Editing Nik Turner (section)

==1940–1969: Early years==
Turner was born in Oxford in August 1940 to a theatrical family, although his father was working in a munitions factory. At the age of 13 his family moved to the [[Kent]] seaside resort of [[Margate]] where he worked at the local funfair during the summer holiday season, befriending another seasonal worker [[Robert Calvert]]. His first influences were [[rock and roll]] and the films of [[James Dean]].<ref name="MojoDec2005">{{cite web |url=http://www.starfarer.net/intvw999.html |title=The Egos Have Landed |publisher=Starfarer.net |date=29 August 1969 |access-date=18 July 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314035625/http://www.starfarer.net/intvw999.html |archive-date=14 March 2012}}</ref>

Turner went on to complete an engineering course and then undertook one voyage in the [[Merchant Navy]]. He then set about travelling around Europe picking up menial jobs, and it was during a stint as a [[roustabout]] in a travelling music circus in 1967 that he made the acquaintance of [[Dave Brock]] in [[Haarlem]], the Netherlands.<ref name="MojoDec2005" />

Turner had two years of clarinet and saxophone lessons in the early 1960s but never considered himself good enough to pursue them seriously.<ref>[http://www.kadu.demon.co.uk/pages/hawkfile.html]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061003015444/http://www.kadu.demon.co.uk/pages/hawkfile.html|date=3 October 2006}}</ref> Whilst travelling around Europe he encountered some free jazz players in [[Berlin]] who impressed upon him the importance of expression over technical proficiency, and it was then that he decided that what he "wanted to do was play free jazz in a rock band".<ref name="MojoDec2005" />