Kevin Ayers
Kevin Ayers ( born August 16, 1944 in Herne Bay, Kent, † February 18, 2013 in Montolieu, Languedoc -Roussillon, France) was a British musician ( songwriter, singer, guitarist, bassist ).
Life and work
Ayers was the son of radio producer Rowan Ayers, of the program The Old Grey Whistle Test initiated at the BBC ( before moving to ABC 1974). After the separation of his parents Kevin Ayers spent most of his childhood with his mother in Malaysia.
At twenty, he returned to England, where he attended a boarding school and was in his college time member of the Canterbury scene, and sang with the Wilde Flowers. From 1966 he was the bassist for the Artrockband Soft Machine. In 1968, he got out and writing songs to start a solo career. In 1970, he was the founder and leader of the band The Whole World in which, among other things, Mike Oldfield played along. Later he worked with musicians such as composer David Bedford, Lol Coxhill saxophonist, Brian Eno, John Cale, Robert Wyatt and Nico. Ayers ' most important and longest musical companion was the British guitarist Ollie Halsall ( previously at Timebox and Patto ), which appears on several albums as a musician or arranger. Halsall also lived for some time in Spain, where at age 43 he died of a heart attack as a result of a drug overdose in 1992. Most recently, he had recorded the album Still Life With Guitar with Ayers. Shooting at the Moon was recorded in the legendary list Wire The Wire 's " 100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening ) ".
After he had lived long in Spain, Kevin Ayers returned mid-1990 returned to England and lived most recently in the south of France, where he died in February 2013 at the age of 68 years.