Atomic Rooster

@ atomic-rooster.com

Early Days And "Fire" And Atomic Ro-o-oster
Born In Reading On 21/5/43, Vincent's Formal Music Training Was At Trinity College Of Music, London . He Studied There For Three Years And Gained His Ltcl And Gtcl. His Early Bands Were J.C. & The Machine (With Phil Kinnora, Ray Dussel, John Mcvee And Bob Downes) And The Jazz And Poetry Group The Word Engine (Founded By Paul A. Green, With Red Reece, Phil Seaman, Pete Brown, John Surman And Bob Downes. His First Professional Gig Was At The Marquee Club, London, In 1963 As The Vincent Crane Band.

In 1966, He Joined Up With Arthur Brown And Formed The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown And By 1967 They Were Playing Gigs Such As The Ufo Club, Tottenham Court Road; The Alexandra Palace 'Love In'; The Reading Festival And The Montrose Festival. During 1968 They Were Out On Their 1st American Tour And The "Fire" Single And "Fire" Album Topped The Usa Charts. The Single Was No.1 In England & Europe, And The Album Top 5 . The Band Headlined At That Year's Reading Festival. In 1969 They Returned To America Playing Fillmore East And Madison Square Garden. By The End Of The Year And After A 3rd Usa Tour Problems Had Set In. Vincent Lived In New York For Three Months And Finally Returned To England With Carl Palmer On Friday The 13th. During 1970 They Formed Atomic Rooster As Decided In New York, And The Band's First Gig Was Headlining At The Lyceum, London, With Deep Purple As Support. The 1st Atomic Rooster Single Was "Friday The 13th", C/W "Banstead" And The 1st Album "Atomic Ro-O-Oster".

In 1971 John Ducann Joined Atomic Rooster And Added Guitar To The American Version Of "Atomic Ro-O-Oster". Carl Palmer Left To Join Elp And Paul Hammond Joined Rooster As Drummer. This Year Saw The Band's 1st Hit Single "Tomorrow Night",/C/W "Play The Game" And Their 1st Top 10 Album "Death Walks Behind You", Followed By A 2nd Hit Single "Devil's Answer",C/W "Play The Game". The Band Also Played The Reading Festival.(During This Year, Vincent Also Guested On Piano For The Self Titled "Rory Gallagher" Album Released On Polydor.)

In 1972 Pete French Joined The Band On Vocals And They Played The Oval With The Who Headlining. A 3rd Album Was Released, "In Hearing Of.." With Cover Design By Roger Dean. This Was The Year Of Atomic Rooster's 1st Usa Tour, Playing The Troubadour, La And Fillmore East, Ny. John Ducann And Paul Hammond Left The Band To Form Hard Stuff With Johnny Gustaveston And Ric Parnell & Steve Bolton Joined. Pete French Left To Join Cactus With Carl Minnaplice, Replaced In Rooster By Chris Farlowe .The Band Then Went On To Release Their 4th Album "Made In England" And The 1st Compilation Was Released, "Atomic Rooster Assortment". The 2nd Tour Took In The La Amphitheatre, The Texas 'Rose Bowl' And The Dusseldorf 'Rock Festival' With Deep Purple And Free. A 3rd Single Was Released "Stand By Me, C/W "Breathless". In 1974 The 5th Atomic Rooster Album Was Released "Nice & Greasy" And A 2nd Compilation "Home To Roost". The Band Left Gaff Management And Toured Spain, Italy, Germany, Holland & Portugal. In 1975 After A Tour Of Belgium, France, Italy And Spain, Vincent Stopped Touring And Took Atomic Rooster Of The Road For An Unspecified Period......

The Missing Years
Vincent Divorced His First Wife, Pat, In 1976 And Remarried In 1977. With Atomic Rooster Off The Road, Vincent's Talents Diversified. He Did The Music For Paul A Green's "Ritual Of The Stifling Air" For Radio 3. Influenced By His Second Wife, Jean, He Worked On "Dracula" At The Shaftesbury Theatre, The Ghost Train" At The Old Vic, The "Old Country At The Queen's, "Stevie" At The Vaudeville, Rolls Hyphen Royce" At The Shaftesbury Theatre. He Was Musical Advisor To The Royal Court's Children's Theatre Festival, And Vocal Coach For A South London Children's Festival. He Was Musical Director For "Rain Dog" Stomu Yamashta's Red Buddha Theatre Company And Renewed The Jazz/Poetry Gigs With Paul A Green.

