Previous Page (Galleries).Bassist / composer Hugh Hopper has been involved in many projects during his more than 30 years in music. Born and raised in Canterbury, Kent, England, Hopper spent several months in the very early 1960's with his friends Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth (both later of Gong) in a tiny Parisian apartment. There, Allen was experimenting with primitive electronic music techniques: tapeloops, musique concrete, etc. These experiments made a large impression on young Hopper, and he began doing this type of musical / sonic experimentation on his own. Later, back in Canterbury, Hopper began working with Daevid Allen & Robert Wyatt in a jazz and poetry trio by 1963. In 1964, he was one of the founders of the Wilde Flowers with Richard Sinclair, Pye Hastings, Richard Coughlan, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers and others. A fairly typical "beat group" of the time, the Wilde Flowers became famous as the seed-bed for two legendary Canterbury bands: one-half of the group (Sinclair, Hastings, Coughlan) became Caravan and the other half (Wyatt, Ayers, and later, Hopper) went on to form Soft Machine. Hopper probably remains best known for the pioneering work he did with Soft Machine between 1969-74. Before joining the band, Hopper worked as Soft Machine's road manager, accompanying them during their two U.S. tours with Jimmi Hendrix. He became Soft Machine's bass player in late 1968. Hopper's compositions for the band and unique bass conception saw the band through five studio albums, an equal number of years, and countless tours.
Essential works:
-1984