Robert Fripp called yesterday. We've been trying to connect personally, for a long time. And Time, although a man made invention is one of the earliest. And it's been, almost 30 years since my particular "Time" as a member of that exclusive society, King Crimson. Our particular band was the second true incarnation of Crimson as a live and recording band.

This CD was originally a live radio performance recorded at Summit Studios in Denver Colorado.

We open with Schizoid II: `The Dwelling' or as it’s more commonly known, Pictures of a City. The instrumental head swings. Is King Crimson supposed to swing? King Crimson is supposed to be able to do anything it damn well feels like! Boz’s vocal is good and strong. In the structured instrumental piece before the sax solo the counterpoint between the guitar and sax has an almost “trad jazz" concept to it. Mel's sax solo is very Coltraneish.

It's easy to see listening to this album that Mel was very influenced by John Coltrane. And in his solo there is quite an interesting conversation between Mel and myself. With the introduction of the guitar the piece gradually becomes freer and uncomfortable like the city is collapsing, and after the vocal everything comes to a screeching halt. Y10K?

Cadence and Cascade opens with a beautiful guitar intro from Fripp. This is where I think Boz’s vocal is forced. He's having a hard time “meaning it". He's since called it "fairy music" and it feels to me like his heart is not in this piece. When the drums kick in on the second verse the tune takes on a nice groove. I would like to have heard vocal harmonies on the bridge but this was 29 years ago and I'm producing? Sorry! The flute solo is pretty

as it should be. How can anyone condem this? 

Groon A Bebop melody. Head; 12 bars, 8 bar bridge, 6 bars. Mel opens the improvisation on a one chord funky backing. Listening to this maybe the difference in feels between the old Crimsom, our Crimson and the once and future Crimson lies with Mel's style of playing. His chops reek with jazz, whereas Ian McDonald's playing is more European Classical in it's content, and there were no more horns in Crimson after Mel. Fripp's guitar accompaniment has touches of a James Brown rhythm guitar until it starts to build in intensity and the whole thing becomes freer. Mel riffs on some old funk tune and the piece segues into Robert’s fuzz feedback solo. This has an Eastern flavor perhaps because of the modal use and the tone of the guitar. Into my drum solo. Love the sound of the toms, very Elvin Jones influenced. I wish I still had those hi-hats! Mel and the band come back

in. VERY COLTRANE! I think this piece should be titled; Groon; A Tribute To J.C. After Robert’s announcement, "On drums, Ladies and Gentlemen, Ian Wallace", he could have mixed in some loud taped applause! Ah well…….

21st. Century Schizoid Man. The bass sounds labored to me on the opening. It was much

improved on later versions. I think Boz was developing his bass chops and trying to get away from the original version, as were we all. We were trying to make these songs our own. Did Woody Herman's versions of Steely Dan songs sound better or worse than Steely Dan? Maybe they just sounded different. The middle unison 4/4 part is tight. Not as intense as the Earthbound take.

I suddenly realised..........there are no Mellotrons on this!

A Jam. I don't have a title for this on the copy I’m listening to. It's obvious that we were being influenced by being in the U.S. listening to all the funk coming at us from the radio at the time. Boz’s Leon Thomas impression. This is a one chord jam. Boring!

Bits of Symphony Sid and Flight of the Bumblebee from Robert. Me chatting to the audience. We all sound really happy!

The Sailor's Tale. Very Cool. Boz loses it a bit at the beginning, but this is our King Crimson.

We just can't stop! Another Coltrane influenced piece. Develops into a backwards-type A Love Supreme bass riff. Boz sings some lines. “The Creator has a master plan”. Is he making up the words or is it from somewhere else? I don’t remember. Although this is a one chord jam it’s much more intelligent than the previous jam, mainly due to the bass line and the dynamic changes. Robert plays a Larry Coryell type solo. Into Mel's flute solo with a developing Latin-type accompaniment. If I could've played a samba in those days I would've. Suddenly goes into a 6/8 blues. Robert goes into frantic sextuplets, and the

drums go into a double time 4/4 polyrhythm for a minute and then the whole thing peters out into an Denver-ese oxygen-deprived funk. Whose's that banging on the piano?

Later that day. Back to the top. An interesting riff. A really nice way to finish the album. Magic. The Creator has a Master Plan. We should have developed this and written something.

But that's where we fell.

Postscript

We were happy. Christmas was coming. We'd just completed our first American tour. It was the first time Boz, Mel and I had been to America, and a truly eye-opening experience it was. Robert after that tour, communicated to each of us that he wanted King Crimson to be a total 4 way split. He was that happy with the way things were going. In every way. Financially and more important, musically.

Towards the end of January 1972, ensconsed in our first rehearsal since the U.S. tour, we broke up. The democratic process broke down almost immediately. Mel had an idea for a tune that he put forward. Robert didn't like it and wanted us to work on a riff he had.

After a year of heady highs and foreboding lows, hard toil on the road surrounded by Robert’s heavy moods and silences culminating in the departure of Peter Sinfield and his desire to replace Boz on bass after he, and the rest of us, had worked so hard, I'd finally had enough. This was the straw that shattered the camel's hump into a myriad of pieces.

We were to do one more tour of the States, for contractual reasons. I think that on that tour, even though we'd officially broken up, the band continued to grow, although maybe not in the way Robert wanted. Let's face it, Sinfield had gone, we were soon to go, he was the only one left. Robert Fripp was King Crimson.

But I'll tell you what, for all of it's bright, brief existence, this was one hell of a band!

By the way, that riff that Robert brought to the last rehearsal? Larks' Tongues in Aspic.

I wonder how we would have played it.

Ian Wallace
January 16th. 2000

These sleevenotes were originally published in King Crimson Collectors’ Club CD#9 

The Fillmore East concerts in New York 1969 were an important landmark for King Crimson. The band had, in the space of only nine months, risen from obscurity to international recognition, and the American tour was a crucial part of this process.

Our managers, David Enthoven and John Gaydon had secured a contract with Atlantic Records, the support of the Premier Agency and the U.S. management of Dee Anthony, all of whom combined to promote the band at major venues across America.  We were suddenly on the same bill as many famous names, including The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Iron Butterfly, Jefferson Airplane, The Flock and The Band.

Although our music was very different from these bands, and indeed the rock music of the day, audiences welcomed us with astonishing enthusiasm, appreciation and some standing ovations, which we had not experienced in England.

Press reviews were generally good, and concert by concert the band steadily rose up the billing., and after seven weeks in the States, our first album In The Court Of The Crimson King was in the top ten album charts.

One of the best venues we played was the Fillmore East in New York, an old theatre/cinema which had been taken over (by Bill Graham) for promoting rock concerts. It was here that we had our first experience of playing to a New York City audience over two consecutive nights, alongside Joe Cocker, Fleetwood Mac and The Voices Of East Harlem.

I was amazed by The Voices Of East Harlem – maybe fifty or so young black people singing and dancing together with such exuberance – completely filling the stage with joy and colour – just brilliant.

I also remember going under the stage, and being amazed again at hearing a few minutes of our music being played back on what looked like an eight track machine – a rarity in those days – and I wondered when we would be able to hear the tapes in full.  However, to my knowledge, no multitrack tapes have ever been found, although they might still exist in someone’s archives in America. 

Fast forwarding to 1996. David Singleton at DGM asked if I had any tapes of the band which he could include on the planned Epitaph four C.D. boxed set of King Crimson live in 1969.