In 1978, Vincent Met Up With Arthur Brown Again And They Began Writing Together And Performing. By 1979, They Had Material Together For A New Album "Faster Than The Speed Of Light" Which Was Recorded In Germany At Klaus Schult's Studio. He Also Recorded With Klaus On The "Dune" Album And With Arthur And Klaus On "Wahnfried". A Classic Moment Of That Time Was A Party Thrown By The German Record Company When Vincent And Arthur Performed A Classic Rendition Of Frankie Vaughan's "Green Door", Dressed In Top Hat And Tails!!

Together again and then not...
1980 Saw The Reform Of Atomic Rooster And Vincent Working Again With John Ducann. Finally An Emi Deal, A Secret Warm Up Tour, And The Release Of A New Album "Atomic Rooster" And A Single "Do You Know Who's Looking For You" Preston Heyman Did The Honours On Drums, But By The Time Of The 1981 3 Month Tour Of The Uk, Paul Hammond Was Back On Drums. This Year, Saw The Release Of The 1st Two Atomic Rooster 12" Singles, "Play It Again" C/W "Start To Live"/"Devil's Answer" (Live) And "End Of The Day" C/W "Living Underground"/"Tomorrow Night" (Live) The Band Played The Reading Festival With John Mysteriously Awol, Big John Mccoy Stepped In On Bass. John Had Decided To Retire Again, And Subsequent Tours Of Germany And Italy Were With Bernie Torme On Guitar.

1983 Saw A New Style Of Atomic Rooster Album "Headline News" With A 12" Single "Land Of Freedom" (Extended Version C/W Carnival), Featuring Guitarists, Dave Gilmour Of The Pink Floyd,Bernie Torme And John Mizarolli. Bernie Subsequently Toured With The Band To Germany And Italy And An Album Of Their Live Gigs Has Just Been Released. March 6th 2000, Atomic Rooster "Live In Germany '83"

In 1984, Vincent Disbanded Atomic Rooster And Went On To Make "A Case For The Blues" As Katmandu With Peter Green, Ray Dorset & Jeff Whittaker.The Following Year He Joined "Dexy's Midnight Runners" Playing Piano For The "Don't Stand Me Down" Album. They Toured In The Uk And France, Releasing Two Singles "This Is What She's Like" From The Album And A Second Single, The Theme Song To The Tv Series "Brush Strokes".

Final Days
In 1987 Dexy's Was Disbanded And Vincent Intended To Reform Atomic Rooster.

Due To Ill Health, A Planned German Tour Was Cancelled, And, Sadly, Vincent Died On 14th February 1989, Saint Valentine's Day.

Since That Time, Paul Hammond Too Has Died.

Of The "Death Walks Behind You" Line-Up Of Atomic Rooster, Only John Ducann Remains. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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@ Wiki
Atomic Rooster were an English progressive rock band, formed by ex-Crazy World of Arthur Brown members, Vincent Crane and Carl Palmer in 1969. Their only hit singles came in 1971 with "Tomorrow Night" (a UK Number 11), and "The Devil's Answer" (UK Number 4).

History
In 1970, Atomic Rooster (at that time consisting of Crane, Palmer and Nick Graham) released their self-titled debut album.

Between Palmer's departure (to be one third of Emerson, Lake & Palmer), and the recording of a second album, guitarist John Cann (also credited as John Du Cann) joined them, giving a whole new dimension to the music with his distinctive guitar attack. Death Walks Behind You featured Paul Hammond on drums, and this album yielded "Tomorrow Night".

Having found success on the UK Singles Chart, the band was augmented with singer Peter French for their third effort on vinyl, In Hearing of Atomic Rooster. It showed the band at full throttle. The import version included the hit single "The Devil's Answer", although this was strangely missing from the original UK release. After this album, Cann, Hammond and French left the band. French went to join Cactus, while John Du Cann and Paul Hammond teamed up with ex-Quatermass bass player John Gustafson and founded Hard Stuff.

Crane put the band together one more time, recruiting 1960s British R&B singer and ex-Colosseum vocalist Chris Farlowe. Along with old friends John Goodsall, then known as "Johnny Mandala", and Rick Parnell (who is the son of orchestra leader Jack Parnell, and composed material on the last album, plus came up with the piano riff on "Tomorrow Night") they released Made in England.

They managed to release one more album, Nice 'n' Greasy, but the sound was somewhat diluted, although the tracks "Voodoo in You" and "Take One Toke" reminded their fans of past glories. It proved to be their last record in the 1970s.

The band ceased to exist until the early 1980s, when Crane and Du Cann teamed up once again, going through a series of drummers. During the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, they almost had some presence in the charts with "Lose Your Mind" and a re-make of "Tomorrow Night".

