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INSANE: 2 | Rare Historical Photos

“The band had already drifted from its original vision. The group broke up…Somehow we absorbed the fact and kept going”: The story of King Crimson’s remarkable Beat era

What happened when the eternally unpredictable prog machine returned in the 80s with an Anglo-American line-up and delivered Discipline, Beat and Three Of A Perfect Pair

Louder

Watch pro-shot video of a full King Crimson set from Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Steve Vai and Danny Carey

The 100-minute video features pro-shot, multi-camera footage of BEAT playing highlights from King Crimson's eighties catalogue

Louder

“They can steal pretty much everything. They haven’t figured out a way of stealing the live experience. And they still have to pay for that!” Adrian Belew on survival, orchestra music and Frank Zappa

Now touring with King Crimson offshoot Beat, the Bowie, Shatner and Hancock collaborator has long been confident that the future is secure on the road – which pleases him because he loves it

Louder

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“With deference to everybody in Beat, my function is to amuse myself and hopefully you. I can’t do music from 45 years ago”: Why Bill Bruford demoted himself from the King Crimson, Yes and Genesis league

Bill Bruford retired in 2009 and later sold most of his equipment to Tool’s Danny Carey. Then he found he wasn’t finished on stage – and he’s come back re-energised

Louder

“It is beautiful... it’s clean and it works great, and it does everything I need”: Steve Vai shows us just what’s needed to play ‘80s King Crimson as he offers tour of his custom-built BEAT rig

If the Fractal Axe-Fx III is doing the heavy lifting for the effects, Vai's indomitable tech, Doug MacArthur is the power behind the tone

MusicRadar

“Jesus, that was hard! But I got it. I welcome the challenges”: Guitar hero Steve Vai reveals the difficulties of playing King Crimson music - and how he gets by with a little help from Robert Fripp

“I’m a fan and want to play the exact notes,” Vai says

MusicRadar

“Try playing Three Of A Perfect Pair without feeling your fingertips!”: Adrian Belew has carpal tunnel surgery following tour with prog supergroup BEAT

The former King Crimson guitarist was operated on by the surgeon responsible for the first successful human hand transplant in America

MusicRadar

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“Throughout the Beat tour, my left hand kept going numb and burning like fire”: Adrian Belew recovering after undergoing carpal tunnel surgery

The “world-renowned” surgeon who took charge of the surgery is a King Crimson fan

Guitar World

“Adrian and I connected on everything – we even went to the Whisky and paid $5 to see Van Halen play in a one-third full room”: Cult guitar hero Rob Fetters on his friendship with Adrian Belew – and the time they raced home to try tapping after seeing EVH

The Raisins co-founder has returned to making his own music after years of commercial work. He looks back on his fruitful friendship with Zappa sideman Belew – but can’t predict if they’ll reboot their former band

Guitar World

“We get past our second show and I get an email from Robert. At the end, he said, ‘Can I make a suggestion?’” How Robert Fripp helped Steve Vai tailor his King Crimson playing on the BEAT tour with one piece of advice

After watching clips of one of the early BEAT shows, the King Crimson guitarist had some words of wisdom for his stand-in regarding an especially tricky track

Guitar World

"After a lifetime listening to hard rock and heavy metal I discovered Talking Heads and realised how good music could really be": Talking Heads open up new worlds on Remain In Light

In which Talking Heads seamlessly merged funk, afrobeat and early hip-hop rhythms with their more abrasive art-rock ideas

Louder

“A lot of the guitar parts were totally within my ability, but there were a couple that I just couldn’t navigate”: Steve Vai reveals the King Crimson riff that had him beat and the tip from Robert Fripp that helped him nail it

Celebrating the ‘80s material of prog trailblazers King Crimson, the BEAT Tour gave Vai a welcome fix of “high-information music” but some of Fripp’s material pushed him to the limit

MusicRadar

“This is a guy who worked for Frank Zappa. Frank said to him, ‘Whatever you do, don’t learn how to read music.’ He's all-creative –he's a miracle, really”: Steve Vai on BEAT, being a virtuoso in his 60s – and the Fripp riff he just couldn’t master

He reflects on how Frank Zappa helped him and Adrian Belew, the value of learning from rather than competing with other players and changing rig for his tour with Joe Satriani. But who’s going to be in the SatchVai band?

