Emerson, Lake & Palmer on tour

(1970 - present)
classic rock  progressive  progressive rock  rock  symphonic rock   ... see all
The band formed in 1970. On two occasions in 1969, The Nice (with Keith Emerson on keyboards) and King Crimson (with Greg Lake on vocals and bass) shared the same venue, first on August 10, 1969 at the 9th Jazz and Blues Pop Festival in Plumpton, England and on October 17, 1969 at Fairfield Hall in Croydon, England.

After playing at a few of the same concerts, Emerson and Lake tried working together and found their styles to be not only compatible, but complementary. Emerson wanted to make the "best damned three-piece band in the world", and thought the line-up of The Nice (keyboard, bass, drums) was the way to go.

Before settling on drummer Carl Palmer (formerly Atomic Rooster, Crazy World of Arthur Brown), they approached Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience; Mitchell was uninterested but passed the idea to Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix, tired of his band and wanting to try something different, expressed an interest in playing with the group; the British press, after hearing about this, speculated that such a supergroup would have been called "Hendrix, Emerson, Lake & Palmer", or HELP.

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