By ERIC SCHELKOPF
Having worked together for more than 30 years, it is fair to say musician Robert Fripp and record producer David Singleton know a lot about each other both musically and personally.
Since last month, Fripp and Singleton have been touring the county as part of a speaking tour affectionally dubbed “That Awful Man And His Manager.” The tour will wind up Sunday at the City Winery, 1200 W. Randolph St., Chicago.
Doors open at 6 p.m. and the show will start at 8 p.m. Tickets range in price from $62 to $95, available at citywinery.com/chicago.
Singleton established the DGM record label with Fripp in 1993 and has managed King Crimson since 2018. He is also King Crimson’s producer and author of “The Vicar Chronicles.”
I had the chance to interview Singleton about the tour.
Q – Of course the Chicago date is the last date of the tour. How has the tour being going? Have any of the questions surprised you?
It’s gone very well. The audiences have been slightly smaller than certainly the promoters expected, but probably the quality of the questions have been much higher than we might have expected.
We've had people quite regularly seeking practical answers, such as a guitarist or a songwriter. Some people are also wanting to know Robert’s stories, like what was it like to work with David Bowie or Brian Eno or many of the other people he collaborated with.
Q – I saw a video from your stop at the City Winery in New York City on Sept. 23 and
there was a question from the audience about time signatures and Robert
had the audience clapping to demonstrate how time signatures work. So
that seems like that was not only informative, but also fun.
The idea is that they are entertaining as well so hopefully they are entertaining evenings and also informative. It’s a mixture of both.
Q – What was your idea in wanting to do this in the first place?
Well, it grew out of something we used to do before King Crimson concerts. Before the King Crimson concerts, I used to come out an hour before speaking to people who paid extra for early access.
I would play them snippets from the archives and show them how things worked behind the scenes in creating the albums. As it grew, Robert used to come out for about 10 minutes at the start to introduce me.
At the time, he was frustrated because people kept on wanting to ask him questions and because he was about to play a King Crimson show, he couldn’t really pay proper attention to answer the questions of people.
Q – Speaking of King Crimson, I see that DGM Ltd this month is launching the documentary “In the Court of the Crimson King, King Crimson at 50,” which is directed by Toby Amies.
We’re doing a big streamed video on demand launch from London on Oct. 22. There will be a screening in London and Robert will be there. He’ll be doing a live introduction, we’ll be showing the movie and then doing questions and answers afterwards.
There will be some theatrical screenings, but we don’t know when they will be yet.
Q – Why was it important to get this documentary out there and what do you think people will get out of it?
Well, there’s never been a King Crimson documentary and with the 50th anniversary, which was 2019, we felt that would be an appropriate time to do a review of King Crimson and present King Crimson to a wider audience.
We commissioned the movie I think in late 2017 or early 2018 so it would be out in time for 2019. The movie took much longer to make than anybody expected.
It took four years to make so it didn’t come out for the 50th anniversary. In some ways, the movie went further than we expected.
It’s a movie about musicians and their search for perfection and why music matters. It’s probably a movie that is interesting to anyone who is interested in music, whether you’re a King Crimson lover or not.
Q – Why do you think you hit it off so well with Robert Fripp and why do you continue to like to work with him?
Philosophically, we possibly both share common aims. I think we both have a belief that the music has to come first.
It’s just been one of those partnerships where we share a common sensibility and therefore things work very well.
The tour is being billed as “That Awful Man And His Manager.” Robert does indeed have a reputation as being an awful man.
But actually in a sense, I’ve never met that awful man. Robert’s reputation is because if he has to choose, he will choose to do whatever is right for the music first.
If something needs changing for the music to be be right, he is willing to change it, which obviously can annoy people. Some people may think that he’s being nasty to them.
He’s simply saying that we’ve got to get the music right.
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