Bill Bruford

“Close to the Edge, Red, One of a kind, Discipline, Earthworks, The Sound of Surprise, all seem to me to be albums that captured the essence of the intention.”

“We all lived in the same house, or most of us did. And as far as I can make out we were confined to the property, because at twenty-four hours' notice we'd have to do a gig somewhere. So you couldn't leave the building for more than twelve hours in case a gig came through.”

“With Bruford, the album was One Of A Kind. All-instrumental, it possessed the kind of focused vision that allowed for no ifs or buts. With the unnerving confidence of youth, it had This Is What We Do And This Is How We Do It stamped all over it.”

“This amateurism however, can sometimes be helpful in forging a style; you have to work around your weaknesses.”

“But what I think my emphasis is, is on the fact that I like music a lot.”

“I mean, Chris is, I'm sure, a wonderful guy. But in those days he also very, very late. For all appointments and departures and arrivals and sound checks and anything.”

“I seldom play in a trio, but acoustic music is likely to be lighter, quicker, and quieter.”

“I didn't write any music at all, and then, I remember Jon Anderson being very insistent saying that there were two kinds of musicians: the ones who wrote music and the ones who didn't.”

“If I was hearing something I couldn't do, I would figure out how to do it.”

“The piano is kind of my second instrument.”

“Plus I am being hounded by all the fabulous new drummers, Bill Stewart at the head of the pack.”

“And we'd drink huge amounts of scotch and coke, which is a ghastly sweet drink... And now people don't drink nearly as much, for good reason. We're all a little wiser.”

“The best practice you can get is on the bandstand, but in between gigs I feel I have to stay in shape.”

“Whatever I have come to offer, I have come to offer and it may or may not be connected to anything that has happened in the past.”

“And I like messing around in the engine room of music. Seeing what happens in the rhythm section area.”

“I do remember the whole thing as being very argumentative, hot blooded... a permanent state of friction between Jon and Chris, Chris and me, me and Jon.”

“At the end of the whole day of working with people you want some privacy.”

“I saw it as a challenge to play with Pat and we put hours and hours into it, usually on the bus. The trick was to find something that we both wanted to play within our different styles which would add up to being greater than the sum of its parts.”

“We were from totally different social backgrounds. This is what is very hard for an American to understand, but we could have been five guys from Mars.”

“Sometimes I had to room with Tony Kaye and that was awful.”