BEAT: 21st Century Crimson Men
By Bill Kopp
Formed in 1969 in London, King Crimson was at the vanguard of progressive rock. Led by innovative guitarist Robert Fripp, the band made some of the most boundary-pushing, uncompromising music ever heard. But in the group’s original run (1969-1974) King Crimson went through myriad changes; though they released eight albums, no lineup stayed together long enough to make a second record.
That changed when the group resumed operation in 1981. A quartet featuring two British musicians (Fripp and former Yes drummer Bill Bruford) and two Americans (guitarist Adrian Belew and Chapman stick player Tony Levin) debuted a different, even more forward-looking sound. This new Crim drew inspiration from industrial and so-called world music, with a strong improvisational approach that connected it to earlier lineups. The ‘80s King Crimson would make three acclaimed albums before it, too, went inactive.
King Crimson would return for two more extended runs, finally going out on a high note and calling it a day in 2021. But the appeal of the 1980s lineup has long held a special place in the hearts and minds of listeners. And those fans were given a true gift when the formation of BEAT was announced: a new quartet featuring two members of the ‘80s King Crimson lineup would be joined by two more world-class virtuoso players: guitar wizard Steve Vai and Tool drummer Danny Carey.
BEAT is in the midst of a 60-plus date North American tour, bringing the game-changing music of 1980s King Crimson to 21st century concert audiences. Ahead of the tour, Rock On spoke with guitarist, singer, songwriter and project leader Adrian Belew.
The ‘80s lineup of King Crimson was radically different from what had come before; it had its own distinct sound and sensibility. How closely will BEAT follow the sound, character and structure of those arrangements?
Well, I’m in charge of picking the arrangements and the songs. And I think some of them have essentials that have to be followed. There’s not much reason to fool with certain things; they are what they are, and people will want to hear them that way. It will never be exactly like the record, because I don’t want Steve Vai or Danny Carey to play exactly like the record. I want them to be themselves. And I think that’s what the audiences want.
But I think having Steve Vai in the band, for example, there’s a lot of places where I see that we could gradually develop outward from there on our own. I mean, I want to see him playing Steve Vai stuff, and I want to hear that myself. He sends me a video almost every day showing me where he is in his journey of finding everything, and I can see that he’s getting more and more comfortable with all of it. And I’m coaching him a little bit, saying, “That part right there, you don’t have to play it like Robert [did]. You can do your own sounds.”
I feel it may be close to the original stuff a bit more at the beginning, but we have 65 shows. And we’re not a cover band; we’re gonna develop it. The idea is to celebrate the music, but it’s also to push it forward in our own ways and make it more in sync with what is happening now.
Personally, though, I have gone back and taken great lengths to find some of the sounds that I had back then, which are now pretty hard to find. And I’ve changed my own gear to be half modern and half vintage. A big part of that [‘80s Crimson] sound was two things in the guitar world.
There was the running dual guitar, things that were clean sounding on songs like “Three of a Perfect Pair” and “Frame by Frame.” And then there were the different things that each of us did in our own way. Robert with his type of soloing, and me with all my crazy sounds and my soloing.
And then there were the synthesizer parts on songs like “The Sheltering Sky.” The essence of that sound has a lot to do with the [Roland] GR300 guitar synth of that era. Roland has released two new synthesizers that can do some of that, and Steve will be using some of the new stuff. I’ve heard what he’s doing with it, and it’s very good. But I’m going to use my original GR 300.
I don’t think I’ve seen anybody play a GR300 in decades!
No, you haven’t.
In revisiting the material from Discipline, Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair, have you made any new discoveries about those pieces?
I knew what Bill [Bruford] was doing because I’m [also] a drummer, and he was my favorite drummer at the time anyway. But the surprising thing to me was how many things I discovered that the other guys were doing. I was so busy taking care of my roles, writing the material and then touring; it was all just a race against time. And so I didn’t always have the time to check out: “Wow. Tony Levin is playing one of our ‘guitar’ parts right there!”
But it’s more to do with what Robert and Tony were doing that surprises me now. And it’s always amazing. When I look back at our live shows, I think, “Oh, my gosh, how did I do that?” But I’m not trying to do it note-for-note the same way now anyway. But I feel like I’ve got a leg up in the sense that I do know some of it and I will be attacking it in that way.
