Formed in 1970, Emerson, Lake & Palmer helped define and set new standards throughout one of the most ambitious and experimental periods in 20th-Century popular music. Drawn from The Nice, King Crimson, and Atomic Rooster respectively, they were hailed as progressive rock’s first supergroup. Combining driving dynamics, intricate arrangements, and virtuosic skill, between 1970 and 1978, ELP released seven studio recordings and three live albums. Such was their popularity on both sides of the Atlantic that their records repeatedly achieved Platinum status sales.
Titles such as Tarkus, Trilogy, and Brain Salad Surgery created distinctive worlds that incorporated soaring themes, other-worldly timbres, yearning ballads, humorous pastiche and dramatic long-form conceptual works. While they adapted pieces by classical composers as stylistically varied as Bartok, Mussorgsky, Copland, Ginastera and Rodrigo, ELP sounded like nobody else but themselves.
The trio performed live one final time at London’s High Voltage Festival in July 2010 just weeks short of their debut gig 40th anniversary.
Although Keith Emerson and Greg Lake both sadly passed away in 2016, interest in ELP continues to grow, and Carl Palmer’s own band regularly performs a setlist dedicated to the unique music he helped create. ELP's music continues to find new audiences more than 50 years from their beginning, a striking testament to the group's irrepressible blend of energy, eclecticism, and visceral excitement.