I searched through my archives and eventually found an old battered cassette containing our two nights performances at Fillmore East. David rushed up to Bath to collect the cassette, and said that no other copy had been found  by any members of the band, our associates or even bootleggers.  I was surprised that this insignificant looking cassette, that had been gathering dust for twenty six years, was the only copy in existence, and I cannot remember how it came into my possession.

David then sprinkled his magic audio dust on it and improved the sound quality for inclusion of the first night on the Epitaph boxed set released in 1997, when, quite by coincidence the band reunited in New York, again, for a press reception and C.D. signing to promote Epitaph.

Live at Fillmore East contains the main part of our set on both nights – November 21st and 22nd, and I’m intrigued as to why the music starts (on both nights) at roughly the same place during Ian’s flute solo on The Court Of The Crimson King.

If there is another cassette out there which contains the first part of our set, and maybe an encore, I’d really like to hear it, particularly for any wild and zany improvs.

Talking of which, I think it was at Fillmore East, during one of these improvs, that my turn came to carry out a drum solo. Robert gave me his usual enquiring glance of  - "are you going to do a drum solo tonight?".  Sometimes I nodded yes and sometimes shook a no – such was the nature of our spontaneity. If I said no, the improv would then take a different direction.

However on this night I nodded yes and proceeded with what I call an "alternative" drum solo, venturing into unknown territory not knowing what I would play or not play. Just trusting that something would happen, if I surrendered to becoming an instrument myself, through which ideas and feelings could be transmitted.

During the solo something did happen – I dropped a stick, but instead of surreptitiously picking up another stick (as drummers do) in order to cover up my mistake, I stopped playing, stood up and took a bow. This humorous spontaneity received more applause than the actual solo.

We all enjoyed taking risks during improvs much to the delight of audiences, who, like us, were on "the edge of their seats" wondering what would happen next.  In a later formation of the band, Jamie Muir further pursued this freedom from  rigidly rehearsed routines.

These Fillmore East performances, warts and all, I can only assume were recorded on a stereo cassette from the mixing desk. To me the ambient sound and passing close up verbals genuinely convey the atmosphere in the hall and the band’s raw energy. 

The two nights are enjoyably different, including the recovery from "dropped stitches". The band is in consistently good form, especially on A Man A City and Schizoid Man, which are taken at blistering speed, and in my opinion, the best way, because if the fast sections are too comfortable the half speed sections become relatively ponderous.

While my memory of 1969 is not crystal clear, I do remember rehearsing A Man A City in London prior to the American Tour, and I think that the Fillmore East may be the first time we played it at a major venue. Robert does mention in his announcement, that it was finished in a New York hotel room, although we may have introduced it to the set with unfinished words on our warm up gig in Vermont.

The nature of being a musician is that we can never experience ourselves while making the music, in the way an audience sees and hears us. We can only move towards audience experience by listening back to live recordings, and probably at best become semi-detached as a way of discovering what we’ve created.

So  I’m pleased to have found this Fillmore East tape, and hope that it is as valuable to the collector as it is to me.

©  Michael Giles  Bath, England, 2003

These sleevenotes were originally published in King Crimson Collectors’ Club CD#25.

Today at 18:00 GMT...

Tomorrow at 12:00 GMT...

As it is turning into Drummer Week here at DGM, beginning with Michael Giles’ birthday last Sunday, here is a fabulous multi-camera video from King Crimson’s longest serving drummer, Pat Mastelotto, playing EleKtriK from The Power To Believe album. Shot by Bill Munyon, it was created in 2020 during the Covid lockdown, and was originally made for the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. It is now available to watch on the King Crimson YouTube channel. 

There are no prizes for telling us how many drums Pat is using on this track.

Bill Bruford recently got in touch to ask if we could help him with one of his frequently asked questions: what kit did he use at the recording sessions for Red? He didn’t know, and nor did we. The best we could do was look at the concert photos from 1974 and surmise that he may have taken the same setup into the studio at Olympic in Barnes the week after the American tour. This had been the case at the beginning of the year at AIR studios (seen in the photo above) when King Crimson were recording tracks for Starless And Bible Black. When you have been in as many bands and made as many records as Bill has, it is okay to forget such mundane details, but for the rest of us who just have to know these things, the broken Zilco cymbal on One More Red Nightmare is well documented, but exactly how many toms are we hearing there? We have thrown this question over to our resident DGM drummer, Mr Stormy, who has made several of his Stormy Selections focusing on isolated rhythm parts. We expect to have an answer soon. 

But this got us wondering, just how many drummers have occupied the coveted drum seat in the mighty King Crimson over the years? Here is a brief rundown of what we found. This is not an attempt to rewrite the official records, so for our purposes, you don’t have to have been an official member, you don’t even have to call yourself a drummer, as long as you got to play the drums either on record or at a live concert by the band. Members of the road crew, we salute you, but giving it some snare at soundcheck doesn’t count. David Cross on drums? That one doesn’t count either. Having a bit of fun at a photoshoot isn’t going to land.

Michael Giles in Wessex Studios, 1969 (photo: Willie Christie).

Michael Giles

He set the template for Crimson drummers. Robert Fripp commented, “in 1969 Michael was arguably the most exciting and original drummer in rock, and in a world-class. I never knew him to play badly.”  Beginning his career during the 50s skiffle boom in England, using the stage name Cal Thorpe, he paid his dues on the local Bournemouth circuit with his brother Peter on bass, before touring more widely with Trendsetters Ltd, including a stint in Hamburg. There followed a move to London with Giles, Giles and Fripp, which led to the formation of King Crimson. Made the shock decision, along with Ian McDonald, to leave the band during the US tour. Returned to play on In The Wake of Poseidon before making an album with McDonald followed by sessions and solo work. As David Singleton quips to Michael in the King Crimson At 50 documentary, “it takes three drummers to replace you”, referring to the band about to take the stage at the 2019 Royal Albert Hall concert. Currently working on a series of archive releases spanning his career.

Drumkit: Ludwig, Yamaha

King Crimson play the Whisky-A-Go-Go in December 1969.

Greg Lake. 

It happened on the American tour in 1969, according to roadie Vick Vickers. At the Whisky-A-Go-Go in Los Angeles, where they were heckled by Eric Burdon on the opening night and received a mixed reaction from the press. “We shouldn’t really have been booked into the Whisky-A-Go-Go. They were expecting a soul band, not quite Crimo’s normal style!!  In fact, I don’t think anybody enjoyed it particularly. One night ended with Greg on drums, Ian Mac I think on guitar and Robert on keyboards and Mike in the audience shouting at the band.  I’m sure Robert will correct me if I’ve got the “new” lineup wrong.”  An example of how free-spirited this band was. They were headlining a 5-night run with one support act, which allowed them to stretch out during their improvisations, which Ian McDonald recalled on one of the nights descended into silence and stayed there, to the surprise of the audience, with each band member waiting for the other to break the silence. A recent film clip has emerged of a performance in London in the late summer of ’69 showing how animated they were on stage.  This was no band of statues, an impression that one might get from only seeing the few still photos that exist. (Honourable mention goes to Ian, who was a true multi-instrumentalist and had a Ludwig kit in the music room at his New York apartment, although there are no reports that he ever made it to the drum stool during any of the Crimson improvs).

Whatever Michael was using. 

Andy McCulloch in 1970.

