King Crimson bandmates Adrian Belew and Tony Levin are celebrating the '80s-era of the band with a series of all-star concerts with Steve Vai and Danny Carey!
"Beat," will present music from 1981's Discipline 1982's Beat and 1984's Three of a Perfect Pair, which marked the 80's incarnation of King Crimson that folded the band's complex progressive sound with a more artsy new wave side provided by Belew, after his work with Talking Heads in the early 80's. The tour begins in San Jose, and goes across the country before wrapping in Las Vegas.
Tickets go on sale Friday, at www.BEAT-tour.com, with meet-and-greet and VIP tour packages available. Belew and Levin joined King Crimson in 1981 with Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford, and have Fripp's blessing on the project.
"I went back to Robert and said, 'Here's what I've got,'" Belew said. "We talked about a lot of things. He had a lot of questions but he said, 'What are you thinking of calling it?' The producers had made up a name which had my name in it – which I didn’t like that much because I didn't feel it represented the whole band, but I told Robert anyway. They wanted to call it Crimson Belew. He said, 'Hmmm, oh.' I could tell he was balking. I said, 'Well, I don't really like it either. I'm not happy with that, but what would you call it?'"
Fripp said, "'You know, I've always used the term 'Discipline' for all of my business and everything for years now. For 13 years, you and Tony and Pat Mastelotto have had your band camp and you guys called that 'Three of a Perfect Pair.' Why don't you call it 'Beat. I said, 'Will that get your support?' He said, 'Yeah, you have my support and blessing.'"
Producer and podcaster Rick Beato sat down with the group for the announcement on his podcast.