To:  "'elp-digest-web@reluctant.com'" <elp-digest-web@reluctant.com>
      From:  James Hatch <james@torres.ca.geac.com>
   Subject:  Canadian Concerts
      Date:  8/20/98 5:48 PM
 
    Dear ELP Digest,

     I have just attended my sixth, seventh and eighth ELP concerts (Quebec 
     City, Montreal and Toronto). All three concerts were absolutely 
     extraordinary, their performance of Tarkus which I had never heard
     in its entirety in concert was mind-numbing. Carl Palmer is still the
     most exciting drummer in rock n'roll history and Keith Emerson maintains
     the fort quite well. 

     Greg Lake's voice seems to have undergone a reincarnation, much better than
     both the 1992 and 1993 tours. The Quebec and Montreal shows had the added
     bonus of A Time and a Place (they did not perform this track in Toronto, 
     Emerson also said that it was from Trilogy ..Whoops), maybe they still have 
     Montreal at heart, even if Montrealers seem to have abandonned these great
     icons of the seventies. It was difficult for me to see how their popularity
     has decreased through the years, after all I attended the Olympic Stadium
     Concert and the subsequent sold-out performances that they gave five 
     months later at the Forum. All this can be explained by the evolution of 
     musical tastes, French Canadians are no longer as avant-garde as they
     were in the seventies when Genesis, Supertramp, ELP and Yes found a very 
     comfortable niche in the Montreal music scene. Selling-out large venues,
     while playing small ones in other places. Things have changed, but I am
     happy that ELP still maintain their musical heritage and still impress
     the younger generation which were at the concert, I heard a few of them
     saying that they had never seen such a show. Another person said that the
     drummer could not be the original one, no fifty year old could drum like
     that, and my cousin who is a Heavy Metal fan and did not like ELP very much
     said to her husband that that was the greatest drum solo she had ever seen.

     However, for me I felt a sadder note as I saw ELP leave the stage in
     Toronto, I felt that this might be their last performance in Canada.
     Happily, they have released the Olympic Stadium video and the Manticore
     special which I shall enjoy for many more years. My sincere hello to Dallas
     Jones from Australia, whom I tried to reach at his Montreal hotel, but to
     no avail, there were no telephones in the rooms. Cheers Dallas, I hope you
     enjoyed the show of shows.

     To Keith Emerson, Greg Lake and Carl Palmer ... Cheers and santé to all
     three of you and many thanks for so many years of musical pleasure,
     as we say in French "Je vous lève mon chapeau", the best of luck in your
     personal lives and loves.

     To the next,

     James Hatch