Between 1973 and 1978, Henry Cow delighted fans of new music with a series of albums and concerts that provided an oasis of sanity for those wishing to escape the vanity of glam rock, the pomposity of progressive rock and the brutality of punk – not to mention the other sonic annoyances of the not-always-fabulous 1970s. Hailing from Cambridge and the cultural ferment surrounding its famous university, their music was immediately associated with the so-called “Canterbury scene”, a label always rejected by its protagonists and generally used to group together bands such as Caravan, Soft Machine and Matching Mole. That scene revolved around remarkable figures including Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Hugh Hopper and the Sinclair cousins. If geography did not entirely confirm the connection, taste certainly did. Henry Cow’s music shared the same impulse to uncover new links between genres that had once seemed immovable but were now crumbling. They […]
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