Er, uh, Dale was indeed his wife, not his sister. Duh. As my English friends say, "blame it on the drink." Except I don't drink. Hmmmm.
Wetton also knew Jobson from when they both played in Roxy Music (Roxy shuttled through bass players like some guys shuttle through underwear). Even in the first album, Wetton is obviously going for a much simpler style of music. I can only imagine Bruford's frustration -- "you didn't play that simple sh!t in Crimson, you git." The creative tension in the band gave us a terrific album, but thinking about it, I can't see UK staying together in the first lineup for any longer than they did.
Didn't know that Fripp had been asked to play in the band. IIRC, that was about the time he was doing his multi-album stint with Peter Gabriel and Daryl Hall, as well as putting together the League of Gentlemen. I can imagine his lack of enthusiasm in putting together a band like UK, especially since he wouldn't have had creative control like he had in KC. The material about Wakeman hiding behind his curtains isn't 100% confirmed on my end, mostly because I can't remember where I read it. I think I picked it up off of a Yes fan site, but I can't be sure. Everything else is pretty much for real. So whether it was A&M refusing to let Wakeman hook up with those two losers
or Wakeman hiding behind the furniture or both, he never set foot in the band. Instead, he went on to release some relatively uninteresting solo material. (Not to change the subject, but do you or anyone else think that "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "Myths and Legends," both already several years in print by the time UK appeared, are two of the most boring, pretentious, badly done albums in the prog catalog? I do. And I LIKE Wakeman!) (Note to the note: Both "No Earthly Connection" and "Criminal Record" are a lot better, though I wish they would have tossed the singer into the alley instead of letting him record. End of diatribe.)
Looking forward to your show!