Adrian Belew: guitar & vocals
Robert Fripp: guitar
Trey Gunn: Warr guitar, rubber bass
Pat Mastelotto - drumming
King Crimson’s recent US tour was billed as “Celebrating 40 years” in recognition of the fact that the band has entered its fortieth year of engaging with an audience, whether via recordings or concerts. Of course there have been periods, occasionally lengthy ones, when the band has been placed on hiatus but few bands have proved to be as enduring. Fewer still can lay claim to such a musically diverse or influential output.
While 2001’s live album Level Five focused mainly on the lengthy, complex, instrumental material that is such a key element in Crimson’s musical armoury, the end of 2002 saw the release of the very different sounding Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With. Featuring mostly short tracks the mini-album was more song-centred and acted as an appetizer for The Power To Believe (2003) in much the same way that the mini-album VROOOM preceded and anticipated THRAK in the mid 1990s. Like Level Five, Happy also includes a hidden unlisted track. The title was altered to the more domestically friendly Shoganai for release in Japan. The mini-album was warmly received by the King Crimson fanbase, with expectations raised that 2003’s The Power to Believe would compare favourably to the band’s classic studio albums.
