Mount Juliet.

Posted by Robert Fripp
20 Feb 2003
Thursday, February 20, 2003

09.49

Another grey day.

Already this morning business - two signed documents relating to the Virgin audit settlement, that arrived at Chez Belewbeloid via FedEx yesterday, are returning to DGM's solicitor in London. Also, an e-flurry addressing inter alia the alarming failure to achieve definition & clarity regarding the possible/likely Crimson tour of Europe in June & July.

The agent has had several months' notice to plan & prepare. We delivered the condition he has always claimed as ideal - a new album released at the beginning of the year. Now, we are being asked to accept a tour that is not detailed, nor complete, nor the festival tour for which we asked. So, it comes down to this - will we tour, or not?

Once we say "yes!" then all the unacceptable conditions will have to be accommodated. These conditions include venues, promoters, routing & performance details that I might be inclined to otherwise modify, perhaps reject. This is why we gave a sufficient lead-time to allow for fine-tuning.

So, there will be a gap between the ideal and the actual. This is not surprising to anyone who has been in the front line, particularly a professional of 36 long years this 16th. May. The working player is accustomed to filling that gap. But where this gap becomes a chasm, I get nervous.

If the player makes a mistake, the player pays for it. It the agent makes a mistake, the player pays for it. If the manager makes a mistake, the player pays for it. If the record company makes a mistake, the player pays for it.

In addition to this particular litany of grief and woe, if there are details (such as high ticket prices & the practices of commerce) that impinge on the True Fan, the player also pays for this in the bleatings that accompany witless postings from The Eternal Basement to online discussion groups. This is apart from the ongoing demand for attention (whatever particular form that may take) that is part of fandom, and which is waiting for the nominal object of support between tour bus and doorway at each & every city, hotel & venue.

I have spent more time doing interviews than I have playing music. I have spent as much time attempting to re-negotiate the performer-audient model as I have spent doing interviews. I have put as much creative energy into finding alternative business structures & models (to those of the conventional music-industrial) as in discovering musical forms & structures. My good fortune in having the Band Buddies that I do, and David Singleton as a business partner at DGM, is all that I might ask for.

Nor I am not suggesting that life-in-the-front-line-as-guitarist is any worse than life in the front line of any field. In the musical front line, when things go wrong you continue breathing. In the NHS, or an area of armed conflict, people are crippled or die. So, witless commentaries, long nights & days away from home & family, performance spaces that are unsuited to music, and business partners that merely take your income (or don't pay it anyway), are simply standard working practices in the area of professional musicianship.

But, there are more ways of being a professional musician than being a touring player. And there are more ways of being a musician than being a professional musician. And there are many more ways of engaging with the ongoing stream of creative intelligence that we know as music than by playing guitar.

It's another grey day at Mount Juliet.



Popular Posts

A Tale of Two Concerts
David Singleton
19 May 2025
Apologia Pro Vita Sua
Robert Fripp
8 Nov 2024
What Is A Question?
Robert Fripp
23 Mar 2025
Exposure to Public Ridicule
David Singleton
1 May 2025
Hotel Professionally Acceptable, San Francisco.
Robert Fripp
23 Feb 2024

Related Posts
Apologia Pro Vita Sua
Robert Fripp
20 Dec 2024
Satch Bus.
Robert Fripp
12 Dec 2004
Hotel Quite Acceptable, Denver.
Robert Fripp
12 Dec 2004
That Awful Man & The Vicar - Boston 22 Sep 2022
David Singleton
6 Jun 2023
Bredonborough.
Robert Fripp
21 May 2020
Just For You
ARTICLES

Toyah & Robert's Weekend

Toyah & Robert's Weekend

MORE

Giles, Giles & Fripp New Editions.

The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp (The Songs),...

MORE

Toyah & Robert's Weekend

Toyah & Robert's Weekend

MORE

Happy Birthday Robert!

King Crimson's guitarist turns 79 today. To mark the occasio...

MORE

Toyah & Robert's Weekend

Toyah & Robert's Weekend

MORE

Managing America.

Dee Anthony was King Crimson’s heavyweight manager in the US...

MORE

Toyah and Robert's Weekend.

Catch up with Toyah and Robert's latest weekend on YouTube.

MORE

Son Of Glen the new album by Jakko Jakszyk

King Crimson's guitarist/vocalist announces a June release f...

MORE

Toyah & Robert's Easter Weekend

Toyah & Robert's Easter Weekend

MORE

The Earthbound Tour on Nugs.

18 concerts from 1972 are now available to download, stream...

MORE

Toyah & Robert's Weekend

Toyah & Robert's Weekend

MORE

Creating the Larks print.

Here’s a look behind the scenes at the making of the Larks’...

MORE

Queen Elizabeth Hall Soundscapes

It’s been a 29 year wait but finally we can now hear the res...

MORE

Cruise lineup

The 2025 Cruise To The Edge has concluded. Here's a great ph...

MORE

Toyah & Robert's Weekend

Toyah & Robert's Upbeat Moments & Sunday Lunch

MORE

Hanging Around With The Stranglers in 1980

On this day 45 years ago on April 4, 1980 Robert Fripp appea...

MORE

Larks’ Tongues silkscreen print.

