Lol Coxhill
“Lol and I met in London in about 1971 after Delivery broke up. I knew him from his records. After I’d left Trader Horne, he and brothers Steve and Phil Miller were looking to do something, so they asked if I’d join them for some dates in Holland, and we played in London too, as DC [Dyble Coxhill] & The MBs, or sometimes as Penguin Dust.
“It was extraordinary. I didn’t realise the extent of the music they were creating. I almost didn’t fit in because it was so strange, but I loved free-form improvisational jazz and could follow what they were all doing. It was huge fun, and whatever I sang, Lol played around it. You never knew what he was going to play. His music just flew. And because he was so friendly – and told the most dreadful, obscure jokes – he was lovely to be with. He’d visit for a cup of tea, and I would’ve loved to play with him again.
“I think of him as an Ornette Coleman figure; he had vision and an open-hearted mind for where music should be, whether in prog, jazz or the wider musical universe.”