After this stint, Crane went on to join Dexy's Midnight Runners in the mid 1980s, and also recorded A Case For The Blues as part of Katmandu, a one-off project with Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac and Ray Dorset of Mungo Jerry. Crane died on 14 February 1989 in Reading. Hammond died of a drug overdose in 1992.

Du Cann recently licensed the release of the only existing tapes of Atomic Rooster that featured Crane, Palmer and himself: some BBC Radio 1 sessions recorded by John Peel in 1970 and 1971. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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Atomic Rooster were formed during summer 1969,when Vincent Crane and Carl Palmer broke away from The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and returned to England, the date of return being Friday 13th. Having broken away from CWOAB with the idea to form their own band, Atomic Rooster, (the name of the band being taken from a member of the U.S. band Rhinoceros who whilst undertaking a "spiritual quest" emerged with a personae which he named as the Atomic Rooster, a name which obviously struck a chord with Carl and Vincent). Interestingly enough 1969 was the year of the Rooster, in the Chinese calendar. Nick Graham was recruited for bass, vocals and flute and the band undertook live work. The first LP, Atomic RoOoster, was recorded during December 69 and January 70 and released during February 70, along with the single, Friday 13th. During mid-March 70,Vincent decided to add a guitarist to the band and John Cann was recruited into the Rooster ranks from his band Andromeda. However as John joined, Nick departed leaving Rooster without a vocalist or bassist. Vincent now played the bass lines on his Hammond Organ by a combination of left hand and foot pedals, whilst John doubled up as vocalist as well as assisting bass lines by emphasising the lower range on his guitar. The band resumed gigging until the end of June 70 when Carl announced his departure to ELP. Ric Parnell helped out on drums, completing the outstanding gigs, until August 70 when a young 18 year old, Paul Hammond, was recruited to fill the drum vacancy. The second LP, Death Walks Behind You, was recorded and released in September 70 and the single, Tomorrow Night, was released, eventually charting in the UK at No.12 in January 71.The band continued touring and in June 71 Pete French was added to the band as vocalist for the recording of the third LP, In Hearing Of, released in July 71. Prior to this a third single, Devil's Answer, was released, reaching No 2 in the UK, in June 71. During the recording of In Hearing Of, it became clear that the band were yet again moving in a different musical direction, away from the harder and heavier-edged Death Walks Behind You, and by August both John and Paul had left to form Daemon.

In August 71,Vincent, along with vocalist Pete French recruited drummer, Ric Parnell, and on guitar, Mancunian born Steve Bolton.This line up toured, including an appearance at the Oval on September 9th, a benefit gig arranged by The Who. By the end of the year, vocalist Pete French departed and was replaced by Chris Farlowe and a fourth LP, Made In England, was recorded and released along with the single, Stand By Me. The band had moved to a more funkier/soul musical direction by now. The end of 72 saw the departure of Steve Bolton and his replacement was John Goodsall, under the name of Johnny Mandala.This line up toured and recorded a fifth LP, Nice N Greasy, in 73. A single from the LP was also released, Save Me, a reworking of Friday 13th. .During 74 this line up came to an end and any gigs outstanding were completed by Vincent along with members of the band, Sam Apple Pie, the last gig being in February 75, a benefit gig for the RSPCA. At this point Vincent called time on Atomic Rooster and moved onto other things.

1979, post punk,and the arrival of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, with members of these new bands citing, as an influence, Atomic Rooster.Vincent and John (by now using his full name - John Du Cann) got together, talked about it, did some research and Rooster were back!!!.1980 saw the recording of an LP, on EMI, on the drums being the highly rated session drummer, Preston Heyman.A couple of "test the water" gigs were undertaken, to great acclaim, and dates were set for a tour. Preston was invited and undertook the drum duties, whilst the LP was released in September 80, following the single, Do You Know Who's Looking For You?(June 80).However Preston's prior session and touring commitments caught up with him and by the time of the gig at the Marquee, 23rd October 1980 Paul Hammond was once again behind the drum kit. Touring continued but EMI pulled the plug on the band, fortunately Polydor picked up the band for two singles, during 81, Play It Again (25th September 81) and End Of The Day (Feb 82). During the recording of these two singles reworked versions of Tomorrow Night and Devil's Answer were also recorded (Big John McCoy adding bass) Record label problems(again) led to the departure of John Du Cann prior to the recording of the sixth LP, Headline News, in late 82, the guitar parts were recorded by Dave (Pink Floyd) Gilmour, John Mizarolli and Bernie Torme.Tour dates in Italy and Germany were undertaken with Bernie on guitar and the odd UK dates were with John Mizarolli.Vincent had also taken on the vocals not only for the LP, Headline News, but also for live work. Headline News was released in June 83, following the single, Land Of Freedom, in May 83. Vincent called time on Atomic Rooster, again and in 85 assisted Dexy's Midnight Runners by playing piano on their LP, Don't Stand Me Down. Vincent and John were talking about making the Rooster crow again into the 90's, but Vincent's poor health intervened and, sadly, Vincent passed away on Feb14th,1989. Paul Hammond also sadly passed away, an accidental death, in 1992. Of the band that recorded Death Walks Behind You, only John Du Cann remains with us.. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP)

