A Unique Occasion   February 25, 2012
Written by simkin_eden

So here I am nearly 40 years later reviewing a gig for a group of musicians some of which are still working, and I am still listening to (with probably even more enthusiam than at the time!)

My introduction to KC was through a school friend who was a drummer and had long admired Bill Bruford. How he knew that this gig was taking place (we lived about 15 miles away) I don’t know but somehow he acquired tickets for us both.

Though the university had a students union venue, with stage etc., and a theatre the gig was held in the main lecture theatres (actually two with a dividing wall that could be removed) consequently there was no proper stage only a large podium where lecturers would stand - this meant that this was the space that the band would perform on and we in auidience could sit as close as possible to them.

As we queued to enter the theatre Robert Fripp strolled past us carrying his guitar in a very impressive custom made leather case that fitted the body of the instrument leaving the neck exposed. He then paused, we were close enough to speak to him, fear and admiration stopped us.

We managed to seat ourselves close to the podium and so a close-up view of the band, memorable was Bruford in white boiler suite (bib and braces) and bare chested and Jamie Muir in a fake fur cropped jacket! Even more memorable was Muir’s ’instruments’ a seemingly random collection of percussion items and junk! Fripp sat on a stool seemingly impassive and so our attention in the main was on Muir and Bruford!

The music was a revealation, we were both familir with ICOTCK (an LP whose impact on our musical tastes was in itself remarkable), but nothing prepared us for what was played that night, some of which would end up on LTIA.

Forty years on my actual memories of the music is vague (for which I apologise), most of my memories are are incidents such as Jamie Muir using a blood capsule (I thought it was real until my friend explained!)

This was a gig that would change my musical tastes and these years on I realise that I was very fortunate to see the line-up of KC that included Jamie Muir, when we saw them at the Rainbow in London nearly two years later he had moved on.

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