Andy McCulloch

Born in Bournemouth, he had worked with Greg Lake in Shy Limbs in 1968, putting out a couple of unsuccessful singles on CBS. Moving to London, he rented a room from Keith Emerson and, with his referral, got the gig with King Crimson in 1970, replacing Michael Giles. Working alongside bassist Gordon Haskell, he had the difficult job of recording backing tracks for Lizard without having any sense of the overall arrangement of the pieces. Hopes were high for the band’s future, but the lineup fell apart without playing any live concerts. After Crimson, settled for a less stressful gig by joining Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come. He is best known for his work with Greenslade from 1972 to 1976. He retired from music to become a yachtsman.

Ludwig

Ian Wallace, 1971.

Ian Wallace

Played in 60s group The Warriors, which also included vocalist Jon Anderson, touring in his native Lancashire as well as Germany and cutting a couple of singles for Decca. He also found his way into King Crimson after lodging with Keith Emerson, who referred him to Fripp, hearing that the band was once again drummerless. “Crimson find drummer” read the Melody Maker headline on 19 December, 1970. It would be several more weeks before they found a bass player to complete the lineup of Robert, Mel, Boz and Ian, who toured in 1971-72 and made the album Islands. With band relations at an all time low at the end of the 1972 tour, he left along with Mel and Boz to play with Alexis Korner. He later worked with Steve Marriott, Alvin Lee, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan, appearing on the latter’s at Budokan and Street Legal records. Later, moving to Nashville to do session work, he renewed his friendship with Fripp and revisited his past work, forming the Crimson Jazz Trio, and in 2003, replacing Michael Giles in the 21st Century Schizoid Band.

Ludwig

Jamie Muir on stage with King Crimson in 1972.

Jamie Muir

The wild card who made Bill Bruford cry. Probably the only Crimson drummer who used tuned Domestos bottles as part of his percussion array. Robert Fripp described him as “far too intelligent and well-balanced a human being to stay with-the group for long” while noting that he took up 40-60% of group resources in space and time. Coming from a background in improvised music, he had worked with Derek Bailey and joined King Crimson after having an experimental jam session at Fripp’s flat. Played on the Beat Club TV show, a UK tour and recording sessions for Larks’ Tongues in Aspic. Left to become a Buddhist monk. Later took up painting. 

Premier

Bill Bruford at The Venue in London, 1981 (photo: Tony Levin).

Bill Bruford

For many, he was the drummer from their favourite lineup alongside Cross, Fripp and Wetton, but his own favourite configuration was the 80s Crimson. He left the hugely successful Yes to drum alongside Jamie Muir in the Larks’ Tongues in Aspic lineup. Plays on the seminal Red and Discipline albums. Introduced the African Slit drum and electronic percussion to the band’s sound. After Crimson worked with numerous other bands, including Gong, Genesis and UK, before running his own Bruford jazz/rock outfit and exploring modern jazz with two incarnations of Earthworks. Retired from drumming in 2009 and entered academia, gaining his doctorate from the University of Surrey in 2016. Now active again with the Pete Roth Trio.

Ludwig, Hayman, Tama, Simmons

Adrian Belew drums with King Crimson in Seattle, 1984 (photo: Michael Pausch).

Adrian Belew

If you attended shows in 1982, 84 or 95, you will have seen Adrian the drummer in action with King Crimson, either dueting with Bruford on rhythm pads at the front of the stage on show opener Waiting Man, or on a full kit in 84 on Indiscipline, or as part of a drum trio, with Bruford and Mastelotto, in 95 on Prism. This was no party piece for Adrian; he had credentials as a drummer going back to the beginning of his career in 1960s Kentucky when he occupied the drum seat with the Denems. He was also the drummer for Crimson spinoff group Projekct Two where he played an electronic kit on the studio album Space Groove followed by a 28-date tour, as well as ProjeKct Six, a duo with Robert Fripp.

Ludwig, Roland V-drums

Headline from Rolling Stone, April 1993.

Jerry Marotta 

King Crimson’s nearly man. The announcement was made in Rolling Stone in April 1993 (and it wasn’t on the 1st, I’ve checked), with David Fricke reporting:  “This time around Fripp has retained Belew and Tony Levin, who plays bass and Stick, from the last crew, adding drummer Jerry Marotta and Trey Gunn, an alumnus of Guitar Craft who also doubles on the Stick. An introductory EP will be cut in August with an album later this year and shows in ’94. But just based on the formative rehearsals with Marotta and Gunn, Fripp gleefully describes the new sound as “Crimson, harder and rockier than you’ve ever heard.” So there you have it. However when the 5-piece convened for rehearsals in Woodstock, NY, something didn’t work. Recordings of Jerry rehearsing with the band exist in the archive.

Yamaha.

Pat Mastelotto in Ferrara, Italy in 2003 (photo: Bill Munyon).

Pat Mastelotto

Growing up in Northern California, Pat had been working as a session drummer in LA when he joined Mr Mister as a founding member, having a hit album and two number-one singles before the band broke up in 1990. Before joining Crimson he had worked with David Sylvian and Robert Fripp. He was inspired to audition when he heard Michael Giles was going to be there, and despite the best efforts of Sylvian/Fripp’s manager Richard Chadwick to discourage him, Pat flew to the UK from California and landed the job, playing on The Road To Graceland tour in 1993. This was followed by an invitation to drum in King Crimson’s Double Trio alongside Bill Bruford.  Pat introduced electronica to King Crimson’s sound, using numerous beat boxes and samplers. Proof that Pat has staying power, he is the band’s longest-serving drummer, playing in all lineups from 1994 until 2021 as well as several Crimson-alumni-related side projects. 

Yamaha, DW

Danny Carey playing drums with King Crimson, Los Angeles, 2001 (photo: Bill Munyon).

Danny Carey

His selection as drummer for the 2024 Beat tour with Adrian Belew, Tony Levin and Steve Vai, was not without precedent. As the drummer for Tool since 1990, Danny Carey found his way onto the Crimson drumstool at a show that featured both bands in Los Angeles in 2001. Unknown to the frontline guitarists, the rhythm section had set up a musical joke whereby Danny would switch places with Pat Mastelotto midway through a performance of Red. As you can imagine, this did not go unnoticed. He  can also be heard playing on Adrian Belew’s solo albums Side One (2005) and Side Three (2006). Currently preparing for another tour with Beat in 2026.

Pat’s kit (but he uses Sonor)

Gavin Harrison at a rehearsal in 2016 (photo: Dean Stockings).

Gavin Harrison

A drummer’s drummer, he has written several instructional books. Turned professional aged 17. Joined Porcupine Tree in 2002. Got to know Robert Fripp when the soundscaping guitarist was support act on several of their tours. Introduced as King Crimson’s drummer in 2008 for an American tour, alongside Pat Mastelotto, and arranged the drum parts for the three drummer lineup 2014-2021. His previous work as a session player and side man saw him drumming with a diverse roster of artists, including The Nolans, Level 42, Claudio Baglione, Iggy Pop, Tom Robinson, Lisa Stansfield and many others. Currently a member of the Pineapple Thief. 

Sonor

Bill Rieflin rehearsing with King Crimson in 2014 (photo: Scarlet Page).

Bill Rieflin

Hailing from Seattle where he played drums with a number of industrial rock bands, most notably Ministry and its spin-off projects. A long-time friend and associate of Robert Fripp in Guitar Craft, they had collaborated on his debut solo album Birth of a Giant, and together with Trey Gunn on the album The Ramifications of Angelic Behaviour. He was further involved in projects with Fripp - Slow Music in 2005 and The Humans - before getting the call to join King Crimson in 2014 as one of the three drummers. He had previously worked as a touring drummer with REM. His other credits include Nine Inch Nails, Robyn Hitchcock, Swans and Taylor Swift. Bill also played keyboards, guitar and bass.

Gretsch, Tama

Jeremy Stacey with King Crimson in 2018 (photo: Claudia Hahn).

Jeremy Stacey

Another Bournemouth man. He grew up listening to jazz and learned piano from an early age, and also worked as a child actor while attending stage school in London, along with his twin brother Paul. They were in The Lemon Trees together in the 90s. Gavin put out the call to Jeremy to join the three drummer lineup in 2016 when Bill Rieflin took a leave of absence. He had previously been working with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, and his many session credits include Sheryl Crow, Tom Jones, Chris Squire, Robbie Williams, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Ryan Adams. Also a fine pianist whose improvisations each night were one of the highlights of the King Crimson 50th Anniversary Celebration tours.

Tama

If there is anyone we have left out, be sure to let us know on the guestbook. 

Billed as an informal concert by Robert Fripp, guitar and Keith Tippett, piano, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the late arrival of the Steinway had meant that the pianist’s contribution to the early show had been limited to some arpeggios played on an African finger piano, while Fripp provided tape loops and dialogue with the audience.

Thankfully, the piano had been delivered by the time of the 8pm performance from which this recording comes, and the concert includes solo piano, solo Frippertronics and a collaborative improvisation from the two players. 

As Sid Smith notes: “Happily, this audience recording hails from the evening, beginning with Tippett’s excoriating solo performance, which could be worth the price of admission alone. In comparison to the pianist’s freewheeling improvisation, the way in which Frippertronics is built up with a series of layers may seem rigid. Yet both Tippett’s solo piece and Fripp’s approach share repetition as a key element, albeit expressed in very different ways.”

Download here: Keith Tippett and Robert Fripp at the ICA, London. 

Robert Fripp described him as “outstanding” and “in 1969 arguably the most exciting and original drummer in rock”. Ian McDonald said his “witty and inventive drumming never failed to support and inspire me in my playing”.

Michael played on In The Court Of The Crimson King, In The Wake of Poseidon and the McDonald and Giles album, as well as session work and his own solo career.

Recently, he has been hard at work preparing CD releases from his archive of recordings, which include contributions from Ian McDonald and Jakko Jakszyk.

New 2CD release from Michael Giles.

Shadows / Solo, due for release on 3 April 2026, marks his first major solo album since Progress in 2001, something of a long-awaited return. The album brings together a substantial body of previously unheard recordings spanning several decades. As Michael reflects, the release feels less like looking back and more like completing a circle.

Shadows / Solo represents a deeply personal journey. Some of the recordings reach back many years, others are much more recent, yet all share a common thread. Rather than leaving them unfinished or unheard, Michael felt the time had come to gather them together.

The release also forms part of a broader archival series. This includes Giles & Pert and Giles & Muir, documenting collaborative studio sessions recorded at Michael’s studio in Dorset circa 1982, one with Morris Pert, the other with Jamie Muir. Later in the year, the project will be followed by a five-CD boxed set presenting Michael’s complete studio recordings.

Pre-order from Burning Shed:  Michael Giles - Shadows & Solo

In Michael's own words: “I hope that you enjoy the music as much as I did making it.”

Also recently released on DGM, you can listen to Michael's pre-Crimson work with remastered editions from Giles, Giles and Fripp.

The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp

The Brondesbury Tapes

Today at 18:00 GMT...

Tomorrow at 12:00 GMT...

We have four essential DGM Collectors’ Club releases in stock and shipping now, alongside Mr Stormy's seventh selection of previously unearthed treats from the DGM archives.

The Beat Club Bremen 1972 chronicles the first formal appearance of the astonishing Bruford/Cross/Fripp/Muir/Wetton line-up, Live At Fillmore East (November 21 & 22, 1969) captures the earliest incarnation of the band, Live At The Pier, New York (August 2, 1982) is a Beat-era treasure, Live In Chicago, IL (June 4, 1998) celebrates the exploratory improvs of ProjeKct Two. 

Mister Stormy's Monday Selection Vol.7 is a unique collection of King Crimson/ProjeKct musical magic covering the period from 1970 to 2014.

CLUB3 King Crimson The Beat Club, Bremen, 1972
CLUB25 King Crimson Live At Fillmore East, 1969
CLUB33 ProjeKct Two Live in Chicago, 1998 (2CD)
CLUB37 King Crimson Live at the Pier, New York, 1982
SMS007 Mister Stormy's Monday Selection, Volume 7 (2CD)

All five CDs are available separately and as a bundle for £30.

Look out for more reissues from the Club series in the coming months.

Thanks to Jade DelBen for sending us these photos of the complete collection.

A new one from the Exposure tapes. Recorded in early 1978 at the Hit Factory in New York. A monumental groove laid down by Tony Levin and Jerry Marotta over a Frippertronics loop, with some added lead guitar flown in by Mr Stormy from the 1981 Discipline sessions.

Sid Smith says: “The combined effect of this experiment in applied Frippertronics is utterly hypnotic and excitingly fresh.”

Download here: Mr Stormy's Monday Selection 74  - Spanish Landscape I

Or listen to a preview on the official YouTube channel.

photo of Robert by Chris Stein.

A small furore – perhaps just a little rainfall in a teacup – has apparently broken out online about the cover for the limited edition Penn State Record Store day vinyl release – a cover based on a drawing of Robert Fripp by my son Ben. The first part of that is easily resolved. There is absolutely nothing AI about that image. Ben is as obsessed with drawing as his father is with music. He has founded a very successful company, Bearhand Design Limited, and all of its artwork is hand-drawn. I have seen him sitting in front of his tablet until the early hours day after day constantly drawing. So, on his behalf, I find the accusation of “AI” somewhat hurtful, belittling long hours of skilled, loving work.

While not AI, his work is, however, “digital”, which may be part of the confusion. The first work that I persuaded him to do for me – the artwork for the Billy G graphic novel – was drawn “analogue” on paper, (and those original drawings are amongst my more treasured possessions). Those line drawings were then scanned into a computer in order to be coloured with added text. With the advent of computer tablets, he now draws straight into a computer, just as most musicians record digitally rather than analogue. But every stroke remains hand-drawn. He is a “digital artist”. But certainly not an AI drone.

A better conversation might be “Why this cover?” and “Why Ben?”. Ben’s involvement with King Crimson has largely been because his father has abused his parental rights and persuaded him on more than one occasion to break away from his far more lucrative clients and help out in a crisis. The first came in 2014, a time when I had little involvement with the prospective new King Crimson. I was contacted by the then-manager Andy Leff who said that they were announcing a tour, and that the promoters needed artwork. That very evening, as I recall it. And there was nothing. No artwork, not even any photographs of a band that had barely begun rehearsals. So I grabbed my son, the one person who would find it hard to refuse such a plea, and said – “we need an artwork concept, right now!” And that same day, he handed me the “Elements of King Crimson” with a chemical symbol for each band member - a much-admired concept that endured throughout the life of that band. I know many fans created their own symbols. Later that year, I attended the King Crimson concert in Seattle, sitting beside a senior management figure from Starbucks, who seeing the symbols said “That is some of the best branding I have seen by any major rock band”.  So kudos, Ben.

Over the years, when similar shit has hit the fan, I have called in similar favours, and he has always responded. Rather than being the case of a father helping his son, this has much more been the case of a very busy son digging his father out of a hole.

And so to the latest release. We had accepted the idea of a series of Record Store Day vinyl releases, and also the idea that these should have their own aesthetic. I met with Robert in early January and we discussed the options.  The likely route would have been to choose a new painter from Robert’s wonderful artwork collection, as PJ Crook was used for many years, and Francesca Sundsten was used for the most recent line-up, beginning with the Cyclops. And Hugh O’Donnell is expert at using such imagery once we have it. Unfortunately, Robert’s cupboard was finally bare, and we would not have had time to source and license in from elsewhere.

On the office wall, I have a drawing of Jimi Hendrix that Ben did for a skateboard company – and, lacking other immediate routes, I suggested to Robert that, if a different aesthetic was needed, we could perhaps ask Ben if he would do a series of drawings of the band members, based on period-correct photographs which we could send him. The second stage of that plan involved me once again prevailing upon my son to temporarily set aside his other work to draw a picture that could become part of an ongoing series.  There is an old adage that “if you want something done, find a very busy person”, and it certainly seems true in his case. I am happy to pin my colours to the mast and predict it will make a wonderful series.  But, as ever, the market will decide. I assume the inaccurate accusation that the cover seems “AI” is another way of some saying that they don’t like it. Which is, of course, everyone’s prerogative. Personally, I look forward to the moment when I can make a poster of each of the drawings themselves, without the text that is added for the vinyl, to add to the walls of our office. With everlasting thanks to my very talented son, for being willing to heed my call.

On Saturday, I went to see Bruce Springsteen in Manchester: the concerts that have been making the news due to his polemic against the current state of America, and Trump’s ‘dried out prune’ response.  Jon, who accompanied me, has seen Springsteen about thirty times. It was my first. Unlike my trip to see McCartney a short while ago, where I knew intimately every note he would play, I know very little of Springsteen’s music. Probably about five hits. And while I love “Because the Night” and “Born To Run”, “Born in The USA” leaves me largely cold, as did much of his recorded catalogue the few times I have tried. Jon – reasonably mega fan – joked that it would not be too cruel to describe them as the best bar band in the world. And to this lover of the perfectly crafted song, melody and particularly harmony, (Rodgers and Hammerstein, The Beatles, Paul Simon, The Beach Boys), much of Springsteen’s music has never spoken to me. In the same way that when the modern church replaces a wonderful hymn like “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind” with someone strumming on an E major chord, although I am sure the music is just as spiritual, it leaves me cold.

I have chosen that comparison for a reason. Because Springsteen live is simply awesome. One of the best shows I have ever attended. And it was like an evangelical event. In fact, the closest analogy I can give is to listening to Billy Graham preach. It touches the parts that other beers cannot reach. A roughly three-hour concert, eighteen people on stage. Each song often following a similar pattern. A verse, a chorus, and then bang everyone kicks in. A saxophone solo. Sometimes you think it’s the end, but no, on it goes again. And as the final chord is played, there is a shout of “one, two, three, four” – often in exactly the same tempo – and another song begins without a moment’s pause. On and on and on. A rising fervour that is rarely allowed to dissipate, conducted by a supreme master performer. Where someone of 75 finds the energy, I have no idea.  A modern-day troubadour describing the America that he knows and loves –“land of hopes and dreams”. And, along with his hope, retaining a youthful anger. “My City of Ruins” sings on in my head.

Quite a night. Jon is returning tomorrow to do it all again.

We touched on this on the “Cruise to the Edge”, in discussing the notion that "Music plays the musician" – the music has a force of its own, and the musician is a vehicle for its expression rather than the other way round. And I tried, and failed I think, to express what I have written above. It may be no clearer this time.

As mentioned in the previous posts, I have recorded a very quick, somewhat embarrassing, demo of a song “Life’s a Boat”, and am seeking mass participation in the recording process. Here is the video. The sales pitch goes as follows:

Life’s a Boat. And we are all in the same boat together. So, in a world that seems determined to build walls, what better than a song where we all come together to contribute whatever we can. Robert Fripp described THRAK as the sound of 117 guitars almost hitting the same chord simultaneously. So how about 117 guitars playing the simple backing chords. Or maybe 1,117 guitars. Or 117 people, from 117 different countries or states. Some of the parts are so simple that a one note/one finger performance is all that is needed. Others are more complex. And there is always adding your voice to the chorus.

Anyone interested should please contact lifesaboat@thevicar.com. Let’s see if we can “get the thing to float”

I am sure that virtually everyone following online must be a musician of some kind, so please get in touch. And maybe, like an old-fashioned chain letter, if you are interested you can share it with some else who might also contribute. Whether the boat floats or sinks is now in your hands.

The third part of the cruise experience is the holiday. It’s a huge privilege to be paid to go on a cruise, with completely free days on the two days when the ship docks to let you ashore.

The first stop was at the Dominican Republic. When we arrived, another Norwegian Cruise liner was already there, somewhat unfortunately as the small island therefore suffered a veritable deluge of cruisers.

As you first make your way ashore, they have built their own small resort, complete with shops, a “beach” and a “lazy river”. When we first walked through, I couldn’t escape fast enough (but watch this space!). We went in search of the historic castle which Indeg had noted online (without the help of the numerous locals offering to guide us). And from there to the centre of town, to hopefully be followed by a real beach for a swim.

The first two went very well. And we did find a beach, but we could see a man standing less than knee deep a long way out, so not a place for swimming.

So after a pleasant walk, we made our way back, and enjoyed several hours sunbathing and floating round…the afore-mentioned lazy river.

The second stop was Great Stirrup Cay, a very small island owned by the cruise liner. This stop had the added excitement that it was accessed by launches from the side of the ship.

Again, it was perhaps not a resort that we would have chosen – but here I was, with my lovely wife swimming together in the Caribbean, and being paid for the privilege. One of those moments when you just have to say “thank you”.

Following the day at Great Stirrup Cay, the ship made its way back to Miami overnight, and began disembarking at the slightly ungodly hour of 7 o’clock in the morning. All cabins to be vacated by 8am and by 9 o’clock, they are keen that everyone has disembarked, so that they can prepare for the next departure. 

There was an impressive gathering of taxis lined up ashore, waiting to carry the crowds, several thousand large, away.

Tony Levin had mentioned that disembarking, caught in endless queues might be particularly tiresome, and an unfortunate end to a good trip. Fortunately, Robert’s cabin came with priority disembarkation and we were personally escorted from the ship. So spoilt to the end.

On the flight home, returning to reality and a political climate which seems to be determined to fragment and divide us, I compared this with the camaraderie on board. In life, we are all in the same boat together. And in the case of the cruise, it was a real boat with people from many different countries and different walks of life working together. So what better than a song called “Life’s a Boat” with mass participation and co-operation from as many people from as many countries as possible. I have considered this before, but a real ship, with such a varied range of artists, “sealed the deal”. I would be running scared if I did not commit to it. And I should be scared because the first necessary and inevitable stage will be exposure to public ridicule by making a quick demo of the track available. And the guide vocal goes an octave beyond my natural range (and it’s not too good even while I am within my range).

So part four, the legacy of the cruise, will be EXPOSURE TO PUBLIC RIDICULE.

