BLOODY WELL WRITE
Missives, musings and tweets from Planet Prog.
I would like to thank you all for producing a lovely and interesting magazine! I have read most of the November issue [Prog 92] and the articles re: King Crimson are excellent. I will never forget hearing In
The Court Of The Crimson King back in 1969 on our new FM console. As a very naïve country-bred American teenager whose first 45 was Rag Doll by the Four Seasons, I was absolutely blown away by KC, Jimi Hendrix and Cream and Chicago. I do remember the British Invasion of the early 60s, especially the Animals and Rolling Stones, but KC was a revelation. I regret not seeing KC in December of 1973 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, but I did have university final exams to prepare for!
Philadelphia in the 70s was a great place for all kinds of music, and I took advantage of that attending mostly rock concerts. Pink Floyd at the Spectrum in 1973 playing The Dark Side Of The Moon was a highlight. I do enjoy Rick Wakeman’s column from month to month and I did see him and his band do King Arthur at the Spectrum in 1975. The gig was great as Larry Coryell’s Eleventh House opened the show followed by Gentle Giant and then Rick and co.
I really was there for GG as they are one of my favourite bands, but Larry Coryell was a superb guitarist and Rick’s contribution to the evening was good.
I would pick Keith Emerson as the greatest prog keyboard player and it was a privilege to see ELP at the Spectrum in Philly. It was more than just a gig: it was an extravaganza. I could go on and on but I won’t. These days I am more into jazz but the memories that I have of seeing Soft Machine, UK, Allan Holdsworth,
ELP, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull, Frank Zappa etc will remain with me forever. By the way, I did finally see King Crimson in Cardiff a couple of years ago, and they were superb. Robert Fripp is a genius and I am so glad that he is back making some amazing music with some very talented musicians.
Yours from Newport in South Wales (where the Police did their first ever gig supporting Cherry Vanilla).