LIVE AT THE MARQUEE 1971

This is a soundboard recording - and therefore offers pretty decent quality audio - of the Islands-era King Crimson lineup's August 10th 1971 set, as part of a residency they did at the Marquee. Whereas their residency at the Zoom Club earlier in the year found them in a free-wheeling mood as they felt out the live landscape, this has them a little more confident, though not without a few cracks showing - Robert Fripp tells a rather mean-spirited joke about Ian Wallace at the end of the set which doesn't seem particularly called-for.

Still, preceding that we get a dynamite set from the group, with an extensive improvisation (with, alas, perhaps an overlong drum solo gumming it up in the middle - OK, maybe Fripp's joke wasn't so unjustified after all), the cream of the first three albums, and most of the material which would become Islands already in place (The Sailor's Tale, Ladies of the Road, The Letters and Formentera Lady) - as you'd expect, given that they were about to go into the studio to record the album.

The sound quality isn't perfect here, but actually the biggest mars to it seem to be from technical failures on the night - Boz's microphone seems to have failed him in the final verse of 21st Century Schizoid Man, for instance - and all the songs are at least here in complete versions. As such, if you were keen to hear what the Islands-era lineup of the band were sounding like live before they cloistered themselves to record the album, you really can't go far wrong with this; the caveat, of course, is that like so much of the better archival Crimson live releases, this has been put out on the appropriate boxed set (Sailors' Tales), so if you're really that interested you should probably give half a thought to just getting the box and really immersing yourself in an underappreciated era of the band.