newly surfaced Gong, Softs, Kevin Ayers footage

Andy Bunkum just switched me onto this (seemingly this made it onto French TV in 1972!):


This led to me getting lost in the "related clips" links down the sidebar of the Youtube page...all kinds of fantastic Canterbury-related stuff is starting to surface, such as this (claims to be Soft Machine in Paris, 1967, so the absence of Daevid Allen suggests that this is late that year, on their return, after he was effectivly forced out of the band by being refused reentry into the UK by immigration officials &mdash not playing their strongest material from that period, but still...):


This is definitely '68, cos it's home cine footage from the US tour with Hendrix (no one's added a soundtrack...that murky, but otherwise insanely wonderful, Iowa bootleg would fit nicely):


Then there's this wonderful footage of Kevin Ayers and band from Paris, May 1970 (shortly before I was born, and before Soft Machine released Third). Apparently it was shot for French TV but never broadcast(!) This is Kevin arguably at the height of his creative powers. And speaking remarkably good French. There's an intriguing jam segment which segues into "Clarence in Wonderland":


Part 2 features a mighty rendition of "Why Are We Sleeping" — Kev's switched to bass (and he's a much underrated bass player)...not to be missed: