You may have heard or seen the news that the UK has had its first snow of the winter.
As has been mentioned before, we do get snow and cold in the winter (yes, we know it’s still autumn) but the worst is in the north of England and Scotland. Here in London, there were flakes but it just became cold rain later in the day and did not settle on the ground.
Schools have been closed, but if you’re a tourist that won’t affect you.
Travel has been disrupted. Often it’s frozen points or something similar. If you are over here on a holiday and are intending to travel, do check and double check and make alternative plans.
Forecasts are that it will be better by the weekend.
And while it is cold, there are plenty of places in the world that are worse.
It has just been announced that one of the possibly great unsung heroes of prog rock, Peter Sinfield, has died at the age of 80.
Sinfield first came to prominence as the lyricist for King Crimson in the early days. His work with Ian McDonald, who also died recently, forms the key part of the first album, especially the title track, In The Court Of The Crimson King, and set a tone for the first albums for the band.
Sinfield was also important in the sleeve design for the albums, and also developed a light show for live performances.
While members went and came, Sinfield and Fripp steered the band along a prog rock route, with In The Wake Of Poseidon, Lizard and Islands. Sinfield also features on the live album Earthbound where you can hear his controlling of a synthesier during Ian Wallace’s drum solo.
But Fripp and Sinfield had an increasingly strained relationship, and one had to leave. It was Sinfield.
He continued to work with Greg Lake for ELP, wrote English words for PFM, recorded a solo album Still, wrote for a diverse selection of popular artists including Celine Dion and Bucks Fizz.
In later years he moved to Suffolk.
In the days when BBC Four television had interesting music programmes on Friday nights, Sinfield would appear on the prog rock history shows (many clips are still on YouTube). Here’s a clip of a song from his solo album:
His health was declining, rather sadly.
If some of his lyrics now sound a bit twee and hippy, well they did then too. People who talk about the birth of progressive rock will always cite the first King Crimson album, and songs like 21st Century Schizoid Man and Epitaph, with their wonderful words.
