What with Exposure in the air I thought it would be interesting to dig up some old quotes from the scrapbook. Speaking to Lynden Barber in the Melody Maker in 1981, Phil Collins had this to say about old RF.
Having also worked with Eno’s erstwhile colleague Bob Fripp, playing drums on ‘North Star’ and ‘Disengage’ on Exposure, Collins reckons it’s this element of chance which separates their approaches, Fripp being a very meticulous worker and Eno a risk taker. Collins has known Fripp since the Mel Collins-Ian Wallace version of King Crimson when they used to go to each other’s gigs, and they still meet up occasionally.
"I think Fripp’s got a much stronger personality than I have," says Collins. "I could sit and listen to him talk and laugh without having to say anything. But the same thing that you find funny can put you off him as well because he doesn’t give you a chance to breathe. Bill Bruford was telling me the other day that when he was in Crimson he’d play something and Fripp would say (in West Country twang) ’Yeah Bill, oy loyk thaat,’ then he’d play exactly the same thing and Fripp would say "No, you’ve changed it, oy don’t loyk thaat as much." But every time I played with Fripp we got on famously. He loves my cymbals, he said."
Nick Kent, when reviewing Fripp’s debut album remarked "‘Exposure’ isn’t just a title, it’s what the record demands.” Well, I can’t promise anything quite in the Kent stakes but my review of the album is up on my blog