Posted by Sid Smith on Feb 23, 2014 - This post is archived and may no longer be relevant

The official gigography has King Crimson making their formal live debut on April 9th in London's Speakeasy club.

In fact the band had played a residency  of concerts in Newcastle on Tyne from February 23rd - March 1st. The club where Crimso played was owned by UK comedian Bob Monkhouse. Here's an advert from the local newspaper the following week boasting about all the acts that had been on since it's grand opening ...


They'd been initially booked by the club as Giles, Giles And Fripp but as Change Is MC and stage hypnotist Romark famously announced "Ladies and gentlemen, Giles, Giles and Fripp, who for reasons best known to themselves have changed their name to King Crimson, will have a freak-out without the aid of pot, LSD or any other drugs."



Change Is was a three-storey fun palace and Newcastle's trendiest night spot. Each week the theme of venue changed. The first week was "Love".  The second week was "Fun". The week King Crimson played the theme happened to be "Horror".

As Peter Sinfield and Dik Fraser drove up the frozen motorways with the gear, the band having arrived by train the day before had gone straight from their theatrical digs in South Shields and over to the venue. Fripp recalled that the urge to get to the venue wasn't entirely musically-inspired. "Greg said we should go into the club and line up the birds for the coming week. He looked on me, somewhat rightly, as an inept puller. Once in action I was assured but to get to that point was a problem. Greg for his part had all the lines down and could charm nearly everyone he wanted, and he took it on himself to give me some help in strategy and manoeuvres." 

Under Lake's expert tutelage, Fripp picked up two girls that week but sadly for him that wasn't the only thing the hapless guitarist picked up — as a visit to the clap clinic in London's Gower Street and a diagnosis of gonorrhea would later reveal.


Ian McDonald's remembers that the band went down well though the material was hardly likely to be what the Geordie crowd would have been expecting. He recalls Fripp taking a radio mic into the club toilets, adding a distinctly earthy ambient mix to the band's sound.

At another point, during an improvisation, Lake and McDonald engaged in a mock fight. On the last night a girl in the audience fainted, although whether this was due to sheer excitement or poor air conditioning is open to speculation.