Giles, Giles and Fripp were an English late 1960s band, featuring brothers Michael Giles on drums and vocals, Peter Giles on bass guitar and vocals, and Robert Fripp on guitar. (More from Wikipedia)
I have always been fascinated about where the music on In the Court of the Crimson King came from, and while I certainly don’t have all of the answers, I heard about a predecessor psychedelic rock band called Giles, Giles and Fripp not too long ago. This band includes the only constant member in the ever-changing line-up of King Crimson over the years, guitarist Robert Fripp. The other bandmembers were two English brothers, drummer Michael Giles and bass guitarist Peter Giles; the two had advertised for a singing keyboard player, but they hired Fripp anyway. The band released one album, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp in 1968, along with a couple of singles; all sold poorly (Robert Fripp claimed that they only sold 500 copies of the original album, though that figure is disputed).
The band later added Ian McDonald – who played saxophone, clarinet and flute – and vocalist Judy Dyble, the original lead singer of the legendary British folk-rock band Fairport Convention. After Peter Giles left the band, Michael Giles, Ian McDonald and Robert Fripp formed the original line-up of King Crimson with vocalist Greg Lake and lyricist Peter Sinfield. Peter Giles later returned as a bass guitarist on the band’s second album in 1970, In the Wake of Poseidon; though both of the Giles Brothers left the fold by the time of King Crimson’s third album, Lizard.
In 1971, two ex-members of King Crimson – Ian McDonald and Michael Giles – along with Peter Giles released an album under the name McDonald and Giles; I actually saw a copy of the album cover last year in a local junque store called Garage Sale. Even though the disc itself was missing, I bought the cover anyway (that’s how much of a collector I am!). The entire album is actually available on YouTube, so maybe I don’t need the disc anymore?
I recently picked up a retrospective album of Giles, Giles and Fripp, a 2001 CD called The Brondesbury Tapes (1968). This album shows a lot of experimentation as well as the folk-rock side of what would later become King Crimson, including two fully-formed renditions of “I Talk to the Wind”, one of which features Judy Dyble on vocals.
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The Under-Appreciated Rock Band for this month, the Giles Brothers is not properly a band I suppose; they are basically a rhythm section who both sing, consisting of drummer Michael Giles and bass guitarist Peter Giles. However, they also have a recent (2009) compilation CD called The Giles Brothers 1962-1967; and they performed with numerous other bands prior to Giles, Giles and Fripp.
The Giles Brothers first played with Johnny King & the Raiders and with Dave Anthony & the Rebels in 1960 and 1961. Though neither band ever made any recordings, Al Kirtley of the Rebels played piano on “Hypocrite”, the first track on the Giles, Giles and Fripp CD, The Brondesbury Tapes (1968).
(March 2013)
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Items: Giles, Giles and Fripp
