Drawn from a single concert at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in November 1973, The Night Watch is one of the most celebrated King Crimson live recordings.
A recording was originally broadcast by the BBC, as a result of which the concert was available in parts for many years under a number of bootleg titles all, as Robert Fripp noted, sharing the same lo-fi/hi-price problems. When DGM began issuing archive concerts in the mid 1990s this was high on the list to be restored and released. By the time of this concert the band had been on the road for seven out of the previous eleven months. Percussionist Jamie Muir left the touring band in February, but with two European tours and a US tour during the year the quartet line-up was in the midst of building a lasting legacy as one of the key live acts of the era. The material performed represented the bulk of the April 1973 issued 'Larks' Tongues in Aspic' & a number of pieces that would become the recorded basis for the 1974 album 'Starless and Bible Black'.
