Rock and Roll

The Monkees were the brainchild of television producers Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson, who decided to emulate the zany, madcap humour of the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night for the small screen. In September 1965, they placed in ad in the show biz trade paper, Variety, for four "folk & rock musicians" to appear in a TV series. Over 400 applied for the job, including Stephen Stills and Harry Nilsson, but as it turned out, only one of the four winners, guitarist and songwriter Michael Nesmith , actually saw the ad. Micky Dolenz (who would play drums), Davy Jones (who would sing), and Peter Tork (bass) found out about the opportunity from other sources. Nesmith and Tork had experience in the folk scene; Dolenz and Jones were primarily actors (although Nesmith and Jones had already made some obscure solo recordings).

From the outset, it was made clear that the Monkees were hired to be television actors first, and musicians a distant second. There would be original material generated for them to sing in the series, mostly by professional songwriters like Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, and Neil Diamond. There would be records as well, with weekly exposure to promote the tunes, but the group wouldn't do much more than sing, although the series would give the impression that they played their own instruments.

On the other hand, they weren't devoid of musical talent, and at their best, managed to craft some enduring pop/rock hits. "I'm a Believer", "Last Train to Clarksville", "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You", "Pleasant Valley Sunday", "Stepping Stone", "Valleri" and "Daydream Believer" were all pleasantly jangling, harmony rock numbers with clever hook lines, and all were huge hits in 1966-68. Scorned at their peak by hipsters for not playing on many of their own records, the group gained some belated critical respect for their catchy, good-time brand of pop.

The TV show was a big hit with young audiences between 1966 and 1968, with slapstick comedy, super-fast editing, and thin plots that could be banded together by almost surreal humour. It wasn't A Hard Day's Night, but it was, in its way, innovative relative to the conventions of television at the time. The irony was that, by the time the series debuted in September 1966, the Beatles themselves had just released Revolver, and had evolved way beyond their moptop phase into psychedelia.

Also in September 1966, their debut single "Last Train to Clarksville" became their first big hit, reaching number one, as did the follow-up, "I'm a Believer". They were quickly one of the most popular acts in the business, yet they were not allowed to play anything on most of their first records, only to sing; the instruments would be handled by session players. This was particularly hard for Mike Nesmith, a serious musician and songwriter, to swallow, although he did manage to place a few of his own tunes on their records from the start.

Eventually the Monkees revealed that they didn't play on most of their own records, and Nesmith in particular incited the group to wrest control of their recordings into their own hands. Partly to deflect criticism of the group as nothing more than puppets, and partly to effect control over their musical destiny (some of their early recordings had been packaged and released without their consent), the Monkees did indeed play and write much of the music on their third album, "Headquarters" (1967), with a lot of help from producer Chip Douglas . It didn't prove the band to be hidden geniuses, in fact sounding not much different from their previous releases, but as a hard-won victory to establish their own identity, it was a major point of pride. They would continue, however, to rely upon industry songwriters for the rest of their hit singles, and frequently employ session musicians throughout the rest of their career.

Despite the questions surrounding their musical competence, the Monkees did tour before live audiences. They made their own contribution to rock history by enlisting Jimi Hendrix , then barely known in the U.S., as an opening act for a 1967 tour; Hendrix lasted only a few shows before everyone agreed that the combination was a mismatch (to put it mildly). But the Monkees were always a lot hipper personally than many assumed from their bubblegum packaging. Their albums are strewn with rather ambitious, even mildly psychedelic cuts, some rather successful, some absolutely awful.

In 1968, they gained their freak credentials with the movie "Head", a messy, indulgent, occasionally inspired piece of drug-addled weirdness that was co-written and co-produced by Jack Nicholson (before he had broken through to stardom with Easy Rider).

By 1968, the Monkee phenomenon was drawing to a close. The show's final episode aired in March 1968, and Head, released in November, was not a commercial success, confusing the teenyboppers and confounding the critics. Surprisingly, it was not Nesmith, but Tork who was the first to leave the group, at the end of 1968. They carried on as a trio, releasing a couple of fairly dismal albums in 1969, as well as producing a little-seen TV special.

By the end of the '60s, Nesmith, who had established his credentials as a songwriter with "Different Drum," which was taken into the Top 20 by Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys, was also gone, to start a lengthy solo career that finally allowed him to stretch out as a serious artist. That left only Dolenz and Jones, who fulfilled the Monkees contract with the pointless 'Changes' album in 1970.

