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EXPLAINED: 3 - The Real Truth

“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

“There were arguments. But they weren’t personal – they were musical. They helped make it what it is”: How Yes defined themselves with Fragile, before success went to their heads

The arrival of Rick Wakeman, the freedom to be adventurous and the discovery of Roger Dean led to the creation of a prog landmark in 1971

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

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“In 1989 I paid a scalper $400 for a ticket to see The Who play Tommy. It was worth every cent”: Mike Portnoy on his top prog songs and artists, and why the Rolling Stones have the greatest-ever prog album sleeve

The Dream Theater drummer’s musical world includes Rush, Yes, King Crimson, Roger Waters and Frank Zappa – alongside the Bee Gees

Louder

Giles, Giles & Fripp remastered reissues coming on vinyl and CD in July

Robert Fripp's pre-King Crimson musical endeavours with Michael and Peter Giles to be released in July

Louder

“My upbeat moment is, I'm alive”: Robert Fripp reveals he’s recovering from a heart attack

The prog rock icon underwent two lots of emergency surgery in Italy, revealing there were “complex moments” along the way

Guitar World

Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox reveal Fripp is recovering from a recent heart attack

King Crimson leader Robert Fripp recently underwent two heart surgeries in Italy

Louder

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“I’ve heard Robert Fripp say no to everybody. David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, you name it, he always has an excuse not to play… He’s a wonderful husband but professionally it’s done me no favours”: Toyah Willcox is more than just Mrs King Crimson

From post-punk icon and award-winning female solo artist to becoming regarded as just the prog mastermind’s wife, her rebellious creative energy is fired by Roxy Music, Devo, The Tubes and all things off the wall

Louder

“The biggest challenge was not to come off like Tenacious D. It could easily be interpreted as some form of parody”: How Primus made an album about goblins and rainbows while trying not to mention goblins and rainbows

2017’s The Desaturating Seven was Les Claypool’s bid to explore the darkness of a 1970s children’s story, harnessing the influences of King Crimson, Tool and Sean Lennon

Louder

“I subsequently became the world’s most famous guitarist with The Police. I wanted to play with somebody else to see how I’d do, like an experiment on myself”: At the height of his ’80s success, Andy Summers needed a challenge – he found Robert Fripp

As Summers’ and Fripp’s avant-garde albums of the 80s are reissued, we hear all about how the side-project came to be – and whether it could happen again

Guitar World

"Come up to the bedroom now, honey!" Things get steamy in the Fripp-Willcox kitchen as Robert and Toyah tackle Rod Stewart's Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?

The Fripp-Willcox cover of Rod Stewart's classic features a rare lead vocal from Robert Fripp

Louder

King Crimson's Jakko M. Jakszyk announces his new solo album will be released in June

King Crimson vocalist and guitarist Jakko Jakszyk's new solo album, Son Of Glen, is a compaion piece ot his acclaimed autobiography

Louder

“He was riding a bicycle on stage. I had my camera on a tripod and, gee, what a coincidence – almost every night he’d knock it over!” Tony Levin on the differences between Peter Gabriel and Robert Fripp

Veteran bassist Tony Levin, who met Peter Gabriel and Robert Fripp on the same day in 1976, compares and contrasts the two band leaders

Louder

“I wasn’t into King Crimson at all. Definitely not my kind of music”: How Andy Summers formed one of the 1980s’ most unlikely guitar partnerships with Robert Fripp – despite not being especially keen on some of his work

The worlds of stadium rock and prog came together for a time in the early 1980s, when The Police and King Crimson guitarists teamed up for a handful of avant-garde records

Guitar World

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Louder

“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

“Every record was a battle… I was listening, like, ‘This is amazing!’ but Robert Fripp was reliving the pain and trying to find his way through that”: What Steven Wilson learned from remixing King Crimson

Admitting that arrogance played a role in accepting the challenge, Wilson was left with an even greater appreciation of Fripp’s achievements

Guitar World

“I used really weird things like the Tristan chord and the Prometheus chord to give some of the songs a mystical vibe”: With the return of Mike Portnoy, Dream Theater are fully reborn – and John Petrucci's still not done exploring new guitar frontiers

Wielding naught but his signature Ernie Ball Music Man Majesty, Petrucci has been studying different types of scales and different types of chords – and he says having Portnoy back on the drum stool makes the prog-metal institution feel like they're all 18 again

Louder

"It's got the filthiest tenor saxophone solo ever." Blur guitarist Graham Coxon reveals the prog rock song that changed his life

Blur guitarist Graham Coxon was a progressive rock fan as a teenager, and one song in particular captured his imagination

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Louder

“I don’t think he ever got over being fired from King Crimson… but he went on to bigger, more financially successful things”: Peter Sinfield, the prog poet who gave voices to ELP, Roxy Music and many others

Lyricist, art director, producer and all-round creative who aimed to enlighten, provoke or stir died in November 2024 without being fully aware of what he’d achieved

MusicRadar

“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

The Guardian - UK

Jamie Muir obituary

Percussionist best known for his work with King Crimson and his delight in exploring the boundaries of improvisation

Louder

Watch Toyah Willcox run her fingers seductively through Robert Fripp's hair as they perform Blondie's One Way Or Another

Warning: Includes bonus footage

Louder

“Peter Gabriel started singing over my solos. I was pissed off – ‘You’re singing on my bit!’ But that half-minute is probably our peak”: How Genesis made Supper’s Ready, arguably their greatest song

The band believe it’s the moment they began to become significant – and the construction of the 23-minute anthem for 1972’s Foxtrot was itself an epic experience

Louder

"He was such an interesting man. A funny combination of intensity and craziness." King Crimson's Jamie Muir remembered...

King Crimson biographer and Prog writer Sid Smith pays tribute to percussionist Jamie Muir, who died this weekend, aged 821

Louder

King Crimson percussionist Jamie Muir has died aged 82

Jamie Muir, who featured on King Crimson's Lark's Tongues In Aspic before leaving to become a Buddhist monk, has died

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