And yet playing with the new [gear] that I have available now, there are so many exciting guitar things that I want to apply to that music.
When I first heard the Discipline LP, I remember thinking that there was really no precedent for what King Crimson was doing. Did you have a sense at the time that the four of you were really blazing new paths?
I thought there was nothing at all like it. For one thing, every one of us had new technologies at our fingertips that no one else had used. Both Robert and I had guitar synthesizers. Bill was the first person silly enough to try to make electronic drums work. And then Tony Levin walked in with this thing called the Chapman stick, something you’d never even seen before.
So I knew the musical language of what we were doing was going to be different, no matter what. And it was a time period when there was a lot of freedom and creativity. At least in our line of the music business, but maybe not in the mainstream. But it was a time when you really felt like you could do those kinds of things, and King Crimson were definitely the people to do it.
Someone told me once, “You guys have a license to kill.” And I think that’s true, because we could do whatever we wanted. We weren’t trying to be the next big thing; we weren’t trying to write hit songs or be on the radio or anything. We were just trying to create something no one had ever heard.
BEAT strikes me as an opportunity for that music to get some of the recognition that it didn’t get the first time around…
Absolutely. And that’s another reason to do it. That’s another thing I thought: “That music, those records deserve a second chance. They are pretty timeless. They sound brand new. They sound fresh.” There’s still nothing like it.
Psychedelic Furs
Psychedelic Furs
Psychedelic Furs
By Bill Kopp-
The Psychedelic Furs burst onto the London postpunk scene in 1977. As the group’s name suggests, the Furs came on strong with a dark, brooding approach that drew from punk and ‘60s psychedelia, setting them apart from many of their contemporaries. From the start, their rough-hewn sound was a hit with critics, earning the band an underground following.
Led by brothers Richard (vocals) and bassist Tim Butler, The Psychedelic Furs broke through with their third LP, 1982’s Forever Now. A single from that record, “Love My Way” was an international hit and a U.S. Top 40 single. The band got another commercial boost in 1986 when a re-recorded version of the title track from their second album was used as the theme song for a popular John Hughes-directed film. The group continued with well-received albums and tours into the early 1990s, and then the Butler brothers put the band on hiatus, launching another group, Love Spit Love.
But by 2000, the group restarted, and has continued ever since. Unlike many of their contemporaries, though, the Psychedelic Furs have written and released new material rather than coasting on the success of decades past. The Psychedelic Furs come to the Grand Sierra Resort on Sunday, November 3, sharing a bill with The Jesus and Mary Chain. Rock On spoke with Tim Butler about the Psychedelic Furs’ past, present and future.
Psychedelic Furs
Psychedelic Furs
When the Psychedelic Furs’ self-titled debut album was released in 1980, it was remarkably different from much of what was going on musically at the time. In those early days, what was the vision for what the group wanted to do?
There was not really any concrete vision. When we started out, we couldn’t really play well, so we sort of went for more of the Velvet Underground-y, elongated songs. We’d jam around and stuff, trying to work out our instruments, basically. The whole sound of songs like “India” was just everybody [in the band] trying to be noticed; it was like a wall of chaos. We were huge Roxy Music fans, too. Because Roxy Music has very interesting song arrangements; not your usual verse / chorus / middle eight / verse/ chorus. So we took our cues from those two bands.
Todd Rundgren produced your third album, Forever Now. That choice was controversial in some quarters; everyone seemed to have an opinion about it. What were your feelings about it at the time?
We thought it was great. We – especially Vince [Ely], our drummer at the time – were big fans of his. We were wanting to move on to start using strings and horns. Todd had produced an album called Faithful, with covers of songs by the Beach Boys and other bands in that era; he used strings and other interesting instruments and arrangements. So we thought he was a perfect choice when he offered to produce Forever Now, and we went into it really excited.
Along with Made of Rain, it’s my favorite Furs album.
From where did the idea come to have Flo and Eddie [Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of the Turtles] sing on that album?
That was Todd. And at first we didn’t want it; we were like, “Oh, they’re a couple of old farts from the ‘60s.” Todd said, “I don’t want to use them [just] as ‘backing vocalists.’ I want to use them as a different instrument, because of their vocal ranges.” So they came in. We didn’t go to the studio with them, because we were dead against it, but we allowed Todd to try it out. And when we heard “Love My Way,” we were like, “Okay! What else can we use them on?” We were totally sold. They’ve done backing vocals for everybody; they’re a couple of cool guys.
