1. Peter John Sinfield was an English poet and songwriter.
22 Facts About Peter Sinfield
1. 2.
Peter Sinfield was best known as a co-founder and lyricist of King Crimson.
3.
In 2005, Peter Sinfield was referred to as a "prog rock hero" in Q magazine for his lyrical work and influence in the music industry.
4.
Peter Sinfield was born in Fulham, London, to mixed English-Irish ancestry and a bohemian activist mother Deidre.
5.
Peter Sinfield began to read literature of all kinds, particularly poetry.
6.
Peter Sinfield left school at sixteen and worked briefly as a travel agent, believing that this would "allow him to see the world".
7.
Peter Sinfield then went on to work for a computer company for six years, travelling around Europe when he could and hanging around with friends from the Chelsea School of Art.
8.
Peter Sinfield wrote poetry beginning in the mid 1960s and made a living on market stalls selling handmade kites, lampshades, paintings and customised clothing.
9.
Peter Sinfield spent a number of years drifting around Morocco and Spain before returning to England.
10.
Peter Giles left the group at about this time, to be replaced by Greg Lake, and Sinfield joined around the same time.
11.
Peter Sinfield loved working with the band and, in addition to writing the phantasmagorical lyrics that came to be part of King Crimson's trademark, he ran the group's light-show and mixed the sound at their concerts, and offered advice on artwork, album design, and other details of the band's releases.
12.
In 1973, Peter Sinfield formed a band provisionally called A Bowl of Soup and featuring Phil Jump on keyboards, Richard Brunton on guitar, Allan "Min" Mennie on drums, Steve Dolan on bass, and Peter Sinfield himself on vocals, guitar, and synthesizer.
13.
Peter Sinfield's neighbour was Gary Brooker of Procol Harum, with whom he co-wrote five songs on Brooker's first solo album No More Fear of Flying.
14.
Peter Sinfield released a book containing his previous lyrics and poems titled Under the Sky.
15.
The backing music for the story was provided by Brian Eno, with whom Peter Sinfield had previously worked while producing Roxy Music.
16.
Peter Sinfield co-wrote Five Star's "Rain or Shine" with Billy Livsey.
17.
Peter Sinfield was active as a writer and appeared in the 2009 BBC documentary Prog Rock Britannia: An Observation in Three Movements.
18.
Peter Sinfield was active within the songwriting community and was a member of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors committee.
19.
Peter Sinfield died on 14 November 2024, at the age of 80.
20.
Peter Sinfield had a fairly unusual and colourful upbringing, being an only child of a bisexual mother who ran a hair salon and one of the first burger bars in London in the 1950s.
21.
Peter Sinfield grew up in a bohemian household, and claims to have vivid memories of extravagant and wonderful Christmases, later inspiring the lyrics for his hit "I Believe in Father Christmas", which recalled a lost and naive faith in Father Christmas.
22.
Peter Sinfield claimed that A Poet's Notebook by Edith Sitwell had an important influence on his writing, as well as the works of Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, William Blake, Kahlil Gibran, and Shakespeare.