Discipline - The return of King Crimson, 1981

The shock of the new - that's how it felt to behold the reformed King Crimson in 1981.

My ticket for the Discipline show and a recording of it

Six years previously, Robert Fripp had called a halt to the band, which by then was just a three piece, with John Wetton on bass and vocals and Bill Bruford on drums.

They had recorded the album Red, which had been one of their most commercially successful albums, and completed a US tour, when Fripp pulled the plug, to Wetton and Bruford's disappointment.

They were at the peak of their popularity, but that was part of the problem for Fripp. They had become like a conventional rock band and he didn't want that. The closer they got to the mainstream, the less comfortable he became.

In 1975, Fripp enrolled at the International Academy for Continuous Education at Sherborne House in Gloucestershire. Students at the IACE underwent an intensive training in the techniques that founder John Bennett had learned from G.I. Gurdjieff. 

Gurdjieff taught that most humans do not possess a unified consciousness - and thus live their lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep" - but that it is possible to awaken to a higher state of consciousness and achieve full human potential. Gurdjieff's method for awakening one's consciousness unites the methods of the fakir, monk and yogi, and thus he referred to it as the "Fourth Way". 

In this interview, Fripp talks about his search for meaning and direction, having ditched his music career. Notably, he refers to his approach of setting a goal for a specific period as "the drive to 1981", calling it his "personal discipline".

By the end of 1976, Fripp had 'recovered' (in his words) from the IACE experience and, once back into his stride musically, he wasn't idle. He continued his occasional collaborations with Brian Eno and became David Bowie's go-to guitarist for the albums from Heroes to Scary Monsters (1977-80).

In 1981, news came through that Fripp had a new band. Me and three bandmates, all big Crimson fans, bought tickets for the first gig in London, May 1981 at Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket.

Tony Levin and Chapman Stick

They were called Discipline - no doubt inspired by the IACE experience. Only Bruford remained from previous configurations of KC. We had no idea what to expect, but we hoped they would play some old stuff. We certainly didn't expect it was going to be a life-changing experience, in the sense that this new band was making music from the future, such that their influence endures into KC’s music to this day.

So Discipline started off the concert playing a new track (called Discipline as it turned out) and the first thing that struck me was the rhythm, a hypnotic pulse driven by Bruford's electronic drums, but with a distinctive bass. 

Belew and elephant noises

Those of us who had seen Peter Gabriel live around this time would have seen Tony Levin playing his Chapman Stick, an odd looking bass instrument. Levin is the acknowledged master of the instrument.

Then all hell broke loose! The band launched into Thela Hun Ginjeet. [check it out!] We were pinned back by the dual onslaught of Fripp and new lead guitarist Adrian Belew producing all manner of sonic fireworks. Bruford attacking his kit with staccato rolls, Levin slapping at his bass.

Each new track had an distinct edge, from the "this is a dangerous place" storyline of Thela Hun Ginjeet to the sheer shimmering beauty of Matte Kudesai, or the interstellar soundscape of The Sheltering Sky. Belew was not only an amazing stunt guitar player - as he had proved with Frank Zappa and Talking Heads - he was an excellent vocalist too. Zappa's song City of Tiny Lights is a good example, and with Crimson he excelled on Matte Kudesai.

They played some old too. Red was tucked into the set early on and they played Larks Tongues In Aspic part 2 as an encore. The clip of Larks Tongues here gives you an idea of the energy they brought to the old material. But it was the new ones that really had us gripped. Like Elephant Talk, a bizarre but compelling statement of the new Crimson.

Soon afterwards, an almost inevitable name-change, from Discipline back to King Crimson, took the band into a highly successful period, artistically and commercially, that has sustained right up to the latest line-up, which still owes much to the inventiveness of the 1980s version.

Everyone has their favourite period of Crimson and there have been so many different phases. But 40 years on from this particular gig, I can still remember how we were blown away by this new music.

Here they are, playing in Germany in 1982

See also on this blog:

The Yes Album - 50 years old and still sounding great

Todd Rundgren's 'A Wizard, A True Star' - my all-time favourite record

The Tubes - how they conquered London, 1977

There's a lot to like in the 'ZAPPA' movie