According to ultimateclassicrock.com, last weekend’s London screening of the new King Crimson documentary, In the Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson at 50, brought bandleader Robert Fripp out to address topics for the audience, including his schism with former guitarist Adrian Belew in recent years. Belew first joined King Crimson in 1981 after the tenures with David Bowie and Talking Heads, and was part of on and off incarnations of King Crimson through 2008, including the Double Trio of the mid to late 90’s and a 40th anniversary tour that included longtime bassist Tony Levin and a pair of drummers, Pat Mastelotto and Gavin Harrison.
Fripp put the band on hiatus in 2008 and revived it in 2013 with a trio of drummers and Jakko Jakszyk, who Fripp started working with during the early 2010’s, on vocals and guitar. Belew who learned through email he wouldn’t be in the new Crimson incarnation told Ultimate Classic Rock earlier this year that, “Getting left out of King Crimson after 33 years was certainly a giant disappointment, and it really hurt for a long time.”
Belew was also interviewed for the recent documentary, where he made disparaging remarks about the band and their lack of new material in recent years. During a post-screening Q&A session for the film was livestreamed globally on October 22nd and an audience member asked Fripp to respond. Fripp stated that, “Adrian is on the record as saying, ‘I’ve not heard a note of this King Crimson,’ I invited [Belew] to the Nashville show at the Ryman in 2021, and he declined to come, I think had Adrian done so, then some of the difficulties he might have had with the personnel of this band … might have changed.”
Fripp also suggested that because of their improvisational and spontaneous nature, King Crimson creates news music almost every time that they perform. he explained that, “When I walk onstage, it’s for the first time I’ve ever been here before, I will never be here again. Will I be here now in this moment? For you, members of the audience listening to this music, [do] you listen to the notes you’ve heard before, or are you engaging and listening to it for the first time? If so, this is new music. It’s being invented spontaneously in the moment, even if the form appears to be set. And within the King Crimson set forms, there is always flexibility and malleability and interpretation and making real in the moment. And if this is not so, it has no interest for me.”
The documentary was written and directed by Toby Amies, In the Court of the Crimson King: 50 Years of King Crimson debuted to critical acclaim at South by Southwest in March. It is set to be released on Blu-ray and DVD on November 11th and is also available to preorder now. A limited edition eight disc box set version containing two Blu-rays, two DVDs and four CDs will be arriving on December second.
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