When enough years separated the music from the hype, the Monkees underwent a critical rehab of sorts, as listeners fondly remembered their singles as classy, well-executed, fun pop/rock. That led to a predictable clamour for a reunion, especially after their albums were reissued to surprisingly swift sales in the mid-'80s, and their series was rerun on MTV.

Nesmith was having none of it; by this time he was a respected and hugely successful music video mogul with his Pacific Arts company. The other three did reunite to tour and record a predictably horrendous album, "Pool It!" (Nesmith did join them once onstage in 1989). Rhino records has treated the Monkee catalogue with a great deal of respect, reissuing all of their original albums on CD with added unreleased/rare bonus tracks, and even assembling a box set.

Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork celebrated the Monkees' 30th anniversary with a concert tour that ran throughout 1996. In 1997, Michael Nesmith joined them for a spring concert tour of Great Britain and Ireland. All four Monkees were with their concert tour in the U.S. in the summer of 1997.

In 1999 Davy Jones was to have co-starred again with Peter Noone and Bobby Sherman on the Teen Idols concert tour, but in early April, Davy announced he would be leaving the tour immediately. Davy did not appear on any Teen Idols dates that year. In 2003, Davy was performing solo shows with his band around the country, as well as training horses.

Micky Dolenz began working seriously on his directing career in 1999. He directed an episode of the ABC-TV sitcom "Boy Meets World". With Davy's departure from the 1999 edition of the Teen Idols tour, Micky was asked to take his place on the tour, and he accepted the invitation. He continues to act and perform solo on the oldies circut.

Peter Tork has been touring regularly with his blues band Shoe Suede Blues.

Michael Nesmith completed a bicoastal book tour to promote his novel, "The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora" (1998, St. Martin's Press). He also began working on his second novel, and trying to drum up interest in getting his script, "Fried Pies", turned into a feature film. Michael Nesmith's long-running legal trouble with PBS was finally concluded when a federal court jury awarded him a settlement of nearly $47 million dollars. PBS appealed the verdict. In 2003, Michael was working on a new album, "Rays".

By 2006, the members of the Monkees were saying that they have no plans to work together in the future. "I would not work with those guys again if my life depended on it," Jones told Scripps Howard News Service. "I can't be responsible for their attitudes and the way they treat people."

In the end, although many critics dismiss the band as "the fabricated four", The Monkees left us with a series of fondly remembered, toe-tapping hits from the classic age of rock and roll.

This was the first band that I personally saw live in 1973, with the warm up band being Billy Preston,Now 1000's of shows later I will always remember my virgin concert initiation.!!!!!


The foundation of what was to become "Grand Funk Railroad" was laid in Flint, Michigan in the mid 1960's. Richard Terrance Knapp was a popular local D.J. who decided to leave radio to enter the music end of the business. After deejaying at record hops with a local band named "The Jazz Masters", which consisted of Don Brewer (drums), Al Pippins (guitar), Bob Caldwell (keyboards), and Herm Jackson (bass), Knapp lied to them that he was personal friends with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones. Because of this and his radio connections, the band invited him to join the group as their lead singer. To sound more "English", they renamed the band "The Pack", and Richard Knapp started using "Terry Knight" as his stage name.

The group soon developed a large local following and reached number 46 on the national record charts with a song called "I Who Have Nothing", released on the small "Lucky Eleven" label. Herman Jackson was drafted, and was replaced by a local kid named Mark Farner. Eventually, Terry Knight left the band and The Pack continued on without him.

By 1968, Farner and Brewer decided to leave and form a new band of their own. They recruited bass player Mel Schacher from Question Mark and The Mysterians, and renamed themselves "Grand Funk Railroad", inspired by a Michigan landmark, The Grand Trunk Railroad. By this time, Terry Knight had landed a job at Capitol Records in New York, but accepted an invitation to become the trio's manager.

After a wildly successful performance at the Atlanta Pop Festival on July 4, 1969, the band landed a recording contract with Capitol Records and immediately began making its name by performing at several large pop festivals. Their first singles reached the charts but Grand Funk soon proved its real strength in the album market. "On Time" reached number 27 in 1969, followed by the number 11, "Grand Funk" in 1970. By the summer of that year they had become a major concert attraction, and their albums routinely reached the Top 10 for the next four years.

