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Giles, Giles & Fripp - Why Don’t You Just Drop In.
Available for download at dgmlive.com

Robert Fripp was 80 on 16th May 2026. To celebrate this, DGM is curating a Fripp@80 series, with weekly digital releases throughout the year drawn from Robert’s solo and collaborative work. Each piece will be accompanied by commentaries fromRobert and David Singleton explaining the background to each selection.

This week we travel back to London in 1968, to a moment when the pieces of the King Crimson puzzle were falling into place. The Bournemouth trio Giles, Giles and Fripp had moved to London to look for work, something which proved to be short-lived, but through an ad in the Melody Maker they had been joined by Ian McDonald and Judy Dyble and were making demo recordings in their home studio at 93a Brondesbury Road on a Revox tape machine, including the Fripp compositon Why Don’t You Just Drop In. Ian would later bring in his lyricist friend Peter Sinfield. Meanwhile Robert’s Bournemouth pal Greg Lake had secured a deal with CBS to cut a single with his then band Shy Limbs. The recording session for a song called Reputation took place at Lansdowne Studios in Holland Park, London on October 1, and Robert was recruited to play lead guitar on the B-side Love. By the time the single was released in May the following year, King Crimson was already up and running. Both tracks feature Robert’s early use of a Burns Buzzaround fuzz box.

As part of the Fripp@80 celebrations there’s a unique chance to hear Robert’s 1979 solo record like it’s never been heard before.

A fully immersive 360° spatial audio playback of Exposure will be taking place at Polygon Portal, an intimate listening room in Soho, London on June 13, 2026.

No phones. No bar noise. Just the music, surrounding you completely. It's the closest thing to being inside the record.

Tickets: @polygon.live

Saturday 13th June · 14:30 Polygon Portal, Dean Street, Soho.

Pigeon whisperer, guitar player, musician, and author—just to name a few. Explore some of Robert’s work at his shop: shop.robertfripp.com (link in bio)

A friend of Toyah & Robert...

February 1 at The Hit Factory now available at dgmlive.com

The backing tracks for RF’s Exposure album were mostly recorded during a single week, January 30 - February 3, 1978, in the top (6th) floor studio at The Hit Factory on West 48th Street in New York. RF was joined at these sessions by bassist Tony Levin, and drummers Narada Michael Walden and Jerry Marotta, with additional contributions from percussionist Alyrio Lima and Daryl Hall.

RF had spent the previous week rehearsing with Peter Gabriel and his band, and following the Exposure sessions he was scheduled to spend the next four weeks at The Hit Factory working as producer on Gabriel’s second album.

In a recent interview with Gary Graff for Guitar Player magazine, Narada Michael Walden spoke of his time working with RF:

“RF came on my scene around '77, '78, when I was still in New York before I moved to California. I played a little club, McHale's, that all the musicians played in New York, a little bar up towards Harlem. Some heavy cats would be in there. I was in there playing one night and right by my bass drum was this little English-type gentleman with glasses on who reminded me of RF. And it was him, with my bass drum right in his face!

He said, ‘Would you come play on a recording with me?’ I said, ‘I’d be honored,’ ’cause I was really inspired by King Crimson when I was in high school; it was part of my DNA. So I went to the session the next day with myself and the great Tony Levin on bass, and Robert showed me a song called Breathless. I just tore it up with everybody. It was just a little trio — electric guitar, bass and drums.”

Walden was at The Hit Factory for two days and ended up on three of the tracks on Exposure. Remaining drum duties on the album are shared between Phil Collins and Jerry Marotta. The latter was one of several members of Peter Gabriel’s band who also contributed to RF’s album, which was, of course, conceived as part of a trilogy, along with Peter Gabriel II and Daryl Hall’s Sacred Songs.

This week we collect some additional takes with Narada drumming, plus You Burn Me Up I'm A Cigarette, Chicago, Häaden Two and more with Jerry Marotta behind the kit.

RF: The menagerie is in Go! mode to celebrate Toyah's birthday. Fripp, Eno and Pidgie (who we feed by hand) are all totally psyched for Sweetlips Willcox to come home this afternoon and party with them. Me too...

RF: The menagerie is in Go! mode to celebrate Toyah's birthday. Fripp, Eno and Pidgie (who we feed by hand) are all totally psyched for Sweetlips Willcox to come home this afternoon and party with them. Me too...