Guitar World

“Anti-colonialist anguish, hope, joy and the search for connection, all through his guitar. That’s what makes a guitar hero”: Guitarists of the Year 2024 – the players who took 2024 by storm

Slash made a blues record. St. Vincent boggled our minds again. And Grace Bowers blew everyone away… Here we take a look at the players who made 2024 a banner year for the instrument

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“You can rehearse until you’re blue in the face, but once you hit the stage, all bets are off”: How King Crimson was reborn at the hands of Steve Vai and Adrian Belew

2024 Year in Review: The all-star Beat tour brought King Crimson’s music to thousands of eager prog fans

Guitar World

“My stock answer was, ‘No.’ Most people who approach me to do something like that are looking to relive the glory days of ’80s rock”: Why Steve Vai dropped his anti-supergroup stance to help revive some of King Crimson’s most celebrated work

BEAT has been celebrating King Crimson’s 1980s albums, with Adrian Belew and Steve Vai’s new guitar partnership at its core

Louder

“I can’t say what it will feel like…I’m wise enough to know I’ve got to hear this before judging”: How King Crimson offshoot BEAT moved from an all-star dream to reality

When Adrian Belew failed to persuade the 80s line-up to reunite, he had to come up with another way of bringing that decade’s three albums back to life – and he did it

Louder

The official film of King Crimson's legendary 1982 Munich show is now free to watch online

Watch Robert Fripp, Bill Bruford, Adrian Belew and Tony Levin unleash the King Crimson beast

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Guitar World

“He stuck his head out and said, ‘Can you give me a ride home?’ Next thing I know, I’m driving Frank Zappa to Laurel Canyon”: When cult guitar hero Rob Fetters went to pick Adrian Belew up from a Zappa rehearsal – and ended up giving his idol a lift

In the late 1970s, Fetters swung by the studio to pick up Belew, but ended up picking up a rather famous plus one for the journey home

Louder

“He said he reflected the craziness around him – he’d see other people go nuts and write about that”: Frank Zappa’s talent for using popular music to sell unpopular music, by people who helped him

Jon Anderson, Adrian Belew, Mike Keneally and Don Preston discuss dealing with the filthy freak’s genius up close – and what you’re missing if you haven’t investigated his catalogue

Guitar World

He's one of the most technically proficient of all prog rock guitarists, and his guitar parts would take several lifetimes to fully comprehend. Dare you enter the court of the Crimson King, Robert Fripp?

We delve into the mad, brilliant lead phrasing and fearsome alternate picking of one of guitar's true masters

Guitar World

“It dishonors that brand to say, ‘Now we’re King Crimson.’ But we do have the ability to say, ‘Look, this is legitimate – half of the band is onstage here”: Adrian Belew, Steve Vai and Tony Levin on how they made Beat – with Robert Fripp’s blessing

Performing material from King Crimson's trailblazing '80s oeuvre, Beat finds three kings of the strings with the peerless Danny Carey pushing the envelope and Steve Vai doing Robert Fripp proud

Louder

"We worked out a way for the whole world to tune in": King Crimson-affiliated act Beat announce global livestream of upcoming Los Angeles show

Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Steve Vai and Danny Carey are currently on the road playing the music of 80s-era King Crimson

Guitar World

“David Bowie asked me if I wanted to go out to dinner with John Lennon! I had a big ‘dilemma’ moment; I was hearing certain musical things in my head. I didn’t wanna go out and lose myself”: Carlos Alomar on making Fame, Heroes – and Bowie’s Berlin era

The former David Bowie guitarist talks Young Americans, Station to Station and the Berlin Trilogy, plus recording (and co-writing) Fame with John Lennon

Guitar World

“I felt like Ken Parker had taken 20 years to eliminate all the things that normally go wrong with a Fender or Gibson”: Adrian Belew on how he persuaded the famed luthier to create his mind-bending signature Parker Fly

Belew is using his signature Parker Fly as his go-to guitar on the 65-date Beat Tour with Steve Vai, Tool drummer Danny Carey, and King Crimson alumnus Tony Levin

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