King Crimson: Brexit has scuppered 50th anniversary touring plans

King Crimson won’t be touring across Europe in 2019, according to mainman Robert Fripp.

The band had been planning a run of shows to celebrate their 50th anniversary next year. But due to uncertainty arising from Britain’s exit from the European Union, those plans have been scrapped.

Fripp says on his website: “Brexit has impacted King Crimson’s 50th anniversary touring plans. Currently there is no forseeable exit arrangement for the UK, no clear plans for migrant workers, eg the Brothers Crim and their pals, whether work visas will be necessary for anyone other than our American members. 

“The technicalities and bureaucracy of arranging visas for all eight members of The Beast plus 12 support team persons, in each different country, is impracticable – this without even dealing with the withholding tax for each jurisdiction. 

“Compliance with EU tax and individual arrangements for each country is already close to unworkable for small organisations. KC/DGM is a good example of the margin between too small/sufficiently large, to be proportionately overloaded with stuff. 

“I wonder how many, of those good persons that plan and implement a seemingly endless proliferation of forms, have gone out into the world and directed a small company.

“So, we have abandoned plans for a celebration Euro tour of 2019. There is one possibility of performing in England, but this is contingent on a most-unlikely arising. 

“Our attention is therefore being directed to other places in the world.”

King Crimson have a handful of live shows planned for this summer, while the band released Live In Vienna 2016 in April this year on 3CD.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.