The Rainbow London

Although their UK Autumn tour consisted of just six dates King Crimson were on stunning form as this great-sounding audience recording demonstrates.

Alongside the warmly-received Larks’ Tongues In Aspic material, including a truly blistering Part I, this concert also highlights tracks which would ultimately appear on their next release in 1974.

The Nightwatch, Lament, and Fracture, on which you’ll hear Bruford exclaim at almost precisely the same point he would eighteen gigs later at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, had been rolled out in America earlier in the month. It’s interesting to note how well bedded-in the renditions at The Rainbow are, each exuding a devil-may-care insouciance in places.

It’s evident just from Fripp’s two classic announcements during the show just how the band is enjoying themselves as the guitarist drolly lampoons recent live reviews from the press in one, and threatens to demonstrate the band’s new dance move that goes by the name of The Mince in the other. The download is almost worth grabbing just for these alone!

The improvisations tonight variously return to some of the motifs of We’ll Let You Know from Glasgow just three nights previously and there’s a relatively rare outing for Bill Bruford’s drum machine which supplies the groove to a very satisfying quartet rock-out.

Contemporary reaction to the concert suggests that the band were let down by the muddy acoustics of the venue but this particular taper struck lucky, capturing an especially powerful performance by the Crims.
TRACK
TIME
01
Walk On ... No Pussyfooting
00:56
02
Improv Intro
02:23
03
Larks' Tongues in Aspic: Part One
07:57
04
Tune Up and RF Announcement
04:12
05
Easy Money
05:52
06
The Night Watch
05:05
07
Fracture
11:32
08
Book of Satuday
02:52
09
Lament
04:30
01
RF Announcement
02:22
02
Improv I
07:51
03
Exiles
06:41
04
Improv II
06:39
05
The Talking Drum
05:54
06
Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part Two
08:52
07
Peace A Theme
00:57
08
Cat Food
04:35

KC19731026London - Peter Jones

KC19731026London3

KC19731026London2

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BROWSE SHOWS WITH PHOTOS

Written by Gabriel Colucci
Good sound, good show
Good sounding show for an audience recording. The band were definitely having fun throughout. Highlights: Night Watch, The Talking Drum, Larks Part II
Written by Jerry Smith
Wow! Thank you very much.
I've listened to this show quite a few times since it first went up three or four weeks ago.
Written by William Jenks
"Great Sound" must be taken in context...
This is a very good performance and one definitely worth hearing for fans of this group and those who are frustrated at the relatively sparse number of good live recordings. That said, listeners should expect "A little better than 3 stars" sound, rather than "Not quite 5 stars." There is no mistaking this for anything but an audience recording, however valiantly it's been cleaned up. For me, it's a worthy historic artifact that's worth hearing, rather than something I imagine putting on bec...
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