@ Wiki
Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP) were an English progressive rock group. In the 1970s, the band was extremely popular, selling over 30 million albums and headlining huge concerts.

The trio consisted of:
- Keith Emerson (originally from The Nice) keyboards
- Greg Lake (originally from King Crimson) guitars, bass guitar, vocals
- Carl Palmer (originally from Atomic Rooster) drums, percussion

The band formed in 1970. On two occasions in 1969, The Nice and King Crimson shared the same venue, first on August 10, 1969 at the 9th Jazz and Blues Pop Festival in Plumpton, England and on October 17, 1969 at Fairfield Hall in Croydon, England.

After playing at a few of the same concerts, Emerson and Lake tried working together and found their styles to be not only compatible, but complementary. They wanted to be a keyboard/bass/drum band, and so searched out a drummer.

Jimi Hendrix was considering joining the group; the British press, after hearing about this, speculated that such a supergroup would have been called "Hendrix, Emerson, Lake & Palmer", or HELP. Before settling on Carl Palmer, they approached Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience; Mitchell was uninterested but passed the idea to Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix, tired of his band and wanting to try something different, expressed an interest in playing with the group. Due to scheduling conflicts such plans were not immediately realized, but the initial three planned on a jam session with Hendrix after their debut at the Isle of Wight Festival, with the possibility of him joining. Hendrix died shortly thereafter, so the three pressed on as Emerson, Lake and Palmer. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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@ Emerson Lake Palmer[com]
The seeds of ELP were sown in 1969, when both The Nice (which featured Keith Emerson on keyboards) and King Crimson (which featured Greg Lake on bass and vocals) did a few shows together. Both bands had been at the forefront of the British rock scene.

The Nice had enjoyed several hits, but were known more for its wild stage show that was a showcase for Keith Emerson, who had been tagged a keyboard wizard and "the Jimi Hendrix of the Hammond organ." They were just beginning to build a huge following in the United States. King Crimson, had exploded out of nowhere in 1969. Moving, in a matter of a couple of months, from club obscurity to big stars. The band's debut LP, IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING, had become an instant smash and established the band in the UK, Europe and America.

On two occasions The Nice and King Crimson shared the bill, once on August 10, 1969 at the 9th Jazz and Blues Pop Festival in Plumton and on October 17, 1969 at Fairfield Hall in Croydon, England which was the premier of The Nice's "Five Bridges Suite" which featured an orchestra.

Greg Lake, about meeting Keith Emerson, has said: "It was at the Fillmore West in San Francisco and King Crimson was on the same bill as The Nice . King Crimson began to disintegrate at this time, and I met up with Keith at the soundcheck. Ian and Mike decided they didn't want to tour. They sort of pressured us. And, so the band was going to split up and at the time Keith was feeling that he'd taken The Nice as far as it would go.

"And he and I were on this stage during a soundcheck and so he was fumbling through this piece of....I can't remember what it was for the life of me, it was something - it was a jazz piece. And I played with him you know. "

Keith Emerson did confirm this jam at the Fillmore West in a 1972 press bio: "Greg was moving a bass line and I played the piano in back and Zap! It was there."

So after the soundcheck, we were both conscious of each other's position, and I think his manager, Tony Stratton-Smith, came over to me and said 'Can we talk about something personal?' And I said' Yeah', because I didn't want to carry on in King Crimson.

"I mean we had finished you know and so for me I was looking for a way to move on, musically, and there was Keith. And Keith was into a classical thing, me too - to some extent. He was a keyboard player and I'm a singer so.... it was a mutual need situation. We both needed something from each other to make a third person. So that was the basic embryo of the situation and then we obviously turned to the third member who was Carl Palmer."

The final live performance for the original King Crimson took place on December 16th., and the band returned home to the United Kingdom.