The group's huge success is often attributed to the public relations expertise of manager Knight. In 1970, for example, Knight reportedly paid $100,000 for a huge billboard in New York City's Times Square to promote the group's "Closer To Home" LP, which subsequently became their first Top 10 album, reaching number 6 and spawning the FM radio-staple title track.

In June 1971, Grand Funk became only the second group (after the Beatles ) to sell out New York's Shea Stadium. Their recordings sold in greater quantity, even though many radio stations ignored their releases. 1970's "Live" Album reached number 5 and included another concert and radio favourite in Farner's "Mean Mistreater". The next year saw the release of "Survival" and "E Pluribus Funk", the latter most notable for its round album cover.

Around the time of recording E Pluribus Funk, it was decided to replace Terry Knight as Manager. Andy Cavaliere and later, John Eastman, father of Linda McCartney, were hired to take his place. The next few years were spent in litigation over the rights to the name "Grand Funk Railroad" and song royalties. The band eventually got to keep their name, but had to pay Knight a huge settlement.

In 1973, the group shortened its name officially to "Grand Funk", and added a fourth member, former "Fabulous Pack" member, keyboard player Craig Frost. Now produced by Todd Rundgren, they finally cracked the singles market, reaching number 1 with the album title track "We're An American Band", a celebration of the group's times on the road. In 1974, a major revision of Little Eva 's "The Loco-Motion" also reached the top (the first time in US chart history that a cover version of a song that had previously reached number 1 also attained that position). Later that year, they scored another top twenty hit with "Bad Time" (To Be In Love).

By the time 1975 rolled around, and the disco craze in full swing, the band found that their style of "garage band music", had lost much of its appeal. The following year, the group reverted to its original name of "Grand Funk Railroad" and signed with MCA Records to record "Good Singin', Good Playin", produced by Frank Zappa.

Although it is considered one of their finest by many fans, the album failed to reach the Top 50, and a discouraged Mark Farner decided to quit the group. He then went on to record two solo albums, while Don Brewer, Mel Schacher and Craig Frost added guitarist Billy Elworthy to form a new group they called simply "Flint". The new band failed to find commercial success with their solitary album.

In 1981, Farner and Brewer added bassist, Dennis Ballinger and re-formed to record "Grand Funk Lives" and "What's Funk?" for the Full Moon label. Failing to recapture former glories, they split again. Farner returned to his solo career, recording three Christian albums, before joining a band called "Adrenalin". Don Brewer and Craig Frost joined Bob Seger's Silver Bullet Band.

In 1995, Mark Farner was asked to join "Ringo Starr's All Starr Band", and during the next year, Mark, Don and Mel decided to go out and play a few "Reunion" concerts back east. Howard Eddy Jr. was asked to join as a sideman on keyboards, rhythm guitar, and back ground vocals. It wasn't long after that it became official, Grand Funk Railroad was reunited. The band toured extensively from 1996 to 1998, including a benefit for Bosnian orphans in 1997. Their 1998 tour was listed in Pollstar's Top 100 Shows as one of the top grossing tours of the year. Capitol Records released Grand Funk's Anthology "Thirty Years of Funk" on June 29, 1999.

The new millennium saw founding members Don Brewer and Mel Schacher joined by singer Max Carl (38 Special), lead guitarist Bruce Kulick (12 years with KISS), and keyboardist, Tim Cashion (Bob Seger and Robert Palmer).

Together, Brewer and Schacher created a new, dynamic and multi-talented five-piece band to not only carry on the tradition of the Grand Funk hits, but also having the potential to create a brand new chapter in the legacy of Grand Funk Railroad.

Emerson, Lake and Palmer were one of rock and roll's earliest "supergroups" who were formed from members of three already successful bands, The Nice, King Crimson and Atomic Rooster.
The Nice had enjoyed several minor hits and were beginning to build a following in the United States, gaining attention for their wild stage show that was a showcase for keyboard wizard, Keith Emerson. King Crimson had risen to fame after their debut album "The Court Of The Crimson King" had caught on with underground rock lovers. The amazingly tight LP had brought the band from obscurity to a major concert attraction in the UK, Europe and America in just a few months.

In the summer and fall of 1969, the two groups shared the bill at two major concerts in England. Inner turmoil had already begun to tear King Crimson apart and Keith Emerson was feeling that he'd taken The Nice as far as it would go. During a sound check, King Crimson's bassist, Greg Lake began to jam with Keith Emerson. After some discussion, the pair came away with the feeling that it was time to move on from their current bands.

