Rare footage of Canterbury legends Soft Machine performing as a quintet has surfaced in a new trailer for an upcoming three-disc CD and DVD set, Facelift France And Holland, which will be released by Cuneiform records on March 25. You can watch the new trailer for the release below.
The set captures the short-lived quintet line-up of Mike Ratledge (organ), Robert Wyatt (drums), Hugh Hopper (bass), Elton Dean (alto sax, saxello) and Lyn Dobson (soprano and tenor sax, flute, harmonica, vocals) in the first quartet of 1970, just prior to the recording of their Third album.
The footage was original broadcast on French TV programme Pop 2, showing the band performing at Paris's Theatre de la Musique, and is thought to be the earliest known footage of the band to be commercially released and the only known footage of the quintet line-up, which existed between January and March of 1970.
The set also features a previously unreleased performance from January 1970 from Amsterdam's Concertgebouw.