The band still had contractual obligations and Fripp was desperately trying to re-build King Crimson with Greg Lake still at the forefront.

"Bob wanted me to stay in the band and put a new line up together, but I wasn't prepared to carry on. I had already made up my mind to work with Keith Emerson, but I agreed to help him finish the second LP."

A tour booked for January and February had to be canceled because of the departure of McDonald and Giles, so Fripp and Lake returned to the studio, using other musicians.

The album was called "In The Wake Of Poseidon", and featured Lake singing on three tracks, including the single, "Cat Food."

(Both Michael Giles and Peter Giles also appeared, as did vocalist Gordon Haskell and sax player Mel Collins).

The album was released in March of 1970, and during the same month, King Crimson appeared on the BBC TV show, "Top Of The Pops", lip synching "Cat Food", with Greg Lake on an acoustic guitar. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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Bruce Eder @ Allmusic
Emerson, Lake & Palmer were progressive rock's first supergroup. Greeted by the rock press and the public as something akin to conquering heroes, they succeeded in broadening the audience for progressive rock from hundreds of thousands into tens of millions of listeners, creating a major radio phenomenon as well. Their flamboyance on record and in the studio echoed the best work of the heavy metal bands of the era, proving that classical rockers could compete for that arena-scale audience. Over and above their own commercial success, the trio also paved the way for the success of such bands as Yes, who would become their chief rivals for much of the 1970s.

Keyboardist Keith Emerson planted the seeds of the group in late 1969 when his band the Nice shared a bill at the Fillmore West with King Crimson, an up-and-coming band that featured lead singer and bassist Greg Lake. Emerson and Lake first discussed the possibility of collaborating at that point, but only after the Crimson lineup began disintegrating during their first U.S. tour did he finally opt to leave the group (after agreeing to sing on the forthcoming Crimson album). Upon officially teaming in 1970, Emerson and Lake auditioned several drummers, including Mitch Mitchell, before they approached Carl Palmer, a former member of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown who later hooked up with bandmate Vincent Crane in an experimental band called Atomic Rooster.

The trio's first rehearsals mostly picked up from the Nice's and King Crimson's repertoires, including such well-known numbers as "Rondo" and "21st Century Schizoid Man." In August of 1970, even as they were working on the songs that would ultimately comprise their first album, ELP played its first show at the Plymouth Guildhall, just ahead of the Isle of Wight Festival in August of 1970. The group's self-titled debut album was finished the following month and released in November; an instant success, it rose to the Top Five in England and the Top 20 in America. The single "Lucky Man" also was a hit, and their stage act rapidly became the stuff of legend.

The recording of the second ELP album, 1971's Tarkus, tested their cohesiveness while stretching their sound in new directions. Emerson was interested in further exploiting the range of the Moog synthesizer, and had conceived of an extended suite built around an opening eruption of sound, while Palmer had come up with an unusual drum pattern that he was eager to use. When they tried to present their ideas to Lake, who had assumed the mantle of producer with the first album, however, he couldn't really grasp the piece. He balked, and arguments ensued, and for a time it looked as though there might be no second album.

The group eventually agreed to disagree about the proposed track: "Tarkus" became the title of the new album, and ultimately defined the ELP sound as most people understood it -- the song was loud and bombastic, somewhat gloomy in its lyrical tone, and exultant in its instrumental power. A descendant of "The Three Fates" and "Tank" from the first album, "Tarkus" was a much denser piece of music, featuring not only multiple overdubs of instruments but textures that ultimately proved very difficult to re-create on-stage. After Tarkus hit the number one spot on the English charts and reached the Top Ten in America, their March 21, 1971, concert at Newcastle City Hall -- featuring the group's adaptation of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" -- was recorded for release, and became another major hit.

It was eight months before ELP's next record, Trilogy, was released in July of 1972. In the interim, they toured extensively, and made it their business to cultivate the college audience that took most naturally to their work. With Trilogy, the partnership was back fully in balance, with each member taking an equal share of musical responsibility. Moreover, Lake never sang better, nor did the group ever sound more comfortable and laid-back; among the eight very solid numbers in a classical-rock vein, there was tucked a track that became virtually the band's signature tune, a version of Aaron Copland's Hoedown.