The final live performance for the original King Crimson took place on December 16th and the band returned home. The group still had contractual obligations and were desperately trying to re-build King Crimson with Greg Lake still at the forefront. Although he had already made up his mind to leave, Lake did stick around long enough to finish a second album, using studio musicians to fill in for band members who had already split. The album, called "In The Wake Of Poseidon" was released in March of 1970 and featured Lake singing on just three tracks. King Crimson made one final appearance on the BBC TV show, "Top Of The Pops" with Greg Lake on an acoustic guitar, later the same month.

Two weeks later, Britain's New Musical Express ran the headline: "Keith Emerson and Greg Lake to form new group", while the pair were busy holding auditions for a third member. Several drummers were considered, spoken to, or auditioned; among them were Coliseum's Jon Hiseman, Cream's Ginger Baker, as well as Mitch Mitchell from The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It was Cream's manager, Robert Stigwood, who suggested Carl Palmer, a 20 year old drummer who had worked with Atomic Rooster and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. After a pair of auditions, Palmer was hired.

Although Emerson wanted to keep the project a keyboard-bass-drums trio, there were serious talks about adding Jimi Hendrix to the line up. A jam session was set up with Hendrix for late summer, 1970, but Jimi died before it came together. The rumours of the potential band with Hendrix did leak out to the British music press, who began running articles saying the band would be called "Hendrix, Emerson, Lake & Palmer" or HELP for short.

Before they even had an album out, the band began playing shows. Although most ELP fans believe their first gig was at the massive three day long Isle Of Wight Pop Music Festival on August 29th., the band has since revealed that their first gig actually took place six days earlier at a 3000 seat hall in Plymouth Guildhall. According to Lake, the band was paid $500. The show that ELP played at the Isle of Wight was spectacular. Keith Emerson played the Hammond organ, piano, and his custom Moog synthesizer. Since their first album had not yet been released, the audience was not familiar with their music, but responded with thunderous applause, nonetheless.

Although some critics, such as Melody Maker's Chris Welch, praised the band's early shows and its debut album, not everyone in the media was a fan. John Peel, a popular British DJ called ELP's performance at the Isle of Wight, "a tragic waste of time, talent and electricity."

The trio spent much of the summer of 1970 rehearsing and writing material for its debut album after signing with Island Records for Europe, and an Atlantic subsidiary, Cotillion Records, for the US. Recording commenced in July, 1970, with Lake producing. The resulting album, simply entitled "Emerson, Lake & Palmer", remains one of the most popular rock LPs of all time. It would be the album's final track, an acoustic / folk ballad called " Lucky Man" - penned solely by Lake - that would launch the group, bring Greg Lake's voice to the forefront of the pop music scene, and give the band its biggest hit.

In early 1971, ELP began work on its next studio album. The LP, called simply "Tarkus", was completed in February of 1971 after just six days of recording. The LP was released in July and went straight to #1 in England and #9 in the US. A single," Stones of Years"/"A Time and Place", was released in the US, but failed to chart.

As a follow-up album, the band wanted to release its live recording of "Pictures At An Exhibition". However, the band's US label, Atlantic refused to release it. Manager Stewart young remembers: "The label told the band it was a piece of shit and would damage their careers. We felt otherwise, and had released it in Europe, where it was a huge hit. The British import started to filter to US shops and eventually sold 50,000 copies.The next thing I know the label is on the phone telling me they'd like to put the album out. I told them to go to hell. Three days later the President of the label flew to London to try to get us to change our mind. Eventually, we put the deal together and the album came out. Ultimately, it was a multi-platinum hit." The disc charted at #3 in England and in the US, it reached #10 on Billboard's Hot 200 chart.

The band toured England in the fall of 1971 and the US and Canada in the spring of '72, before releasing their third studio album "Trilogy" in July. Originally, the album cover was to have featured a work by Salvador Dali, but his demand for £50,000 killed the idea by the band's label. The LP reached #2 in England and #5 in the US. A single, "From the Beginning" was released stateside and managed to climb to #39. Several other cuts, especially "Hoedown", received considerable airplay on US radio stations.

