Robert Fripp - 1981-02-21 Philadelphia, PA (Evening Show) (2011)

The whole two days at Houston Hall had been quite eventful on way or another. Writing on Elephant Talk on 13th February 2003, Spear man recalled the novel method of his and his pal's contribution to posterity: “Back in 81, robert fripp was doing his first frippertronic tour and was playing at the u. of pennsylvania in philly...we knew we had to tape it, but knowing how quirky fripp is on this issue and the small size of the venue, we had to resort to unconventional means...so we went to a medical supply house, rented a wheelchair, taped the mics to the arm rests, and had my buddy sitting in the thing with a blanket covering the deck...fripp, who was tuning up and checking his decks, graciously requested that our suddenly wheelchair bound buddy be placed right in front of him...at the end of a nice 60 minute set, and after fripp takes his bows, my buddy, who was being fed margaritas via a straw the whole time, starts screaming: "fripp healed me...i feel my legs...hallelujah...fripp is god", jumps outta the chair and runs outta the place...pandemonium ensues of course, and fripp is flabergasted...the story does not end though...next day, fripp is doing promo signing at a record store, and i walk in with a j-card and ask him to sign it for the guy he had healed yesterday, becuz the tape of the gig would be incomplete without it...needless to say, fripp went ballistic, spewing obscenities left and right...i had a good laugh...”

Writing in his diary of 17th February 2003 Fripp comments “Strangely, I don't remember "going ballistic", nor "spewing obscenities left and right". But hey - it's in the nature of memory to be selective.”

For her part, Kimberly Haas, who had organised the benefit performances has this observation: “I don’t recall the wheelchair and record store episodes. I was Robert’s host and driver, so I would have been at the record store, and I remember throughout his time here, hovering near him constantly, feeling protective of him and wanting to be at hand if he needed anything. I was exceedingly grateful that he was giving us these benefit performances, and even more so–plus a bit guilty–given his illness.

During one of the shows, Robert reached a point in the looping where he seemed satisfied with the composition, that it felt finished, so he stopped playing live. Perhaps to hear it better, or at least to experience what the audience was hearing, he got off the stage and moved into the audience. He approached two young men in the first row and gestured to ask to sit down. They of course made room for him. I clearly remember the look on their faces, something between rapture and panic: "Oh my god, Robert Fripp is sitting next to me!!!" Robert sat straight up, with hands on his knees and listened for a while, looked pleased, and eventually returned to the stage to wind it down."

All that survives of the final benefit gig in the evening are these two loops.

Our thanks to Al Okada for his help in preparing these recordings for release.