What & how?...

Words 81 · RF@80 Series.

Aug 04, 2026

18.07 Hernan has popped in to discuss various arisings. Several journalists would like to visit, even from Buenos Aires, for interviews. Some of these focus on the G3 performances in December. Also, a famous Argentinian artist would like to put equipment in a truck and drive here, to record me for his new album. We also discussed the possibility of Crimson working in Buenos Aires next year.

As of the end of this year, I am no longer a touring player. That is, touring is no longer the focus of my professional life, as it has been for the past 35 years; and live performance is no longer the focus of my playing-life, as it has been for 43 years (and 3 months). And I began performing in public three years before that. My working assumption has been that musicians play to people, and this takes place in public. The form this takes, in standard contemporary commercial performance & touring mode, is no longer tenable for me, for several reasons. I find the overall experience profoundly unmusical. Which doesn’t mean that I will never play in public again.

Photo: The Crims at Adrian’s, 2004.

When the Crims met at Adrian’s last month, I suggested that if they presented me with a tour I couldn’t refuse, I probably wouldn’t. But the brain-dead approach to touring, such as Crimson in 2003, was not something I was prepared to undertake again. So, what & how? Argentinian audiences are very different to most of the contemporary European audiences of my acquaintance. There is a spirit here that is rare & remarkable. Would it be possible to arrange a Crimson tour of Argentina? No. A Crimson tour of Buenos Aires? Maybe. That’s something worth looking into and, if we can find a viable approach, to present to the other Crims for their consideration.

Crimson in Argentina is not something an established promoter here could approach, nor understand. This would have to involve a re-constitution of Possible Productions in the full knowledge that this is not, and cannot be, approached as a money-maker.

[Excerpt from RF’s Diary – September 29th. 2004]