{"id":461,"date":"2026-08-16T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/16\/i-sometimes-dread-the-get-togethers-its-either-your-dad-owes-me-money-or-he-slept-with-my-wife-a-prog-icons-daughter-rebelled\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T17:00:00","slug":"i-sometimes-dread-the-get-togethers-its-either-your-dad-owes-me-money-or-he-slept-with-my-wife-a-prog-icons-daughter-rebelled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/16\/i-sometimes-dread-the-get-togethers-its-either-your-dad-owes-me-money-or-he-slept-with-my-wife-a-prog-icons-daughter-rebelled\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI sometimes dread the get-togethers. It\u2019s either \u2018Your dad owes me money\u2019 or \u2018He slept with my wife!\u2019\u201d: A prog icon\u2019s daughter rebelled against music, then returned and made an album with a punk legend"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A prog legend\u2019s daughter and <\/em>The Clash<\/em><\/a>\u2019s former bassist aren\u2019t the most obvious collaborators. But in 2023 <\/em>Galen Ayers<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Paul Simonon<\/em><\/a> released <\/em>Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day? which featured a laidback Mediterranean vibe reminiscent of Galen\u2019s late father, Kevin.<\/em><\/p>\n

Produced by <\/em>Tony Visconti<\/em><\/a> and featuring guest spots from Damon Albarn (<\/em>Blur<\/em><\/a>, Gorillaz) and others, the album had its roots in a Mallorcan fishing village, where Simonon stayed during lockdown. Just before its launch the pair told Prog its story.<\/em><\/p>\n

How did the collaboration come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Galen Ayers:<\/strong> After the hard Covid lockdown, Paul was just coming back to London from Spain and I was coming back from Greece. We\u2019d both been writing songs. We started chatting and realised we were in the same place. The fun thing, I think, is this third space that opens up in any good collaboration, because you\u2019re being pushed in ways that you wouldn\u2019t necessarily go if you were just alone.<\/p>\n

Paul Simonon:<\/strong> It was quite intense in a way, because you open up completely. We both agreed from the beginning that we should be totally honest with each other. That seemed to be the best way to move forward: going by gut instinct.<\/p>\n

So is Mallorca a key place for both of you, creatively?<\/strong><\/p>\n

GA: <\/strong>Sure. I grew up there with my dad, I lived there with my stepfather and my mum and I went to school there. I was practically a Spanish girl and spoke the local dialect, Mallorquin.<\/p>\n

PS: <\/strong>The record really started off there, after I\u2019d gone to Mallorca to paint. I had a guitar with me as well, so it was an alternative way of being creative. It\u2019s the same thing \u2013 the element of thought and feeling and expression. And I\u2019ve always been open to European music. Jacques Dutronc and people like that. My dad used to play things like Francoise Hardy and Jacques Brel.<\/p>\n

But you wanted to be a painter rather than a musician, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PS:<\/strong> Yeah. I got to art college, met Mick Jones<\/a> [Clash co-founder] and somehow ended up playing bass. Mick said, \u201cYou\u2019re a bit like Stuart Sutcliffe.\u201d I went, \u201cWho\u2019s he?\u201d He said, \u201cThe one that was in The Beatles<\/a>. He couldn\u2019t play bass either, but he was a good artist.\u201d So that was sort of my inspiration in the very beginning.<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Was it always going to be a musician\u2019s life for you, Galen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

GA:<\/strong> No. I rebelled against it. At first I was always singing and I toured a bit with my dad. But then I saw the human cost of the life and I didn\u2019t want that. I was quite a strong academic \u2013 I have two masters \u2013 and I was adamant to find a different path. But eventually it just came naturally that, as a writer, adding music is another form of expression. Now you have a whole other layer of emotion.<\/p>\n

Was prog ever on your radar, Paul?<\/strong><\/p>\n

PS:<\/strong> My brother used to be into Yes<\/a> and things like that, but it just didn\u2019t speak to me. It didn\u2019t represent anything that I felt. They knew too many chords, that\u2019s the problem! Galen and I are really from two different worlds<\/p>\n

\n
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Kevin shoved the guitar towards Galen and said: \u2018You\u2019re on your own now.\u2019 That\u2019s a great attitude!<\/p>\n

Paul Simonon<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

GA:<\/strong> But we did find some middle ground. You enjoyed the early Syd Barrett<\/a> albums I played you.<\/p>\n

PS:<\/strong> Yeah \u2013 it\u2019s like your dad\u2019s stuff.<\/p>\n

GA:<\/strong> It\u2019s more song-based. When I started getting interested in songwriting there were progressives in my house at all times.<\/p>\n

Didn\u2019t <\/strong>Daevid Allen<\/strong><\/a> used to be your babysitter, Galen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

GA:<\/strong> They all were! I went to see King Crimson <\/a>a few years back and met Robert Fripp<\/a>. I said, \u201cI\u2019m sure you were our babysitter at some point.\u201d He goes, \u201cWell, you didn\u2019t look like that!\u201d Sometimes I dread it when I go to these get-togethers of like-minded people, because it\u2019s either, \u201cYour dad owes me money!\u201d or \u201cYour dad slept with my wife!\u201d or something. I\u2019m like, \u201cIt\u2019s not my fault! I didn\u2019t do anything!\u201d But it\u2019s always said with a smile, y\u2019know? He was well-loved. I think Kevin was just way too sensitive to be a business person. There was this burning fire, with no compromise.<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

What kind of things did he teach you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

GA:<\/strong> He wasn\u2019t very fatherly in terms of giving advice. But he wrote this beautiful letter to me, where he likened being a songwriter or an artist to being a tightrope walker. You just have to live a life where you don\u2019t have a safety net. If you get scared or stop, you fall; so you just push forward.<\/p>\n

PS:<\/strong> I love the story Galen told me about him. There was a guitar on the floor and he just shoved it over towards Galen and said: \u201cThere you go, you\u2019re on your own now.\u201d I think that says quite a lot. That\u2019s a great attitude!<\/p>\n

GA:<\/strong> Kevin was unconventional in terms of presents. On my 21st birthday he was playing his J200 Gibson that Jimi Hendrix<\/a> gave him. It\u2019s the guitar I\u2019d grown up with, a beautiful-sounding guitar. He just put it in the case, closed it, kicked it softly across the floor and his exact words were: \u201cTake over, kid!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A prog legend\u2019s daughter and The Clash\u2019s former bassist aren\u2019t the most obvious collaborators. But in 2023 Galen Ayers and Paul Simonon released Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day? which featured a laidback Mediterranean vibe reminiscent of Galen\u2019s late father, Kevin. Produced by Tony Visconti and featuring guest spots from Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}