Toby Amies has presented us with a documentary about one of the most Marmite-like bands, King Crimson.
Don't expect to have a further understanding of the history of the band after you've watched this doc, you'll not get one, just revel in the fact that you've been able to get this close. It won't happen again, not like this anyway. This isn't a doc that cares about the band's history.
Revel in the fact that you are given a brief insight into the sheer pants-filling fear that being a member of Crimson, and rehearsing and performing with perfectionists, who are so much in tune with the ethos of King Crimson, that if you put a note out of place, you'll get a spine-tinglingly terrifying glare from Robert Fripp.
I expected Fripp to be a preposterous fop, and sometimes he is, but he's also a passionate, hilarious and loving father figure to the band. Some of the interactions with Toby Amies and Robert Fripp are excrutiating, but mesmerising as well. You really feel for Toby sometimes, being chided for asking what on the surface are normal innocent questions, to have them turned on their head by Fripp, who scolds him like a mildly pissed-off headmaster.
I loved the interviews with former band members, who have their own stories to tell, which probably could be turned into a mini-series. Some are very sad stories, (Ian McDonald and Fripp want their heads knocking together) some are happy. There are some welcome visits into the past of the band, which don't go too deep, but then again this isn't that type of documentary, Amies isn't interested in giving a history of the band.
My favourite parts of the doc are with Fripp, and the current members of the band who are very funny, sarcastic, terrifying, honest, sad and look sometimes that they are members of a cult.
A part of the film that will haunt me are the interviews with Bill Reiflin, But I'm not going to dwell on those.
You can try to explain what King Crimson are, at the end of the day it's a personal thing, you can go deep into the meanings of the songs, the spirit of the band, what it's like to travel the world just to get a glimpse of them on stage, (but please no photos or filming during the show or you'll get thrown out), but I think one of the funniest summing up's of the band are shared to us by a Brazilian(?) lady in the crowd who simply states 'I Love Tony Levin!' In one amazing statement cutting through all the pretentious tosh and putting feminism back 30 years. Priceless.
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