And so to New York, and another of those minor miracles that have accompanied this tour. As many people will know, the concert was formerly scheduled for Forrest Hills, at which no concerts have been selling well in the current climate. AEG, the promoter at Forrest Hills, persuaded us to cancel that show – and, guess what, the Beacon, a happy stomping ground for Crimson, happened to be available on that same night. So we made our debut as concert promoters, took the venue, and the gamble that enough King Crimson fans would come to cover our costs.
The very fact that this was a slight gamble shows the nervousness amongst fans - even at a "fully vaccinated" concert. In normal times, King Crimson, even without the Zappa band, can happily expect to sell 6,000 tickets in New York. Admittedly, it was very last minute, but here we were wondering if we could sell 1500 or so. Happily nearer 2,000 came, so the theatre was well filled and all was good.
Jeremy Stacey has played with the Zappa band on a few occasions. Tonight it was Jakko and Gavin’s turn, which went down well – although it did cause their set to over-run slightly, and there were desperate messages being sent on from the wings, as there is a very hard curfew at the venue, so that you effectively get fined for playing too long!
