ELP Digest Monday, 4 Jan 1993 Volume 3 : Issue 1 The "Cast it to the Sea" Edition Today's Topics: Re: Pictures at An Exhibition CD Re: ELP Digest V2 #24 Brain Salad Surgery NEW ELP Live CD in Japan re: ELP Digest V2 #24 ELP on BMG 3 ELP Articles ELP Concert - Tickets on Sale 12/12 [ Editor's note: Happy New Year! Sorry for the delay in getting this issue out. I was out of the country for a few weeks and then got absorbed in Christmas, New Year, and vacation holidays. Now I'm back and welcome you to the first edition of volume 3 of the ELP Digest. My goals for this year remain to provide you with the most complete information and interesting discussion of ELP on a biweekly-ish basis. While in France, I found a few obscure CDs that I hope to report on soon. Also, I have just concluded a discussion with "Seconds" magazine to print the entire text of what I think is one of the best ELP interviews I've ever read. Once I get a release to reprint the interview here, I will. Our mailing list now exceeds 200 people worldwide. This includes people in Russia, Japan, Brazil, and many other countires that I never dreamed I'd be able to reach when Jim Smith and I first talked about starting an Internet ELP newsletter. Now matter where you live, I hope you get to see ELP on tour this year! Enjoy! - John - ] Digest, mailing address, and administrative stuff to: J.Arnold@bull.com\ = for now, these are the same ELP-related info that you / want to put in the digest to: J.Arnold@bull.com Note: The opinions, information, etc. contained in this digest are those of the original message sender listed in each message below. They are not necessarily those of the mailing list/digest administrator or those of any institution through whose computers/networks this mail flows. Unless otherwise noted, the individual authors of each entry in the Digest are the copyright holders of that entry. Please respect that copyright and act accordingly. I especially ask that you not redistribute the ELP Digest in whole or in part with acknowledging the original source of the digest and each author. Thanks! [ Editor's note: the above paragraphis new for '93. Please let me know if you feel it is incorrect, inappropriate, or otherwise bad form. I'm not trying to lay claim to anything other than my own writings and I am trying to make sure that others don't either. This is a preventive measure; to my knowledge, there haven't been any problems with this sort of thing. - John - ] ------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 20:32:17 -0500 From: barrett@snoopy.cs.umass.edu (Daniel Barrett) To: m21520@mwvm.mitre.org (Brian O'Sullivan) Cc: arnold@cyclades.ma30.bull.com Subject: Re: Pictures at An Exhibition CD Brian O'Sullivan writes: >I picked up the "Pictures..." CD about 4 years ago, and was somewhat baffled >at the track arrangement: there are just *2* tracks, one for side 1 of the >album, and one for side 2. >1. Is this the "normal" track layout of the CD? It is "normal" in the sense that the record industry doesn't give a damn about its customers. Someone was evidently too lazy to decide on track markings... probably because they were unfamiliar with the music. All IMHO. >2. What exactly constitutes "The Old Castle"? My guess is that it's the >bizzare-sounding effects Keith plays on his ribbon controller right after Greg >Lake's classical guitar piece ("The Sage", right?) and just before the whole >band jumps in behind Keith's moog solo ("Blues Variations", right?) I agree with this guess. Note, however, that Mussorgsky's original "The Old Castle" does not sound anything at all like ELP's interpretation. It is not even remotely similar. The Mussorgsky piece is a very quiet and slow with a simple and beautiful melody. It's in 6/8 with a repeated "ONE two THREE FOUR five SIX" ostinato bass, and has some truly beautiful voice leading and dissonance. In case anyone isn't aware of this: Mussorgsky's PICTURES was originally written for solo piano. Ravel later orchestrated it, and the piece became much better known as a result. You can find the piano score in any well-stocked sheet music store. It is great fun to play, though some movements like "Ballet of Unhatched Chickens" are rather difficult to play. The "Promenade" is quite easy and can be very satisfying to pound out. :-) Dan //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ | Dan Barrett -- Dept of Computer Science, Lederle Graduate Research Center | | University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 -- barrett@cs.umass.edu | \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\///////////////////////////////////// ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Dec 92 17:34 PST From: Terry Carroll To: J.Arnold@bull.com Subject: Re: ELP Digest V2 #24 Quothe