Rough Guides
The Soft Boys
Biography
Formed Cambridge, England, 1976; disbanded 1981; re-formed in 1994.
Unlike most of their New Wave peers, The Soft Boys were unashamedly retro, taking their inspiration more from the melodic Psychedelia of The Beatles than the nihilist Punk Rock of The Stooges. As a result, they found themselves out of step with the times, having great songs, stunning musicianship and an incendiary live act, but no audience. Yet, though they never enjoyed any commercial success at the time, their heady brew of Byrds guitars and lyrical surrealism left an enduring legacy, influencing many of the mid-'80s Paisley Underground bands and, of course, R.E.M..
The prime mover behind the band was guitarist and singer, Robyn Hitchcock. Born in London in 1953, he numbered Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Syd Barrett among his childhood heroes, though it was the last that seemed to dominate. In 1974 he arrived in Cambridge as a penniless art-school dropout. Already an accomplished live performer, he worked his way around the local Folk circuit, finding his first stable lineup with Dennis And The Experts. They congealed into the embryonic Soft Boys towards the end of 1976, with Hitchcock on guitar and vocals, Alan Davies on guitar, Andy Metcalfe on bass, and Morris Windsor on drums.
After recording a demo tape in Hitchcock's front room, the band hit lucky with an offer from independent label, Raw Records. Their first session for them in March 1977 provided three strong tracks which were lifted for an EP, released in July. Wading Through A Ventilator must rank as one of the most uncompromising debuts ever, with a wall of grinding guitars and thrashing drums backing Hitchcock's post-Beefheart howl. The lyrics, laying down a blueprint of crustacean, fish, and dead-fly metaphors that would characterize much of their early output, conveyed extremes of comic invention and bitter alienation. Soon after the EP's release, Kimberley Rew, from rival Cambridge group The Waves, replaced Alan Davies on guitar, to establish the partnership with Hitchcock that would cement the band's rich harmonic guitar sound.
Thanks to their wild stage appearances, The Soft Boys were already attracting considerable interest, and by 1978 they were supporting such names as Elvis Costello and The Damned. In May they became one of the first groups to be signed to Radar Records, but after several disagreements and a single that bombed ("(I Want To Be An) Anglepoise Lamp", a marvelous track), they scrapped an entire album's worth of tracks recorded at Rockfield, and left the label.
Following this debacle, the band decided to go it alone. Between August and November, they were holed up in Spaceward Studios in Cambridge, recording fresh material for what was to be their first album, released on their own Two Crabs label. A Can Of Bees turned out to be more of a curate's egg, and, judging by the number of different versions, the band weren't convinced by it either. Despite such pleasures as "The Pigworker", "Human Music" and "Leppo And The Jooves", this too-long-player was too patchy a debut to register, and sold few copies.
But Hitchcock still had plenty more obsessions to explore, and recording continued until June 1979 on material which was never released at the time, but emerged in 1983 as Invisible Hits on Midnight. Ironically, these outtakes formed a much stronger set: as well as the Bo Diddley rampage of "Wey Wey Hep Uh Hole", the album offered the bouncy "Have A Heart, Betty (I'm Not Fireproof)" and the immortal "Rock 'n' Roll Toilet".
With hindsight, this was the bridge between the fumblings of A Can Of Bees and the excellent Underwater Moonlight, made after Andy Metcalfe had left to join Telephone Bill And The Smooth Operators and been replaced by Matthew Seligman, who'd previously worked with the legendary Alex Chilton. Recorded on 4- and 8-track for only £600, Underwater Moonlight was released in mid-1980 on the Armageddon label, and has become acknowledged as a one-off psychedelic classic. Here was proof that The Soft Boys had established a refined and melodic identity of their own, while Hitchcock's songwriting was at its best on songs like "Kingdom Of Love", "Queen Of Eyes" and the title track, all of which showed sensitive arrangements that made full use of the band's dynamics.
Sadly, Underwater Moonlight sold little better than its predecessor. Without strong management or the backing of a big label, it seemed that The Soft Boys were doomed to the twilight world of cultdom. The album's release was followed by touring in the U.S. and, even though they had a strong following there, they broke up in 1981, discouraged by the lack of wider recognition.
Hitchcock carried on in obscurity throughout the early-'80s with a string of intriguing solo albums and singles. In 1984, he teamed up again with the original Soft Boys rhythm section of Metcalfe and Windsor, to form Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians. With the support of R.E.M., they went on to become a major draw on the U.S. college circuit. Kimberley Rew re-joined his friends in The Waves and, with the addition of Kansas-born vocalist Katrina Leskanich, went on to achieve worldwide (if temporary) success as Katrina And The Waves.
Yet the ghost of The Soft Boys refused to go away. The three Soft Boys albums were given UK CD reissues in 1990, all with bonus tracks, and in 1993 came an excellent boxed set, The Soft Boys 1976-81. One welcome side effect of all this CD reissue activity was the unexpected Soft Boys reunion tour in January 1994. Rew, Seligman, Metcalfe, and Windsor had already played alongside Hitchcock at a benefit concert for Bosnia. This time 'round they played a clutch of dates as The Soft Boys, minus Rew, but with Metcalfe and Seligman's duelling basses, extra guitar splashes from Sean Lyons, and the added delight of Jim Melton's powerhouse harmonica. Their sell out at London's Astoria was a triumphant return after all those years in the wilderness. Hitchcock has suggested that more reunions could well be in store: after almost 23 years of influential obscurity, The Soft Boys saga is far from over.
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