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Keith Emerson RIP


sadoldgit
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Old man dies aged 70,

 

It happens to us all in the end.

 

Same could be said for David Bowie. I know many people here weren't even born then, but ELP were t he biggest band on the planet in the early to mid 70s. Yes, bigger than Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd for a while. Keith Emerson was possibly the best keyboard player that rock has ever produced. But feel free to pass him off as just an old man.

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Yep, you have to be of a certain age. I thought there might be a few more Prog Heads on here but it seems like we are a dying breed. :?

 

No, certainly not. Live in Norway, and these prog bands from the 70s are still very popular. King Crimson have sold out all three gigs in Oslo in September.

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I didn't see them until 1972 the Hammersmith Odeon and then the Wembley gigs in 1974. I didn't see The Nice first time round but did catch them when Keith toured with them again in 2002. I have been listening to the live album from that tour, Vivacitus, today, Still sounds amazing. The fusion of rock, classics, jazz and blues isn't to everyones taste but the versions of the Karelia Suite, Pictures At An Exhibition etc blew me away when I was a teenager. To see him playing Bach from behind the Hammond organ (and underneath it!) was bat**** crazy but it was what the 70s was all about. Amazing musician, amazing showman. After the slagging that Punk gave ELP and their ilk it was also funny to see John Lydon and Keith become mates later in life too!

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A bit too young to have caught The Nice, but ELP at Bournemouth Winter Gardens was the first gig I went to possibly in November 1972. Also Pictures at an Exhibition was on at cinema about the same time. Remember seeing it in a small cinema in Southampton, possibly The Classic. Big fan back in the day. He was a tremendous musician and one of my most striking memories of him apart from his assault on his Moog was of him playing on Parkinson with Oscar Peterson. RIP.

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I saw him at the Albert Hall some time in the 90's. There is a DVD of an ELP gig in 1993 so it might have been that.

I'll have to check my ticket stubs.

First single (record) I ever bought was Fanfare for the common man - must have been at the time of the Montreal Olympics or soon after - it was the main theme for those olympics.

Seems he suffered depression, was worried about how he would perform on a tour after suffering problems with his hand.

Sad!

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I am the only one then? :(

 

Before my time but became a huge fan of prog and 70s Rock in my early teens.

 

Loved everything about Isle of Wight '70. The Doors, Hendrix, The Who, ELP.

 

Am I right in saying that show was ELP's debut ?

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I was lucky to have an older brother with a wide taste in music. I was only seven and found Dylan to be some old nag and Zappa too complex. ELP however got a hook on me immediately and I favoured their debut album, Tarcus and Pictures for an Exhibition for years until Punk and later on New Wave came along. Nowadays it's fun again to listen to ELP, UK and so on..

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Before my time but became a huge fan of prog and 70s Rock in my early teens.

 

Loved everything about Isle of Wight '70. The Doors, Hendrix, The Who, ELP.

 

Am I right in saying that show was ELP's debut ?

 

They played a warm up gig at Plymouth just before they played the Isle of Wight festival in 1970 but that was where they became noticed. They were labelled a "supergroup" as they had all been in relatively successful bands before (The Nice, King Crimson and Atomic Rooster respectively) but that made them a target for many of the rock press who had a down on them from the start. Bombastic and pretentious were words often thrown at them but their amazing musicianship could not be denied and there first 5 albums were groundbreaking and sold in shedloads. After Brain Salad Surgery they lost their way and the pressure put on them to provide radio friendly short track took its toll on their material, but from 1970 to around 1975 they were massive. The press made a big thing of Punk killing them off but that wasn't the case as shown by bands like Pink Floyd and Genesis continuing to sell out massive shows and shift tons of albums in the late seventies onwards. In fact John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) became buddies when they both moved to Santa Monica and he said he never had a problem with ELP, that was all down to the press. The music from the 60s is often referred to as a golden era, but the 70s also provided some amazing stuff, especially from bands who started out in the 60s.

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