Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera is considering the re-establishment of his prog quartet Quiet Sun, after they reconvened to oversee the expanded reissue of their only album, 1975’s Mainstream.
Manzanera originally formed the band on the fringes of the Canterbury scene in the 60s alongside former Dulwich College schoolmate and later Matching Mole bassist Bill MacCormick, future Gong/This Heat drummer Charles Hayward and keyboard player Dave Jarrett.
They went their separate ways in 1971 – but three years later, when Manzanera was making solo album Diamond Head, he got Quiet Sun back together to record Mainstream at the same time, with track titles including Trumpets With Motherhood, Rongwrong and Mummy Was An Asteroid, Daddy Was A Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil. Additional help came from Brian Eno and Bill’s brother, author Ian MacDonald.
Although it was their only album, Manzanera later noticed it had developed a cult following. “The minute anything was mentioned on my website, people would come out of the woodwork from all over the world, partly because of Charles and Bill and their work with Robert Wyatt and Gong. I always felt we were part of that Canterbury school.”
When Manzanera and his old bandmates found the original analogue tapes, they were impressed. “The musicianship was amazing considering we hadn’t played together for five years at that point, and I don’t think I’d rehearsed at all for those sessions.”
They took the opportunity to create a 21st-century product with remixed and remastered versions, as well as unheard material and a 60-page book. “We felt like we had the opportunity to make it a definitive package,” says Manzanera. “We thought, ‘Let’s add in as many new bits of bric-a-brac as we can find.’ We rinsed all the pictures and stories we had.”
That may not be the end of the Quiet Sun story. The quartet who made the original album wound up working on new studio material, which could see the light of day soon.
“We still have to decide if it’s any good!” Manzanera says. “There’s about nine extra people involved, so it’s a bit like a collective. It’s been very interesting to come back to work with those guys and expand the Quiet Sun project 50 years later.”
The 51st anniversary edition of Mainstream is on sale now.
