It starts with a blessing, and ends with a curse, making life easier by making it worse, and no I’m not on about the Co-Pilot that Microsoft insists on me having on this word app, but the first line of the Why are we Sleeping? song that Kevin Ayers wrote when he was in Soft Machine, and which formed an integral part of his live sets up the first album in this collection that is a companion piece to last years All This Crazy Gift Of Time, the boxed set that pulled together his complete run of Harvest albums, live shows & unreleased material from 1969 –1973.
This boxset, starting with The Confessions of Doctor Dream and Other Stories (released on the Island label in 1974), pulls together, over the course of six CDs, the five albums released in this six year period, plus two discs of BBC Sessions & live performances from 1976.
My only minor niggles are that this latest boxset is in the clamshell format whilst the previous 10 disc set (All This Crazy Gift Of Time: The Recordings 1969-1973) was in a 10” box, and my little brain is a bit disappointed they won’t sit together on the shelf. Secondly, despite there being a plethora of live performances available in varying degrees of quality across YouTube, there isn’t a corresponding DVD with this set, although depending on where masters are, or rights issues, it might not have been feasible.
This period of Kevin’s career, as the booklet openly states, is widely regarded as not as creative as his first Harvest era, and whilst commercially he was never going to break Top of the Pops, to lazily dismiss this era is doing you, and Kevin a disservice.
The first Island album was produced by Rupert Hine and featured guest musicians such as John G Perry, Michael Giles, along with his old Soft Machine colleague Mike Ratledge, and former Whole World band members Mike Oldfield, Lol Coxhill & Ollie Halsall – the latter name that would be entwined with Kevin, until Halsall’s death in the early 1990’s.
Island fully intended to push Kevin and with material like the wonderful opener Day by Day and the sublime Didn’t Feel Lonely Till I Thought Of You, he was firing all cylinders. Whilst Get of My Dream is fully realised here in the epic three-parter, now renamed It Begins with a Blessing / Once I Awakened / But It Ends with a Curse, perhaps hoping for the definitive edition of the track, however it loses a little bit in translation. There are live performances on the previous boxset that have far more power.
As the sleeve notes state Kevin himself admitted that Rupert Hine wasn’t the right producer for him, and he felt the album was ‘too polished’ – and that might be the case for It Begins with a Blessing…,. The four part The Confessions of Doctor Dream suite which makes up the bulk of the second part of the album is a finer suite of Canterbury music as anything, and should really be played to all fans of that scene, who haven’t discovered Kevin Ayers. Arguable with The Soft Machine he is one of the fathers of the Canterbury scene.
Disc 2, 1975’s Sweet Deceiver sees Island again trying to mould Kevin into a pop star with a stylized portrait of him on the cover, and which led to a falling out between Kevin and the NME, as they suggested he’d ‘sold out’…
With the tongue in cheek Guru Banana, the title track, and Circular Letter, are all examples of Kevin’s songwriting skill, and with him and Ollie producing, the album has a far looser more relaxed feel. The bonus tracks, from a concert in Paris from 1975, with Zoot Money on keyboards, Rick Wills on bass, Tony Newman on drums, and Ollie on lead guitar, feature material from the first two albums and really stand out in the live setting. Old favourites like Hat Song, Stop This Train (Ain’t Doing It Again), and Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes are amazing.
Disc 3 features two BBC sessions – the first 4 tracks coming from a John Peel Session (July 1974) with tracks such as Lady Rachel (written for his daughter) and Stop This Train sees the band really working, whilst the last 6 tracks, with the same line-up are taken from the Paris concert from March 1975. Here we have a mix of bedded in tracks like Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes and Observations whilst Shouting in a Bucket Blues gets a rare outing. The band have tightened up, sound wise (whilst loosening up – apparently Halsall, Money & Ayers were partial to the odd bottle of good red!)
As was his wont Kevin spent the first part of 1975 travelling, with just a few gigs in France. Disc 4 features 1976’s Yes We Have no Mañanas (So Get Your Mañanas Today) and saw Kevin back on the Harvest label (where he spent the rest of the decade). Driven by Muff Winwood who punched up the sound with Charlie McCracken on bass and Family’s Rob Townsend on drums, Ollie as ever on lead guitar, the sound was there – and Kevin brought the material.
Easily as strong as any of his earlier albums, and the album that pushed him onto the road with material like Star, Love’s Gonna Turn You Round, Ballad of Mr. Snake, Mr. Cool (all of which are included here from a contemporaneous BBC Radio 1 John Peel session). The band saw Andy Summers replace Ollie Halsall for the 21 date tour, (Halsall had live commitments with his band Boxer), is augmented by Bill Evans on flute – are represented on two different sessions from 1976 on CD5. One live in Germany and the other for BBC Radio 1 in Concert (September 1975) are here and feature a lot more of the material from Yes We Have no Mañanas – with songs like Star, Mr. Cool, Blue translating from the record to the stage with great skill.
However, Kevin, as was his habit disappeared off to the West Indies after a US tour failed to materialize, and the band splintered.
By 1978’s Rainbow Takeaway & 1980’s That’s What You Get Babe are both included on disc 6 – which illustrates the lack of radio sessions and or live performances that exist from this era. If the magic hadn’t gone, Kevin’s enthusiasm had on Rainbow Takeaway. The material was still there, but there was also clear record label interference, particularly on That’s What You Get Babe with its jarring too slick cover. The title track saw the label contemporize the sound, however Kevin being Kevin still had his tongue firmly in cheek with Money, Money, Money. The plaintive Where Do The Stars End – which gives this collection its name – aptly wraps up this set.
