Robert Fripp's Diary

Lobby Lounge Hotel Tired But

Lobby Lounge, Hotel Tired But It Has Linen In The Breakfast Room, Turin.

The sun is not shining but it is very very hot.

Although this hotel has the air of former, more prosperous, times, linen in the breakfast room is always welcome; at the very least, it is a statement of aspiring to meet certain standards. Even if, on a working day, I am not myself at the trough, coffee and hot milk is a treat sufficient. We have a lobby call for noon and a drive to Nice. I have already left my cheerless room & am set up in the high-ceilinged lounge to catch up with computing prior to today's bumping about.

Backtracking --

Monday 30th. June: last night's theatre looked like it might have been a cinema in an earlier life. The air conditioning was not quite able to deal with the crushing heat, and this may have been our hottest onstage so far. Open-air venues provide some relief from the combined weight of hotness & humidity. The sever discomfort probably contributed to our small mistakes & carelessnesses, which irritate me to an excessive degree even though I am guilty of more than an equal share of them.

Probably our lightest house: 85% full downstairs, 95% empty in the balcony. No flashes during the show that I saw, but at the end: there he was - in the balcony with his camera in full view and in action. Oh to have an audience that I might trust. Oh to have an audience with which I might engage. At this point, I may have become unable to fully engage with an ideal audience, even were that audience to present itself. Innocence lost, trust broken. If all that remains is a professional relationship with paying customers, life is too hard.

13.05 Crimbus, Turin>Nice.

The bus arrived at the hotel a few minutes late, stuck in traffic. We left Turin at 12.25.

Just before leaving the hotel, Laura called me from DGM HQ to pass on a message on my answerphone from Crafty Ferny in Buenos Aires. Maria Gabriela Epumer, one of our Argentinian Guitar Craft family, died yesterday morning. No more news as to the cause, but numbers for me to call.

This puts the small concerns of life in perspective. Forget whingeing about venues, buses, roads, hotels & audiences.

00.22 Crimbus Leaving Venue In Nice.

We have an overnight to Barcelona.

Tonight's performance was in what seemed to be a large arena, perhaps used for sports. But the sound was strong, the audience enthusiastic the performance relaxed, with Clunkers Crimsonique. And then, at the end, two flashes. Just to let you know - he had waited all the show for this.

My own performance was for MG, and the Soundscape dedicated to her.

In the van, a short discussion on the next stage of Crimson.