Such was the group's credibility that when it came time to record a version of the first movement of Alberto Ginastera's Piano Concerto No. 1 and the publisher denied them permission, they approached the composer himself, who fully approved and applauded the track that became "Tocatta" on Brain Salad Surgery, released in 1973 on their own record label, Manticore (named for one of the mythological creatures portrayed in "Tarkus"). Through Manticore, ELP also released material by Pete Sinfield and the Italian progressive rock band PFM; Sinfield's presence as a composer with Lake on Brain Salad Surgery helped strengthen one of the group's lingering weaknesses, its lyrics -- where Lake's use of language had always tended toward the pleasant but simplistic, Sinfield, a veteran of King Crimson, provided lyrical complexity nearly as daunting as the best of the group's music.

In the wake of this string of successes, ELP released a triple live album, Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends, in August of 1974, but their streak came to a halt with Works, an album that also marked the dissolution of the group sound. At the time, each member was feeling constrained by the presence of the others, and their inclination was to release a trio of solo albums; cooler heads prevailed, however, and they reasoned that none of their solo works would sell remotely as well as an ELP album. The result was Works, a double album released in March of 1977. The album consisted of three solo sides and a fourth side on which the group did two extended collaborative efforts, "Pirates" and "Fanfare for the Common Man." =>>>>>>>>>>>

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@ Classic Bands
Emerson, Lake and Palmer were one of rock and roll's earliest "supergroups" who were formed from members of three already successful bands, The Nice, King Crimson and Atomic Rooster.

The Nice had enjoyed several minor hits and were beginning to build a following in the United States, gaining attention for their wild stage show that was a showcase for keyboard wizard, Keith Emerson. King Crimson had risen to fame after their debut album "The Court Of The Crimson King" had caught on with underground rock lovers. The amazingly tight LP had brought the band from obscurity to a major concert attraction in the UK, Europe and America in just a few months.

In the summer and fall of 1969, the two groups shared the bill at two major concerts in England. Inner turmoil had already begun to tear King Crimson apart and Keith Emerson was feeling that he'd taken The Nice as far as it would go. During a sound check, King Crimson's bassist, Greg Lake began to jam with Keith Emerson. After some discussion, the pair came away with the feeling that it was time to move on from their current bands.

The final live performance for the original King Crimson took place on December 16th and the band returned home. The group still had contractual obligations and were desperately trying to re-build King Crimson with Greg Lake still at the forefront. Although he had already made up his mind to leave, Lake did stick around long enough to finish a second album, using studio musicians to fill in for band members who had already split. The album, called "In The Wake Of Poseidon" was released in March of 1970 and featured Lake singing on just three tracks. King Crimson made one final appearance on the BBC TV show, "Top Of The Pops" with Greg Lake on an acoustic guitar, later the same month.

Two weeks later, Britain's New Musical Express ran the headline: "Keith Emerson and Greg Lake to form new group", while the pair were busy holding auditions for a third member. Several drummers were considered, spoken to, or auditioned; among them were Coliseum's Jon Hiseman, Cream's Ginger Baker, as well as Mitch Mitchell from The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It was Cream's manager, Robert Stigwood, who suggested Carl Palmer, a 20 year old drummer who had worked with Atomic Rooster and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. After a pair of auditions, Palmer was hired.

Although Emerson wanted to keep the project a keyboard-bass-drums trio, there were serious talks about adding Jimi Hendrix to the line up. A jam session was set up with Hendrix for late summer, 1970, but Jimi died before it came together. The rumours of the potential band with Hendrix did leak out to the British music press, who began running articles saying the band would be called "Hendrix, Emerson, Lake & Palmer" or HELP for short.

Before they even had an album out, the band began playing shows. Although most ELP fans believe their first gig was at the massive three day long Isle Of Wight Pop Music Festival on August 29th., the band has since revealed that their first gig actually took place six days earlier at a 3000 seat hall in Plymouth Guildhall. According to Lake, the band was paid $500. The show that ELP played at the Isle of Wight was spectacular. Keith Emerson played the Hammond organ, piano, and his custom Moog synthesizer. Since their first album had not yet been released, the audience was not familiar with their music, but responded with thunderous applause, nonetheless.

Although some critics, such as Melody Maker's Chris Welch, praised the band's early shows and its debut album, not everyone in the media was a fan. John Peel, a popular British DJ called ELP's performance at the Isle of Wight, "a tragic waste of time, talent and electricity."