By 1972, ELP was performing about 180 concerts a year, mainly in the US. Melody Maker Magazine voted the band "Best Group" in both British and International sections. By autumn, there were a few changes for ELP. One of them was the introduction of King Crimson's Peter Sinfield as a writing partner with Greg Lake. The other change was the start of ELP's own record company, Manticore Records, to ensure more control artistically. Manticore also began signing other acts to release. Among them: Peter Sinfield, PFM, Stray Dog, Keith Christmas, Junior Hanson, and Banco. Manticore Records was in full operation by April, 1973.

ELP returned to the road in March of 1973, touring Europe for three months and started recording songs for their next studio album, which would be called "Brain Salad Surgery". The LP was released in both the US and England in November 1973 and went on to reach #2 on the charts in England and #11 in the US. ELP toured the US from December 1973 to February 1974 to promote the album. By this time, the band's stage act had grown to immense size. They traveled with 25 roadies and 35 tons of equipment, including a revolving drum kit, Quadrophonic sound, 32 sound cabinets, a grand piano that rose 30 feet into the air and flipped end over end, and a special lighting system. ELP returned to the US to play additional shows through March and April.

On April 6, ELP played the biggest show in its career, when the band co-headlined at the California Jam. The festival was held at the Ontario Motor Speedway with several other established acts including Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Black Oak Arkansas, Earth Wind & Fire and The Eagles. It was attended by 350,000 people. The show was filmed for television and later broadcast by ABC, marking the first time US viewers had seen ELP perform on television. Today, this video remains one of the most in-demand titles for collectors, especially because of the memorable shot where Keith Emerson was spun around and around, 40 feet in the air while playing his 9 foot Grand piano.

In late April of 1974, ELP returned to England to play a sold out show at Wembley Arena. Then, it was back to the US for another tour that would last until the end of the summer. In August, the triple album "Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends...Ladies and Gentlemen, Emerson, Lake & Palmer" was released. As with the other ELP recordings, fans eagerly embraced it. The live album hit #4 on the US charts and went platinum. It remains one of only a few triple albums to ever hit the US Top 10.

After the '74 tour, the band took a long vacation. Keith took up flying and scuba diving. Greg and his wife gave birth to a daughter. Carl and his then-girlfriend moved to a house in Tenerife on the Canary Islands near Spain and he took up karate. When they had rested, they all began work on solo albums. It had been decided that each member would do a solo album and the band would not work together for three years.

Keith Emerson started planning a piano concerto for his solo recording. It would eventually become his most ambitious work. Lake re-grouped with Peter Sinfield and started writing acoustic songs to be recorded with a full orchestra. Among the songs put to disc during this period were " C'est LaVie," and "Watching Over You". Carl Palmer began recording a percussion concerto, a collection of big band recordings made with Harry South and a series of individual tracks that included "LA '74" with Eagles guitarist, Joe Walsh.

With the exception of few solo singles ( Greg Lake's " I Believe In Father Christmas" and Emerson's "Honky Tonk Blues" ) ELP was completely out of the public eye in 1975 and most of 1976. Keith spent more time completing his piano concerto, and started to record it with a full symphony. It was an experience he would later say was among the most difficult of his career.

Said Emerson: "When I recorded the Piano Concerto with the London Philharmonic, to them it was just a joke. It was ridiculous. The brass section at the back would be reading porney magazines and the conductor wouldn't even see it. They couldn't give a damn about this new piece of music. So I was pretty stubborn. I booked studio time in London for six sessions. I said, ' You're not taking me seriously and I'm going to book 'em until they get it right.'"

Later in 1976, Emerson was approached to write the music for a Norman Jewison film entitled, The Dogs Of War. The film score never happened (although the movie did come out in 1981), but out of it came "Pirates", which featured lyrics by Greg Lake and Pete Sinfield. "Greg and Pete worked like mad -- the longest they've ever worked on one piece of music" said Emerson. "They literally delved into the history of pirates, and that's why the lyrics turned out so well. The idea of pirates was very good for my music because my music is often very adventurous, much like an adventure novel. It demanded to have visuals with it." It would also mark the beginning of the project that eventually became Works Vol. I and Vol. II. In a unique double LP concept, Works Vol. I featured three solo sides of material and one side of ELP recordings.

As ambitious as the Works Volume I album was, it was no match for what the band had up its sleeve for the road show. Fulfilling a life long dream of Keith Emerson's, ELP launched its seventh US Tour with a full symphony orchestra and choir consisting of 75 union musicians. They were taken from a pool of over 1,500 musicians auditioned by the band in six cities around the world.

