Prog icon Robert Wyatt is to be given an honorary doctorate in music by the University Of Kent.
A founding member of Soft Machine, Wyatt was considered one of the leading lights in the Canterbury music scene and has gone on to have a remarkable solo career.
He will be named a Doctor of Music by the university at a ceremony on Friday, July 18.
A statement from the university says: “Robert Wyatt was born in Bristol but moved to Canterbury where, as a member of Soft Machine, he was a leading light of the city’s famous music scene of the late 1960s.
“He continued his music career as a solo artist and had a 1983 chart hit with the song Shipbuilding.”
The news comes in the week the presenter of Prog Magazine’s Progressive Music Awards Gavin Esler was installed as the university’s new Chancellor.
