Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox’s Sunday Lunch YouTube cover series has traditionally been a double act since its 2020, lockdown-inspired inception. With the exception of mystery guitarist Sidney Jake in several videos, the series is generally free of guest appearances.
But in their latest offering, the husband-and-wife duo have broken the mould, recruiting English singer and actor Chesney Hawkes for a cover of The One and Only, the opener from his 1991 album, Buddy’s Song.
In another deviation from the usual Sunday Lunch formula, Fripp sets down his guitar to let Hawkes do the six-string talking on a Surf Green Fender Telecaster, while the King Crimson guitarist, dressed in lederhosen and with has hands tied behind his back, apparently, has bread rolls knocked off his head by his baseball bat-wielding spouse, who is attired in a red maid outfit. Yes, there really is no end to the absurdity.
Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox have recorded literally hundreds of episodes for their Sunday Lunch YouTube series.
Since it began two years ago, the couple have covered a range of songs from a host of different genres in their quirky, barebones style, from more metal-leaning cuts like Limp Bizkit’s Nookie and Pantera’s 5 Minutes Alone to Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World, which they performed earlier this year to show solidarity with Ukraine.
In an interview with Guitarist last month, Fripp detailed his quest as a player to fuse the sounds of Hendrix and Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, what made King Crimson “problematic” and why has “no interest in gear at all”.
