The Canterbury scene spawned Soft Machine, Gong (and itinerant Australian Daevid Allen), Hatfield And The North, Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt, Egg, National Health and Caravan. Some members of these bands had been in The Wilde Flowers and that band evolved into the Caravan we know and love. In fact who was in what band may have been a mystery to the musicians themselves as on the cover of the first Caravan album there is a picture of Kevin Ayers – and he wasn’t in the band! I met him some years ago and asked him about this? Perhaps the question was too nerdy, but he didn’t seem to remember that he was on the cover. In any case this album released in 1968 is an arty, melodic, original and special record. I discovered it late, it came out before I had discovered bands like this, I was ten when it was released. I saw Caravan in the early seventies at the Liverpool Stadium around the release of the Cunning Stunts album and had to go back and search out five whole albums before it. They had that great swirling organ sound courtesy of  David Sinclair and the guitarist/singer Pye Hastings played an electric 12 string guitar. The band also consisted of bass player/singer Richard Sinclair (Cousin of David) and Richard Coughlan on drums. Richard Coughlan died last week and this Album Of The Day is a tribute to him. This is an album that most people missed and if you like quintessentially English sounds from the sixties and seventies I urge you to search it out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_(band)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_(Caravan_album)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Coughlan