Robert Fripp's Diary

DGM HQ Broad Chalke accents

DGM HQ.

Broad Chalke accents of the broad kind began punctually at 08.30.

David is in the last hour of settling DGM royalty accounting. In the 11 years of DGM, the weight of lotsa stuff on a small company has limited our capacity to respond to the creative impulse. Too little of our time is engaged realizing what is possible for Tone Probe, DGM, KC & GC. So, from our radical re-thinking of the morning --

King Crimson Records.

We are selling the complete phonographic copyrights of the entire KC catalogue 1969-2003, including DGM live releases, to Sanctuary; and the publishing copyrights to BMG. Since we control the catalogue, we are adopting the S.G. Alder Esq. Good Guy Approach to artist royalty accounting. This is --

1. An advance on the catalogue is paid to DGM.

2. The advance is recouped against the artists, although DGM is prepared to make loans to artists (at current market rates of interest) from that advance.

3. All deductions - packaging costs, re-mastering & new artwork - are to be recouped against artist royalties. DGM is paid from Record One.

4. The packaging deduction is increased from 25% to 28.5%; i.e Sanctuary pays the same amount in royalties, but DGM receives a greater share of receipts. This will be done without reference to the artists, whose time would be better spent concerning themselves with music.

5. DGM will deduct an additional 25% management commission from the artist royalties for managing the catalogue.

6. King Crimson is encouraged to tour, without payment other than per diems, to promote record sales. Artists receive their share of record royalties under the new arrangements, so benefiting from their promotional efforts. DGM will receive 25% of the gross touring receipts in addition to their share of record sales.

7. Artists will sign Gagging Clauses undertaking to not discuss their DGM business with anyone, including spouses, partners & business advisors.

8. This is now DGM Standard Operating Procedure. If there are any small practical details to be refined or decisions to be made - this is, after all, a new arrangement - they will be decided by DGM on behalf of the artists & with the artists' best interests in mind.

David & Robert are renowned for their probity and sound business practices.

9. When artists sign their contract, the verbal collateral warranties given and not included in the contract, are not therefore binding.

10. When artists sign their contract, they give up all rights to pursue remedies for any possible non-feasance or mal-feasance they might later discover.

King Crimson Touring.

Fairly obviously, more punters are interested in historic KC than in future-oriented ventures. So, I am calling Greg, Peter, Ian & Michael to propose a re-formation of the original 1969 line-up, world touring & HBO Special to support Frame By Frame: Second Edition.

There are also more than one classic KC formations, so I am also calling Billy B, John & David to propose leap-frogging tours for the second viable KC unit. While one formation is resting, I'll be out touring with the other. The possibilities for cross-collateralisation are mind-boggling.

This leaves more former players to usefully employ, and some of them are now much more successful than when in the band. So, I propose a third classic formation, King Crimson featuring Gordon Haskell, primarily working in the UK, for any members prior to 1974 who'd like the gig. Most of the repertoire would be drawn from Harry's Bar & Gord's new album.

To include players from 1981 onwards, the King Crimson Orchestra will include whoever would like to be in it, and per diems will be generous, to feature any material from 1969 to 2003 that is called out by members of the audience.

There are those who failed King Crimson auditions, and/or were cancelled for records, notably Bryan Ferry & Elton John. This opens touring possibilities for King Crimson: The Failures featuring Bryan Ferry & Elton John. We'd consider recording with both of these, even paying recoupable wages. Bryan was managed by EG (at my recommendation) so he'll understand that his wages are subject to 25% DGM management commission.

Guitar Craft.

There are now several experienced Crafties sufficiently qualified to conduct GC courses without me. They will be paid a fee and the course income will come to me.

There are four continents where courses can be held on an ongoing and profitable basis, quite apart from live work by The League of Crafty Guitarists. There are presently two formations of The LCG, in North America & Europe, both of whom should work more often. South America & Japan need to get their own LCGs together quickly.

The Guitar Craft Method: Never Make A Mistake Again! guitar tutor for the digitally impaired will be published by Mel Bay in a series of volumes. Judging by the hands I have seen, this series is likely without end.

And DGM will sell personally autographed copies on E-Bay.

15.08

DGM SoundWorld I.

Our attention has moved from DGM - The Way Forward!and is now on FxFII. David & Robert are listening to 3 performances of The Talking Drum. And what is it saying?

17.27 Now, an unreleased KC improv from Dieburd, Germany, on March 28th. 1974. I haven't heard this for slightly over 30 years. This, plus other unreleased & (mostly unheard) improvs, are part of The Blue Tapes, as they are known to the cognoscenti of DGM archiving circles: a series of 1/4" 2 track recordings of the KC European concert tour of 1974.

And now a violin-led improv from Ausburg, March 27th. 1974. Shaking bells from Billy B, whistling wind from the guitarist's fuzz box & wah-wah pedal, and snaking bass from The Beastly Wetton. The band that's unstoppable! says David Singleton as more wernaciousness erupts & squirtles. A pause for tuning --

RF: Are they still tuning?
DS: They are still tuning.
RF: If a mellotron's involved, they might as well give up.

Now, a leap forward - to Oklahoma on June 7th. 1974.

17.47 David has read this morning's Diary entry and agrees that DGM - The Way Forward! is our way forward.

On an Endless Grief model, double-dipping & cost-allocation to artists should leave us about 50% of record income, instead of a nominal 25%. And with live performance, we get almost all of it. We then share the pot between the two of us, for doing very little other than controlling the artists, and let the artists share what's left between all of them. If they get antsy about this, we might hire someone to "manage" the artists' best interests within DGM: preferably a person with weak character, little creative instinct, unable to act from their own initiative and/or stand up to our controlling tendencies, and encourage them to take out a mortgage (preferably from us, drawn from our Sanctuary advance on the DGM catalogue).

21.27 The Late Shift is under way. Starless is in instrumental werning mode.

One of the small joys of listening to Starless live (before the lyrics were fully written) is to hear John mangle a series of arbitrary syllables, sandwiched between several authentic & recognizable words of English, in an attempt to present partial lyrics as a fully convincing song. This John does, heroically.

One of the small horrors is to hear the prodigal time of the slow riff that follows the vocal, and revisit my personal frustration of the time at attempting to play on top of it.

Another small joy: an alternative version of Starless with the same strange vowels but in a slightly different arrangement. I would attempt to transcribe them for the interest of Diary readers but the attempt would defeat me, given the time available to me this month.

Other excitements --

I have just spoken to Ade in Tennessee regarding future Crim developments & plans. En passant, David mentioned earlier that a South American promoter has recently offered Crim a 10-date tour of the continent. The tour is contingent upon each show being filmed for television and, accordingly, David didn't bring this to my attention before the continent came up in discussion --

-- because of an e-mail from Mick Brigden, manager of Joe Satriani, that arrived 30 minutes ago. Mick was enquiring whether I'd be interested in going to South America with G3 this autumn. Meanwhile, the G3 European tour has been extended by two weeks, probably with the last date in Corsica on 18th. June. I called Mick's cellphone, anticipating a conversation between Broad Chalke & San Francisco conversation, only to find him in on the Champs Elysee with Joe.

00.45 David has recently left after a good evening putting together 1973-4 Crimson live. I am now closing down to cover toasty toes with a welcome blanket. Actually, not so much a blanket: more an old curtain doing double-duty.