It’s interesting how a simple suggestion of having the players move a little closer together on stage, along with some adjustment to the lighting can make a difference. Yet from such small details, great things are possible. From the guitarist’s perspective, these two elements having been addressed and fine-tuned appear to have had a significant impact on how the gig went. The solo Fripp takes on Field Of Green is an especially impassioned piece of playing that speaks of another world and another time. Hearing it a decade after it entered the room at the Aula de Cultura De La Cam in Alicante was incredibly moving. The eerie sonics of Lamentation conjure the pensive mood and dark gathering of shades that one might find harboured in a large canvas by Mark Rothko. This is not in any way easy music to digest but it is one of the most powerful of the evening, perfectly setting up the elegiac Pastorale and numinous beauty of Duet For The End of Time. All of this astonishing music despite the failure of a guitar’s battery mid-way through the performance requiring a change of instrument, answering the question as to why a happy gigster should always have two instruments available. Fripp’s diary notes that the show was enjoyable for him as well as a report from Trev Wilkins at the FOH mixing desk having to field an inquiry some 30 minutes into the show about when the singer might be coming on stage.
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