Another thing that set that song apart was the fact that we used marimba. That was an idea we had when we made demos in England. And it made a refreshing sound on the radio: Todd on marimbas, and Flo and Eddie.
Tell me about a Psychedelic Furs track that you feel is perhaps overlooked among listeners.
I’d say “Only You and I” from Forever Now. It’s not often pointed out as a fan favorite, but it’s one of my favorite tracks. I think it’s great because of the song structure, which was a move up for us after [1981’s] Talk Talk Talk.
The 1980s were a time when pop songs started being added to film soundtracks. How did the use of “Pretty in Pink” in the film of the same name affect the group’s trajectory and fortunes?
Oh, it was good and bad. It was good because it got us through to a lot more people. But the bad is that a lot of our hardcore original fans thought we’d sold out, so they gave up coming to see us!
Thank goodness now, those fans – and younger fans – are coming back to see us. I guess they’ve forgiven us for the pop faux pas!
In 2020, the Psychedelic Furs defied the odds and released an album of all new material, Made of Rain. Forty years after your debut, you made an album that got great critical notices. Not many bands from the ‘80s have been able to do something like that. Why do you think that you succeeded in that regard where other bands have not?
When we got back together, it took us a while to have the confidence and the nerve to record songs. We had songs, but we were sort of worried that [some of them] weren’t going to fit in with our catalog. But when we finally had songs that we thought were great, we did it pretty quickly.
We didn’t go to the studio wanting to recreate the sound from the eighties; during the time in between, you’d hear other music and you’d get influences. So we went in there and put our heads together.
What’s great about Made of Rain is that the songs were played in one or two takes; we rehearsed them, but then we went in, recorded one or two takes and picked the best one. And then we overdubbed over the top of that, which gave it a freshness, as opposed to rehashing over and over again, which we did on [1987’s] Midnight to Midnight. We took too long on that one; it’s overproduced and lacking a certain energy.
Is the band continuing to work on new material?
Yes, but as with Made of Rain, we’re not forcing ourselves to [work within] any particular time. Basically, we’re still promoting Made of Rain, because when it came out, Covid was happening; we couldn’t tour. So we’re sort of making up for that. After the tour, we’ll probably think about writing new songs.
Does the set list for the current tour survey the Psychedelic Furs’ entire history?
Oh, yeah. On this tour, we just got back from Spain, and we’ve been playing some songs that are much demanded but that we had rarely or never played live. So I think the audience will be really happy.
Forty-plus years on with the Psychedelic Furs, what keeps it interesting for you?
Just going out there and playing for the audience and getting the reaction from them; there’s nothing better. There’s no drug that could replace seeing an audience singing your songs while you’re playing them. It makes all the work we put into it worthwhile.
Juda Priest
Judas Priest’s Ian Hill: Bassist for the High Priests of Metal - By Bill Kopp
Judas Priest roared out of industrial Birmingham, England in the early 1970s. Once the group found its footing – bringing on powerful, operatic and charismatic lead singer Rob Halford – Judas Priest’s hard-charging, twin-lead guitar attack broke through in a big way. Leaders in the new wave of British heavy metal movement, Priest earned critical praise and widespread popularity. The band racked up more than a decade’s worth of hit albums; every album from 1977’s Sin After Sin through 1990’s Painkiller went gold or better.
And the band is going strong today, more than 50 years after the release of its first record. Judas Priest’s latest, Invincible Shield serves up the group’s patented metal for modern-day audiences. Just ahead of a North American tour that brings Judas Priest to more than two dozen cities, bassist and founding member Ian Hill spoke with Rock On about the band’s early days, its rise to fame, and the new music it’s still making.
Judas Priest toiled for years before really hitting the big time. What do you think explains that relatively slow climb to being a success?
There's no such thing as an overnight success. There's only a decade's hard work going into the overnight success. I think you can put it down pretty much to one song.
We've been together since 1969. We were learning our trade and just building up locally. We were having a steady build with the first record, Rocka Rolla, which came out in ‘74. It was released by a small record company called Gull; I think they were sort of hoping that we would make them [successful] rather than the other way around. It became apparent that they really hadn't got the financial clout to get us abroad, especially to America. Getting all the gear and whatever to America for a tour would have cost quite a bit of money, and they just didn't have the funds.
