He’s the snooker legend and Prog columnist, and his companion the frontman of Gong and Knifeworld, together they became the unlikely voices of a prog radio show and two-thirds of otherworldly trio The Utopia Strong. Now Steve Davis and Kavus Torabi have teamed up for their joint memoirs, Medical Grade Music. Prog gets the lowdown on their latest extra-curricular activities.

Snookered: Rob Hughes  Image: Simon Holliday

Kavus Torabi and Steve Davis: living their utopia.

Steve Davis is a big believer in the power of chance. Without it, he would never have encountered the band that changed his life. “Things often happen as a consequence of unexpected events,” he reckons. “When I was 16 or 17, me and a school friend went to watch Isotope, the band that Hugh Hopper was in after Soft Machine, at the Roundhouse [in June, 1974]. The headliners were Magma. I’d never heard of them, but they were jawdropping. I became such a heavy-duty fan. My favourite album of all time is Köhntarkösz. Looking back, I was so lucky to be there at the right place at the right time.”

Fast-forward to the mid-2000s and the French prog-jazz titans were at the centre at another pivotal moment. Davis was watching the band play in Paris when another Magma fan, Kavus Torabi, came over to introduce himself. “We went out for some drinks after the gig and hit it off,” recalls Torabi, who was then juggling his time between guitar duties in Cardiacs and fronting Knifeworld. “We met up a couple more times, then stayed in touch.”