A Canterbury school teacher’s son, Mike Ratledge was born in Maidstone in Kent and grew up with classical music, He met his friend Brian Hooper’s younger brother Hugh, Robert Wyatt and Daevid Allen and they developed a shared interest in Jazz. In 1963 he played in the Daevid Allen Trio and then graduated in Psychology and Philosophy at University College, Oxford.
In 1966 he was asked to join Soft Machine with Allen, Wyatt and Kevin Ayers with whom he stayed until 1973 and gained many plaudits for his distinctive style of playing, particularly on his Lowrey organ and imaginative synthesiser work, on releases such as “Third” in 1970 with Hugh Hopper, Robert Wyatt and Elton Dean, a double album that made the U.K. Top 20 albums chart. In 1973 Mike featured in a live performance of Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” for a BBC broadcast.
Mike made a significant impact on whichever project in which he was involved, including on Kevin Ayers’ “Joy of a Toy” (and other albums) and Syd Barrett’s “The Madcap Laughs”, and his work with David Bedford and Karl Jenkins.
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