Kevin Ayers (16 August 1944 – 18 February 2013) was an English singer-songwriter and a major influential force in the English
psychedelic movement. Ayers was a founding member of the pioneering psychedelic band
Soft Machine in the mid-1960s, and was closely associated with the
Canterbury scene. He recorded a series of
albums as a solo artist and over the years worked with
Brian Eno,
Syd Barrett,
John Cale,
Elton John,
Robert Wyatt,
Andy Summers,
Mike Oldfield,
Nico and
Ollie Halsall, among others. After living for many years in
Deià,
Majorca, he returned to the United Kingdom in the mid-1990s before moving to the south of France. His last album was
The Unfairground, recorded in
New York City,
Tucson, and
London in 2006. The British rock journalist
Nick Kent wrote: "Kevin Ayers and Syd Barrett were the two most important people in British pop music. Everything that came after came from them."