wcsanil@superior.ccs.carleton.ca (Anil Prasad) in ELP Digest V2 #24 (citing an ELP press release): > "Drumming like a man possessed, Palmer displayed a passion and > precision that was mirrored by the technological wizardry [read: > quantification and sequencers] that accompanied him...his six minute > drum solo was alone worth the price of admission" - Cleveland > Vindicator [what on earth is the "cleveland vindicator? a local NRA > chapter?!] Hey, this one I can answer. The Vindicator is an alternative newspaper of my alma mater, Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio, published by and for the black student body of CSU. This is of course, to be distinguished from the Cauldron, which is the official newpaper of Cleveland State University. Of course, I haven't seen many issues of the Vindicator since I've moved to California, so it may have changed its focus. Clearly, though, the ELP press flacks are reaching when they need to hit a college newspaper to get a favorable quotation, particularly when the university is a minor one like Cleveland State, and especially when the paper isn't even the official school paper. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 16:15:25 PST From: Mark.McCarron-Fraser@Corp.Sun.COM (Mark McCarron-Fraser) To: j.arnold@bull.com Subject: Brain Salad Surgery ELP Commrades! I want to thank Jim Smith and John Arnold for answering my "What is the theme of Brain Salad Surgery?" contest. Thanks also to Ronald Chrisley for the informative trans- lation of the title. I had wondered about that before. BTW, Jim and John won the cassettes as no one else responded. Anyway, I thought I would say what I think the theme of BSS is. The whole album is about the degradation of humanity as a result of machine encroachment into human civilization. The first tune - "Jerusalem" - is an old English hymn written during the industrial revolution. It bemones the loss of jobs, land, and freedom suffered by the English peasantry. "Tocata" features synthesized drums and guitar, which suggests to me that music is being taken over by machines too. "Still . . . You Turn Me On" could be seen as just a love song, or it could be an example of how the dehumanizing influence of machines is beginning to interfere with personal relation- ships. (Ok, this may be stretching it a bit.) In Benny the Bouncer we're back to the alienation of the working masses in contemporary western industrialized society. (BTW, Guinness is a very dark Irish stout [beer].) As we see the crowd is into the fight for the entertainment value. They are not disturbed by murder of Benny. This shows further loss of human dignity and the low esteem for human life. Karn Evil 9 of course is the ultimate statement of where we're headed if we don't clean up our act. ("I'll be there, I'll be there, I will be there" Will we be there too?) The title - and caliope sounds - suggest a carnival of evil. Notice that "the lenses of the jackles" are probably reporters cameras (videos?), and the "gold" is of course their pay. This rather anticipated the exploitation of misery and grief that is now the bread and butter of the major media. Naturally, the song is loaded with criticism of christianity - as in many other Greg Lake lyrics. Ultimately, we leap into the far future where humans still fight wars, but no longer even mark the graves of the fallen. Eventually, machines attain to consciousness and tell the people that they're wimps. Incidentally, for the truly excessive among you, the poster of the Brain Salad Surgery album over available ELP merchandisizing contains not only the signitures of our heros, but also that of H. R. Giger. Sadly, these posters are NOT numbered. Happy PaganFest! - Mark ------------------------------ To: J.Arnold@bull.com Subject: NEW ELP Live CD in Japan Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 23:47:45 +0900 From: Atsushi Shionozaki The New ELP Live CD has been released in Japan (Dec. 16). Emerson, Lake, & Palmer Live at the Royal Albert Hall VICP-5222 2,500 yen about $20US Here are the track listings: Live at the Royal Albert Hall 1. Karn Evil 9 (1st Impression, Part 2) 2:14 2. Tarkus (Medley) 9:32 Eruption - Stone of Years - Iconoclast 3. Knife Edge 5:29 4. Paper Blood 4:09 5. Romeo & Juliet 3:40 6. Creole Dance 3:21 7. Still... You Turn Me On 3:13 8. Lucky Man 4:39 9. Black Moon 6:37 10. Pirates 13:18 11. Finale (Medley) 14:42 Fanfare for the Common Man - America - Rondo I just bought it and haven't listened to it yet. It's mentioned on the CD that it's 71 minutes and no overdubs. (Track times taken from booklet) shio ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 16:30:18 EDT From: cat@icad.puc-rio.br (Carlos Alberto Teixeira) To: j.arnold@bull.com Subject: re: ELP Digest V2 #24 - --| While we're on the subject of sonic anomalies, what - --| other ones have people noticed? One could not call this an anomaly, but a great unintentional effect was obtained by Emerson at the end of the triple live album, Welcome Back... Karn Evil 9 3rd Impression. I refer to that final repetitive sequence, obviously played by a sequencer running at increasing speed. Listenting to that part at low speed - 16 rpm (a good technique to study Emmo's amazingly fast solos, since it maintains the same tone as the original track, but just some octaves lower), there are some moments where the accoustic echo produces harmonic reverberations exactly in the middle between two consecutive Moog keyins. Superb! - --| The one that comes to mind for me is the "blip" at the end of - --| the Aquatarkus lead. As you mentioned Aquatarkus, I was always fascinated by that long solo, the combination of bass Moog, varying the VCF register, and the main synth voice. But I was greatly disappointed to discover that much of this wonderful solo theme and style was copied by Emerson from the obscure and unknown "The Minotaur" (LP: MOOG The Eletric Ecletics of Dick Hyman, side 2, track 1. LP code: 938-S. Published by "Command - ABC Records". Manunfactured by Grand Award Record Co., a subsidiary of ABC Records) - --| > - The original "I Believe in Father Christmas." I never heard that - --| >before, unless that's the version I always hear on the radio around - --| >X-mas. Anyone know? I can't remember off-hand. - --| - --| As "The Atlantic Years" says, this is the original single release, so it - --| is likely to be played by radio stations around Christmas. In addition, - --| it is the version that is behind the video, which is usually played by - --| MTV around Christmas. Oops, the original "I Believe..." theme is Prokofieff's "Lieutenant Kije Suite", which best version was that performed by the London Philarmonic Orchestra, conducted by Tennstedt, duration 20:24 minutes. Another subtle copy done by our Keith was that of Love Beach's "Love at First Sight" introductory piano dream: Chopin's studies numbers 1, 2, 3 - Opus 10. A question: Have you heard Emerson's solo work "Christmas Album"? Where could I get a copy of it? I looked for it all around Europe with no success. Bye now. Take care and may all ELPies have a merry Xmas. - C.A.T. ------------------------------ From: Burch Seymour Subject: ELP on BMG To: J.Arnold@bull.com Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 11:00:48 EST I just got my ELP Atlantic Years from BMG. I got it on the 60% off sale. Even with their extremely high shipping & tax, it was fifteen bucks and change. Beats the heck out of 30-plus at any local store. (ELP Atlantic Years - BMG cat number 261385) I like the set, and I know it's been said before, but why the heck can't the big labels ever seem to do proper liner notes! The track listings are wrong! and there are no times listed. Also the version of Toccata sure doesn't sound like the one on my 3-record WBMF set, even though the notes say that's where it came from. No doubt it was from the same tour, but unless they did some really radical remixing, it ain't the same performance. (Not that I mind a different performance, just another complaint about poor documentation). Question for any other BMG subscribers out there. I get the classical catalog and don't always see the full listing of pop CD's. Does BMG offer ELP Works 1 and/or 2. I'd like to get them, but not enough to pay retail prices. If one of you has a catalog number, and would be so kind as to mail it to me I would appreciate it. -Burch Seymour- bseymour@encore.com -==================================================================- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 15:07:40 GMT From: thart@starless.demon.co.uk (Toby Hart Dyke) To: J.Arnold@bull.com Subject: ELP articles (x3!) [ Editor's note: Toby offers us THREE articles on ELP. Thanks, Toby! ] ************** ELP: the pub band plays Prokofiev Ben Thompson - The Independent On Sunday, 1 Nov. 1992 Now they know how much dry ice it takes to fill the Albert Hall. "The carbon dioxide has occluded the upper echelons," a fan observes delightedly as Emerson Lake & Palmer take to the stage for their third alarmingly well- attended London comeback show. If it was Ralph Waldo Emerson, Veronica Lake and Arnold Palmer, the rest of the world would have to sit up and take notice, but it isn't. It's Keith, Greg and Karl [sic], on the run from the taste police in their leather trousers and horrendous embroidered shirts, ready to perpetrate more aesthetic crimes i the dread name of pomp-rock. Years of marathon running and martial arts have kept them in pretty good shape. Emerson crouches happily within his keyboards complex, inexplicably