On Saturday morning we found ourselves holed up in an old aircraft hanger in deepest Suffolk, taking part in a well established Vintage Fair & Makers Market, where Mrs S had a stall exhibiting and selling her groovy artistic creations. It was gloriously sunny and I was enjoying the first day of an extremely rare weekend off work, coffee in hand, mooching around the stalls and chatting to all and sundry. As I made my way back through the throng to check-in with Mrs S, I noticed a smart oldish gent sporting bright pink trainers standing adjacent to her stall. It was only when I drew a little closer that I realised the anonymous gent was in actual fact legend and all round good egg, Brian Eno. It's a bit of a dilemma coming face to face with a 'celebrity' in an off-duty situation. Do you stick out your hand and tell him how much you respect his work, not to mention him as a human being, or do you leave him alone to enjoy his downtime. Long story short I did the latter and, in retrospect, I'm confident that I made the right decision. I would only have made a fool of myself.
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In 1973, along with records by the likes of ELP, Tangerine Dream, Amon Düül II, Klaus Schulze, Iggy & the Stooges, Focus, Greenslade and Lou Reed, Fripp & Eno's looptastic 'No Pussyfooting' LP was a soundtrack to my ever inquisitive musical mind, the track 'Swastika Girls' in particular. Fripp's bone-crunching guitar shunt at 8.13 remains one of my favourite moments in all music before or since.
Fripp & Eno - Swastika Girls