Long story short, we ended up with CBS Records in ‘76. At the time they were one of the biggest record companies. This was in the days when record companies were prepared to wait for their profits; they could see potential not just with us, but other acts as well. And they [understood], “Okay, we're not going to make money overnight with this lot, but we’ll stick with them and we'll earn it in the long run.”
And that's what happened: We had a steady build right up to [our eighth album, 1982’s] Screaming for Vengeance. We started recording that in a small island in Spain called Ibiza, and finished it off at Beejay Studios in Orlando, Florida. But we were one song short on the album.
This was in the days of vinyl; you could only get so much music on a record before [the quality] started to deteriorate. The grooves got closer together, they got shallower, less information; what have you. But we discovered we could squeeze one more on, so we threw together “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’.” And mainstream radio picked it up and played the hell out of it!
My lasting memory of starting that tour was that [small-venue] gigs were being canceled and [new dates at] larger venues were pouring in. And it was all because of the heavy airplay that we got with that song. That lifted the band’s status from playing town halls – Agora Ballrooms and things like that, 5,000 people, maybe 6,000 at a push – and suddenly we played to ten or twelve thousand people. And I believe that it was all down to that one track.
Some bands find success with an album and spend the rest of their careers making that record over and over again. Judas Priest has been consistent; you always seemed to be moving forward. Was that by design?
Yeah; we tried to build with each album, try and get better. You're learning stuff every day, and we still are, even after all these years. Sometimes – one or two instances – we’ve stepped sideways, but we try to step forward. And I think it's why, when you look out at the audience even now, there's a hell of a lot of young faces down there. And when I say young, I'm not talking about 40 or 50. I'm talking late teens, early twenties. They're singing along to the lyrics, not just to the new album, but to all the older stuff as well.
We’ve stayed relevant over the years, and that’s enabled us to make that contact with the younger audience. If you didn't know who we were and listen to Invincible Shield or Firepower, for instance, we could be any new, up-and-coming band. We've kept up that momentum.
Invincible Shield has done really well, and in a lot of places. It did well on the charts here in the US. It went Top Ten in the UK, France and Norway. And it made it to number one in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. What do you think explains the enduring popularity of what Judas Priest is doing?
The essence of the band, the signature sound is all-important. Obviously there's been changes with Richie [Faulkner] taking over from Ken [K.K. Downing, longtime guitarist]. Richie's been with the band now for 12, 13 years; [other] bands have come and gone in that time. And of course, initially, he was trying to fill in for Ken, doing Ken's parts. But he's had Glenn right there with him, giving him the hints and the pointers. When we started to record albums with Richie, he could be himself. He could be Richie Faulkner rather than “Richie Downing.” And he sort of blossomed.
And Andy [Sneap] is now standing in for Glenn [Tipton], who unfortunately is not able to do a great deal these days. And the same thing happened with Andy, you know, when he became apparent that Glenn wasn't going to be able to do tours.
He was the perfect choice; he had just produced Firepower, so he was familiar with all of the new stuff. And he was a fan of the band anyway.
So it’s all worked out; it’s worked a treat. The band sound has been able to remain there, recognizable all the way through those changes.
You were 17 when you joined the band. If someone could travel back in time and tell that 17 year-old, “When you're 72, you're still going to be playing with Judas Priest,” how do you think he would have reacted?
I wouldn't have believed it! The thing is, an artist at 72 years of age, still belting out contemporary music back then in the late ‘60s, that simply didn't exist. Bing Crosby was in his sixties. Sinatra was in his early fifties. The thought of somebody jigging about on stage at 72? “No, people die when they're 72!” So it wouldn't have made any sense at all.
I think everybody gets a watershed moment when you have to make that decision: Are you going to make it a go or not? And it happened for me around 1972. We were getting gig offers that were coming in from 300 miles away on a Wednesday night. And if you've got a job, you can't do that! You finish work, you go back home, get yourself cleaned up, load the stuff in the van, go do the gigs, and then back home for work the next morning.
So you’ve got to make that decision. We all had the kind of jobs that you could sort of walk into any day: heavy industrial based jobs. So we all said, “Yeah, let's give it a go!”
It could have been different. And we never would have known, would we? But with hindsight, you look back, and going with Judas Priest was a good decision.