Robert and I were contracted to do two shows on the cruise, on days two and four. The promoters also asked to show the King Crimson movie on the cruise- which seemed an excellent idea, with a perfect audience. For some reason, however, it was never scheduled - although Shawn of the Dead, good movie though it is, did get a showing. Go figure.  

More pertinently, and worryingly, a few days before departure, I received an email about an additional obligation: the hour-long fan “photo experience” – something we knew nothing about, and which, as one might imagine, set numerous alarm bells ringing.  I queried the email and was assured that such a photo experience was demanded “in all of the contracts”. Not in ours, it wasn’t. Nor indeed had our agent heard any prior mention. And a good thing too, because had it been in the contract, I might well have encouraged Robert in his likely desire to avoid it. When you are locked into something you dislike, you instinctively look for a way out. Once we had established that there was, in fact, no contractual requirement, the question was then a different one - whether in a spirt of goodwill and involvement, we should embrace the fan photo experience. Which we did – taking the advice of the organizers who recommended sunglasses, as there would be an hour of constant camera flashes. Sadly, even with sunglasses, I think I would make a very poor stand-in for the Blues Brothers.

For the shows themselves, my main concern once on board was to ascertain that the technical crew could definitely show the various clips stored on my computer on a large screen behind us. In the numerous technical emails before our arrival, I had been assured that this would “probably be alright”. Not quite the reassurance you need when it is a major part of what we do.

That hurdle safely negotiated, bar stools, although somewhat taller than our norm, were acquired, leaving just the shows themselves. These had a strange seating arrangement, where everyone with an orange or a green badge had a pre-arranged seat. One for our “orange show”, the other for our “green show”. The rules stipulated that even if there were unused seats (because someone didn’t fancy meeting “that awful man and his manager”,) the seats had to remain empty for the entire show. You thus perform to a hall with some empty seats, while I would regularly meet other cruise-goers saying that they would love to have seen us if they could. And some of the filled seats were inevitably up the gods, where geographically it was difficult for them to ask a question. I had already noticed on the Cruise to the Edge website that some of the less expensive internal cabins (no seaview) also came with restricted viewing at shows (can’t see the artists either).

The other ramification of the seating plan was that fans, knowing they had a pre-arranged seat, tended to turn up absolutely on time or indeed slightly late for shows. In the ten minutes before the show starts, we play outtakes from the Crimson movie (including one gem where Bill Rieflin compares his role in King Crimson to the unliked, unwanted, but nevertheless necessary kidney bean in the three bean salad). And both times, that movie played to an essentially empty hall with most people only catching the last few minutes,as they came in almost as we walked on stage.

I will leave comments on the shows themselves to those who attended. From my perspective from the stage, I enjoyed both, even though on the second show Robert was feeling increasingly unwell. A very good venue for what we do.

Which just leaves PART THREE leading to PART FOUR : EXPOSURE TO PUBLIC RIDICULE.

I finally have a moment to report about The Cruise to The Edge from the beginning of the month. A very good experience – probably easiest covered in three bits – which means that I can leave the terrifying consequences to the third part.

PART ONE : Going on a Cruise.

What’s not to like? I spent two pleasant days with my wife, Indeg, and Robert at the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami, right on the seafront, so that my morning jog took me round the bay (complete with stranded boat)...

...followed by a much less energetic meander up and down the swimming pool.

On the Thursday morning, we were collected and driven a couple of miles to the ship. They had an excellently arranged quick boarding priority for artists - except - crucial mistake - that they dropped us at the completely crowded Atrium, thronging with what seemed to be the majority of the two thousand music fans on board, while we needed to be one door further long at the lifts, which would then whisk Robert away to the sanity of his suite on the fourteenth floor. The room for my wife and I, on the eleventh floor, was somewhat less palatial, but nevertheless a good home-from-home...

...complete with a balcony from which we could see Miami gently disappear and the ocean come into view. The sounds and view of the sea remain as beguiling as ever.

The ship began by very slowly working its way past the houses and squillion dollar yachts on the waterway. In a world with an ever-larger wealth divide, here it was writ large -watching those multi-million dollar homes float past from the balcony of a luxury cruise liner.

We left port at about 5pm, and I think the opening act, Rick Wakeman, took the stage at 6pm. These cruises are conceived such that the performances occur in international waters (meaning that performance visas and taxes are not needed), but I suspect that he must have been close to being firmly within US waters. Indeg and I had dinner with Robert in the “artists’ dining room” on the 6th floor, taking advantage of the lull while Rick was in stage. We then made the rookie mistake of leaving the dining room at about 7.30, just as Rick's concert ended, with the entire audience of a thousand people heading to the same small five lifts that we needed to take us up eight floors. If Robert was going to be eaten alive by all the fans on the ship, this was the moment. Happy to report that he survived, outwardly unscathed.

Fellow cruise passengers do feel that they have the right to your attention and a shared intimacy that they wouldn’t under other circumstances. Part of the appeal, I am sure. And under circumstances, Robert and I wouldn’t have stood for an hour’s photo-session, being photographed by a seemingly endless stream of people, all of whom began by saying “I’m sorry” as they walked towards us for their photo-opp.

The Cruise can best be described as a water-based music festival – with performances happening continuously on about five different stages., including the outside "pool stage".

We had two performances scheduled, one in the afternoon of the 5th April our first full day at sea, and one in the evening of the 7th – in PART TWO.

I

Q: What is a question?
RF: An answer seeking to be known. More accurately, the answer seeks to be known by, to and within itself, by presenting itself as a question.

From one point of view, question and answer are inseparable.
Essentially, the question is its answer.

From another point of view, the answer is in the future, reaching back and pulling the question towards it.
The answer already is, and becomes a question so we may ask it.
We are invited to engage the question, and participate in its process of becoming.

The question seeks an orientation, a direction, and a movement towards the answer. Simultaneously, the answer sets the trajectory of the question.

For question and answer to be brought together, there is a creative element.
As with any creative action, the action is outside time while unfolding within the time stream.

II
The questions we ask direct the course of our lives.

A question expresses a search; more accurately, a searching.

A question is singular. It cannot take the form of either / or.

The right question attracts the right answer, accepting that the right answer is leaning back and guiding the right question towards it.

There are different qualities of question.
The quality of the question determines the quality of the answer.
Necessary questions have heat: they may even be on fire - these are burning questions.
Necessary questions are practical.

There are also different kinds of question.

So, what is the question?

III
To ask a question sets a process in motion.

As with any process, there are three main stages: the beginning, the middle and the end.

The first main stage:  Determining the question.
The second main stage: Holding the question.
The third main stage: Asking the question.

Each of these stages also have three stages: the beginning of the beginning, the middle of the beginning, the end of the beginning, and so on.

The beginning of the beginning, is the question.

Determining the question:

What is my question? I articulate the question.

Why is this my question? I weigh the necessity of the question: is it real, useful, necessary? What is my aim in asking this question? What purpose does an answer serve?

Holding the question:

How may I address this question? I engage, enter into, and examine the question. What is involved? Do I wish to have an answer? 

To whom may I address this question? I seek a higher authority than my own, either within or without.

Asking the question: I ask the question.

I surrender to the question.
I surrender to the answer.

The question is answered:

I honour the answer – I act on it.
This action may be internal, external, more likely both.

Always, we act on the answer. Without this, the question withers.
If we are not prepared to act on the answer, better not to ask the question.