The famous artwork from the sleeve of Larks’ Tongues in Aspi...

MORE

Fripp's New York: Then and Now

So what did happen to all the music places from Robert’s tim...

MORE

Toyah & Robert's Weekend

Toyah & Robert's Upbeat Moments (feat. Eno) - Saturday at 19...

MORE

Guitar Craft News

Guitar Craft 40th anniversary and news.

MORE
DIARIES

Satch Bus.

09.23

Satch Bus.

We arrived at Hotel Adeq...

MORE

Satch Bus.

10.53

Route 66 gives a route of 1535 mil...

MORE

Cabin 6020, Silja Ferry >Stockholm.

16.21

Cabin 6020, Silja Ferry >Stockholm.

...

MORE

Satch Bus.

10.29

Bags at 09.30, lobby 10.00, set off for Got...

MORE

Satch Bus, outside venue, Copenhagen.

24.47

An experientially long overnight drive, inc...

MORE

Hotel Pricey And The Staff Are Superb, Amsterdam.

10.47

Breakfast this morning with Joe alone. He w...

MORE

Hotel It-Is-Almost Posh, Amsterdam.

09.10

Into the breakfast room at 06.30 for a quie...

MORE

The Basement, Chateau Belew.

10.28

The Basement, Chateau Belew.

The su...

MORE

The Basement, Chateau Belew.

05.30

One proper response to being alive is joy....

MORE

The Basement, Chateau Belewbeloid.

16.41

The event of the day: Martha Belew is 31 to...

MORE

Los Molinos.

07.23

Rising at 05.52, or 04.52 UK & body tim...

MORE

Crimson Tourbus, Outside Hotel Acceptable, Phoenix.

01.00

Crimson Tourbus, Outside Hotel Acceptable,...

MORE

#504, Hotel Quite Acceptable, Vancouver.

00.15

A supportive & generous audience and wh...

MORE

Hotel Quite Acceptable, Vancouver.

11.03

The weather is changeable, a blue sky rapid...

MORE

Hotel Quite Acceptable, Vancouver.

23.57

We arrived at Denver International Airport,...

MORE

Hotel Quite Acceptable, Denver.

10.42

The sun is shining, the sky is mostly blue,...

MORE

Hotel Quite Acceptable, Denver.

20.04

Snowbound in Denver. Rising at 08.30, a not...

MORE

Room Most Acceptable, Hotel Quite Acceptable.

11.00

Driving snow is blowing past on the other s...

MORE

Hotel Quite Acceptable, Denver.

23.15

And with free Ethernet access, too. A call...

MORE

Mobile HQ, Crimbus.

12.47

We left our hotel punctually at noon and ar...

MORE
DOWNLOADS

World Financial Centre 2nd Performance

Robert Fripp
World Financial Centre 2nd Performance
3 Dec 2010

MORE

Paradise Second Performance

The League Of Gentlemen
Paradise Second Performance
25 Jun 1980

MORE

Walking On Air (Alt Take)

King Crimson
DGM Soundworld I
6 Jul 2020

MORE

Entropy Pulse

Summers & Fripp
Arny's Shack
2 Jun 1982

MORE

University Of Buffalo

King Crimson
University of Buffalo PAC
26 May 1995

MORE

Music For Quiet Moments 33 - A Move Inside II (Asheville 28 Feb 2006)

Robert Fripp
DGMHQ Soundworld 1
11 Dec 2020

MORE

The Bottom Line 2

Robert Fripp
The Bottom Line
13 Dec 1997

MORE

Music For Quiet Moments 8

Robert Fripp
DGMHQ Soundworld 1
19 Jun 2020

MORE

The Kitchen New York USA

Robert Fripp
The Kitchen
5 Feb 1978

MORE

Hanover

Robert Fripp
Capitol
15 Oct 2009

MORE

Music For Quiet Moments 34 - A Move Inside III (Asheville 28 Feb 2006)

Robert Fripp
DGMHQ Soundworld 1
18 Dec 2020

MORE

Wiltern Theatre

King Crimson
Wiltern Theatre
29 Jun 1995

MORE

Music For Quiet Moments 20

Robert Fripp
DGMHQ Soundworld 1
11 Sep 2020

MORE

Mud Club

The League Of Gentlemen
Mudd Club
20 Jul 1980

MORE

People (Adrian And Robert Mix)

King Crimson
DGM Sound World I
27 Dec 2021

MORE

Kursaal

Robert Fripp
Kursaal
15 Apr 2007

MORE

Robson Square Theatre

Robert Fripp
Robson Square Theatre
6 Aug 1979

MORE

I Advance Masked

Summers & Fripp
Arny's Shack
1 Jun 1982

MORE

PNC Arts Centre

King Crimson
PNC Art Centre
4 Sep 2021

MORE

Music For Quiet Moments 7

Robert Fripp
DGMHQ Soundworld 1
12 Jun 2020

MORE
ARTISTS

Robert Fripp

MORE

Bill Bruford

MORE

Gavin Harrison

MORE

Peter Giles

MORE

Jakko Jakszyk

MORE

Gordon Haskell

MORE

Andy McCulloch

MORE

Keith Tippett

MORE

Mark Charig

MORE

Nick Evans

MORE
PHOTO GALLERY