“Ladies and gentlemen you see before you a phenomenon which is interesting if not rare; it’s a mellotron which has just broken down.” Eight gigs into the North American tour and Fripp’s mellotron has given up the ghost forcing him to valiantly comp for all he’s worth during an otherwise storming reading of Cirkus. There have been equipment bugs throughout the tour but thanks to some on-stage support from the crew normal service is soon restored. This is a bright and often hissy audience recording but it clears up nicely for Formentera containing some choppy picking from Fripp as though he’s slightly impatient and wanting to get on to the next track. When he does he opts for the sustained laser beam tone intially. Possessing the sleek beauty of a scalpel Fripp slices the air with before reverting to the chordal sledgehammer that stomps everything in its range flatter than a tentpeg. The outro is momentarily chaotic with Collins’ brass setting ‘tron being somewhat swamped by Fripp’s scorching tone. A superb Schizoid Man with Collins setting the place on fire gives the punters in New York the kind of clout they were cruising for all along. Another powerful gig by a band who definitely know what they’re doing.