III

The right answer changes something on the inside.
Change on the inside makes possible a change on the outside.
Change on the outside is not inevitable.
A change has taken place in potential, while not yet expressed in form and time.
So, something has become possible, and may become actual.

IV
The question holds the answer.

Sometimes, as a gift, we are given an answer to the question we should have asked, not the question that we did ask.
Injunction: Clarify.
Sometimes, we are given the gift of no answer at all.
Injunction: Persist.
Sometimes, we get silly answers.
Injunction: Discriminate.

If we have been present within an action, it is within our experience.
If we are present within our experience, our experience is present within us.
If this is so, we may re-enter and interrogate our experience.

The answer holds the question.

Bredonborough, Middle England;
Sunday 23^rd. March, 2025.

Fans
A series of Questions for Robert from a Pesty Questionier VII

PQ: You’ve made lots of comments, for decades, about fan relationships. Why?
R: The main aim is to understand my life as a working player.

PQ: How does that relate to fans?

R: To understand any situation, activity, or undertaking, you have to see the whole picture of the operation. For the working player, the four primary areas to investigate are music, musicians, audiences and the industry. Then, look at the mechanics of how they relate to each other, how they work together, and how they work individually within their own limited spheres of interest.

For example, you have the relationship – music, musicians, audience. What happens when that relationship is mediated by commerce? Does money changing hands alter how musicians and audients engage with each other? Does the relationship between musicians alter when money is involved? And, does the music change when money becomes part of playing music?

If we’re looking at the tetrad of the Music System, we get the dyads…

Music – Musician
Music – Audient
Music – Industry
Musician - Audient
Audient – Industry
Industry - Musician

The triads…

Music – Musician - Audient
Music – Musician – Industry
Music – Audient - Industry
Musician – Audient – Industry

If we apply triadic analysis, each of the four triads have six ways of relating to each other. That is, six kinds of relationship within each triad.

PQ: That’s a bit intellectual.
R: Kinda. Each of the triads have a kind of feel, a kind of flavour. This comes from experience. It’s impossible to get a handle on them unless we move out of the head, get our hands dirty in the “real” world. When we are in “real” world situations, the confusion in situations become clearer, we get a better sense of the mechanics when things bang together.

The relationships get more sophisticated when we look at the different qualities of each of the terms. For example, with a musician…

Genius

Professional                      Master Musician

Happy Gigster

The same with qualities and degrees of audients, music, and business persons. Such as managers. The history of some groups and artists are inexplicable unless you know the management and business history.

When we take all these factors into account, and there is no final answer to any of it IMO, the mechanics of our subject of interest become clearer.

PQ: Alright. Back to fans. Surely fans have the right to be recognised and acknowledged?

R: Complex question. In their role as audients, honourably addressing the responsibilities and obligations that go with being Mother to the Music, the performer honours the role of audient, respecting the person accepting and discharging that role, knowing and embracing the impersonal yet intimate nature of coming-together within the performance as an act of music, or act of musicking acknowledging Christopher Small’s use of the verb.

The Act of Music is the Music.

PQ: That is a bit complex.
R: The difficulties begin when the roles, filled by performer and audient, move outside the defined performance space. Then the roles move from the impersonal to the individual and become personal.

PQ: What’s wrong with that?
R: If that’s your question, you might equally ask - what’s right with that? The form of your question makes it difficult for me to answer the question within your question, which you didn’t ask.

PQ: OK. So what do you think my “inner question” is?
R: “Surely the common humanity between fans and the subject of their interest is worthy of being recognised and acknowledged?”.

PQ: If I did ask that question, how would you answer?
R: Yes.

PQ:That’s straightforward.
R: When the question is straightforward, a little space opens between the question and its answer, so less barrier to an answer being given.

PQ: Well, running with this. You have a terrible reputation for how you deal with fans. Have you ever put yourself out to meet the fans? To “recognise and acknowledge their common humanity with you?”.
R: Quick answer, yes.  This was a personal aim for the Frippertronics touring, in Europe and North America, of 1979. A very demanding four months, and commensurately rewarding. A little historical background…

In 1969 I felt that audients and players, punters and performers, we were all on the same side. This was the last gasp of the counter culture, of 1960s idealism, which didn’t quite make it into 1970. We were all there to support Music, knowing that “Music can change the world”. What surprised me then, with King Crimson’s sudden success, was the degree of hostility that KC seemed to trigger. Today, I take it as a commonplace that any positive generates a negative reaction of equal force. The practical concern then moves to: how do we bring the two opposing forces together? Perhaps for another day.

The huge money-flow success of the record and music industry between 1968-78 attracted the attention of ambitious business persons. In the 1980s ambitious business persons went into property. (As an aside: Mr. SG Alder used the EG Music Group’s success 1969-76 to move into property 1977-78, until the collapse of the property market in the Autumn of 1988 compounded his disastrous problems as a Lloyd’s Name).

In the 1970s, records and stadium rock were growth areas. Performances moved out of clubs, into theatres, into stadia. The physical distancing of punters and performers went with that. Physical distancing, physical barriers, security staff to “protect” the performers - I didn’t feel the “we’re on the same side” vibe anymore.

And good to bear in mind that not every performer was looking to explore the “common humanity” between audients and performers. Some just wanted to be stars. In which case, the distance in attitude widened beyond the purely physical. “Common” humanity became a little more uncommon. Well, that’s my experience on the ground.

The 1979 Frippertronics tour was set up to down barriers between audients and, in this case, Fripp as performer. Record stores, small performance places, and some offices in record companies. The assumption within this: we do have a common humanity to be mutually recognised, accepted and trusted. Trusted, for example, in terms of personal interactions, where politeness is a given. EG Management didn’t like this approach. Mark Fenwick managed ELP within the EG Office, then Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry, and Mr. Fenwick’s response to the proposed small, mobile and (aspiring to) intelligent unit touring, was negative.

Mark Fenwick: They’ll see the emperor has no clothes!

RF: The emperor has no clothes.

Mr. Fenwick’s approach to management distanced performer from audient, to maintain / develop the mystique of the artist / star. My intention was otherwise.

PQ: How did that work for you?
R: Quick answer:  very well, particularly in the US and Canada.

PQ: Why North America?
R: Firstly, language. Secondly, a more unified culture/s and national border/s. Europe has a lot of borders, many cultures. Thirdly, the US had more public spaces, such as record stores and clubs. Europe had more industry spaces, less public spaces, available to me.

And it helped that performances were mostly free. In record stores it was - come along, see a free presentation, music and Q&A, buy an Exposure album. Or not.

PQ: When punters buy tickets, the atmosphere changes?
R: Yes. My experience of engaging personally with audients changed in 1980.

PQ: Why?
R: How and why did the world change? Lotsa answers to that one. Politically, Reagan became the US president and Margaret Thatcher was the British prime minister. I am not commenting on their broader policies including the economic, other than to say something like: there was a shift in the wider cultural imperative.

Immediately, my experience face-to-face, was that members of the public made demands on me. Regardless of whatever I felt, fan rights were more important, more deserving, had greater weight than me if I declined to engage. With autography, photography, singing things, being allowed to sit in an auditorium and watch / listen to other bands on the bill with interruption. Increasingly the justification used – we give you money! I quote an actual situation in the Rockefeller Center, NYC, shouted down and along the ground floor corridor, January 1982.

