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King Crimson

KING CRIMSON

 
King Crimson  are a progressive rock band.  Formed in London in 1968 (but featuring a transatlantic line-up since 1981), the band are widely recognised as a foundational progressive rock group (although the group members resist the label).  The band have incorporated diverse influences and approaches during their five-decade history (including jazz and folk music, classical and experimental music, psychedelic rock, hard rock and heavy metal, new wave, gamelan, electronica and drum and bass) as well as balancing highly structured compositions against abstract improvisational sections and an interest in pop songs.  The band has a large following, despite garnering little radio or music video airplay.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
Chris Spedding has played with a lot of the English heavy hitters, including early work with a band called Pete Brown and His Battered Ornaments.  They played at a famous Hyde Park concert in July 1969 that also included the Rolling Stones, Blind Faith and, at the very beginning of their career, King Crimson.  When Pete Brown was later pushed out by basically everyone else in the band, Spedding became the front man in the Battered Ornaments; and his fame began to grow. 
 
(November 2011)
 
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Guitarist Adrian Belew – who was an occasional guest performer with Talking Heads – played rhythm guitar on the first album by Tom Tom Club, Tom Tom Club (1981).  Afterward, Adrian Belew almost immediately joined King Crimson, where he was their front man from 1981 to 2009. 

 

(December 2013)

 

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When writing about the Giles Brothers – which was never actually a band, though Peter Giles and Michael Giles were in numerous rock bands, often at the same time – I was mostly exploring the origins of King Crimson.  I worked extra hard to get an associated album, contacting Bomp! Records specifically about making sure that the Giles, Giles and Fripp album, The Brondesbury Tapes (1968) was included in the order.  (The other man in the group is Robert Fripp, the only continuous member of King Crimson over the decades). 

 

The only song on YouTube from the Giles Brothers CD that I own is “Nobody Knows the Game”; it is a 1967 song recorded by the Brain:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy508iQuqLI .  However, there are several songs by Giles, Giles and Fripp and others taken from the McDonald and Giles album – that’s Ian McDonald and Michael Giles, who are both ex-members of King Crimson. 

 

(March 2015)