Robert Wyatt is an English singer, songwriter, and drummer whose fragile, keening voice and fiercely independent streak made him one of the most singular figures in British music. A founding member of Soft Machine, he reinvented himself as a vocalist and solo artist after a 1973 accident ended his drumming career. His records mix jazz, pop, and political conviction, earning widespread admiration from fellow musicians far more than they ever succeeded on the charts.
Wyatt's mother, Honor Wyatt, was a BBC broadcaster and journalist and his father, George Ellidge, an industrial psychologist. Honor Wyatt had a son from a ptrevious marriage, the actor Julian Glover.
The family lived in a 14-room house in Lydden, near Dover, where they took in boarders. Much of Wyatt's musical education came from these boarders. One was American jazz drummer George Neidorf, who gave him drum lessons. Another was Australian musician Daevid Allen, who was six years older and shared Wyatt's love of jazz. Wyatt eventually joined Allen's trio when he was around 16.
Attending Simon Langton Grammar School in Canterbury, Wyatt met Hugh Hopper, Brian Hopper, Kevin Ayers and Richard Sinclair, with whom he formed the Wilde Flowers. Wyatt started out as the group's drummer before taking over as lead singer when Ayers left.
In 1966 Daevid Allen and Kevin Ayers formed Soft Machine, backed by an eccentric millionaire they had met on Majorca. Wyatt left the Wilde Flowers to join Soft Machine as drummer and vocalist, with another Simon Langton student Mike Ratledge joining on organ.
Following his departure from Soft Machine, Wyatt formed Matching Mole in 1971, releasing two albums on CBS. He also performed with Hatfield and the North, who recorded for Virgin.
Wyatt first met his wife, Austria-born painter and songwriter Alfreda "Alfie" Benge, at Matching Mole's debut London gig in January 1972. They married on July 26, 1974, the exact day his landmark solo album
Rock Bottom was released. Benge created the cover art for Rock Bottom, and her artwork appeared on every one of his solo albums since.
Wyatt credits Benge with shaping his albums into complete works. "Alfie joined in with me in every way you can imagine, doing typography for LPs, doing the sleeve notes, the painting for all of them because she knew the songs,"
he said. "With Alfie the cover was part of the record."
Wyatt's biographer, Marcus O'Dair, called Benge his most important collaborator.
On June 1, 1973, Wyatt fell from a third-story window during a party in Maida Vale, London, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. "I was flying, quite literally, in the end, out of the window," he recalled to Rhythm magazine.
On November 4, 1973, Pink Floyd staged two benefit concerts in a single day at London's Rainbow Theatre to raise funds for Wyatt. Hosted by DJ John Peel, with Soft Machine opening the show, the event raised roughly £10,000.
Wyatt scored a surprising Top 30 hit in 1974 with his cover of the Monkees track "
I'm A Believer," which reached #29 on the UK Singles Chart. Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason produced the single and even played drums during
Wyatt's appearance on Top of the Pops.
That television performance sparked controversy when
Top of the Pops producers refused to allow Wyatt to perform in his wheelchair. Following an outcry in the music press, the BBC backed down and let him appear as he was.
Losing the use of his legs altered Wyatt's approach to playing music. "My favorite bit of the drum kit was the hi-hat and I couldn't play it anymore,"
he told The Independent in 1997. "It's taken me years to realize that you don't have to play hi-hat."
Wyatt adapted his setup to keep making music, telling
Rhythm: "Later, I realized I could still sing, then I decided I could still work the top of the kit."
If he needed a bass drum, he propped it up to play by hand, and he replicated the hi-hat sound vocally into the microphone.
Wyatt wrote his acclaimed 1974 solo album
Rock Bottom while recovering in the hospital. He felt the experience gave him space to create. "If anything, being a paraplegic helped me with the music because being in hospital left me free to dream, and to really think through the music,"
he said.
Nick Mason produced the record, which features guest appearances from Mike Oldfield and Ivor Cutler.
In the early 1980s, Wyatt's work took a more explicit political turn, and he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain. His 1982 recording of Elvis Costello's anti-war masterpiece "
Shipbuilding" reached #35 in the UK the following year. In 1984, he contributed vocals to "Venceremos" by Working Week, a track recorded in solidarity with Chileans under Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.
Wyatt continued writing and collaborating on reflective tracks like "
Free Will and Testament" before officially retiring from music in 2014.