surrounded by the sort of big circular mirrors they put on trees to help you see round country corners. Lake who looks like a slightly less chirpy Eric Bristow, with an earring, battles gamely against the remains of a bout of laryngitis, and the frighteningly muscular Palmer batters his big drumkit, occasionally lashing out at one of his brace of gongs with a large fluffy hammer. For all the technological overload, they sound like a pub band. From the bog-standard boogie-woogie of "Honky Tonk Train Blues" to the overblown classical treatments of legend (Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" is their latest victim), it is ELP's musical limitations that really shock. The climax comes early, when Emerson leaps out into the audience with an enormous flame-thrower,fires out a great jet of fire, runs to the centre of the arena and shoots again, but this time nothing happens. It doesn't matter. The crowd are united in their outlaw thrill, newly cemented in a sensational paraphernalia of ELP baseball caps, (Emerson and Palmer once plotted to draft in Jimi Hendrix - mercifully without success - just so they could be called HEP) personalised drumsticks and autographed harmonicas. They know that this group is truly *out there*, as far from any notion of currency or progress as it's possible to get, and they love them for it. And why shouldn't they? [ Toby notes: Incidentally, Eric Bristow is a rather fat, ugly darts player in the UK, known as "The Chirpy Cockney". It is not a compliment to be compared to him! ] ********** 'Q' Magazine, July 1992 Cecil B de Mrs. Mills They've called them "progressive dinosaurs", "excessive musos", "self-gratifying bores". They've always called themselves ELP. "Probably one of the most misunderstood bands in the world," they remind Phil Sutcliffe. "I respect high-level dealers, cats like Muhammed Ali and Bertrand Russell. I also respect Jesus Christ who was one of the highest-level entertainers of all time. He went out with his twelve roadies and some of the stunts that cat pulled would blow your mind." Greg Lake said that. But, to be fair, it was 1972 and he was on his way to Japan aboard a jumbo chartered for the exclusive use of ELP. A 50,000 crowd awaited, another territory ripe for conquest. On top of the world looking down on creation, they were the gods of the progressive era. Briefly. Now, as the trio plot a comeback, the future is the subject of earnest declaration and the recent past a matter to be dusted around, preferably. But the good old days make them smile. In the dowdy "lounge area" of Ritz rehearsal studios, the 12.15 from Wandsworth to Putney clattering by right outside the window, they sit in a row, L, E, and P, gradually loosening the stays of reminiscence. Greg Lake, 43, singer/bassist, round as Humpty Dumpty, plainly content to let middle age spread. Keith Emerson, 47, keyboards wizard, a few pounds overweight, a touch dishevelled, sporting a leather jacket with studs and a painted dragon. Carl Palmer, 41, drummer, lean, sharp haircut. While they're plainly here to do a job, Emerson's arrival, last and late, had provoked a rowdy breach of purposeful propriety - seemingly customary greetings included the query "Shagging again last night were you?", and he'd further confirmed that he's going through a bit of a laddish throwback phase by announcing that "this bloke" had written two Ws on his buttocks in indelible ink so that in the time-honoured jest, he spells "Wow" when he bends over. Ho, and furthermore, ho. They reconvened last year and immediately, says Lake, "started to feel the chemistry of the original band, an organic sort of thing". Hence the new album, Black Moon. "I've mentioned this before," says Emerson, meaning 20 years before, "but whereas a lot of bands from our generation developed their style from black blues, what we wanted to do when we got together in 1970 was stick to our heritage. We're white, we're European, we didn't want to pretend to be something we're not." Seen as a supergroup - Emerson from The Nice, Lake from King Crimson, Palmer from Atomic Rooster - they turned to the classics both for inspiration and, in a crusading spirit, to clobber snobbish musical prejudices. In short order, Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition', Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, Aaron Copland's 'Hoedown' and 'Fanfare for the Common Man' were all given a vigorous going over, alongside their own oddly diverse compositions (pomp extravaganzas, jazz-rock work-outs and Kinksy comic songs). And millions loved it: and this was the core rock audience, not just greatcoated Prog-heads. Individually and as a band they won all the readers' polls going , ahead of The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Moody