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Liner Notes: A Brief Encounter

The Year was 1978. The disco beat of the Bee Gees had invaded America, punk rock was raging in Britain and Europe, and things were changing fast on the music scene. Progressive rock bands that had dominated the seventies were now labeled DINOSAURS by the new generation of music fans and quickly started to fade away. Big money was now ruling the music industry and established giants such as Yes, Genesis and even Pink Floyd had to come up with hits just to stay alive. Yet, in the midst of this great musical upheaval, a new band appeared, out of nowhere it seemed, holding the progressive torch very high. This band's name was UK and their eponymous first album had just been released through EG records. New band, formidable music style, and a few familiar names. Who were these guys, and where did they come from?

Bill Bruford, by far the most well known name of the four, began his career with the band Yes in the late sixties. In 1972 he left Yes to join King Crimson where he first meets and works with John Wetton. After three very productive years in K.C. and Robert Fripp's still highly debated decision to fold the band, Bill lends a helping hand to his old Yes band-mate Steve Howe with his solo album, then joined Genesis for the 1976 A Trick of the Tail tour. In 1977, Bruford collaborates with Alan Holdsworth on his first solo album Feels Good To Me which is released in August of 1978, after U.K. had formed.

John Wetton, another quite familiar name, started out in a band called The Family in 1971. After two albums with them he moved on to King Crimson. When K.C. dis-banded in 1975, John joined Roxy Music where he met Eddie Jobson for the second time, the latter having joined K.C. briefly in 1975. Wetton also played briefly with Uriah Heep during that time. Then, after helping his old Roxy Music band-mate Brian Ferry with his solo album In Your Mind in 1977, John was ready to form U.K.

Allan Holdsworth was well known as a jazz-fusion guitarist. Before his work with U.K. he played with Jean-luc Ponty for the Enigmatic Oceans and Voyage albums. Prior to that, he had worked with Soft Machine and Gong. His first experience with his future U.K. band-mates was playing guitar for Bill Bruford's first solo album in 1977.

Eddie Jobson has played keyboard and violin for many progressive rock and jazz-fusion groups. Prior to the formation of U.K. he was best known for his work with Roxy Music but also worked with Curved Air, Andy Mackay, Brian Ferry, Roger Glover, Dana Gillespie and Mike Heron. In 1975 he appeared on the King Crimson album USA where he added some overdubs. On this occasion, he first met with Bill Bruford and John Wetton, whom he would join in UK nearly three years later.

U.K.'s first album was recorded at Trident studios in London, England during December 1977 and January 1978. A quite extensive World tour followed. UK's first performance was April 29, 1978 at Southampton University. In the summer of 1978, the band toured Canada and the US, including Toronto, Canada and Philadelphia, US, both shows presented here as a special PRRP package. At both concerts, many of the songs from their first album were performed as extended length versions with long instrumental segments added to accentuate the grand musicianship. Odd time signatures and stellar cohesiveness were the hallmarks of U.K.'s music and are clearly present during these shows. It is too bad that this particular UK line-up stayed together for only one year. Enjoy!

Notes from the Re-Master

Both shows are radio broadcasts and came from 1^st generation sources. The fidelity was very good for both with music signal up to 16,000 Hz for each. The Toronto show required Hiss reduction throughout the whole show. A few notch filters were also needed to remove selected noise. Crackle also occurred intermittently and needed filtering. Applause was a little too loud in spots and was reduced in volume. At the end of a few songs the source faded to zero only to fade in again with applause. Applause was mixed into these faded segments in order to provide a smooth transition. Finally, Treble was reduced a bit to balance the tonality.

The Philadelphia show did not require Hiss reduction but had may clicks and pops that required manual removal. Applause was smoothed and the whole show was normalized for volume. Finally, the two shows were originally tracked differently, especially with respect to the two songs Alaska and Time to Kill. Both were tracked to be consistent with commercially produced U.K. recordings.

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