"England is so defined, the class system, your education. I think what was unique about the Canterbury scene"
About this Quote
England, in Ayers's telling, is a machine for producing categories: your accent, your school tie, your “place.” The line is fragmentary, but that’s part of its honesty. He’s not delivering a manifesto; he’s sketching the pressure of a society where identity arrives pre-sorted by class and education. “So defined” lands like a complaint and a diagnosis: England doesn’t just have a class system, it has a talent for making it feel natural.
Then he pivots to “what was unique about the Canterbury scene,” and the subtext sharpens. The Canterbury scene - that loose late-60s/early-70s ecosystem around Soft Machine, Caravan, and the Wilde Flowers - is often remembered for its jazz-prog whimsy and pastoral eccentricity. Ayers is pointing to something more socially charged: a pocket of cultural life that loosened the usual English markings. It wasn’t merely a sound; it was a micro-climate where art-school weirdos, grammar-school brains, and bohemian drifters could collaborate without the normal gatekeeping rituals.
The phrasing matters. By pairing “class system” with “your education,” he implies a conveyor belt: institutions don’t just teach; they assign status and permission. Calling Canterbury “unique” suggests it briefly refused that assignment, creating a space where curiosity and play outranked pedigree. For a composer who lived between pop, avant-garde, and deadpan romanticism, that refusal wasn’t aesthetic trivia - it was the condition that made the music possible.
Then he pivots to “what was unique about the Canterbury scene,” and the subtext sharpens. The Canterbury scene - that loose late-60s/early-70s ecosystem around Soft Machine, Caravan, and the Wilde Flowers - is often remembered for its jazz-prog whimsy and pastoral eccentricity. Ayers is pointing to something more socially charged: a pocket of cultural life that loosened the usual English markings. It wasn’t merely a sound; it was a micro-climate where art-school weirdos, grammar-school brains, and bohemian drifters could collaborate without the normal gatekeeping rituals.
The phrasing matters. By pairing “class system” with “your education,” he implies a conveyor belt: institutions don’t just teach; they assign status and permission. Calling Canterbury “unique” suggests it briefly refused that assignment, creating a space where curiosity and play outranked pedigree. For a composer who lived between pop, avant-garde, and deadpan romanticism, that refusal wasn’t aesthetic trivia - it was the condition that made the music possible.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
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