They say you should always leave the audience wanting more. Mike Ratledge, who died yesterday aged 81, did exactly that. In the 49 years since he left Soft Machine, somebody, somewhere would be commenting that they would love to see Ratledge play live with the Softs ‘one more time’ or perennially asking what he was up to in letters to music magazines and later, in the message boards and fan forums of the internet.
Decades after the urbane, softly-spoken had played his last note with the band, wherever and wherever the school of musicians who were part of the so-called ‘Canterbury Scene’ were performing, it was a certainty that after the gig curious fans would make earnest inquiries about the long-absent keyboardist. Such was their regularity, a slightly exasperated Pip Pyle, drummer with Gong, Hatfield And The North, National Health, gently lampooned the situation in the lyrics of his song, What’s Rattlin’. Recorded by Richard Sinclair in 1994 it has the classic line, 'One question we all dread, ‘What's doing Mike Ratledge?’