Blues and Yes. "Music back then had a cultural significance, you see," Lake opines. "Whereas now, because it's a market-lead industry, you've got rock product, then you had rock heroes." A different kind of hero, though, the last lurch of the '60s revolution. After the famous boys next door (The Beatles) and the rebels (The Rolling Stones), ELP and their peers were in that less than heart-warming group of bands "who could really play". They were "players' players". Trading on technique, like Olympic divers, they were judged according to the degree of difficulty. As Lake says, "Our role was to represent something the fans could identify with in terms of excellence or capability, something they could feel proud of." Of course, as it turned out, the Progressive era was the rock orbit in decay. It produced some grandeur, but more delusions of grandeur. Gigs started to be weighed and measured, rather than enjoyed. Bands, fans and journalists were all seduced by sheer scale until, fatally, a report that ELP had 40 tons of equipment and a 42-man road crew might evoke almost as big a thrill of admiration as the music itself. But if that's the theory of their rise and fall, what Emerson, Lake & Palmer insist on to this day is that, live, they gave the greatest show available anywhere, they were rock'n'roll. Apart from the flying Moog and the revolving drumkit, Emerson would regularly produce a fistful of daggers and attack his instruments on the feeble musical pretext that some interesting sustains might be achieved by jamming the blades down between the keys. Then there was the organ-wrestling. The roadies would bring out a big, old Hammond and, after a bit of fast fingering, he'd start to kick it jump on it, shove it all over the stage and finally stand it on one corner and spin it like a top. "I got sounds out of that organ the manufacturers never even dreamed of," he says, eyes misting over. But such antics cost him a lot of pain - as did, of course, the exploding piano routine. "Yeah, I had a few accidents," he grins. "Blew fingernails off with thunderflashes, fell off stage with the Hammond and broke quite a few ribs, broke my nose..." "What about the Tarkus?" says Palmer. "That night in Brighton? We had a model of the creature from the album sleeve, you know, half battle tank and half armadillo, and at one point it would spew out this sort of snowstorm of polystyrene. Anyway, that night we had it aimed in the wrong direction and it poured all this stuff straight out into the grand piano! Filled it up! We had to stop the show and on came the roadies with the dustpans and the Hoover to clear it out." ELP definitely had this thing about Hoovers, unique in the annals of pop. At this juncture, Greg Lake's carpet roadie should be mentioned. "Now that came about because of me nearly being electrocuted at a gig in Germany," says Lake. "I got a shock off the mike, bang, there I was flat on my back. So I started wearing plimsolls and the crew put a rubber mat down. But that looked bloody awful so I said to my roadie, 'Couldn't you cover that with a bit of carpet?'" The times being what they were, the bit of carpet was Persian, 6,000 pounds worth, and Lake's reaction was to extract a little extra value from it by ordering a ritual once-over with the vacuum in full view of the punters before every show. When it comes to the extra-curricular aspects of rock'n'rolling ELP are equally fervent that they did their share of everything available - though, as usual on these occasions, they are unforthcoming with the details. But most of the band apocrypha concern Lake. While he probably behaved no more garishly than the rest, he does seem to have done it, if not in public, then with a convivial arm round the shoulders of the pop press. It was Lake, so they say, who, evidently fond of a fresh seafood snack, kept his bath full of live lobsters. It was Lake, allegedly, who had urinals installed in all his domestic lavatories because he was fed up with the sheer drudgery of lifting and lowering toilet seats. It was Lake, maybe, who took a crowd of friends to a modish Russian restaurant and then, because he was on a diet, ordained that they all eat nothing but caviare. And it was Lake, perhaps, who was asked by a connoisseur friend which wine he would prefer and replied with Philistine relish, "The most expensive!" The post mortem on ELP does not record that they were victims of punk, as is usually assumed. When after five albums from 1970-74 (including a live triple) and global touring non-stop, they took what became a rather extended break, they were already under critical fire as a "ego-inflated dinosaur" and "hip, electronic Cecil B de Mrs. Mills". Then when they came back in 1977 with dauntingly titled double