So I bought the new ELP DVD...

threefates wrote: Lake is a God.... I just got my copy......... and he's looking like the angel from heaven... So I'm gonna go lock myself in front of the main tv dvd.... with my diet pepsi and some nachos with guacamole... and I'll see you guys next week sometime......... BYE............   BTW... I got something else this week thats blowing my mind............ I just couldn't be happier.. well except maybe if I got tickets to see Floyd at Live8...

How did you get that ticket?  I cant find them anywhere - even the Lake website is refusing to admit he is touring!! 

Could you possibly ask Greg to send me one too please? 

As for looking like an angel, yes he looked great in the 1970s - but of the three, he was the one my girlfriend didn't recognise in the recent interviews.  I thought he looked better than in previous interviews - has he quit smoking?  Almost every shot on the DVD sees him taking a drag between bass runs.  Keith even mentions it in recalling Lake's first impression of Tarkus (which caused me to laugh out loud....!)

Here's my review of the new ELP 2-DVD set:

This 2-DVD set, with a total of circa 250 minutes of video, is a must-have for fans of the band. I would also recommend it to any progressive rock fan interested in the genre’s history, and to those who do not realise (or who doubt) how popular the band was. I’m not going to reel off all the facts and statistics mentioned, but by the time you’ve watched the documentary and the excerpts from the various concerts you will realise that this band was huge back in the 1970s, and real innovators.

To newcomers to the band or genre, and to those sitting on the fence, I would strongly recommend watching Disc 2 first: there is an hour-long, informative documentary including interviews with the band members, their past and present managers, the band’s publicist and even the well-know promoter Harvey Goldsmith (“When they got on stage they were mind-blowing”).

You can select sub-titles in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

Apart from the documentary, Disc 2 has 44 minutes from the California Jam festival in 1974, where the band headlined to an audience of 350,000. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed watching the footage of this concert, especially Keith Emerson’s lengthy piano solo (no, I’m not talking about the famous – and brief – piano stunt, which is also shown but was only a gimmick).

After watching Disc 2, you can put in Disc 1 and watch 19 performances over the band’s life, ranging from TV studio appearances to videos and concerts. A couple of the very early recordings are historically interesting albeit annoying because TV producers and cameramen in those days felt that it was not sufficient to just show the band playing: it was important to zoom in and out constantly, change shot constantly, superimpose coloured boxes and strips, invert the image, and mess around in other senseless ways. So much so that you cannot see what the band is doing half the time. Thirty-seven years down the line, precisely what is important is to see the band performing, as they were, not stupid visual effects. OK, rant over: there is still plenty of good footage on Disc 1, so do not let me put you off. The list of tracks is historically diverse (although some are only excerpts): ‘Take A Pebble’ (German TV, 1970); ‘Knife Edge’ (Brussels concert, 1971); ‘Rondo’/’Pictures’ (Isle of White festival, 1970), ‘Rondo’ (Brussels concert, 1971); ‘Tarkus, Eruption’ (Tokyo concert, 1972); ‘Hoedown’ (Milan concert, 1973); ‘Tank’ (Milan concert, 1973); ‘Lucky Man’ (California Jam, 1974); ‘Karn Evil 9, Third Impression’ (California Jam, 1974); ‘Toccata’ (Aquarius TV show, 1974) [Palmer only, and very good]; ‘I Believe In Father Christmas’ (Greg Lake’s excellent 1975 video); ‘Honky Tonk Train Blues’ (Oscar Peterson’s Piano Party, 1976); ‘Fanfare For The Common Man’ (1977 video); ‘Pirates’ (Montreal concert, 1977) [not a piece I like, but it sounds and looks great live with a full orchestra accompanying, making the whole thing very slick]; ‘Tiger In A Spotlight’ (Pop Rock TV show, 1977); ‘Watching Over You’ (Memphis concert, 1978); ‘Tarkus’ (Royal Albert Hall, 1992) [boy, the guys look old in this one, and I don’t enjoy much the way they turn the piece into a slow, funky, jazzed up number]; ‘Touch And Go’ (Budapest concert, 1997). Disc 1 also has “bonus footage”: mostly-B&W footage of the band rehearing in 1973 (which is initially boring but then becomes interesting); a short documentary about the album covers, with interviews; a B&W film of the band racing saloon cars with other celebrities at Brands Hatch in 1973; “How It All Began”, a new interview with Bob Moog, which I found very interesting (and further proof of how innovatory the band was). And, if that is not enough, three more B&W tracks: ‘Fire’, performed by THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN (1968 TV performance, suffering from gratuitous, very dated and hugely irritating camera effects); ‘America’, performed by THE NICE (1968 TV performance, also suffering from the same very dated and irritating camera effects); and finally, a snippet of KING CRIMSON performing ‘21^st Century Schizoid Man’ in Hyde Park in 1969. Oh, and there’s a 24-page booklet with some nice photos and background information.

Well, what are you waiting for? Grab a few beers and some snacks, kick everyone who is not a progressive rock fan out of the room, and settle down for 250 minutes of rock history. And don’t forget: watch Disc 2 first!

Yes, great review Fitz, there are indeed some great moments on this video..  I had to watch it with a box of tissues.... Something a bit strange about the KC Hyde Park video snippet tho.  I don't think the audio is from that show... sounds like the original placed over it to me....

Disc 2 with the documentary was excellent. I love it when Keith says "Maybe we were too good".... yeh, that was it!  Everyone was very honest about the relationship between Greg and Keith... but even at the end they admitted they are just like family... loving and fighting...

I understand Keith and Carl attended a charity function together in London last week.  All we need is one more...and we'll have a group!  But Greg is in Germany recording a new Christmas single.. and working on some type of seminar with the Franz Liszt School of Music in Weismar..

threefates wrote: Something a bit strange about the KC Hyde Park video snippet tho.  I don't think the audio is from that show... sounds like the original placed over it to me....

Sorry, I guess I should have mentioned that it is obviously dubbed but, as it's only a short excerpt and the B&W film of band plus crowd is interesting -- and the lip sync between the singing and the film is very good -- it's not a big deal really. The snippet is really there just for historical context, seeing a little of Greg Lake with KING CRIMSON.

I also found it quite an emotional viewing experience (I'm sure not half as much as you, though!). The old footage brought back some good memories of my youth. A bit depressing in some ways too, though, seeing all the very young teenage faces in the very early crowds - all standing - mutate into a much older crowd - all seated - at the 1992 Royal Albert Hall concert. But then the band had formed over 20 years earlier. Twenty years!

I'm usually not impressed by music DVDs -- I prefer a good-quality music CD on a decent HI-FI and/or good headphones (or actually being at a concert if possible, of course) to watching a concert on TV -- but I really enjoyed this ELP 2-DVD set. I just had to watch the whole thing through, and was riveted. I didn't learn much that I didn't already know about the band, but there were one or two interesting new tidbits even for a long-time fan such as myself (I'm not saying what, as I don't want to spoil anything for those who have yet to watch the DVDs). And the DVDs actually made me want to listen to the first album and BSS again asap, which shows how interesting the package is. firth_of_Fifth's enthusiasm sums it up for me too!