Seeing Crimson last month at the HEB Center in Cedar Park and listening to the 2020 and 2021 tour boxes reignited my memories of the Cactus Records show that my colleague Steve Armstrong wrote about so elegantly above. Steve played in the Tix (and Bevatron) and I played in Vast Majority, two (um, 3) early Houston punk bands that had fairly recently started playing out in '79. It's indicative of Mr. Fripp's appeal and specifically to the appeal of the magnificent, genre-confounding "Exposure" LP ...
Seeing Crimson last month at the HEB Center in Cedar Park and listening to the 2020 and 2021 tour boxes reignited my memories of the Cactus Records show that my colleague Steve Armstrong wrote about so elegantly above. Steve played in the Tix (and Bevatron) and I played in Vast Majority, two (um, 3) early Houston punk bands that had fairly recently started playing out in '79. It's indicative of Mr. Fripp's appeal and specifically to the appeal of the magnificent, genre-confounding "Exposure" LP that Steve and I as young punks would have been so interested in this gig. Of course, before I became a young punk, I was an even younger prog fan, and Fripp's reinvention of himself as a highly mobile, small independent unit, appealed to my new punk, DIY (hello Peter Gabriel 7" 45) sensibilities.
The show certainly did not disappoint. It was phenomenal. I sat there, along with the rest of the mid-sized record store crowd (disclaimer: I worked there at the time, but was not on the clock!) with our jaws hanging open as Robert brought the legendary Frippertronics to life before our very eyes. There were the Revoxes, the long tape loops...wow. The Heavenly Music Corporation was in the house.
I didn't forget my copy of "Exposure" for Robert to sign, which he did, graciously, but like the story I just read on the Steve Hoffman forums, Robert was a tad miffed when I asked him to sign a KC record, specifically my copy of "The Young Person's Guide to King Crimson", which I had recently purchase on import. So he dismissively drew a speech bubble on the mouth of the figure on the cover (from the wonderful Fergus Hall paintings that 2xLP is adorned with) and wrote "Boo!" in it.
Well played, Robert. Well played.
Written by Steven Armstrong
Sidenote to this Houston gig...
I wasn't present at this particular gig. That very evening, at a grimy little dive about 2 miles from Cactus Records, I was busily propelling my own band from behind the drumkit, while a friend of the band took it upon himself to hand-write an invitation to Robert, asking if he might attend our show after finishing his performance. The invitation was duly given to Mr. Fripp and was written on the reverse side of our friend's high school diploma. Needless to say, Robert did not show (surprisin...
I wasn't present at this particular gig. That very evening, at a grimy little dive about 2 miles from Cactus Records, I was busily propelling my own band from behind the drumkit, while a friend of the band took it upon himself to hand-write an invitation to Robert, asking if he might attend our show after finishing his performance. The invitation was duly given to Mr. Fripp and was written on the reverse side of our friend's high school diploma. Needless to say, Robert did not show (surprising none of us), but it was an impressive bit of chutzpah on the part of our friend, Nick's. Well done. Ah, memories...