The trio spent much of the summer of 1970 rehearsing and writing material for its debut album after signing with Island Records for Europe, and an Atlantic subsidiary, Cotillion Records, for the US. Recording commenced in July, 1970, with Lake producing. The resulting album, simply entitled "Emerson, Lake & Palmer", remains one of the most popular rock LPs of all time. It would be the album's final track, an acoustic / folk ballad called " Lucky Man" - penned solely by Lake - that would launch the group, bring Greg Lake's voice to the forefront of the pop music scene, and give the band its biggest hit. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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@ Articles from Friends Magazine Oct 2nd 1970 Emerson Lake and Palmer grooved onto the stage after an hour of watching their equipment being set up, looking so typically like Speakeasy hipsters it was painful. Why they chose to try so hard to look like superstars is a mystery , who are they trying to alienate themselves from ? Their music turned out to be technically brilliant , definitely the most proficient band IÕve seen in months , shades of King Crimson in the constructions of Greg Lake , neither good or bad as such, just similar. Emerson, not content with the organ , played two organs, a piano, electric piano and moog synthesiser ,sometimes simultaneously , always with his usual picturesque flair. The groups "piece de resistance "turned out to be a version of one of the finest classical compositions a I know, Mussorgsky's incredible "Pictures from an exhibition " . As their model they used Ravel's orchestration of the work and amongst any criticisms of their efforts it has to be noted that they performed on stage . the most convincing and excellent version of any classical piece that any rock band has ever done . Try listening to the Berlin Philharmonic doing the same piece and you'll probably see why in comparison ELPÕS version of "Pictures At An Exhibition " was, to me anyway , unconvincing . The finest orchestra in the world easily makes one of the finest bands in the world sound like a weak fart. As usual precise and faultless drumming from Carl Palmer . The clothes and aura of the band were less entertaining than their music , Pity. =>>>>>>>>>>> =============================== Carl Palmer Helming New ELP, Asia Projects Anni Layne @ Rolling Stone Never mind the Y2K problem. In the year 2000, a more menacing threat may come from YELP -- as in "Why Emerson, Lake and Palmer?" Concern is just as foreboding with respect to Asia -- the other Carl Palmer band, not the continent -- as both groups plan to christen the new millennium with a fresh batch of art-rock. | The reunited ELP, for one, began writing material for a new album this fall, immediately following their three-year international tour. So far, keyboard virtuoso Keith Emerson has laid down a twenty-five minute tape of rough cuts that Palmer says he will work from during a creative brainstorming session in London this January. The new material, he says, is accented by strong melodies and elaborate instrumentation -- trademarks of classic ELP albums like 1971's Tarkus and 1973's Brain Salad Surgery. "I feel that the band just needs more musical ideas collectively and individually. We need to stockpile," Palmer says of the album-in-progress. "Prog rock is a part of us, and we can't abandon that. But we have to move forward, too. We might have to look at doing something retro again, like appearing with an orchestra. Or we may have to look at new ways of presenting ourselves. Who knows, maybe a ballet." =>>>>>>>>>>>

Carl Palmer

Bruce Eder @ All Music
The progressive rock boom of the late 1960's and early 1970's produced its own pantheon of superstars -- Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman at the keyboards, guitarists Robert Fripp and Bill Nelson, and Chris Squire on the bass come to mind. Among the drummers in the field, Carl Palmer stands out as the best known of them all -- he has peers within the genre, to be sure, including Michael Giles, and at least one rival, Bill Bruford, who transcends the field, but Palmer is easily the biggest name, principally by virtue of his work with Emerson, Lake & Palmer, although he's had successes in other contexts as well.

Palmer was born in England's West Midlands in 1950, placing him among the youngest members of his generation of art-rock musicians. He was at best an indifferent student within the context of formal education, a frequent truant who preferred practice his drums, and he was serious enough to take -- and his parents sufficiently supportive to pay for -- lessons with a proper teacher in London. He reached his teens just as the Liverpool sound started sweeping the country; he was a fan of the Beatles, but already Palmer had musical idols far removed from anything that had come out of the Cavern Club and other Merseyside venues -- Buddy Rich, whom he came to know personally, brazenly showing up at his hotel on one occasion when the American legend was on tour in England; Philly Joe Jones, Art Blakey, Gene Krupa, and other figures out of jazz and the big-band swing era. He also listened to a lot of r&b and was a formidible player when he joined his first professional group, originally known as the King Bees but later rechristened the Craig; a Mod outfit par excellence, they were a solid r&b-based band, and on their first record, "I Must Be Mad" b/w "Suspense", Palmer -- all of 16 years old -- revealed a prowess that might've made Keith Moon (who was practically a drumming god moving among mortals), if he'd been listening, start keeping an ear pointed in his direction. Palmer also managed to intersect with the Merseybeat sound on at least one occasion that year, playing a session for a single with the black Liverpool singing group the Chants.

