richard sinclair

Richard Sinclair is known by his music writing, bass playing and singing with the groups ‘Caravan’ ‘Hatfield and the North’ and ‘Camel’ during the 1970’s, as well as his activities since then in which he has created his own groups or continued to perform as a solo artist. CANTERBURY SCENe In the beginning, of what later became known as ‘The Canterbury Scene’ at age 15, Richard teamed up with the brothers Hugh and Brian Hopper to fire up the first Canterbury band ‘The Wilde Flowers' Through this group passed Richard Sinclair, Hugh Hopper, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayres, Pye Hastings, Richard Coughlan, cousin David Sinclair, Graham Flight among others. And from this generic band of friends, emerged new groupings: ‘The Soft Machine’ ‘Caravan’ ‘Gong’ ‘Kevin Ayres and the Whole World’…and the ‘family tree’ then branched out to include many other players and groups. The result has been over 35 years of wonderful original music, an undulating, delightfully inventive blend often based on Anglican church hymnery, jazz, folk music, early 20th century classical music, (all done up with rock instruments and amplification) which has positively “stood the test of time”. Those original albums, beginning for Richard with ‘Caravan’ first from 1968, are all being re-released and made available again. For a good reason and Richard Sinclair, present at the creation, is one reason for the continued interest. Probably the ‘best selling’ Caravan album entitled ‘In the Land of Grey and Pink’ has never gone out of production since it’s release in 1971. The writing and performance of which, features the work of Richard Sinclair significantly.The new music is very much an extension of the classic recordings we remember: tuneful, cheery, thought-provoking and fairly demanding of multiple listenings. Several websites carry the 'Canterbury Scene' and much has been written on all aspects of the music and musicians responsible.