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On 13 August 1970, Soft Machine become the first rock band ever to appear at the 麻豆社 Proms. It wasn鈥檛 the obvious choice for a classical music festival. Soft Machine had only been together for four years: a moustachioed art-pop carousel of musicians including Kevin Ayres and Robert Wyatt who emerged out of the Canterbury Scene of prog rock, folk-psychedelia and jazz fusion. They were anti-establishment and anti-capitalist; they were post-Dada improvisors who dropped acid and pioneered macrobiotic diets; they wore earth-toned turtle necks and neckerchiefs.

The band was named after William S. Burroughs' epoch-defining novel 1961 The Soft Machine. Other influences came from Indonesian gamelan and the utopian communitarian spirit of the minimalist composer Terry Riley. The band released their first album and toured the world supporting Jimi Hendrix. 鈥淗e thought we were terribly cute,鈥� Kevin Ayers recalled, 鈥渁nd absolutely no threat to his sensational stage presence. He was quite right.鈥�

Fame came thick and fast and it spooked a couple of the early members who quit the band and took off to lead a more mellow life in Ibiza. By the night of their Proms appearance, the rolling membership included Elton Dean, Hugh Hopper, Mike Ratledge and Robert Wyatt. They ended the show with a fevered 15-minute prog-psych-jazz-fusion jam called Esther鈥檚 Nose Job.

Needless to say, critical reception varied among regular reviewers of the Proms. Some astutely noted that this new inclusion of popular music demonstrated the Proms getting back to its Victorian roots by offering something for everyone. One writer demanded that he 鈥渟hould like to know on what premises I am expected to take seriously a small group of musicians whose range of tone does not exist and whose scale of dynamics is no more than an unvarying triple forte.鈥�

In the liner notes of the live LP they released after the event, Robert Wyatt wrote about the experience of playing at the Proms. He spoke of the 鈥渨ithering contempt of the posh music establishment". "Before our bit,鈥� he recalled, 鈥淚 went out the back for a quick fag and then the doorman didn鈥檛 want to let me back in. 鈥業've got to play in there,鈥� I said. 鈥榊ou must be kidding, son,鈥� he said, 鈥榯hey only have proper music in there.鈥� Not that night they didn鈥檛.鈥�

That night kickstarted nearly 50 years (and counting) of non-classical music counting as proper music at the Proms. Jazz, folk, Ibiza trance hits, reggae, NY disco-punk, pagan-gospel, feminist rap, all sharing a stage with the world鈥檚 greatest orchestras.

This is one of 100 significant musical moments explored by 麻豆社 Radio 3鈥檚 Essential Classics as part of Our Classical Century, a 麻豆社 season celebrating a momentous 100 years in music from 1918 to 2018. Visit bbc.co.uk/ourclassicalcentury to watch and listen to all programmes in the season.

This is an excerpt from Esther鈥檚 Nose Job by Soft Machine.

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