It has been announced in international media that a few days ago died Mike Ratledgekeyboardist and founder of Soft Machine Because of a brief disease. He was eighty -one years old.
The person in charge of announcing the sad news was John Etheridgeguitarist of the band, “incredibly sad news: my great friend and legend of Soft Machine He died two hours after a brief disease. ” Etheridgewho joined Soft Machine in 1975 until almost the end of her, has fired her friend through Louder. The guitarist took the opportunity to highlight Ratledge’s importance within the group, and highlight his talent as an instrumentalist and as a person.
In 1966, Mike Ratledge formed the group next to Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt and Daevid Allenmaking two albums “The Soft Machine” (68) and “Volume Two” (69). In the following years the group members were abandoning training until in 1975 it was published “Bundles” His latest album with Soft Machine, an album in which the keyboardist was the only remaining founding member. After leaving the band, he became a composer for advertising and soundtracks for plays.
In 2025, Ratledge was the only founding member who was still alive along with Wyatt, since Ayers died in 2013 and Allen in 2015.
