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John Wetton??

#41
I love John Wetton's playing...I have all his work with Family, KC, UK, the live Roxy album. I even owned the two Uriah Heep albums he played on, but they were such colossal pieces of dung that I got rid of them.

I even loved the first two Asia albums.

But, it must be said...he has been flat-out awful as a songwriter ever since. Treacly nonsense at its worse.

BTW, there is a good book out there called In The Court Of The Crimson King, all about KC. Includes neat tidbits like, after Greg Lake left, some pudgy keyboardist named Reg Dwight was tapped to provide vocals for the second album, but Fripp nixed it. Said lad changed his name and moved on to bigger things. ;-)
 
#42
Originally posted by john turner
if you guys dig red era king crimson, you should check out a swedish band named anekdoten. they have a similar lineup - bass, guitar, drums and cello with the occasional mellotron, and their first album is very similar in general sound to that era of kc. they've since grown into a very unique sound, with familliar kc-ish undertones. sorta primus-y at times, with much better vocals.

they have a web page...

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check out the samples for the first 2 songs of vemod, their first album, they have them on their web page.
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Thanks JT for this info, I'm a hell of a fan of the 1973-1974 KC era...

All the best,
 
#46
Originally posted by fhodshon
other bands:
SLEEPY TIME GORILLA MUSEUM
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Hey, were you at the Knitting Factory show in Hollywood? I got some great pics:

http://www.chromatic-fantasy.com/2002-06-20-sleepytime-gorilla-museum/

icon.jpg


- Dave
 
#48
may i also add to this bio some info?
he was in a band called mogul thrash that released a record in the u.k only ( @ 1970 ) . never heard it though .. very rare & very expensive .
made an album " caught in the crossfire " from 1980 ( featuring martin barre from jethro tull on a few tracks . also a poor lp from 1979 titled " jack knife " AVOID . in 1987 came " wetton / manzanera on geffen records . a live cd titled chasing the dragon was released in 1994. i hope this helps a little . :>
 
#49
Wetton is definitely one of my influences; with UK, Crimso,
even Asia (the first album anyway) It's all good stuff..I saw
the first Asia tour at the Santa Monica Civic in '82. Fantastic
show. "Pop Prog" for the masses... That album went #1 BTW.

Slug
 
#53
think Robert described the Bruford+Wetton rhythm section as "terrifying" - both in terms of playing over and the sonic results.
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Glad to see this thread. I think the Wetton-era Crimson band was classic. And the sections of Starless with Bill and John trading punches Starless, Fracture, Trio) ought to be required listening.

-- I also like his vocals.

So John was on a P bass for those recordings? On Larks Tongues too?

Did he ever play fretless?

John
 
#54
David Watts said:
I saw UK play in 1979, they opened for Jethro Tull. The lineup at the time was Wetton, Jobson, and Terry Bozzio. The only reason I mention it is that I hadn't seen Bozzio's name mentioned above, in connection with Wetton or UK. Oh yeah, they were amazing, as was Tull.
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I snuck backstage during that tour when U.K./Tull played in my town. I was 15 or 16 at the time. I've been a huge Tull fan since 1972, so I was hoping to hang out and talk with the band members. The security was really lax. I cruised all over the backstage area. I even helped the roadies wheel around the band's road cases. I remember drooling at Terry Bozzio's chromed Slingerland set as it was pushed past me. Eddie Jobson was really pissed off at the end of their set; The crowd was booing them and shouting; "Tull! Tull!" He really threw a fit when they were asked to play an encore. I didn't dare talk to him, but John was really cool and so was Terry. We exchanged a bit of small talk. I got to say 'Hi' (think Chris Farley as the awestruck interviewer) to Ian Anderson right before I was ejected from the hall by a screaming Road Manager.

The thing that sucked was I started listening to KC about 6 months after that and I became a really big admirer of Wetton's style...but I didn't know who he was when I was talking with him backstage months beforehand!!! :bawl:

I love John's playing and singing. His aggressive style on that old P-Bass was a real inspiration for me. I'd like to know what he used for his main amp from Crimso through UK. I think he used HiWatt's during his KC days? What a monster tone. His singing on "Exile's" off the live "USA" album was fantastic.

Agreed, I too enjoy 'Starless and Bible Black' the most of that era of Crimso (Mark IV?).

I have all 3 of the UK releases on disc. For anyone interested, thay can easily be found on Amazon.com.

-Art
 
#55
Arthur U. Poon said:
I'd like to know what he used for his main amp from Crimso through UK. I think he used HiWatt's during his KC days? What a monster tone. His singing on "Exile's" off the live "USA" album was fantastic.
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For a while at least, live he used a Cerwin-Vega folded horn cab -- dubbed "The Vega" by the band.
 

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