At that point in his life and career, Palmer could easily have gone the route of such players as Jimmy Page or fellow drummer Clem Cattini, into work as a session musician, which was both lucrative and steady -- possibly even more so than lead guitarists, session drummers were essential to most producers' work when it came to recording new or relatively untried groups (especially on their singles) during this period, and Palmer could easily have put himself into that talent pipeline, alongside the likes of Cattini, Bobby Graham, John Bonham et al. In an interview with Alan Robinson for the notes for the double CD Anthology (2001), however, Palmer recalled that his father saw more ahead of him in music than simply playing on sessions for other musicians, even for top fees, and urged him to resist that temptation and avoid that career choice. He found a steady gig easily enough with Chris Farlowe's backing band the Thunderbirds, playing alongside Albert Lee et al for a couple of years, and following this with a stint in the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Out of that, and his friendship with keyboard player Vincent Crane, he co-founded Atomic Rooster. The latter group, along with such outfits as the Nice, bridged the gap between psychedelia and progressive rock, sometimes with impressive results, and at times sounded almost like an Emerson, Lake & Palmer prototype. In the interview with Robinson, he recalled that it was while working with Atomic Rooster that Palmer realized that he liked working with small groups, preferably a trio -- he got to open up his playing and try doing some of the things that he'd long admired in the work of his idols like Buddy Rich and Art Blakey. In 1970, following his exit from Atomic Rooster, Palmer managed to cross paths with Greg Lake, a bassist/guitarist/singer who was a refugee from the first line-up of King Crimson, which had split up after (almost during) their first American tour; and Keith Emerson of the Nice, who'd split with his group amid a chaotic year that saw the collapse of their label, Immediate Records. In a sense, Palmer was the vertex of the triangle formed by the three personalities, a Beatles fan and a pop-rock listener like Lake, but also a jazz enthusiast like Emerson.

Within a year of their debut in the summer of 1970, Palmer had become one of the most idolized rock drummers in the world, the group's debut album showcasing a level of speed, dexterity, and taste that was wholly removed from the kind of playing -- by the likes of Keith Moon in the Who, John Bonham in Led Zeppelin, or Charlie Watts in the Rolling Stones -- that had previously captured the ears and imagination of rock listeners. This was playing -- especially on the instrumental "Tank", and the extended bridge of "Take A Pebble", but also woven through "The Barbarian" -- of a kind with which jazz listeners were familiar, and classical audiences could understand, but it completely dazzled rock audiences. And when the group toured, and Palmer showed that he could also do this on stage, he was suddenly a major lure for their concerts. He also demonstrated precisely how formidible he could be on the creative side when it came to recording what became their second album, Tarkus. The title track grew out of a piece of music that Palmer devised around an incredibly complex time signature and Emerson elaborated, into a side-length conceptual piece that became a major part of their concert repertory. He only had a couple of rivals during this period, Michael Giles of the same first incarnation of King Crimson whence Lake had come, and Bill Bruford, of Yes and a slightly later version of King Crimson, and Palmer was more extrovert as a musician than either of them and enjoyed by far the biggest public reputation -- it wasn't unusual for his fans to compare him with his longtime idol Buddy Rich, with whose band he sometimes played.

Following a string of ever-more ambitious (some would say pretentious) albums, culminating with Works, which gave Palmer the chance to write and produce the music on a whole side of an LP, the group split up, principally due to the changing musical aspirations of its members, who wanted to express themselves independently of each other, and amid a precipitous decline in their popularity as the 1970's drew to a close. Palmer landed in PM, a band formed with guitarist/singer John Nitzinger, whose ranks also included Todd Cochran on keyboards and vocals, Barry Finnerty on guitar and vocals, and bassist/singer Erik Scott -- they were a decidedly more pop-oriented band, and cut a single album, One P.M., for Ariola in 1980 before breaking up. He found considerably greater success in 1982 as a member of Asia, a supergroup whose other members came from the ranks of Yes and King Crimson. "Heat of the Moment" became their signature tune and a huge international hit; with a platinum record behind him for 1980's enabling him to step away from ELP in the public mind, Palmer was able to concentrate more on pure music-making in his next group, The 3 Project. The latter, dating from the late 1980's, also included Keith Emerson but allowed both musicians a chance to work on music in a decidedly less formalistic, more popular context.

By the 1990's, however, he was back working with Emerson, Lake & Palmer (following a brief sojourn by his former bandmates in collaboration with Cozy Powell in Emerson, Lake & Powell. As of the early twenty-first century, and just into his 50's, Palmer probably enjoyed the highest level of musical respect of the three members of the trio, mostly by virtue of his sustained (and still overwhelming) virtuosity. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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