RF: The menagerie is in Go! mode to celebrate Toyah's birthday. Fripp, Eno and Pidgie (who we feed by hand) are all totally psyched for Sweetlips Willcox to come home this afternoon and party with them. Me too...

🎉 Big Celebrations all round. Happy 80th Birthday to the one & only #RobertFripp. Today, Toyah & Robert also celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary! 🩵🤍🩷

#ToyahWillcox #Fripp #Toyah #HappyBirthday

🎉 Big Celebrations all round. Happy 80th Birthday to the one & only #RobertFripp. Today, Toyah & Robert also celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary! 🩵🤍🩷

#ToyahWillcox #Fripp #Toyah #HappyBirthday

🎉 Big Celebrations all round. Happy 80th Birthday to the one & only #RobertFripp. Today, Toyah & Robert also celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary! 🩵🤍🩷

#ToyahWillcox #Fripp #Toyah #HappyBirthday

🎉 Big Celebrations all round. Happy 80th Birthday to the one & only #RobertFripp. Today, Toyah & Robert also celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary! 🩵🤍🩷

#ToyahWillcox #Fripp #Toyah #HappyBirthday

🎉 Big Celebrations all round. Happy 80th Birthday to the one & only #RobertFripp. Today, Toyah & Robert also celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary! 🩵🤍🩷

#ToyahWillcox #Fripp #Toyah #HappyBirthday

🎉 Big Celebrations all round. Happy 80th Birthday to the one & only #RobertFripp. Today, Toyah & Robert also celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary! 🩵🤍🩷

#ToyahWillcox #Fripp #Toyah #HappyBirthday

🎉 Big Celebrations all round. Happy 80th Birthday to the one & only #RobertFripp. Today, Toyah & Robert also celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary! 🩵🤍🩷

#ToyahWillcox #Fripp #Toyah #HappyBirthday

🎉 Big Celebrations all round. Happy 80th Birthday to the one & only #RobertFripp. Today, Toyah & Robert also celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary! 🩵🤍🩷

#ToyahWillcox #Fripp #Toyah #HappyBirthday

🎉 Big Celebrations all round. Happy 80th Birthday to the one & only #RobertFripp. Today, Toyah & Robert also celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary! 🩵🤍🩷

#ToyahWillcox #Fripp #Toyah #HappyBirthday

🎉 Big Celebrations all round. Happy 80th Birthday to the one & only #RobertFripp. Today, Toyah & Robert also celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary! 🩵🤍🩷

#ToyahWillcox #Fripp #Toyah #HappyBirthday

🎉 Big Celebrations all round. Happy 80th Birthday to the one & only #RobertFripp. Today, Toyah & Robert also celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary! 🩵🤍🩷

#ToyahWillcox #Fripp #Toyah #HappyBirthday

🎉 Big Celebrations all round. Happy 80th Birthday to the one & only #RobertFripp. Today, Toyah & Robert also celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary! 🩵🤍🩷

#ToyahWillcox #Fripp #Toyah #HappyBirthday

Join us in sending birthday greetings to the guitarist as we build a RF@80 song playlist celebrating his 80th year. Find out more at dgmlive.com News.

Happy 80th Birthday to my darling husband #RobertFripp love from Toyah xxx

Toyah & Robert's Weekend begins with R's 80th birthday and T&R's 40th Wedding Anniversary, tomorrow Saturday 16th!
Upbeat Moments on Saturday at 19:00 CET and a vintage Sunday Lunch on Sunday at 13:00 CET, on Toyah's YouTube.

Today, the day before RF becomes an octogenarian, RF@80 – Vol. 1 premieres on YouTube:You Burn Me Up I'm A Cigarette (incl. Rhona)

Before reclaiming the name King Crimson, what Robert Fripp called "the band he's spent four years getting ready for" and the one Adrian Belew called " probably the best band in the world at the time" was taking shape in small clubs in the Spring of '81 across Western Europe.

These six shows, which were performed under the name Discipline, are now available for streaming for the first time in the @nugsnet app. Subscribe to listen to the special performances recorded over three weeks in late April and early May at nugs.net/kingcrimson