PLUMPTON FESTIVAL, PLUMPTON, ENGLAND, AUGUST 09, 1969

Straight Outta Plumpton! Plumpton Comes Alive! Heh, whatever you call it (the official King Crimson release of this is called Plumpton Festival, or Live At Plumpton in the Complete 1969 box set), "Plumpton" is a fun name to say. You know what's even more fun? The 1969 lineup of King Crimson tearing it up! Though it also has some audio issues, the official release of this (a cut-down selection of tracks from this gig were put out as a 1992 bootleg) actually sounds somewhat better than the Marquee or Hyde Park sets from this year, and finds the band in fine form.

At this stage, the band were right in the middle of producing In the Court of the Crimson King, and it is clear that already some musical evolution has taken place from that wild Hyde Park appearance. Though they're still covering Donovan (and would continue to do so right into the Lizard era), it feels like they've already realised that their more advanced progressive rock sound is the most interesting part of their repertoire and are dialling back the psychedelic wooliness a bit, and the album tracks sound much as they ended up sounding on the album, albeit with the sort of variation you would expect in the improvisation sections or arising from the limitations of the audio.