Robert Fripp's Diary

DGM HQ A grey day

DGM HQ.

A grey day in the Chalke valley.

Morning reading: Anthony Blake’s (unpublished) Ways Of Higher Intelligence… yow! There are formulations here that take my breath away.

Underway: St. Louis Soundscapes.

12.15 Kitchen meeting of the morning: David & Robert reading a record (licensing) contract. My criterion for contracts: if I am unable to read a contract, written in English, in 15 minutes & understand at least 95% of it, this is a contract to avoid. That is, whoever sent it is not a person with whom we should be doing business.

Today’s contract was straightforward: with the intention of making the terms clear & available to understaning. In other words, nothing like any record contract which any major company has ever sent me; and one of which I tore up, placing the pieces on the desk of the Main Man, in front of him, with the words: "please accept this as my formal response to your proposal".

12.49 Morning listening: Elvis Castro & The Kelonias’ Viaje Sentimental. Most enjoyable & an impressive natural musicality.

16.44 DGM SoundWorld II.

Yes! it’s the Afternoon Shift. David & Robert are beginning work on the new 2-CD Concise KC compilation for release at the end of this year. We are editing 90 minutes, currently assembled, to 80 minutes, with the aim of presenting a selection representative of the 1969-74 period.

17.31 Arising e-correspondence with Italy regarding photography at the upcoming Soundscapes + LCG performances: no photography! seems to be an ambiguous concept, the implications of which are difficult to grasp. Forms of compromise have been offered – 3 minutes of photography at the beginning? 3 minutes at the end? well, if there’s no photographers, how about 3 minutes of filming for television? From my (hopefully increasingly unambiguous) responses…

if there are any photographers at these performances, this will be my farewell tour of italy…

this is a large reason why king crimson is very unlikely to return to europe. the performance of music is not a circus, neither is it a promotional exercise. i understand the business, and its requirements. but this is no longer part of my future. and if it is presented as being so, then my attention as a player turns elsewhere, and away from the public gaze.

18.08 Off to Bredonborough.

21.34 The A303 heading West was blocked & unmoving past Stonehenge as I, returning home from DGM HQ, headed in the other direction. Roads to the West Country have blocked at holiday weekends for as long as I remember traffic flows to the West, and that’s over 50 years. Whether it’s the A30 coastal road, or the A303 inland, the result is very much the same: frustration.