Elp

[andy-hughes]

I have been a huge ELP fan for almost fifty years, and it dawned on me, watching a documentary on my computer, that until tonight, I have never heard Keith Emerson or Greg Lake speak before!

Carl I have, because I know him, but the other two, never ever heard them say anything apart from stage announcements.

It feels a little strange ...

[douglas9401]

Lucky Man. :-P

[Chinajan]

I'm a big fan too. And same re Keith.

Greg and Carl used to up quite frequently on those late Friday night BBC4 music strands.

I see from imdb tht there's a crowd-funded documentary on the go about Keith - Pictures of an Exhibitionist. Let's hope it comes to fruition.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1753777/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_1

[Chinajan]

*pop up

[Theland]

Why on earth did Keith smash the organs? Not very artistic, or entertaining.

[Mozz71]

Greg Lake seemed very chatty.

[douglas9401]

Adrenalin, showmanship, too much money, venting, it's showbiz.

[Mozz71]

Keith Emerson seems less comfortable.

[Old_Geezer]

Perhaps he needed some 'elp

[eleanor2]

^^ Ha ha!

[andy-hughes]

Theland - // Why on earth did Keith smash the organs? Not very artistic, or entertaining. //

Destructions of organs were mainly confined to Emerson's days in The Nice, when the band's performance of America climaxed with a seriously abused Hammond being pushed off the stage.

In the ELP days, Emerson confined himself to tipping his Hammond on end to get its oscillators jammed, and pinning down keys together using Nazi daggers and bayonets he acquired from Motorhead's Lemmy, a serious collector of WW2 souvenirs.

As advised, this had more to do with simple adrenalin than anything 'musical' - when you can play as well as Emerson did, there are a limited number of ways to express yourself musically left open, so sometimes brute force takes over.

[Ken4155]

When in the forces in the 70s, my best mate and I had almost identical album collections, consisting of prog-rock bands such as Pink Floyd, Genesis, Home, Supertramp, etc, etc. However, his favourite band were ELP and I couldn't stand listening to them. Mine, at the time, were Yes, and he couldn't stand listening to them. However, we did agree that both were tremendously influential in the prog-rock genre.

[The Builder]

Andy, I remember going to a college gig in the late sixties to see Pat Arnold when her regular backing band was The Nice. I still remember it .
One of the most notable things Keith Emerson did was to introduce Mussorgsky to all of us hippy musos of the time ;o))

[andy-hughes]

Builder - I am most envious!

[drmorgans]

I saw ELP at Wembley Empire Pool (I think it was still called that) in 1974, can't remember which night. My first trip to London to see a band. Emerson did the full "abusing his organ" thing.

[Ken4155]

^
Get arrested for doing that in public, nowadays :-)

[Spicerack]

I was a prog rock fan, ken. Never heard of ' Home'. I'll have to find some and give it a listen.

[mushroom25]

// I saw ELP at Wembley Empire Pool (I think it was still called that) in 1974, can't remember which night. //

I was at the Sunday concert, the 21st April. It cost me £3.50. Mr Emerson did indeed abuse his organ, and "Pictures at an Exhibition" was the encore. The support band were "Back Door", a jazz-rock combo who deserved better success than they achieved.

[andy-hughes]

I saw them on that tour, the band liked Back Door because they were musically adept and had very little gear so they were on and off stage quick - which is a consideration when you have as much gear as ELP to heave about!

[Theland]

How do you rate Emerson with Waksman?

[andy-hughes]

Wake man is probably better technically, but Emerson had more flair and was a better composer in my view.