Again, it was too easy to say Kevin Ayers had lost his way by the late 70s. I suggest that his personality, his love of travel and desire for new experiences were what started driving him, and he moved to Deia Mallorca in Spain – which he later admitted in 1992 was a mistake with it being a Western expat community of hedonism. Coupled with Ollie, and although the two of them had a magical musical partnership, they weren’t necessarily the best of influences on each other.
As the music world went from the free spirited to the corporate, from the mid to late 70s, Kevin, with his freewheeling unencumbered attitude, and wanting to follow his own path was laudable, it was never got to fit in with a label like Island or Harvest and the industry as much left him, as he left the industry.
This boxset is a perfect collection of material recognizing not only the genius of the man, but also his flaws, and as such is a perfectly rounded selection.
Now Esoteric – when do we get Volume 3 rounding up his post 1980’s career til his death in 2013?
TRACK LISTING
CD1
– The Confessions Of Doctor Dream And Other Stories [Released May 1974]
01. Day By Day
02. See You Later
03. Didn’t Feel Lonely Till I Thought of You
04. Everybody’s Sometime And Some People’s All the Time Blues
05. It Begins With A Blessing / Once I Awakened / But It Ends With A Curse
06. Ballbearing Blues
07. The Confessions Of Doctor Dream – Part One: Irreversible Neural Damage
08. The Confessions Of Doctor Dream – Part Two: Invitation
09. The Confessions Of Doctor Dream – Part Three: The One Chance Dance
10. The Confessions Of Doctor Dream – Part Four: Dr. Dream Theme
11. Two Goes Into Four
~ Bonus tracks:
12. The Up Song (A-side of single March 1974)
13. After The Show (A-side of single July 1974)
14. Thank You Very Much (B-side of single 1974)
CD2
– Sweet Deceiver [Released March 1975]
01. Observations
02. Guru Banana
03. City Waltz
04. Toujours La Voyage
05. Sweet Deceiver
06. Diminished But Not Finished
07. Circular Letter
08. Once Upon An Ocean
09. Farewell Again (Another Dawn)
~ Bonus tracks:
10. Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes (live in Paris 1975)*
11. Hat Song (live in Paris 1975)*
12. Interview (live in Paris 1975)*
13. The Confessions Of Dr. Dream (live in Paris 1975)*
– i. Invitation
– ii. The One Chance Dance
– iii. The Dr. Dream Theme
14. Stop This Train (Again Doing It) (live in Paris 1975)*
15. Farewell Again (Another Dawn) (live in Paris 1975)*
* Previously unreleased
CD3
– BBC Sessions 1974 – 1975
01. Another Whimsical Song (BBC John Peel session July 1974)
02. Didn’t Feel Lonely Till I Thought of You (BBC John Peel session July 1974)
03. Lady Rachel (BBC John Peel session July 1974)
04. Stop This Train (BBC John Peel session July 1974)
05. Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes (BBC Rock On session July 1974)
06. Didn’t Feel Lonely Till I Thought of You (BBC Radio 1 In Concert March 1975)
07. Observations (BBC Radio 1 In Concert March 1975)
08. Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes (BBC Radio 1 In Concert March 1975)
09. Interview (BBC Radio 1 In Concert March 1975)
10. Farewell Again (BBC Radio 1 In Concert March 1975)
CD4
– Yes, We Have No Mañanas (So Get Your Mañanas Today) [Released June 1976]
01. Star
02. Mr. Cool
03. The Owl
04. Love’s Gonna Turn You Round
05. Falling In Love Again
06. Help Me
07. Ballad of Mr. Snake
08. Everyone Knows the Song
09. Yes I Do
10. Blue
~ Bonus tracks:
11. Mr. Cool (BBC John Peel session July 1976)
12. Love’s Gonna Turn You Round (BBC John Peel session July 1976)
13. Star (BBC John Peel session July 1976)
14. Ballad Of Mr. Snake (BBC John Peel session July 1976)
CD5
– Live Radio Concert Performances 1976
01. May I? (Radio Bremen Live August 1976)*
02. Whatevershebringswesing (Radio Bremen Live August 1976)*
03. Shouting In A Bucket Blues (Radio Bremen Live August 1976)*
04. Observations (Radio Bremen Live August 1976)*
05. Lady Rachel (Radio Bremen Live August 1976)*
06. Blue (Radio Bremen Live August 1976)*
07. Mr. Cool (Radio Bremen Live August 1976)*
08. Shouting In A Bucket Blues (BBC Radio 1 In Concert September 1976)
09. Star (BBC Radio 1 In Concert September 1976)
10. Love’s Gonna Turn You Round (BBC Radio 1 In Concert September 1976)
11. Mr. Cool (BBC Radio 1 In Concert September 1976)
12. Ballad Of Mr. Snake (BBC Radio 1 In Concert September 1976)
13. Blue (BBC Radio 1 In Concert September 1976)
* Previously unreleased
CD6
– Rainbow Takeaway [Released April 1978]
01. Blaming It All On Love
02. Ballad Of A Salesman Who Sold Himself
03. A View from A Mountain
04. Rainbow Takeaway
05. Waltz For You
06. Beware Of the Dog II
07. Strange Song
08. Goodnight Goodnight
09. Hat Song
– That’s What You Get Babe [Released February 1980]
10. That’s What You Get
11. Where Do I Go From Here
12. You Never Outrun Your Heart
13. Given And Taken
14. Idiots
15. Super Salesman
16. Money, Money, Money
17. Miss Hanaga
18. I’m So Tired
19. Where Do The Stars End
MUSICIANS
Far too many to detail…
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Esoteric Recordings | Cherry Red Records
Country of Origin: UK
Date of Release: 28th August 2026
LINKS
Kevin Ayers – Boxset info at Cherry Red Records