In 1977, Emerson, Lake & Palmer was touring with an entourage of over 130 people, and a daily payroll cost of $20,000 per day. The tour ran into further complications when union regulations prevented the band from more than three shows a week or travel over 250 miles per day. These regulations made routing nearly impossible and made it financially impossible for the band to make any money with anything less than a sell out wherever the tour went. Before the start of the tour, the band knew it would take a lot just to break even, but after two weeks, they were on track to lose over $3 million dollars. The truth was painfully evident: the orchestra would have to be dropped. A week later, it was and the band continued on the tour as a trio from the Fall of 1977 through March 6th, 1978, when the band played its final show in New Haven, Connecticut. A collection of additional tracks from the Works sessions was released after the tour as Works Vol. II.

By 1978, the band wanted to take a few years off to pursue solo projects, but Atlantic Records wouldn't let the ELP out of its contract. The label demanded a new studio album, as required in its agreement. Emerson, Lake and Palmer were forced to head to Compass Point Studios in The Bahamas to record what would become an album called "Love Beach", a disjointed, uninspired collection of songs released in mid 1979, It also marked the end of ELP for 12 years.

Emerson, Lake and Palmer announced their break-up to the press in December of 1979. After reported record sales of over 30 million records, the members now looked to their own plans for the future. Keith Emerson was already busy in Rome composing and recording music for the movie "Inferno". Greg was writing songs for his solo album and Carl formed the group PM. All three members would see varying degrees of artistic and commercial success as solo artists during the 1980s. Emerson did several film scores ( including Sylvester Stallone's Nighthawks ) and a few solo albums, including 1982's Honky ( a hit in Italy). Greg Lake put a rock'n'roll band together with ex-Thin Lizzy axeman Gary Moore. He returned to playing guitar and released two well received solo albums, "Greg Lake" ( 1981) and "Manoevres" (1983) and had hit singles with both records, and did a US / UK tour in 1981 with the solo band.

Although Carl Palmer's PM only did one record and never toured, he would emerge in 1982 with Asia, a progressive pop rock super group that also featured Yes's Steve Howe ( on guitar), King Crimson's John Wetton (on bass and vocals) and ex-Buggles keyboardist, Geoff Downes. With the advent of MTV and the help of the new medium of music videos, Asia would soon hit #1 with hits like "In The Heat Of The Moment", " Sole Survivor" and " Only Time Will Tell." During almost six years with Asia, Palmer would see a multi platinum success and sold out concerts throughout the world. In 1983, Palmer and Lake would work together again when Lake agreed to sing and play bass with Asia for a series of shows in Japan and a worldwide MTV broadcast. He was recruited when John Wetton had temporarily left the line-up.

During the summer of 1985, Keith received a call from Jim Lewis, a vice-president with Polydor Records, about a possible ELP reunion. He eventually did meet with Greg Lake in London to discuss a joint project. The two hadn't seen much of each other since the break-up, staying in touch only whenever ELP business matters needed attention. Palmer was still contracted to Asia and was unable to participate, but gave his blessing to Emerson and Lake to work together again.

After auditioning several drummers, Keith thought of his friend Cozy Powell, then a drummer on tour in South America with Whitesnake. Powell had also belonged to the Jeff Beck Group and Rainbow and had released some solo material. Once Powell started playing with Keith and Greg, they decided to formally become a trio.

Emerson Lake & Powell released their debut LP in 1986 and began rehearsing in England for a US tour. Before heading out on a tour with Asia, Carl Palmer dropped by to wish them luck. The tour began in El Paso, Texas on August 15 and continued until October 30th. Emerson, Lake & Powell, although unable to attain the success of ELP, would make one of the best albums of both Emerson and Lake's career. Rockers like "Touch & Go" and misty-eyed ballads such as "Lay Down Your Guns" firmly re-established them again with progressive rock audiences. High anticipation came when the trio announced a North American tour in 1986, which would end up being the group's only trek across the US. "That was a good band, and a strong album, but the tour was difficult," says Lake. Shortly after the tour ended, so did Emerson, Lake and Powell. Sadly, Cozy Powell was killed in a car accident near Bristol, England on April 5th, 1998 at the age of 50.

