The Soft Boys rank among the most pivotal acts in the evolution of modern alternative sounds, even if their singular catalog remains only partially recognized today. Emerging in Cambridge, England during 1976 in the immediate wake of punk’s arrival, the quartet rejected the genre’s rudimentary three-chord aggression in favor of a raw psychedelic/folk-rock approach that had already fallen from favor yet stood poised for rediscovery.
Robyn Hitchcock assembled the initial lineup by enlisting local players Morris Windsor on drums, Andy Metcalfe on bass, and Alan Davies on guitar; the group captured the sessions for Give It to the Soft Boys inside Hitchcock’s own living room that same year. Davies soon departed, yielding his guitar chair to Kimberley Rew. The band issued the single “(I Want to Be An) Anglepoise Lamp” before delivering the full-length Can of Bees in 1979.
While work on the follow-up commenced, Metcalfe exited and Matthew Seligman stepped in on bass. The revised configuration began anew, laying down Underwater Moonlight, an album that traded extended psychedelic excursions for concise, ringing jangle-pop guitar rock. The record has since assumed canonical status within guitar-driven music; the Replacements, R.E.M., and the L.A. Paisley Underground scene each cited it as a primary touchstone. Though it inspired countless subsequent bands, Underwater Moonlight marked the Soft Boys’ final statement. Two additional releases appeared after the breakup: the 2 Halfs for the Price of One EP in 1981 and a collection of early recordings issued as Invisible Hits in 1983. The EP resurfaced in 1984 under the title Wading Through a Ventilator.
In 1984 Windsor and Metcalfe resumed their partnership with Hitchcock under the name the Egyptians, while Seligman established himself as a sought-after session player and Rew founded Katrina & the Waves. Hitchcock himself has sustained an extensive solo career marked by the idiosyncratic approach he developed and refined from 1976 onward, amassing numerous albums. Matthew Seligman succumbed on April 17, 2020 to complications arising from COVID-19; he was 64.
