The Soft Boys were a pop band during the punk era led by Robyn Hitchcock

Robyn Hitchcock

Robyn Rowan Hitchcock is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano and bass guitar....

, whose initially old fashioned music style of psychedelic/folk-rock became part of the neo-psychedelia

Neo-psychedelia

Neo-psychedelia is music that emulates or is heavily influenced by the psychedelic music of the 1960s. It began to be revived among British post-punk bands of the later 1970s and early 1980s and was taken up by groups including bands of the Paisley Underground and Madchester scenes, as well as...

 scene with the release of Underwater Moonlight

Underwater Moonlight

Underwater Moonlight is a 1980 album by English band The Soft Boys. The album was re-released in 2001 as an expanded edition with nine outtakes from the main recording sessions and a bonus disc comprising seventeen tracks from the Underwater Moonlight rehearsals at the Boathouse, a rowing-team...

. The band formed in 1976 in Cambridge, England as Dennis and the Experts comprising Robyn Hitchcock (guitar), Rob Lamb - half brother of Charlie Gillett

Charlie Gillett

Charlie Gillett , was a British radio presenter, musicologist and writer, mainly on rock and roll and other forms of popular music...

 - (guitar), Andy Metcalfe

Andy Metcalfe

Andy Metcalfe is an English bassist, keyboardist and producer, who played mainly with The Soft Boys , Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians , and with Squeeze off and on during the period 1985-1994.He co-produced several of the Egyptians albums Andy Metcalfe (born 1956, Bristol, England) is an...

 (bass), and Morris Windsor (drums). Alan Davies replaced Lamb after only four gigs late in 1976, and Kimberley Rew

Kimberley Rew

Kimberley Rew is an English rock and roll singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as a member of Katrina and the Waves 1981 to 1999 and of Robyn Hitchcock's Soft Boys 1978 to 1981...

 replaced Davies. Matthew Seligman

Matthew Seligman

Matthew Seligman is an English bassist who took part of the new wave scene in the 1970s and the 1980s, best known as a member of the Soft Boys.-Biography:...

 replaced Metcalfe in 1979. The band broke up in 1980 after Underwater Moonlight. They briefly re-formed for a UK tour in 1994 and then again in 2001 for the 20th anniversary of Underwater Moonlight and the release of a new album, Nextdoorland (in 2002). They disbanded once again in 2003.

Albums and EPs

• A Can of Bees
  A Can of Bees
  -1984 reissue track listing:-1992 CD reissue track listing:- Personnel :*Gerry Hale – violin*Robyn Hitchcock – bass, guitar, vocals*Mike Kemp – engineer*Jim Melton – harmonica, percussion, drums, vocals*Andy Metcalfe – bass, vocals...
  
  (1979)
• Underwater Moonlight
  Underwater Moonlight
  Underwater Moonlight is a 1980 album by English band The Soft Boys. The album was re-released in 2001 as an expanded edition with nine outtakes from the main recording sessions and a bonus disc comprising seventeen tracks from the Underwater Moonlight rehearsals at the Boathouse, a rowing-team...
  
  (1980)
• Invisible Hits (1983)
• Live at the Portland Arms (cassette, 1983; LP, 1988)
• Where Are The Prawns (cassette, 1994)
• Nextdoorland (2002)
• Side Three (CD EP) (2002)

Compilation albums

• Two Halves for the Price of One (1981) (Studio rarities and live tracks)
• Wading Through a Ventilator (EP) (1984) (Contains Give It To The Soft Boys EP, plus extra tracks)
• Raw Cuts (EP) (1989) (A retitled version of Wading Through a Ventilator)
• 1976-81 (2 CD) (1993) (Best-of, plus rarities, out-takes and live tracks)
• Underwater Moonlight... And How It Got There (2 CD) (2001) (Contains all of Underwater Moonlight, plus an additional disc of demos, rehearsals, and out-takes)

Singles and EPs

• Give It To The Soft Boys 7" EP: "Wading Through A Ventilator" b/w "The Face Of Death" and "Hear My Brane" (1977)
• "(I Want to Be an) Anglepoise Lamp" b/w "Fatman's Son" (1978)
• Near the Soft Boys 7" EP: "Kingdom of Love" b/w "Vegetable Man
  Vegetable Man
  "Vegetable Man" is an unreleased song by the English psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd. The song was recorded from October 9–12, 1967, and was an attempt to record a follow-up single to "See Emily Play", as well as the beginning of sessions for the album which would eventually become A Saucerful of...
  
  " & "Strange" (1980)
• "I Wanna Destroy You" b/w "Old Pervert" (1980)
• "Only the Stones Remain" b/w "The Asking Tree" (1981)
• "Love Poisoning" (1982)
• "He's a Reptile" b/w "Song No. 4" (1983)
• "The Face of Death" b/w "The Yodelling Hoover" (1989)

An album financed by Radar Records

Radar Records

Radar Records was a UK-based record label formed by Martin Davis who had previously worked at United Artists Records, and Andrew Lauder, who had previously been head of A&R at the UK divisions of Liberty Records and United Artists...

 was recorded at Rockfield Studios in 1978, at the same time Rush

Rush (band)

Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...

 was recording Hemispheres

Hemispheres (Rush album)

Hemispheres is the sixth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released in 1978. The album was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales and mixed at Trident Studios in London....

there. The resultant album was never released although one or two of the tracks have had subsequent release as part of compilations.

External links

• Fegmania!, Robyn Hitchcock archive, and home of the web's main Robyn Hitchcock discussion group, Fegmaniax!
• VegetableFriends, the original Robyn Hitchcock - Syd Barrett Discussion Group.
• The Glass Hotel
• The Soft Boys collection at the Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
  
  's live music archive