My review of King Crimson, Live in Newcastle, December 8, 1972, the 48th in the band's King Crimson Collector's Club Series, published today at All About Jazz.
"Never say never," or so the old adage goes. When it comes to music, there are two more that should be added: "farewell tour" and, most certainly as it relates to King Crimson's Live in Newcastle, December 8, 1972, "the complete recordings." This, the 48th in the veteran group's King Crimson Collector's Club series of archival releases, turns out not just to be an unexpected addition to the group's Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Panegyric), but belies that fifteen-disc, 2012 40th Anniversary Series box set, which was subtitled "The Complete Recordings" on the opening page of its enclosed 36-page booklet.
But it's a minor quibble. The truth is, this five-piece version of a brand new lineup, making its first public appearance just two months prior on October 13, 1972 and its last a mere five months later, was King Crimson's second shortest-lived incarnation next to the 2008 twin-drummer lineup (which performed a mere eleven dates in four cities, leaving no studio recordings and, effectively, no new music).
The remaining members of the Larks' Tongues band continued as a quartet for another fifteen months before being summarily shut down in September, 1974 by the group's only remaining co-founder, guitarist Robert Fripp, following the recording of King Crimson's final studio album of the '70s, Red (Island, 1974, reissued Panegyric, 2009). But with only seven live recordings from the quintet's 46 concerts included in the 40th Anniversary Series box (plus a very poor quality bonus eighth as a download), and a full five of those seven shows sourced from audience bootlegs, it's terrific news, indeed, that the band, still road-testing its new material in the final months of 1972, was in the habit of making cassette recordings off of the soundboard. Far from the high fidelity possible today, these soundboard recordings were, nevertheless, of sufficient quality to allow the band to continue honing its new repertoire prior to going into the studio.
But if Live in Newcastle, December 8, 1972 is, indeed, a major find: a soundboard recording that's a major addition to the documented legacy of this short-lived five-piece lineup that, alongside Fripp, ex-Yes drummer Bill Bruford, ex-Family bassist/vocalist John Wetton and violinist David Cross, featured the fur vest-clothed, blood capsule-spewing and inimitably creative percussionist, Jamie Muir.
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