Короткое и насквозь снобское интервью Роберта Фриппа в сентябрьском Uncut.
Такие моменты, как то, что все 17 концертов будут записываться, и что в сетлисте не будет The Court of the CK, понятны и без слов, остальное – интересно.
Фразу "Это первый состав King Crimson – а я был во всех составах – где по крайней мере один из участников не держит зла или активной антипатии ко мне" вообще затруднительно истолковать: это шпилька в сторону Белью или просто понты?
Вырезка трех страниц из pdf:
Uncut #208, September 2014, p.4-6
Starless and Bible back!
“My professional life has been so devoid of joy…”
Over Earl Grey in the kitchen of Discipline Global Mobile studios in rural Wiltshire, Robert Fripp surveys the progress of King Crimson Mark VIII with a Puckish smile. “This is the first King Crimson of which I’ve been a member – and I have been a member of them all – where at least one member of the band does not hold resentment or active antipathy towards me.”
Rehearsals are well advanced for a 17-date tour of the US – Crimson’s first since 2008 – which kicks off in September. Improbably, this lineup is led by three drummers: Gavin Harrison, Bill Rieflin and Pat Mastelotto are the frontline. Fripp, Mel Collins (saxophone, flute), Tony Levin (bass, vocals) and Jakko Jakszyk (guitar, vocals) will be the backline, located on a riser behind. This, as they say, looks epic. “Crimson as a musical undertaking can’t be judged from its records. It can only be judged by live performance.”
Since exclusively revealing the tour to Uncut last year, Fripp has executed his masterplan with characteristic precision. The first two week batch of rehearsals were completed in June at DGM HQ, with individual sessions for the front and backline. Full band rehearsals take place at Elstree in the middle of July. Final rehearsals are in Woodstock, New York, on August 25. And, uniquely, Fripp is delighting in the experience.
“For me it’s a novelty. My professional life has been so devoid of joy. Satisfaction – yes. Bits of nice happiness on the way – yes. An education – constantly. But a joyful undertaking? No. I haven’t actually enjoyed touring to date. I hope this tour will provide a new direction in my life of playing music.”
Fripp maintains that for King Crimson 2014, it was this lineup or bust. Witness the inclusion of Mel Collins – who first worked with the band on 1970’s In The Wake Of Poseidon. “This wasn’t a question of ‘we need a saxophone player’, because I know at least one other sax player who would like the gig,” Fripp says drily. “If Mel had said no – in fact if any one of the people had said no – then that would have been the end of it.”
Fripp’s stated goal is clearly to encourage his fellow members to push the limits of their playing, and the material. “All my best playing has been done outside King Crimson. Because no-one in Crimson has ever thought: ‘Let’s find a vehicle for Robert to do what he can do well!’ The only two characters who’ve really done it supremely well were Bowie and Eno.”
All the live shows will be recorded, working on the principle that if any shows are good enough, they will be made available as part of the ongoing DGM archive programme. As for writing new material, Fripp has made a start – “but we don’t have the time for me to continue that process at the moment”.
The mechanics of touring this seven-headed beast have directly affected where the band can play: hence, for the moment, the band are only touring the US.”
“In America we are able to actually pick the venues in the particular cities; venues that give us half a chance of making an honourable performance,” says Fripp. “For me, every night provides a degree of heartbreak. If you’re playing in a 2000-seat theatre, then only about 1000 are worth sitting in. What do you do about the character in the first row, last seat on the left, under the bins? I would advise them not to buy the ticket.
“The tickets are not exorbitant, but they are expensive… but that’s function of touring, and that’s the amount of heartbreak I take on. If they were not that price, we couldn’t be playing it.”
Fripp has analysed the logistical complexities with academic rigour. The appetite is there (“I turned down an extraordinary offer from Japan last week. They didn’t make my eyes water but I did put on my spectacles to read the offer”), but for the moment, touring Europe or beyond is “not a question which has current relevance”.
“How do you handpick a tour of Europe? It’s incredibly difficult. So someone says. Why don’t you come to, say, Warsaw. And I say which venue, and they say the Congress Hall. And I say I’ve played it twice – are you aware that the building has a key frequency of C, so that your feedback in the low mids will feedback to note C? And they say no. I have played a lot of these places over the past 45 years. I do know what’s involved.”
What should audiences expect? Fripp is gleefully evasive about the material the band are playing, and how they are playing it.
“A guiding King Crimson principle is the music is new whenever it was written. So it’s all new music. What I will say is, if you are coming with the explicit or implicit demand that you need to hear this music or that then don’t come. And if you’ve already bought tickets, sell them to someone and you might make a profit. The point is with Crimson, if you come with an open mind, generally something worthwhile happens. If you don’t, it’s less likely.
“If you go there thinking, ‘If I don’t hear “In the Court of the Crimson King” I will have a lousy show’, then you will have a lousy show. It’s not on the setlist.”
* * *
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