King Crimson - 1971-10-19 Sheffield, UK (2012)

This very clear and extremely listenable audience recording has the band in fine form in Sheffield. Cirkus has a somewhat eerie beginning with Wallace hissing out the title of the piece over Sinfield’s VCS3-generated waves. The following track, brimming with confidence, shows how tight the line-up had become. After an equally authoritative reading of Pictures, Wallace once again takes to the microphone doing his Monty Python-inspired My Hobby (heard more clearly perhaps on the Denver Summit recording KCCC 35). From the ridiculous to the sublime with a lovely reading of Formentera and into a scorching rendition of Sailor’s Tale, complete with chordal revved-up solo that harries and swipes at the rhythm section. As Collins supplies a spectral Mellotron this builds into one of the best versions of the piece that you’re likely to hear. As ever, there’s lots of power and fun to be had during Groon, and listen out for Fripp’s unaccompanied solo at the end which seems to be flirting with the Peace theme from Poseidon in places. All told, an exceptionally powerful gig!