The night before Greg Lake's show in Dartford I was lucky enough to see Carl Palmer in my home town of Swindon.Its the third time he's played here ,surprising given that the Art Centre only holds 100 odd people (and a few normal ones as well LOL).However the acoustics are very good and he's able to crank the sound up suitably loud.The band consists of a young wizz kid guitarist (first name Paul) and a bass player (John Wheatcroft).This allows him to put a different slant on ELP tracks as there is no keyboard player.The lead guitarist has to play a lot of parts as a result and does amazingly well.
There were no great surprises in the set list.Fanfare (with a fantsastic drum solo) and several other ELP instrumentals (Toccata,LA Nights,The Barbarian,Bullfrog,Eruption,Aquatarkus) along with classical faves Hoedown,Romeo and Juliet,The Enemey God and Carmina Burana.The best though was his version of Trilogy.Immense stuff,Carl was on fire, playing all round the kit like he was 20 again! I just closed my eyes and enjoyed!
I really urge you fans of great rock drumming to see this guy if you get the chance.He is a living legend.