Yeah, this was really crappy news to wake up to.
He was the weakest link on the first Soft Machine album to me (although he did contribute the spoken word-esque vocals to my favorite track, "Why Are We Sleeping?"), but his solo records were as good as any of Wyatt's and he never really seemed to get the recognition for them. Joy of a Toy in particular I think was his strongest solo effort, with downright excellent songs like Town Feeling and hauntingly creepy ones like Girl on a Swing. I just finally tracked down a vinyl copy a couple of months ago that I posted in the vinyl thread, and late last year found an original Bananamour.