album 'Works Volume 1', further damaging hints of hubris emanated from their decision to tour America with a 70-piece orchestra and it proved the undoing of them. There were cancellations and cutbacks, heavy losses, though they still stand on their dignity about the extent of it. After that, Lake concedes, they were "exhausted creatively" and their final album, 'Love Beach' - improbable palm trees, bare chests and medallions on the sleeve - was, he admits, "a mistake". Reflecting on the split at tour's end, December 30, 1978, he says, bemused to this day, "We were probably one of the most misunderstood bands in the world." By and large, the 1980s were not kind to ELP. Emerson wrote a few soundtracks to forgotten films. Palmer's best period was Asia's short-lived but huge American success, Lake tagging along latterly as replacement for John Wetton. But when he invited the press round to his place to promote a solo album the scene was both poignant and, since journalists are a hard and unsympathetic crew, richly comic. Where, in better days, they had been summoned to the country estate, he was now reduced to a modest house in South London - the only sign of former glories being a suit of armour stationed in the hall. Inevitably, in the circumstances, there were attempts to revive the magic formula. Emerson, Lake & Powell, in '86, looked too much the outcome of want ad asking for "heavy drummer, surname must begin with 'P'". The following year, Palmer became available, but after a few rehearsals Emerson broke a wrist falling off a motorbike. While the reunion was deferred, its logic, as they say, was ever harder to resist. So now they have a new album of relatively short songs, heavy on Hammond, and a bow to the classics with Prokofiev's 'Romeo and Juliet'. Meanwhile, the provisional live set taped to the rehearsal room wall leans heavily on the past: Tarkus, Pictures, Fanfare and even America, the West Side Story cover retrieved from the Nice repertoire. Plus, defiantly. "drum solo". Stewart Young, ELP's manager now as then, has his eye on that item too. The drum solo used to be 20 minutes long and conclude, doubtless for very good reasons, with Carl Palmer ringing a cowbell held between his teeth. "Mm. It'll be a shame to see it go, won't it," he twinkles mischievously. "Used to give you a chance to nip out for a drink." ********** 'Sound On Sound' Magazine December 1992 Live End Live Music for the Hi-Tech Musician by Mike Lethby This month in 'Live End' I'm taking a look at how one of the 1970's progressive rock leaders have returned, after a fifteen year absence, to the international touring scene. Emerson, Lake and Palmer, the supergroup the critics love to hate, are currently midway through a world tour, packing houses across Europe and the States. After a decade of solo projects and other partnerships, 1992 sees the original ELP trio reunited with a new album, 'Black Moon', and a tour which has been eagerly attended by long-term fans. On October 26 they played a third sold-out show at London's Royal Albert Hall, where I talked to sound engineer Eddie Richardson, Keith Emerson's assistant/programmer Will Alexander, and Steve Sutherland, boss of the European shows' PA hire company, AudioLease. ELP, with keyboardist Keith Emerson's fast, fiery technique and jazz-and- classics influenced compositions, were superstars between 1969-74. Emerson's uncompromising concept wasn't to everyone's liking, and the group aroused more critical ire than anyone else of the period (John Peel famously trashed their debut as "a waste of talent and electricity"). In pre-tour interviews this year the band still seemed bemused by the vitriol they attracted in their prime: collecting savage reviews apparently lost its fun when punk stiffed the whole prog-rock genre. Emerson, the original creative maverick and a brilliant musician, must have taken it harder than his cohorts Greg Lake (bass/vocals/guitar) and Carl Palmer (drums). A RIGHT ROYAL PA The Royal Albert Hall is a notorious venue among live sound engineers. It was designed in an age when classical orchestras were the loudest performers, and its high oval-shaped tiers and galleries were pretty hostile to rock bands' early, uncouth loudspeaker arrays. In the past decade, however, new speaker technology - bringing smaller and more directional cabinets to the fore - has greatly eased the problem. AudioLease used a PA system for ELP that's firmly of that newer generation. 