“I could have been a lyricist for Pink Floyd, but I refused”

Ted Milton he is 82 years old – and has a rather eventful life behind him. Saxophonist, poet and former avant-garde puppeteer, he not only has an adventurous past, but also a busy present (and future): he is once again touring Europe with his historic band, the Blurtand is releasing a new album with his duo, Odes. In a long interview with the “Guardian” he told many curious anecdotes about old acquaintances, including Eric Clapton hey Pink Floyd.

Milton remembers sharing cabs with William S. Burroughs when the godfather of the Beat Generation arrived in London in the early 1960s. His old drinking buddy Eric Clapton considers him “a visionary”. His puppet show crept into the universe of Monty Python appearing in Terry Gilliam’s 1977 film “Jabberwocky”. Legendary lost promotional footage for Pink Floyd’s 1967 “Scream Thy Last Scream” is said to feature Milton’s coat thanks to animatronics. His band, Blurt, is a trio of drums, guitar, horns and vocals: “The groove they had was absolutely fabulous,” says Graham Lewis, long-time post-punk Wire fan.

By the mid-1960s, Milton was living with his girlfriend in “a period of bohemian debauchery in Long Acre (Covent Garden). Eric often came there”. The Eric in question would be Eric Claptonwho in his autobiography recalls how Milton played “Howlin’ Wolf” and channeled the music into dance and acting: “I understood how you could listen to the music completely and make it come to life… it was a real revelation,” Clapton wrote. Milton never lost this talent for performance. But while his old friend Pete Brown worked as a lyricist for Clapton’s Cream, Milton believes he passed up similar opportunities for Pink Floydwhose managers Andrew King and Peter Jenner were also at the scene.

“If success was handed to Ted on a silver platter, he would piss on it,” says Roger Law, co-creator of the television show “Spitting Image.” In the late 1960s, Milton worked in a puppet theater in Wolverhampton: “The puppets’ eyes are dead. They don’t feel challenged, they’re not afraid. This gives you a powerful chance to get into people, into places in their heads where they wouldn’t want you to go.” This skill led him to open some rock concerts in the 70s, for artists like Clapton and Ian Dury. Milton compares it to the myth of salesmen who temper themselves by selling peanuts on the street. “I opened for Clapton (in 1976) in an arena. I took out the theater, the puppets were so small… and we were talking to 1,000 people. Immediately there was a roar of ‘Fuck you!'” Dury sometimes went on stage to ask the audience to calm down.

What impressed Eric Clapton so much? “I think we’re talking about charisma. And charisma, in my opinion, is a form of psychosis.”