Elton Dean

Documentary of a 1970 rock concert held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

This Video captures the Canterbury Sound legends Soft Machine live in France filmed at a concert for French television in 1970. The line up of the band at the time of this concert included, Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean and Lyn Dobson. The concert took place on the 2nd of March 1970 at the Theatre de la Musique in Paris.

As a celestial phenomenon neighboring the musical big bang of the Sixties, The Soft Machine Legacy echoes the melodious growl of an era when rock'n'roll, blues, jazz, jazz-rock, funk, soul, pop were, as yet, nothing more than a magma of sounds challenging the musicians' ability to shape the course of music to come. In those days, Soft Machine symbolized the uncompromising dialog between those rock and jazz musicians who were determined to create a synthesis of the untamed energy of rock and the improvisational thrust of jazz. Forty years later, The Soft Machine Legacy musicians have not forsaken their dreams. Immune to the leveling pressures of show biz, Hugh Hopper, John Marshall, John Etheridge and Elton Dean -who passed away shortly after this last reunion at the New Morning - still mesmerize their fans. Whether the cheeks be rosy, or the heads speckled with grey freedom is ageless. Recorded live at the New Morning, Paris on December 12th, 2005 by New Morning Vision.