WELCOME BACK

This is a documentary celebrating ELP's "Black Moon" comeback tour of 1992-93. It's a haphazard mix of footage from throughout the band's career, including scenes from the band's concert in Verona, Italy in 1992, as well as others including several excerpts from their famous concert in Montreal in 1977 featuring a 67-piece orchestra and their appearance at the 1970 Isle of Wight rock festival. There are many interview segments with the band, fans, and other people associated with the band, plus scenes of the group in everyday life (like Carl Palmer jogging!) and the setting up of their stage.

Although I found this video interesting, I was disappointed that many of the live scenes were often interrupted by interviews and scenes of members of the band doing things that seemed completely unrelated to the music (like Keith Emerson flying a plane or choosing an eating utensil or Carl Palmer driving a Rolls Royce). Further, many of the live scenes, although annoyingly interrupted, are often just excerpts. Still, a couple of the performances I found entertaining, including Pirates from their 1977 concert in Montreal, Emerson's performance of Creole Dance, footage of him playing the grand piano while it was spinning in the air, and his destruction of an organ near the end of the video (although it looks childish for a man of his age to be doing this). There is an interesting clip of Robert Moog describing the early Moog synthesizers and his surprise of ELP using it on stage, which because of its size and complexity made it a stage crew's nightmare. Carl Palmer briefly describes the construction of his stainless steel drum set and how they had to cancel a show because the stage collapsed under its weight and also about Ringo Starr eventually purchasing it.

Although interesting, the video clearly lacks direction. I would have felt more comfortable if this documentary had been more historical and moved with a forward motion of time instead of jumping around all over the place. Also, the music video of Black Moon was just embarrassing and a big cheesefest. The mundane footage of everyday activities I guess was to make us understand that ELP and their stage crew are also Earthlings. Anybody can film crap like that. I'm wondering where the footage of Emerson eating a chalkboard eraser, Lake picking his nose, and Palmer taking his shoes off after he realized he put them on the wrong feet is? For collectors and fans only, thus two stars.