The play that changed my life: Waiting for Godot revealed that less is more it made me fearless'

"Until I was 12 I was in the French school system, where theatre was Moliere, Corneille, Racine. Going to the theatre meant The Sound of Music or My Fair Lady. Then it was decided I would switch to school in England. So, at 13, I arrived at Westminster school. It was 1968, and the world opened up. I went to see a school production of Waiting for Godot in French in a small room with a little stage, and I was sitting at the back."

"Musically, I was pretty sophisticated I already knew about all the psychedelic music that had been happening. I'd seen the Mothers of Invention. I'd seen lots and lots and lots. But I didn't know there was stuff like this. I suddenly became aware that, just like in music, there was a whole new world out there. I don't know how good the French was, but it really didn't matter what they were saying."

At age 13, a move from the French school system to Westminster in 1968 exposed a personal encounter with an unconventional French production of Waiting for Godot. The performance's abstraction, pent-up tension and sudden eruptions onstage challenged prior theatrical rules learned in France. Seeing Nigel Planer as Lucky and hearing the baroque monologue in French emphasized presence over plot. The experience revealed that minimal action can be powerful. That insight later influenced mixing techniques in music, prompting deliberate isolation of instruments to make each sound distinct and embody a 'less is more' aesthetic.

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