14 Meyer MSL3 full range speakers were flown either side in small curved clusters as the main PA. 12 Meyer 650 R2 subwoofers provided low bass from the stage front, along with Apogee A5 full-range units for fill-in sound to the front rows of floor seating - an essential addition here, where the hall's height and short stage dictates a PA location right over the up-front audience's heads. Sound engineer Eddie Richardson, whose credits include the Thompson Twins, mixed the front-of-house PA through a 40-channel Yamaha PM3000 desk and a split Midas PRO 40 console. The latter has been out of production for many years, but still enjoys wide respect among the pros for its simple layout and excellent EQ section. With constantly-changing blend of live vocals, drum mics, mic'd organ and piano, bass and keyboards - plus samplers augmenting all three musicians' sounds - there was plenty to keep Richardson busy. Emerson's keyboards and expanders were pre-mixed by Will Alexander on a Soundcraft Spirit Studio console (side-stage), simplifying the FOH and monitor engineers' tasks with a 4-group stereo send to both positions. On stage, AudioLease had 16 of their custom-built bi-amped wedge monitors, based around JBL drivers and, like the FOH system, powered by Crest 4801 amplifiers with BSS crossovers. Mike Mule mixed the band's sound on a Midas XL3 console, augmented by a Soundcraft 200 desk as a 'stretch' board for extra inputs. Eddie explained AudioLease's approach to the difficult acoustics. "The biggest challenge in the Albert Hall," he says, "is getting good coverage across the height and 270-degree width without blocking the audience's sightlines." The compact Meyer system was as much a part of their solution as the engineer's skills. AND ON KEYBOARDS... Will Alexander's involvement in the tour began in January with four months of synth programming and rehearsals before the live action kicked off. "Now I hardly know what month it is," he says. It looks like Greg is very much the leader... "Yeah, he's the conductor, and I like working with him a lot. He worked very closely with me on the programming - we spent a lot of time meticulously going over all the sounds with a magnifying glass to get them right. "I've been a serious fan of the band for over 20 years, so I had a great hand in helping them remember how it used to be. Then they'd go 'that sounds so old, let's take it up from there'. We would work for hours on one sound; work on a piece of music for two or three days refining all the parts. There's a lot of MIDI programming for zoning, scaling and overlaps - in between actual synthesizers, not just on one particular synth module - plus timpani that only play when you hit the note as hard as possible; all kinds of little hidden things that a lot of time and effort." Beside programming, Will also undertook the task of restoring and updating Emerson's modular Moog - "We re-built it module by module and added a lot of 1990s technology." First to go was the original power supply, responsible for the machine's notorious tuning instability ('70s music mags were fond of highlighting Emerson's ability to re-tune it with one hand while continuing a Hammond solo with the other). Emerson's sonic trademarks were the bludgeoning, guttural, wailing chords that characterised 'Tarkus', wringing feeling and percussive aggression from his raw Hammond organ/modular Moog/MiniMoog setup. Now he has a battery of contemporary synths and samplers to augment his old - though re-built and MIDI'd - Hammonds and modular Moog on the road. Listening to those early albums again before this show raised a question: why replace the raging macaw with a digital nightingale? After all, attempting digitally to replicate the MiniMoog flute sound from 'Lucky Man' - probably ELP's most famous synth sound - when the original was so perfect seems a trifle self-defeating. On 'Pictures', however, modern digital-type sounds were very much in evidence. How were they arrived at? "I started out to re-create things the way they used to be," says Will, "and we re-orchestrated from there. Once the band was playing as a unit, we built onto those sounds to achieve a big, rich orchestral feel - big thick lush horns and strings - making an orchestra out of three people. Greg has a custom-made Wal MIDI bass with a scanning fretboard - the first one, very fast - so we got more timbral things out of that like brass..." Keith has a Yamaha C7 MIDI grand piano which, like the other poly keyboards in his rig, is configured to provide master keyboard functions. "There's also MIDI on the Hammond, on both manuals," continues Will, "and on top of the piano are two MIDI controllers, one made by Fatar in Italy which I use because of its low profile, and a Peavey DPM-C8. They both have the same action - Peavey buy theirs from Fatar - so they have an identical real piano 'feel', which Keith loves. On top of the Hammond there's an Elka MK76 master keyboard; down below are two sets of Elka DMP-18 foot pedals for triggering samples. "For the Hammond we have a Leslie mic'd