One of the many differences between King Crimson in 1973, the last time they played a show, and this gig in 1981 was that Fripp no longer did stage announcements other than for hot news flash items like “all the world leaders were assassinated at afternoon tea.”
Such quips and badinage aside Fripp uses the side microphone to announce that his mother had made it up from her home in Wimborne to attend tonight’s show, a fact that was met with audience approval although their real gusto seemed to be reserved for Fripp’s ‘world leader’ comment.
This is a great-sounding audience recording and quite a gig with all of the band firing on all cylinders. Frame By Frame, Red, and even the down-tempo Matte Kudasai are about as perfect as you would wish them to be. The whole show seems fuelled by a ferocious, barely-tamed energy that flashes and sparks from one player to the next.
That’s especially true of an uptempo version of The Sheltering Sky which is listed here as incomplete but in truth is only missing the final few bars. You better hang on to the hairs on the back of your neck because the soloing from Fripp is genuinely off the charts.
Such quips and badinage aside Fripp uses the side microphone to announce that his mother had made it up from her home in Wimborne to attend tonight’s show, a fact that was met with audience approval although their real gusto seemed to be reserved for Fripp’s ‘world leader’ comment.
This is a great-sounding audience recording and quite a gig with all of the band firing on all cylinders. Frame By Frame, Red, and even the down-tempo Matte Kudasai are about as perfect as you would wish them to be. The whole show seems fuelled by a ferocious, barely-tamed energy that flashes and sparks from one player to the next.
That’s especially true of an uptempo version of The Sheltering Sky which is listed here as incomplete but in truth is only missing the final few bars. You better hang on to the hairs on the back of your neck because the soloing from Fripp is genuinely off the charts.