PQ: What changed?
R: This was a process underway, where a market economy became a market society.

It is an illegitimate construal that buying a ticket confers rights, even rights over the person of the performer, outside the performance and performance space. Essentially, it is defining “our common humanity” in material terms.

Where there is mutual agreement, fine. Like the development of VIP eventing. This is now a key part of any touring group’s financial planning. Streaming has siphoned off what would once have been a royalty stream, so live work is now the primary income stream for most working players.

At King Crimson shows, David Singleton created the Royal Package. David and a member of the band would speak to the VIP Eventers and answer questions. Usually I’d welcome the RP participants, which I enjoyed a lot. VIP events are a defined and consensual professional undertaking that extends beyond the defined audient / performer roles. Not quite impersonal, not quite personal. A liminal zone.

PQ: Why “illegitimate construal”? Fans have bought your stuff, gone to shows.
R: I give my dentist money. He doesn’t expect me to hang with him, he doesn’t expect to hang with me, just because we’re up to speed on my dental hygiene. Although if I asked politely, he’d probably autograph my false tooth. But, since he didn’t actually make it, maybe not.

PQ: But fans are people. Don’t they have the right to be recognised and acknowledged?
R: Along the lines of, acknowledging our common humanity?

PQ: Yes.
R: Alright. At certain point, where we are present to ourself we become present to another. In the conventional formula: I am Thee and Thee is me. There is mutual recognition. And may we note: when we are present to ourselves there is no demand for recognition / acknowledgement by another. It is sufficient to be present. Firstly, to myself. Secondly, to be present to another. Thirdly, to recognise ourselves within each other. I see you. You see me. We are One. All is good.

PQ: You’re on a roll. So where does fan demand for recognition come from?
R: It’s their dragon that wants to be tickled.

https://www.dgmlive.com/diaries/Robert%20Fripp/2025-02-26-rf-diary

PQ: Back to St. George’s pet.
R: I doubt that our pal George would look on his dragon as a pet, more a continual reminder that if he fell asleep on his horse, Georgie’s backside would get well-toasted with fiery breath.

PQ: You see fans as dragons?
R: No. But when I get pitched – you’re a creepy and failed person because you won’t sign my stuff when I gave you my hard-earned pay and I only wanted to say hello and while I’m only saying hello put my arm around you for a selfie and a squeeze, there’s nothing wrong with that anyway, it’s only a small thing it’s not like I’m doing anything wrong, in any case I have the right to be recognised and acknowledged by you so why are you walking backwards and away from me, I feed you and pay your household bills  – the part of that good person demanding my limited attention is their dragon. In a word, their egotism.

In Sufi practice, acknowledging a person’s dragon would be considered unethical.

PQ: How so?
R: Western ethics differentiates between right and wrong. Sufi ethical practice differentiates between the real and the imaginary / illusory, the “higher” and “lower” parts of our common humanity.

Attention is a power. When I give my attention to a person, it strengthens that person. More accurately, it strengthens that part of the person which receives my attention. Fan demand for recognition doesn’t allow for me to choose, to give attention or not. So for me to give their dragon attention, is to strengthen their egotism. In any practice, this is the inverse of the aim: to free ourselves to serve what is highest in us. As is said - what is highest in us, is not far from what is highest in us all. And what is highest in us all, is not far from what is Highest.

PQ: That’s a bit cosmic.
R: Alright. A practical example from the life of a working player. The musician serves the Music. Would you agree?

PQ: Yeah. That sounds right.
R: Where the musician uses music to attract attention to themself, things begin to get out of tune, out of time. If that musician becomes popular, with simpering adulants and accompanying fame, if the musician allows themselves to believe the crap, the channel for Music to work through them gets blocked. If the musician is full of themselves, there’s little room for Music. Music has to work way harder to get into our world.

Conventionally expressed, we have to get out of the way. Even, to get out of our own way.

PQ: How do you deal with success?
R: There’s nothing like humiliation to galvanise the attention.

Music from the 1979 Frippertronics touring...

Gordon Mowlam: What a total bore..get back on the road Bob with KC. You are not too old!
Tony Geballe: a superfluous warning: if you take rf’s question seriously, and follow it back and towards its destination, your life may entirely change.

RF: What is missing in Mr. Mowlam's life that he needs KC to provide?

Mr. Mowlam has not, I believe, responded to this question. If Mr. Mowlam senses a lack in his life, reasonably, it is his responsibility to address it. It is illegitimate, even improper, to impose a personal responsibility on another. In this case, RF and KC.

So, what is the particular something-or-other that Mr. Mowlam finds he is lacking, please? Once identified and named, this then becomes a practical matter, to which Mr. Mowlam may then turn his attention. At that point, a conversation becomes possible.

Until that point, what seems most likely is for Mr. Mowlam to continue complaining that the world does not give him what he wants.

Billy J. Mabry Jr.: I agree with Mr. Mowlam. What you are able to provide to the music world is much more important than your happiness .

RF: Thank you to Mr. Mabry for his good-humoured post. I think it likely he is aware that the drives and motivations, in the choices and decisions I take regarding my work for now over a period of 68 years, are governed solely by the notion of partying, hanging out, and enjoying the simple pleasures of life. Such as standing on the corner, hands extended, in the expectation that life will provide me with cheesecake.

David Skinner: Question: if it were to whisper in one's ear again, could there still be a music powerful enough to motivate KC's return? (Or might it motivate a new project, best suited to the music's realization?)

RF: Were that to be so, the practicalities would be governed by time, place, person and circumstance. Meanwhile, I follow the trajectory of my life in the direction it is presently leading. Behind Music is Silence. Silence may also whisper in our ear, and its imperative carries a greater necessity.

Alessandro Farinella: I thought I was a serious man. The more you publish things like this, the more I have to believe myself. But what are you doing? Are you brainwashed?

RF: Sr. Farinella has my support in believing himself, and in being serious. Me, I am governed by frivolity, the fripperies of living as it were. What am I doing? Being frivolous. Am I brainwashed? Without a doubt.

Now, moving to my early acquaintance with Mr. Mowlam at Bournemouth College 1965-66  https://fripp.com/great-advice-from-the-rabbi-that-robert-fripp-never-forgot/. An important new publication in economic history was Deane & Cole’s British Economic Growth 1688-1959. This textbook is still with me, on shelves I pass several times a day. A pic of which to celebrate our friendship of that time.

RF: Mr. Mowlam is a pal of mine from Bournemouth College, when I was studying Economics, Economic & Political History at A level, to qualify me for a university degree in Estate Management (1965-66). For which I was accepted, but became a professional player on May 16th. 1967, redirecting my trajectory in life. Such is the power of music when it reaches over and whispers in our ear.
Gratitude to Mr. Mowlam for his support of KC over the years. I recall passing him in a queue for a KC performance, some five decades ago.

Mr. Mowlam's occasional posts on this page all bear the same complaint and the same injunction. However, Mr. Mowlam does not engage either possible apophatic nor cataphatic motivation for my returning to KC touring life. Which would be an interesting challenge for him, were he to take this on.

In response to Mr. Mowlam's previous post, much the same as this, I asked "What is missing in Mr. Mowlam's life that he needs KC to provide?" (close paraphrase). I did not see a reply to this question.

Presumably live KC represents a value / ideal / quality which he holds dear, and seems to hold a necessity for Mr. Mowlam.

What does Mr. Mowlam feel he needs from live KC that he cannot get elsewhere, please?