“Robert Fripp said he wanted to revolutionise rock’n’roll with us. I wasn’t sure, given what I’d just heard. But they were about to throw us out the squat”: The League Of Gentlemen led to Beat-era King Crimson

Robert Fripp and The League of Gentlemen.

Robert Fripp has shut down then brought back King Crimson on a number of occasions over the years. While many thought the band ended for good in 2021, the revelation that a new album is underway in 2025 suggests it might be happening again. In 2016 Prog explored one of the Fripp’s most notable reinventions – the formation of The League Of Gentlemen, which resulted in Crimson’s remarkable Beat era of the 80s.

It’s May 1980. Ex-King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp, ex-XTC organist Barry Andrews, bassist Sara Lee and drummer Johnny Toobad, collectively known as The League Of Gentlemen, have finished performing as what Fripp calls a “new wave instrumental dance band.”