Lol Coxhill

[Bobby G]

A very strange man is our Lol. I first became aware of him as a member of Kevin Ayers' group, the Whole World, back in the late 60's/early 70's, which also for a while featured a very young Mike Oldfield. His style, then, in fitting with a lot of Kevin's material, was quite whimsical and melodic.

He seems to play solely soprano - a curved one- and our musical paths have crossed occasionally; there is a recording of a band called the Astronauts (not the Japanese surf band, but the British psychedelic folk/punk band) which features, ahem, one Bob Green on guitar on about 3 or 4 tracks, which also has Lol playing some very odd sax. I've also played at various Astronauts gigs over the years where Lol has been doing a set.

He is predominantly a free/avant-garde player, usually appearing solo, but he can swing as well, although he is never particularly easy to listen to. Apparently his latest venture is to play gigs from inside a skip, whether empty or loaded is not known.

 

[Melissa]

ooh curved soprano? those are so cute! 😛
I don't know why, but when I saw my first one, I went "awww!"

I'm probably just weird like that 8)

 

[Bobby G]

Yeah, curved sopranos are cute aren't they? If I was gonna get a soprano it'd be curved - easy to play in the car too

 

[quercy]

I think that Lol found it quite hard to get gigs in the seventies but discovered that it was easier to get subsidy for poetry readings than for free jazz, so he became a poet. He used to ramble verbally a little, and then get on with the real business of playing the soprano.

He also shared bills with the redoubtable poet/poetry entrepreneur Michael Horovitz, who always managed to work some jazz into his poetry circuses (quite large events, whole days at the Albert Hall for example.) Mike was fond of sitting in with the jazzers on what he called the 'anglo-saxophone'- actually a kazoo. Quite what the jazz players thought of this is not recorded.

 

[Bobby G]

There's a form of eccentricity that's peculiar (very peculiar in some cases) to Britain which can be very entertaining. As well as Lol, I'm thinking of people like Vivian Stanshall, Spike Milligan, Robert Wyatt, Ivor Cutler, Ron Geesin etc.

Cheers, Bob

 

[Jules]

not to mention, and saxophonically honking Bluurt- you'd probably know of them via your Astronauts connection (though Bluurt tended to hang out slighlty further north, in my old stomping grounds of Leeds and Manchester- with bands like the Fall).
So,Bob, if you were in the Astonauts- you must have gigged with the splendidly bonkers and 'English-ly' eccentric Joseph Porter (Zounds & Blythe Power)- possibly the finest example Of British eccentricity since the 1960s!

 

[Pete Thomas]

Bob Green wrote:
There's a form of eccentricity that's peculiar (very peculiar in some cases) to Britain which can be very entertaining. As well as Lol, I'm thinking of people like Vivian Stanshall, Spike Milligan, Robert Wyatt, Ivor Cutler, Ron Geesin etc.

Cheers, Bob

You need to add Pat Evans and Jeff Nuttall to this category. Pat played soprano and piano, ran the Barry Jazz Summer School and when jazz and poetry was at it's height, he staged "Jazz and Pottery". The following year he topped that with "Jazz and Embroidery", little old ladies sitting down embrodering kittens and ducks etc while the band played jazz around them.

 

[Bobby G]

Jazz & embroidery. See, you'd only get that sort of gentle harmless bonkersness here. I love it. How about a jazz jam - jazz music played behind a traditional Women's Institute activity, jam-making.

Yes, nachoman, I have had contact with the Zounds band via the Astronauts, who I believe have gigged a fair bit round Brighton over the years. If you've ever seen them you'll realise Mark Astronaut, the singer, is one of those great eccentrics. Also I've been around the free tours organised (actually, organised in this case is really stretching the meaning of the word) by the Here & Now lot.

Cheers, Bob

 

[quercy]

Pete Thomas wrote:

Bob Green wrote:
There's a form of eccentricity that's peculiar (very peculiar in some cases) to Britain which can be very entertaining. As well as Lol, I'm thinking of people like Vivian Stanshall, Spike Milligan, Robert Wyatt, Ivor Cutler, Ron Geesin etc.

Cheers, Bob

You need to add Pat Evans and Jeff Nuttall to this category. Pat played soprano and piano, ran the Barry Jazz Summer School and when jazz and poetry was at it's height, he staged "Jazz and Pottery". The following year he topped that with "Jazz and Embroidery", little old ladies sitting down embrodering kittens and ducks etc while the band played jazz around them.

Jeff Nuttal was quite a good trumpet (or possible cornet) player, although a bit 'trad' for my taste. He also had the distinction of appearing in an episode of 'Men Behaving Badly' as a very bad tempered farmer.

 

[Bobby G]

Aren't all farmers very bad-tempered?

 

[Pete Thomas]

Jeff Nuttal was quite a good trumpet (or possible cornet) player, although a bit 'trad' for my taste. He also had the distinction of appearing in an episode of 'Men Behaving Badly' as a very bad tempered farmer.

That's right, I played in his band for while when I was at Leeds. I think it was cornet.