lost and found prog rock

Such was the ephemeral nature, or thought to be, of early music programmes at the BBC up until the 1970's many of the most valued performances on video were erased or destroyed. Particular victim of the purging was the long running weekly chart show 'Top Of the Pops' which had the last live Beatles appearance in 1966 and most of the Pink Floyd hits with Syd Barrett along with countless other groups of the time. In a darkened room somewhere there is still a BBC archivist sobbing.
The BBC have since regularly pleaded to the general public for any forgotten attic treasures to be forwarded. It's probably more surprising the occasional gem does come to light, mainly from a long gone comedy show. Pop music on the other hand is an increasingly rare find.

The European countries have been the most likely source of any buried treasure, possibly due at the time to the rarity of grabbing some hot trend in UK pop to be included in one of their own programmes of the time, and simply because their archives have not been decimated by an over zealous BBC management.
So the recent find from an archive of a German TV show 'Hits A Go Go' which included a song by King Crimson on Top Of The Pops is seen by fans of the group as the nearest thing to buried treasure lost but now found after all these years. It's rare content as well. Crimson have always been an ever evolving group except for the continual presence of Robert Fripp and in particular between their first live appearance in 1969 and the early 70's for one reason or another the revolving door was forever spinning with Crimson personnel coming and going.
This film of them on Top Of The Pops in March 1970 caught then at a most precarious moment. Within a month or so Greg Lake left for Emerson, Lake and Palmer who debuted in August 1970 at the Isle Of Wight Festival so must have been one of his last performances with Crimson. On keyboards is Keith Tippett who preferred to remain as a studio collaborator and performed live with the band only once and didn't record with them until the next album 'In the Wake of Poseidon' (May 1970), but was obviously keen enough to be in on this Top Of The Pops gig.
This then is 1.58 of the long lost "Cat Food" with some glorious free form piano from Tippett and the unmistakeable Greg Lake vocals. To think this was on a pop chart show says much about the era.

robert fripp's goodbye

In the recent issue of Mojo Magazine (Feb 2013), Robert Fripp gave a rare, and possibly his last interview with their writer Mike Barnes. In quite a lengthy and typically matter of fact discussion about his his many years in music Fripp declared that he had retired from public performance and had no intention of releasing any more studio recordings.
The reason for his complete retraction is to have time to fight the ongoing battles with the record company's that owe him royalties, in particular with Universal Music.
This was first realised it seems back in 2007.
"At that point, Universal owed me more money than I would earn in two or three years on the road. I figured I had to end life as as a working player to deal with Universal. Creativity is of the heavens; Universal Music and the industry is subterranean. Appalling. But the industry knows this and they know that if an artist is going to engage directly with a record company on its own terms, their life as an artist is over, and mine was."

And that people is the reality of one of the countries most respected and inspirational musicians. A truly grim state of affairs after the man has been 40 years in music and produced some of the most cutting edge guitar playing of his generation, from the mercurial intensity of King Crimson's music, he went on to producing the blistering guitar sound on the David Bowie, 'Heroes' and 'Scary Monster's' albums, with Brian Eno on one of the first electronic ambient albums 'Pussyfootin' and further Fripp and Eno collaborations, also with Peter Hammll, Peter Gabriel, even Blondie, further reformations of King Crimson notably with Adrien Belew, and the most recent live recordings with Theo Travis (see post).
To think this may be the last time anyone ever hears Robert Fripp and his Frippertronic guitar is just a complete disgrace.
So thank you Universal Music for completely screwing up this man's deserved earnings and retiring one of the most important musicians in the UK. Culturally speaking it doesn't get any lower than this.
Let it be a sober warning to anyone who is starting out in music. Keep your music independent.

The last words on matters are from Fripp, "In strange and uncertain times, such as we're living through, sometimes a reasonable person might despair. But hope is unreasonable and love is greater than this. May we trust the inexpressible benevolence of the creative impulse. There, that's it".

Robert Fripp's own record label DGM can be found here.
Mojo magazine's web site is here.

Top picture of Robert with his modern day Frippertronic system in his studio.
Below clip is him demonstrating the early years of his Frippertronic guitar system back in 1979. Superb.

travis and fripp

Theo Travis and Robert Fripp have just released their third album Follow.
It's been mixed and mastered by Steve Wilson who Theo was touring with in the winter and spring this year with the Grace For Drowning band.
Follow has been made in 5.1 Surround Sound and threatens to be a bit of a mind blowing experience. The Frippertonic sound pioneered by Fripp has never been produced in 5.1 before although Roberts guitars are usually recorded in quadrophonic, 'Follow' will take the sound up another notch. On the track '1979', Theo recorded his parts on top of some archive Frippertronic recordings made in New York City in 1979. The CD also comes with the only live footage of them on a tour of the South of England, 2010.
The video was also produced by Steve Wilson. You can pick the album up at Theo's website or as downloads from BurningShed.com

robert fripp

In 1977, King Crimson founder Robert Fripp—who left the world of music in 1974 when he dissolved the group—moved to NYC’s Hell’s Kitchen (later the Bowery) and immersed himself in the city’s punk and “new wave” music scene. Inspired by New York’s frantic energy and wanting to combine the new sounds he was hearing with “Frippertronics,” the droning tape loop system he had developed with Eno, the final product was his solo record, Exposure. 
The video is a promotiona for Exposure. Not a lot happens here, but in the context of 1979, this was absolutely futuristic.
via dangerousminds
Actually it still stands pretty much on the edge in 2012. Fripp went on to perform and record more of the Frippertronic soundscapes and continues to do so. Recently two albums and tours with Theo Travis (see Steve Wilson post) who also used a similar loop system with saxophone and flutes.