Seven Drones

Soft Head: Elton Dean (alto sax), Alan Gowen (keyboards, synthesizer), Hugh Hopper (electric bass) and Dave Sheen (drums). From the album Rogue Element (1978).

In 1976 Hopper played with the Carla Bley Band for several days in Germany for radio and in 1977 he participated with it in European jazz festivals for three weeks, this time also with Elton Dean. In 1978 he became a founding member of Soft Heap, the first group of former Soft Machine participants who met to continue its legacy. This group planned to tour Europe, but drummer Pip Pyle was not available, so he was succeded by Dave Sheen, resulting in Soft Head, one of whose performances in France appears in Rogue Element (1978). Later Hopper joined Alan Gowen’s Gilgamesh, with which he published Another Fine Tune You’ve Gotten Me Into (1978).

In 1980 he recorded a duet with Gowen entitled Two Rainbows Daily in which the keyboards and electric bass sound with multiple overdubs, creating an intimate and pleasant atmosphere that maintains the Canterbury taste, but approaching new age. Then he decided to take a few years off from music, working as a journalist and writing novels, but in the mid-1980s he returned to the stage with Equipe Out, In Cashoots (releasing an album with each) and Anaid. In 1987 he formed the Franglodutch Band with Dutch musicians, which recorded four albums: Alive (1987), Meccano Pelorus (1992), Hooligan Romantics (1994) and Carousel (1995).

In 1991 he joined Didier Malherbe (saxes and flute), Phil Miller (electric guitar) and Pip Pyle (drums) to found Short Wave and publish Short Wave Live (1993). From 1995 to 1999 he was part of the progressive rock and avant-garde group Caveman Shoestore, which extended the limits of rock both in its compositions and improvisations, and recorded with them Caveman Hughstore (1995), Highspotparadox (1997) and Delta Flora (1999). He also played with the Mashu trio with guitarist Mark Hewins and Indian percussionist Shyamal Maitra, with which he published Elephants In Your Head (1997) and toured Europe several times. In 1998 he was invited to participate in the French band PolySoft to perform classic Soft Machine songs.