspiratorial whispers with the rest of Soft Machine, John Etheridge called a 15 minute intermission and informed us they'd be playing another set for us imminently.
Our disappointment at not getting to see Colosseum was ameliorated by another 45 spontaneous minutes of Soft Machine's musical excellence, and they did not disappoint.
Overall, this was the sort of live gig that inspires and feeds the musical soul, especially when events took an unexpected turn. Hope Clem makes a speedy recovery and is back in action asap...
I saw Soft Machine in Lichfield this year (Or maybe last year, I can't remember.) and they were amazing. The last time I saw them was when they had a pointless 'legacy' attached to the name and did a gig in Coventry Cathedral ruins for the jazz festival. Hugh Hopper and John Marshall were still in the lineup.
