Romantic Warriors III - Canterbury Tales

The music of the so-called Canterbury Scene has meant so much to me since I discovered it in college forty years ago. It doesn't exactly get played on Classic Rock Radio. It sometimes, maybe, gets represented in the prog fests that take place nowadays when bands like Caravan turn up to play. But that's about it. It was great to learn about bands I hadn't been familiar with, such as the French band Moving Gelatine Plates and a couple of American Canterbury-influenced bands that were mentioned in passing. Daevid Allen of Gong emerges as the eminence grise of the scene -- with a constant twinkle in his eye -- even though the film is full of appearances by legendary Canterbury musicians such as Richard and David Sinclair, Phil Miller, Mont Campbell, etc. Great to see so much time spent on the underrated Canterbury-influenced Dutch band Supersister.Now I just have one question: they spent a considerable amount of time in the latter stage of the film building up guitarist Allan Holdsworth (one of my all time favorites) and his spectacular breakout performance on Soft Machine's Bundles album... and then they don't play any of it. What a letdown! Why?? Rights clearance problems or just bad judgment?

Third installment of the excellent documentary series Romantic Warriors, which gives an overview of legendary and less well known progressive rock bands. This was at one time (early seventies) a very popular genre, that after the punk explosion turned into one of the most maligned musical expressions ever. Only to return with renewed public interest with new bands like Tool and Porcupine Tree.This documentary highlights the Canterbury music scene that has Caravan and Soft Machine as the main exponents during the late sixties and seventies. Besides English bands, also included are French, American and other acts that were influenced by the Canterbury scene.I'm quite impressed that the makers included the not very well known Dutch band Supersister. This band evolved from Canterbury style albums to a more jazz rock based record (Listen to "Iskander") to a very experimental idiosyncratic last vinyl record. I understand that this DVD is soon to be followed by a DVD that shows more extended performances by some of these bands.

Brillant.

Marvelous documentary movie on the so-called Canterbury sound "scene". Pity Hugh Hopper is not alive to see this gem, he was the central figure in that "sub-sub-genre" of progressive music/ Kudos to Jose & Adele for making this DVD/movie possible.

Fantastic documentary. Thanks to Adele Schmidt and Jose Zegarra, two wonderful producers of the movie for including me and MoonJune Records' artists Soft Machine Legacy and The Wrong Object in this beautiful project.

Three stars seems incredibly stingy,i know,and ultimately,i'm glad this film exists,but there are problems. My biggest beef (and it is big) is that,whilst recognising how central Soft Machine are to the story,the film doesn't recognise Kevin Ayers. He is tantalisingly glimpsed in some early Soft Machine footage,but never referred to. This is just poor,frankly,and seriously damages the standing of the film. I couldn't avoid feeling that Schmidt and Holder,the creators of the film,wanted to cast the story in the image of their personal preferences,which are clearly for the musically more complex end of the scene. Fair enough,it's part of the story,but it isn't the whole story.This feeling grew as i saw other,admittedly smaller players,being elbowed out (The film covers Delivery,but doesn't mention Lol Coxhill. In fact,it glosses over Steve Miller in spite of his also having been in Caravan and the presence in the film of younger brother Phil as a talking head),and the omission of representative music on occasion (Eg sprinting a little begrudgingly through the formation of Gong to a soundtrack of You,from six years later) If there were time constraints i could understand it,but nearly a quarter of the film is given over to bands the makers feel to be 'Canterbury-like',which would be a pleasure,were we not robbed of some it's players. In the final analysis,these bands should have been saved for the extras cd,and would have made a wonderful Ps to the story. Oh,and Hatfield and the north's first album was 1974,not 1972,fact fans!

Interesting stuff. Would like to have had more about the Caravan split after Waterloo Lily, it produced such a compelling album in the forementioned. An underrated gem. This purchase has made me want to get the all music extra DVD.

Unique music of a magic time in the 60s and 70s.

brilliant dvd looking forward to the next one

a must buy for any early uk prog/fusion nut