Soft Machine founding member and keyboard player Mike Ratledge has died aged 81, after a short illness, his former bandmate and current Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge has confirmed.
In a Facebook post earlier today Etheridge wrote: “Incredibly sad news that my great friend and Soft Machine legend passed away two hours ago after a brief illness. Mike was the backbone of Soft Machine in the early years and a man with an absolutely incisive mind – a marvellous composer and keyboardist. A real renaissance man – so talented, cultured, charming – and a wonderful companion. We used to meet every few weeks for over 40 yrs – a treat for me. What a loss to all of us and his sisters and wonderful girlfriend Elena, who were with him at the end.”
We want remember Mike like this: