As you can see from his latest updated diary, Robert is busy remastering a couple of Fripp and Eno classics, No Pussyfooting and Evening Star.
In the diary Robert says “Now, onto backwards versions, as originally featured on John Peel. I returned to Thornhill Cottage, Holt, late one evening, switched on John Peel’s radio show, and came in near the end of Swastika Girls – played backwards! I leave it to The Sidney Smith to tell the full story. Anyway, today – we are formally preparing a re-mastered backwards version.”
Over the years a lot of rumours have circulated about an infamous Fripp and Eno session – I’ve heard tell that bootlegs of this event used to trade for huge sums of money. Of course it wasn’t a studio session at all. As was common practice in those days, albums were often supplied in reel to reel tapes as well as vinyl. Whether it was someone from the record company who’d wound the reel off the wrong way, or a chilled out Peel who’d threaded it up back to front, the entire album was played backwards on the 18th December 1973.
The incident even gets a mention in Peel’s posthumously published biog, Margrave of the Marshes.
"(Peel) realised that no-one at the station actually listened to the show...This first became apparent to him when no-one complained about the various cock-ups he made. Later in his career John would become notorious for these spontaneous errors; there was one infamous occasion in 1973 when he played tracks from Robert Fripp and Brian Eno’s No Pussyfooting backwards, though only Eno called to point out this mistake."
Never mind going backwards - can anyone else recall playing No Pussyfooting at 16 rpm? My recollections of this exciting sonic event (no, really!) are up on the blog today.
