Mike Ratledge, keyboardist and founding member of the English rock band Soft Machine, has died at the age of 81. The musician’s death was confirmed by former bandmate and current Soft Machine ...

And so, with Etheridge, Babbington and Marshall not just band alum but actually players who worked together in Soft Machine for roughly sixteen months, from 1975 through '76, the current lineup not ...

By 1966, he formed Soft Machine with Allen plus Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers. The lineup would change a lot over the years, but Ratledge remained the band’s longest-tenured member until his ...

Mike Ratledge, one of the founding members of Soft Machine, has died aged 81. The news of his passing was shared by bandmate John Etheridge – guitarist in the British psych-rock band – in a ...

If this shifting array of band names and members sounds confusing, it is. “We picked the name Soft Machine Legacy, which was really unnecessary because we could legitimately have been (billed as ...

He was 81. The news came via current Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge, who joined the band in 1975, near the end of Ratledge’s time in it. “Incredibly sad news that my great friend and ...

The band name says it all. Three members of this quartet worked at different times in the original Soft Machine whilst the fourth has assumed the mantle once taken by the late and lamented musician, ...

His love of American fiction, particularly William Boroughs’ fourth novel, The Soft Machine would ultimately provide the name of the band for which he is best known. Interviewed about the ...

In addition to being the longest remaining original member of Soft Machine—sticking around from their 1966 self-titled debut to 1976’s Softs—Ratledge was also arguably the band’s most ...

Although surrounded by classical music, Ratledge went on to carve his own path in the music industry when he helped form the rock band Soft Machine. Besides his time with Soft Machine, Ratledge ...

Mike Ratledge, keyboardist and founding member of Soft Machine, has died ... friends he discovered jazz music and played piano in a band called the Daevid Allen Trio. He attended University ...