Giles, Giles and Fripp were an English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

group, formed in

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

in August 1967. It featured brothers

Michael Giles Michael Rex Giles (born 1 March 1942) is an English drummer, percussionist, and vocalist, best known as one of the co-founders of King Crimson in 1969. Prior to the formation of King Crimson, he was part of the eccentric pop trio Giles, Giles a ...

on drums and vocals and Peter Giles on bass guitar and vocals, and

Robert Fripp Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is a British musician, songwriter, record producer, and author, best known as the guitarist, founder and longest-lasting member of the progressive rock band King Crimson. He has worked extensively as a session ...

on guitar. The band's music showed an eclectic mix of pop,

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, and classical influences. The group eventually evolved into pioneering

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band

King Crimson King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...

Career

When the group formed in their native Bournemouth area, the Giles brothers sought a singing keyboard player through a newspaper advertisement. Robert Fripp, a guitarist, responded and was hired even though he was not skilled on keyboards and could not sing. Between late 1967 and late 1968 the group lived in Brondesbury Road,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Throughout their time at the house they made many demo recordings. The early demos soon led to a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

with UK

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

's newly formed

Deram Records Deram Records was a subsidiary record label of Decca Records established in the United Kingdom in 1966. At the time, U.K. Decca was a different company from the Decca label in the United States, which was owned by MCA Inc. Deram recordings w ...

division. In April 1968 the group recorded an album ''

The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp ''The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp'' is a 1968 album from the English group Giles, Giles and Fripp. The music shows a varied mix of pop, psychedelic rock, folk, jazz and classical influences. The songs on each LP side are conn ...

'' and two singles, all of which sold poorly. In autumn 1968 the group added Ian McDonald on

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

and

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

, and former

Fairport Convention Fairport Convention are an English folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Martin Lamble after their first gig.) They started o ...

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Judy Dyble Judith Aileen Dyble (pronounced ''Die-bull''; 13 February 1949 – 12 July 2020) was an English singer-songwriter, most notable for being a vocalist and a founding member of Fairport Convention and Trader Horne. In addition, she and Ian McDona ...

. Ian McDonald's

overdubs were added to the single version of "Thursday Morning". Deram then rejected their next studio sessions including "She Is Loaded" and "Under the Sky". These later recordings have since been released as bonus tracks on a CD reissue of the album. Dyble did not appear on any of the Deram recordings. On 9 September 1968

BBC radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...

aired an episode of "My Kind of Folk" (produced by Frances Line) where Giles, Giles and Fripp backed singer songwriter

Al Stewart Alastair Ian Stewart (born 5 September 1945) is a Scottish born singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician who rose to prominence as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s. He developed a unique style of combining folk-rock so ...

. Having recently joined the band, Ian McDonald played organ on this session. The songs played were: "You Should Have Listened to Al", "Manuscript", "Old Compton Street Blues", "Room of Roots", and "In Brooklyn". A recording of this session (21 minutes total) exists. The group continued to record at home; Dyble was only with the group for a short time but did perform with the group on a few songs including "Make It Today" and demo versions of "Under The Sky" and "

I Talk to the Wind "I Talk to the Wind" is the second track from the British progressive rock band King Crimson's debut album, '' In the Court of the Crimson King''. Starting immediately after the cacophony that ends "21st Century Schizoid Man", the mood of this ...

". One of the melodies from "Passages of Time" was later re-used for "Peace – An End" on the second King Crimson album, ''

In the Wake of Poseidon ''In the Wake of Poseidon'' is the second studio album by English progressive rock group King Crimson, released in May 1970 by Island Records in Europe, Atlantic Records in the United States, Philips Records in Australia, and Vertigo Records in ...

''. A collection of the home recordings was released in 2001 as ''The Brondesbury Tapes''. The demos were made on a high quality two track

Revox ReVox (on-logo styling REVOX) is a brand name, registered by Studer on 27 March 1951 for Swiss audio equipment. History The first Studer-designed tape recorders were branded Dynavox. After the first production series of Dynavox recorders, a new m ...

recorder which was modified to allow for

overdubs Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...

. Though the finished recordings are

mono Mono may refer to: Common meanings * Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease" * Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono * Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single Music Performers * Mono (Japanese b ...

some have excellent sound which is close to studio quality for the period. In late 1968 Peter Giles left the group. Michael Giles, Robert Fripp and Ian McDonald went on to form the first line-up of

, rounded out by bassist/vocalist

Greg Lake Gregory Stuart Lake (10 November 1947 – 7 December 2016) was an English musician, singer, and songwriter. He gained prominence as a founding member of the progressive rock bands King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP). Born and b ...

and lyricist

Peter Sinfield Peter John Sinfield (born 27 December 1943) is an English poet and songwriter. He is best known as the co-founder and former lyricist of King Crimson, whose debut album ''In the Court of the Crimson King'' is considered one of the first and mos ...

. Peter Giles would go on to appear on the second Crimson album, ''

'' in 1970, and more recently joined with 21st Century Schizoid Band. Dyble would go on to form the duo Trader Horne. In 1971, Michael Giles and Ian McDonald released an album together as

McDonald and Giles ''McDonald and Giles'' is an album released by British musicians Ian McDonald and Michael Giles in 1970. The album was first issued on Island Records (ILPS 9126) in the UK and Cotillion Records (SD 9042), a division of Atlantic Records, in th ...

, on which Peter Giles also played bass.

Members

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

* Peter Giles –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, vocals * Ian McDonald –

, guitar, vocals *

– vocals

Discography

;Studio albums *''

'' (1968) ;Singles *''One in a Million/Newly Weds'' (1968) *''Thursday Morning/Elephant Song'' (1968) ;Compilations *''Metaphormosis'' (2001) *''The Brondesbury Tapes'' (2001)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giles, Giles And Fripp English psychedelic rock music groups Robert Fripp Musical groups established in 1967 Deram Records artists