Stabbing my organ.

February 2nd – Emerson, Lake and Palmer… I can hear the computers shutting down from here… “Jesus, Peter, not those old prog-rock dinosaurs; we thought better of you.” Well now, just hold on there a second, hear me out…. Emerson, Lake and Palmer or ELP as they were known, suffered a performance set-back on this day in 1973 after Keith Emerson got blown off stage by his organ…amazing how the inclusion of a couple of judiciously placed commas could change the whole meaning of that last sentence innit…?

Now, I think that ‘Tarkus’ was an interesting album, an OK attempt at the genre but others thought differently. I do believe it was John Peel who said, “ELP? A waste of talent and electricity.” and I recall a joke doing the rounds at the time that went: 

“Ques. – How do you spell pretentious? 

Ans. – E. L. P.” 

See, worth hanging around for wasn't it? 

OK, back to the fateful explosion and its cheerleaders. It was his Hammond organ that did the damage, and knowing their reputation for overblown sentiment and on-stage surprises, that event seems markedly everyday for them. The explosives, rigged inside the piano and due to go off during that night’s gig in San Francisco, prematurely exploded…yes, yes; done all the jokes about it being akin to their expertise with groupies, thank you…the pyro prematurely exploded, leaving him with ‘just minor cuts’ but, and I guess this was the cause of the gig cancellation, also left the keyboard whizz with ‘a broken fingernail’…! Given the level of histrionics displayed by many of the prog-rock fraternity, for ‘broken fingernail’ read ‘cardiac arrest’.

Many bands of the day used pyros as part of their act (we used to set fire to my cymbals in the first number after the interval – a cover of ‘Fire’ by Hendrix…I’ll tell the tale one day of the time a drunk wandered up on stage during this number) and so there was nothing surprising in ELP using an exploding piano; was all part of the 70’s deal and, as far as Keith Emerson…? Well, he had previous. 

As a member of the band ‘Nice’ (the band those of us working on the scene at the time considered to be the forerunner of the prog-rock explosion) he built up quite a reputation for off-musical events. We supported them at Wolverhampton Civic Hall…can’t remember when, as per usual… and we watched from side stage as they strutted their stuff, right up to the point where Emerson tilted his organ over and inserted a knife into it (yes, that’s right, ‘knife’; sharp, pointed metal object, placed into close proximity with the electronic and electrical components of a piece of equipment directly connected to the mains supply, and not just any old knife but a dagger bearing the swastika and emblem of the Hitler Youth? Told you it was worth waiting for) inserted a knife into it and altered the tone and squeal of the organ solo he was playing at the time by manipulating the cutlery. He got away with that one; little did he know San Francisco was waiting to bite him in the ass.

I remember doing an outdoor gig somewhere in Brum and Carl Palmer’s son (sorry, can’t remember the first name) was on drums for one of the other bands on the bill. I remember thinking at the time (honest) “You can tell who is father is.” There were some tricks he was doing that echoed some of Carl’s structures in ELP. He was very good for one so young, what, 17 – 18 poss, trouble was he knew it so… 

Anyway, I can say without fear of disagreement, having done a live cover of ‘The Nice’s’ version of ‘America’ from ‘West Side Story’ and thereby fully understanding that band’s ability, when Greg Lake and Carl Palmer got together with exploding, knife-wielding prog-rock ‘dinosaur’ Keith Emerson and founded ELP, they became a uniquely talented and highly entertaining trio who, my guess is, could still teach modern musos a thing or two…if only how to correctly wire up a bomb.