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Ah, the headless drum solo. This is King Crimson on tour with Roxy Music in Europe in 1982 and we were the ‘warm-up’ band. What that means is your soundcheck is minimal (even if you get one at all) and the (non-computerised) lights are set for the main act, not for you. Then the lighting man goes for dinner while you’re on. I learned to play in the dark. Moral of the story? Bring your own lighting tech.

Part of King Crimson’s mission or function back then was to use the new technology of the day; to take it down off the shelf and see what it could do. There was much talk of Roland Guitar synthesisers, log drums, Tama octobans (those clear conical drums), the Chapman Stick (that Tony Levin is playing), and Simmons electronic drums (the clattering things, but also the little pitched drums). I’d developed a specialised, hybrid electro-acoustic mélange of instruments specifically to accommodate and further the Crimson project at hand. The dense, loud, clattering Simmons do a good impression of the Burundi Drummers wired up. That kit surely wasn’t going to work in any other ensemble.

What I like in the drum performance here is the articulation. The drummer speaks with a precision and clarity that will reach to the back of a sea of people. I also like the content; several motifs appear, disappear and reappear as the spirit moves. But what I like less is that that articulation exacts a price: it sweeps away most of the subtlety and all of the ambiguity that make drumming attractive. In smaller rooms where you don’t have to shout, the nuance becomes audible and adds an extra layer of subtlety to the performance. Was it this, or was it that? Perhaps it was this and that simultaneously?

All the stuff that got me going was in small rooms: Gary Burton and Roy Haynes in a small room in Leeds, UK; Hendrix and Roland Kirk at Ronnie Scott’s in London, UK; Weather Report playing to two men and a dog in San Diego, CA. By the time it’s got to stadium level, it’s usually on auto-pilot.

On this song ‘Indiscipline’, my job was to create mayhem, and stop periodically. I think I got it about right!
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