downstairs; the piano is mic'd with two AKG 414s on the mid and high, and a PZM on the low end. Every keyboard on stage is a MIDI controller, including the Moog, and they feed two racks. In one rack there's an Akai S1100 with a removable hard drive, three Korg O1/RWs, a Korg Wavestation A/D, and three Korg M1s. "In the other are two MidiMinis, a Roland D550, and my Korg effects - two A1s and an A2. Plus two Roland JD800s, which I use to emulate a lot of analogue sounds and Moog brass sounds, and to mimic the Yamaha GX-1." (The latter starred on 'Fanfare for the Common Man' and 'Pirates'; nowadays it simply can't justify its sheer bulk.) Last are two Hammonds, divided by over 20 years, a digital XB-2 and the ancient battered L100 which Keith continues to abuse horribly with knives and violent wrestling. "MIDI processors on stage and in the racks are Lone Wolf MIDI Taps, which I'm a big fan of, inter-connected through a big 'umbilical' cord because of the rotation of Keith's riser - I only need one fibre optic cable instead of a whole bunch of MIDI lines. The MIDI Taps contain all the program changes for all the instruments, and I change the programs on them for the whole set-up. I just scroll through and select the appropriate program; they make doing a show much like doing the laundry!" On the road, however, reliability is as important as flexibility and power, but the keyboard setup has proved itself quite robust. "I've had very few failures," confirms Will. "The other night we had a kind of 'goof' thing, notes hang on occasionally and the contacts in the Hammond need lots of maintenance. I often have the thing apart 30 minutes before the doors open." One significant difference from the early '70s is that every recent keyboard in the rig is polyphonic, though monophonic sounds still have their place according to Will. "I find it interesting to put monophonic sounds on top of polyphonic sounds and make them follow the highest notes, like the solo in 'Stones of Years' has a MidiMini doing the high notes and following a Korg which has all the swirly chords." A Soundcraft 24/8/2 Spirit Studio console's group out channels send Keith's mix to the front-of-house and monitor desks. Will: "It sounds real good; if we were playing arenas I'd go to something big with full automation." As the keyboard riser turned through 180 degrees, Keith wrestled and stabbed his L100 in time-honoured fashion, then leapt into the pressing crowd with Will poised like Seb Coe on the starting blocks, waiting to see where the guv'nor and his battered organ would end up. A wedge monitor, A PAR can and a couple of front-row chins took flying knocks from Keith's heels. I closed my eyes, and suddenly, with a whiff of patchouli oil in the air, it was 1972 all over again... ****** One other thing. Someone asked recently about a discography. I came across one that's available by FTP from cs.uwp.edu (sorry, can't remember the directory, but it's something really obvious like /pub/music/discogs). Now that really *is* all folks! /\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\*/\ / Toby Hart Dyke thart@cix.compulink.co.uk \ \ thart@starless.demon.co.uk / \/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 13:33:44 EST From: Brian=Podesta%COMPUTER%UMASS@BANYAN.UMMED.EDU Subject: ELP Concert - Tickets on Sale 12/12 To: j.arnold@bull.com Cc: ELP BOSTON CONCERT INFO Thursday 12/10/92: ========================================== I called the Orpheum Theatre today, they indicated the ELP shows were going on sale this Saturday 12/12/92. (Did not say what time). (Or Prices) Bad Company is there this weekend, cost of a ticket for this show is $21.00, if that's any indication. Telphone number for Credit Card orders: 617-931-2000 [ Editor's note: Thanks for this note (and my apologies for sending it out so late. There are still lots of seats available since I didn't get my tickets till a few days ago and got good seats. Also, I noted that the TicketMaster I went to did NOT show ELP listed as also playing the Orpheum on January 30 like the last Digest's concert listing indicated. This show probably won't be announced until/unless the 29th show comes close to a sell-out. I am interested in talking to The Orpheum box office to see if they'd sell me a block of tickets for the 30th show if it goes on sale. The Orpheum doesn't do group ticket prices so I probably couldn't get a discount, but I MAY be able to get good seats if I could guarantee a block of 20-30 seats. If you live near Boston and would be interested, please send me mail. I'll size up the response and see if I can work anything out should tickets for the 30th go on sale. Thanks! - John - ] ------------------------------ End of ELP Digest [Volume 3 Issue 1] ************************************