The following year, 1987, Keith got a hold of Carl and asked him to sit in on a session. Carl explained that he had left Asia and was planning a new band with a Californian named Robert Berry. Keith had some new songs and was working at the time with a songwriter named Sue Schriffin. Emerson, Palmer and Berry got together, recorded a few demos, and formed the band '3'. They were signed by A&R wizard John Kalodner to Geffen Records and released one studio album called "To The Power Of 3". In the spring of 1988, they embarked on a tour of US theaters and clubs. The tour was a success, but the record failed to ignite sales, and eventually the trio disbanded to work on solo projects.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s all three members kept busy with a myriad of projects. Emerson cut more tracks for a solo album; Lake recorded several songs with Asia's Geoff Downes for a band project that was eventually shelved and Palmer returned to the Asia line up for a series of tours.

It was in 1991 that all three were contacted by record maven Phil Carson to see about working together once again as ELP. Initially, the idea was for the band to write and record music for a film project that Carson's Victory Records was involved with. The film project never materialized, but a new ELP album, "Black Moon" did.

In 1992, the band returned to concert stages and fans as well as the rock press embraced the reunion. "Black Moon" was spearheaded by the insightful production of Mark Mancina, a true fan of the band and an accomplished musician himself. (Mancina has since gone on to do film score work for several Hollywood blockbusters, including The Lion King, Twister, and Con Air. ) "Black Moon" firmly returned ELP to the contemporary music scene and magically bridged the traditional ELP sound with a vibrant, modern sonic landscape.

The band toured extensively throughout 1992 and 1993, and moved to LA in late '93 to record the follow up LP. It was during this time that Keith Emerson began having problems with nerves in his right arm. The health issues would force him to have an operation on his ulner nerve, and would eventually affect the outcome of 1994's "In The Hot Seat", which had to be recorded in separate segments and pieced together in the studio. It was also plagued by uneven material. Emerson's health problems also forced the band to suspend touring. The members took two years off, and returned in 1996 for a triumphant US tour with old friends, Jethro Tull.

The ELP/Tull tour was among the best received, - and best attended - concert series of that summer. And although, all three members have continued to develop projects outside the band, the warm reception from the fans and the press which ELP has received since it returned to touring solidified the group once again.

In 1997 and 1998, ELP continued to tour, but have now split to continue their solo careers.

Keith Emerson, Greg Lake and Carl Palmer enjoyed nearly three decades as a premier Progressive Rock band and their music has remained powerful and thought-provoking throughout.

Eric Patrick Clapton was born on March 30, 1945, in Surrey, England. He was the illegitimate son of Patricia Molly Clapton and Edward Fryer, a Canadian soldier stationed in England. After W.W.II, Fryer returned to his wife in Canada, Patricia left Eric in the custody of his grandparents, Rose and Jack Clapp. (The surname Clapton is from Rose's first husband, Reginald Cecil Clapton.) Patricia moved to Germany where she eventually married another Canadian soldier, Frank McDonald.

Eric, who was called "Ricky" by his grandparents, was a quiet and polite child, an above average student with an aptitude for art. He was raised believing that his grandparents were his parents and his mother was his sister, to shield him the stigma that illegitimacy carried with it. The truth was eventually revealed to him at the age of nine by his grandmother. Later, when Eric would visit his mother, they would still pretend to be brother and sister.

As an youngster, Clapton's first exposure to rock and roll was a Jerry Lee Lewis appearance on British television. Lewis' explosive performance, coupled with young Eric's emerging love of the blues and American R&B, inspired him to learn to play guitar. Eric enrolled at the Kingston College of Art, but was soon expelled for playing guitar in class.

At seventeen, he took a job as a manual labourer and spent most of his free time playing the electric guitar he persuaded his grandparents to purchase for him. In time, Clapton joined a number of British blues bands, including the Roosters and Casey Jones, and eventually rose to prominence as a member of the Yardbirds, whose line-up would eventually include all three British guitar heroes of the sixties: Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. The group became a sensation for their blues-tinged rock, as did the budding guitar virtuoso Clapton, who earned the nickname "Slowhand" because his forceful string-bending often resulted in broken guitar strings, which he would replace onstage while the crowd engaged in a slow hand-clapping.

Despite the popularity of the band's first two albums, "Five Live Yardbirds" and "For Your Love", Clapton left in 1965 because he felt the band was veering away from blues in favour of a more commercially viable pop focus. He joined John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and his talent blossomed at an accelerated rate. He quickly became the defining musical force of the group. "Clapton is God" was the hue and cry of a fanatic following that propelled the band's Bluesbreakers album to No. 6 on the English pop charts.

