U.K. Supergroup

Anyone who knows me well knows Progressive Rock is one of my favorite genre. I know I started liking it when I was in middle school because I was looking at a book of album cover art and was completely transfixed by King Crimson's In The Court of the Crimson King.  The artwork is amazing and still gives me goose pimples and the music is so amazing I have problems describing it to people.  That is why I have not talked about it here on the blog just yet.  It will come, but it's going to take a bit of time.  I promise it will come and you will get the complete picture.

After falling in love with King Crimson I decided to follow the band members solo and group outings outside King Crimson.  I followed Adrian Belew to Talking Heads and Frank Zappa as well as solo.  I filled Robert Fripp to his solo album Exposure and awesome session work.  I filled Greg Lake to Emerson Lake and Palmer.  I followed Tony Levin to his session work and work with Peter Gabriel.  I followed Bill Bruford to his Jazz bands and to his Progressive Rock leaning that lead me to a band called U.K.  This band was a true supergroup like Cream.  The other members include John Wetton a King Crimson alum, Allan Holdworth who played with Tony Williams Lifetime and Soft Machine and other ventures.  Last but not least Eddie Jobson who played with Roxy Music, Curved Air, and Frank Zappa just to name a few.  On paper this was great, in the studio and in performance they were amazing.

I stumbled upon this quartet while looking for other music.  I saw the LP just sitting there in the King Crimson section at the record store.  I knew the rhythm section well, after all they were part of a really great era of King Crimson.  I knew little about Jobson and Holdsworth.  I picked it up and brought it home.  The clerk at the record store endorsed it and said if King Crimson continued on and added a second guitar player this is what it would have sounded like.  He also told me that the keyboard work and violin playing is pretty amazing.  I told the clerk to take my money and I will check it out.

At first listen it sounded totally different from King Crimson, but on the other hand this band had King Crimson as a huge influence.  The musicianship was mind blowing and the harmonies were something we never saw in Crimson, but we saw a lot in Yes.  Given the time this came out, this was not put in the niche of Post-Punk or Disco or Arena Rock.  It was it's own style.  It did not bore us with too much.  It gave  us just enough. It was music that made total sense and purpose.  The strong lead vocals of John Wetton were just as crisp as they were when he was in King Crimson, if not better.

In the short time this band was together (2 years) they really did great music.  The sad part was they were a different band when Bill and Allan left, and formed  their own thing, They were still a good band, but this made the music seriously miss a few steps.  Songs like "Alaska," "In The Dead of Night" and "Time To Kill" are some of the best U.K. and Progressive Rock has to offer.  As the band broke up and went to other projects I hear so much that they could have done.  They were amazing players and talented for musicianship and craftsmanship that reached new heights.  I only wish they were together longer.

If your a Progressive Rock junkie like me then you know about this classic.  If you want to explore new music this album might be right up your ally.  The music here is amazing and as I said before, I wish this band was around longer, but it truly I guess was meant to be.  The band was amazing in their day.  Thanks to a great archive box that at one point was long overdue and finally came out with not only all their albums but a few live shows from the classic quartet lineup.  Sadly that Box is out of print.  It might be a hard search but it will be worth the find. I got a glimpse of part of the band at Nearfest with Wetton and Jobson and it was amazing.  With Wetton and Holdsworth passing away we may never see a band quite like this. Enjoy!!