October 14, 1981
	StadtHalle    Cologne, Germany

Sheer Energy from a Hungry Band   February 21, 2006
Written by heavenly

Sheer Energy from a hungry band

This is a fantastic concert. At the time, I did not attend this one, but the one the night before, at Hamburg Markthalle. I had seen the League of Gentlemen the year before in Hanover and still was mesmerised since I did not (and could not) expect anything like that. When I drove with a friend to Hamburg on October 13, I saw a League of Gentlemen bootleg in a record store and was not able to buy it, due to an going financial crisis. Gee!

Exciting times. That was the time of Punk and New Wave and the German punk band Abwärts had been the opener for the League of Gentleman in 1980. There was no opener for King Crimson though, but Hamburg and Cologne were, next to Berlin and Düsseldorf, the centers of the Neue Deutsche Welle, which did exist in an underground format (bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, Malaria, Palais Schaumburg and Fehlfarben come to mind) before a rather commercialized version took over. That was also the time of Joy Division, Wire, Siouxsie and the Banshees and P.I.L. which all seemed to share the same spirit as presented on RF’s Exposure. KC 1981, were of a different fabric again and were more a mixture of RF’s League of Gentleman, Steve Reich, Talking Heads and a bit of 1972-74 KC.

Back then, it was very exciting to go to a concert, since there was no internet around and you had no clue what the band actually would play. Personally, I was hoping for a mix of the Discipline album, some Exposure related stuff, some New Wave stuff of the harder kind and some KC material, which I considered brilliant. Funnily, I was hoping for Circus, which did not really fit, but I did not care. The audience was also a wild mix of people, consisting of punks/new wavers, ambient lovers and hippies alike, all looking to find "their" version of Fripp. And while some listeners complained that Fripp played way to artsy for New Wave and Punk, others were missing their Schizoid Man and Crimson King. Others again were hoping for more Frippertronics and were equally disappointed. However, while the concert proceeded, they all were taken by the sheer energy of the band and most of them surrendered to the music.

The opener were Frippertronics from the tape (Let the Power Fall) (just as the Heavenly Music Corporation for KC 72-72), which was taken up by the band and developed into Discipline. THG followed and I could not believe my ears, when I heard the announcement for Red. I never ever thought, I would be able to hear this track live. Nowadays, nothing special at all but back then, I mean, KC still had been dead, dead, dead, just a few months before... Outstanding of the new tracks were definitely The Sheltering Sky and the encore version of Thela Hun Ginjeet, which is the best version I have ever heard. It became clear then that the spirit of LoG could be transported into sth. much more professional and still be fresh.... That encore, of course, was not the only surprise, since the first encore was Lark’s Tongues in Aspic Pt II, which was one of my favourite KC tracks of all times.

Later concerts of KC, including Neal and Jack and Me are great as well. The difference is, KC 1981 were "hungry" and you sense this in each note. I can understand a bit Fripp’s disappointment with the latter versions of 1981-84 KC and even though Beat and ToPP are great albums as well, they never came together as nicely as Discipline did. Different from the Moles Club release, all versions are perfect and still are delivered in a very fresh way. Highly recommended. M.P.

P.S. Interesting was also to see the different size of audience for LoG and KC 1981. While I was able to see LoG with about 100 other fellows, KC drew easily a crowd of 2,000 I would say....

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