Clapton parted company with the Bluesbreakers in mid-1966 to form his own band, "Cream", with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker. With this line-up, Clapton sought "to start a revolution in musical thought, to change the world, to upset people and to shock them." His vision was more than met as Cream quickly became the pre-eminent rock trio of the late sixties. On the strength of their first three albums (Fresh Cream, Disraeli Gears, and Wheels of Fire) and extensive touring, the band achieved a level of international fame approaching that of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles and Clapton became even more almighty in the minds of his fans. Drug abuse and inflated egos eventually led to a split of the band and to a farewell tour in 1968 as well as the release of the Goodbye album in 1969.

Early in 1969, Clapton united with Baker, bassist Rick Grech, and Steve Winwood, formerly of The Spencer Davis Group and Traffic, to record one album as Blind Faith, rock's first "supergroup." In support of their self-titled album, Blind Faith set out on a sold-out, twenty-four-city American tour, the stress of which resulted in the demise of the band less than a year after its inception.

Clapton kept busy for a time as an occasional guest player with Delaney and Bonnie, the husband-and-wife team that had been Blind Faith's opening act during their tour. A disappointing live album and the single, "Never Ending Love" were released in 1970, as was Clapton's self-titled solo debut. That album featured three other musicians--bassist Carl Radle, keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, and drummer Jim Gordon, from Delaney's band, and yielded a modest pop hit with Clapton's version of J.J. Cale's "After Midnight." The four eventually called themselves Derek and the Dominos, and recorded Clapton's double album "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs", with the added contribution of slide guitarist Duane Allman. An anguished lament of unrequited love, "Layla" was inspired by a difficult love triangle between Clapton, his close friend George Harrison, and Harrison's wife Pattie (she and Clapton eventually married in 1979 and divorced in 1988). Unfortunately, personal struggles and career pressure on the guitarist led to a major heroin addiction. Derek and the Dominos crumbled during the course of an American tour and an aborted attempt to record a second album.

Clapton withdrew from the spotlight in the early seventies, wallowing in his addiction and then struggling to conquer it. Following the advice of the Who's Pete Townsend, he underwent a controversial but effective electro-acupuncture treatment and was fully rehabilitated. He rebounded creatively with a role in the film version of Townsend's rock opera, Tommy, and with a string of albums, including the reggae-influenced 461 Ocean Boulevard, which yielded a chart-topping single cover of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff." Some critics and fans were disappointed by Clapton's post-rehab efforts, feeling that he had abandoned his former guitar-heavy approach in favour of a more laid-back and vocal-conscious one.

"Just One Night", Clapton's 1980 live album, reminded fans just exactly who their guitar hero was, but unfortunately, this period marked Clapton's slide into a serious drinking problem that eventually hospitalized him for a time in 1981. He experienced a creative resurgence after overcoming his alcoholism, releasing a string of consistently successful albums - "Another Ticket" (1981), "Money and Cigarettes" (1983), "Behind the Sun" (1985), "August" (1986), "Journeyman" (1989) and turning his personal life around. Though some say Clapton never regained the musical heights of his heroin days, his legend nevertheless continued to grow. That he was a paragon of rock became more than apparent when Polygram released a rich four-CD retrospective of his career, "Crossroads", in 1988; the set scored Grammy awards for Best Historical Album and Best Liner Notes.

In late 1990, the fates delivered Clapton a terrible blow when guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan and Clapton road crew members Colin Smythe and Nigel Browne - all close friends of Clapton's - were killed in a helicopter crash. A few months later, he was dealt another cruel blow when Conor, his son by Italian model Lori Del Santo, fell forty-nine stories from Del Santo's Manhattan high-rise apartment to his death. Clapton channelled his shattering grief into writing the heart-wrenching 1992 Grammy-winning tribute to his son, "Tears in Heaven." (Clapton received a total of six Grammys that year for the single and for the album "Unplugged".)

In 1994, he began once again to play traditional blues; the album, "From the Cradle", marked a return to raw blues standards and it hit with critics and fans. Clapton showed no signs of slowing down: in February of 1997 he picked up Record of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance Grammys for "Change the World," from the soundtrack of the John Travolta movie "Phenomenon". The year 2000 saw Clapton's "My Father's Eyes" climb the charts, to score another hit for the legendary guitarist.

In his 40-year-plus career, Eric Clapton has rolled up plenty of honors - numerous hits, 18 Grammys and becoming the first musician inducted three times into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.