Customer Reviews

Live at the Royal Albert Hall

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When you approach the discography of Emerson Lake and Palmer, you are sure to find a dozen or maybe more "Best of" albums trying to summarize the true essence of the band. The truth is that none of them accomplish that. If you want an album, live or recorded in studio, that brings out the soul of the band, "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends," not this one, has to be your choice.

ELP was a trio of virtuoso musicians, each of which continues to be recognized as one of the best at his instrument of all times. Keith Emerson played the piano and keyboards as a true maestro. Greg Lake (who started with prog-rock school, King Crimson) was a magician with his voice, the bass guitar and the acoustic guitar. And Carl Palmer, who ended up in Asia after ELP part I, I consider to be one of the fastest and most precise drummers there is, along with Phil Collins and Rush's Neil Pert.

Unfortunately, at this point in their careers (1992), you can tell that they're not the same as they were back in the 70s: Lake's voice has grown thick, and Emerson has suffered from severe health problems which affected the band for a few years after the release of the "Black Moon" (their studio recording that preceeded this live album). Thinking about it, it's not fair to expect them to be the same giants of 20-30 years ago, but being objective, this is not their best live production. However, I give it four stars.

ELP together again and touring a great new album (Black Moon, 1992).

Highly recommended. You get a good selection of songs, the older ones improved with the benefit of the latest Keyboard and Drum technology.

"Pirates" sounds incredible on this disc. Emerson is amazing, and Palmer is at his energetic best, adding fierce double-bass patterns to an already complex song.

This is a live album to support the Black Moon album after the group got back together in 1992. It is 70 minutes long. I doubt that it represents the whole concert, because the group usually plays for 2 hours. There are only 3 really good tracks on this album.

The sound quality is pretty good, but there is a buzz that comes and goes. It is most pronounced at the beginning. The dynamic range is OK but could be better. Sometimes the mix is muted and at times, you don't get to hear Palmer the way he should be heard.

Don't be fooled by the first track, Karn Evil 9. It is only a one minute excerpt where there sing Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends. It is how the group always starts a show, just like Roger Waters always starts with In The Flesh.

The album moves right into a fantastic 9 minute excerpt from Tarkus. This is one of the best things ever by the group. It is very lively and much better than the studio version. It sets up high hopes for the rest of the album, which are soon disappointed.

Next is Knife Edge, which is fairly good, but rather short and not the best version of the song.

From there, the album becomes boring until the end. The new material is not very good, and the band plays it just like the studio versions. For those who hated the acoustic version of Lucky Man on Welcome Back My Friends, here is a complete version with the Moog solo at the end. But, it is played just like the studio version.

In the middle is one very nice track, Creole Dance, that is an interesting keyboard solo.

The second to the last track is Pirates, which sounds like a boring show tune. It wasn't good on Works, and nothing is done to change it on this album. The group should leave this kind of thing to Gilbert and Sullivan.

The last track is a medley of Fanfare for the Common Man, America and Rondo. It's start out fairly routine, just covering the main themes of Fanfare and America. It gets very lively when it breaks into Rondo. America and Rondo come from Emeron's days with the Nice.

This album is definitly better than the dreadful Works-Live. But, Welcome Back My Friends is far superior to either. Another great album to get is Nice-The Swedish Seesions. That has a really raw, energetic version of Rondo.

At first im a deep fan of ELP and own all their records. I saw them 4 times live and saw their biggest show in history in Montréal in 1976.
I strongly suggest that you buy In Montreux instead of this DVD.
The production here is badly film and the sound is not good at all only in stereo. Also they are not at their best that night.
The live in Montreux is very well produce, the sound is very good and available in 5.1 plus they are in top shape.

Don't spend any money on this one you will regret it.

I am a casual listener of ELP, I use to listen to ELP cd more often when I was younger. For me, the band has not succeed in the time test. Their music has not aged very well. I still apreciate classic like "Tarkus" and some "Brain Salad Surgery" stuff (which is under represented on this cd)and songs like "Still, you turn me on" or "Lucky Man" but when half an hour of ELP has been playing in my house, I feel the urgent need to listen to something else. Good album, but not great.

The first time I heard that number done live, I was underwhelmed. It was right after "Works" was released, and the arena sound was cruddy. Synth technology wasn't nearly what it is today. And anyhow, it was a new song, so Emerson didn't have that much experience with it yet. The version here proves that two decades' worth of technical advances, as well as the band having two decades' more worth of expertise, can make a difference. Finally, they can do "Pirates" in realtime, making it sound like the studio version. The last time I tried to play it, I had to have two other keyboardists helping out, with nine instruments among us. You see, no one instrument any of us had was up to what Emerson uses. And none of us is in his league as a player. ELP didn't get older, they got better! "Dinosaurs", your mama!

This could have been a great live album. Heck, it SHOULD have been. Even with Greg Lake's limited vocal range (hear how he tries, and fails, to reach the studio standard of Pirates). But then Carl Palmer starts bashing those awful, AWFUL electonic drums. And no matter how good the band as a whole sounds, I can't get past that.

Emerson Lake and Palmer the kings of progressive rock. They were loud and in your face and then they got louder and more in your face. They were everything that was good about the progressive rock movement and they were one of the main reasons it died. "No one can make it playing, loud rock classical style music" that's what the critics and the music execs said. ELP shoved it in their face, playing to sold out stadiums all over the world with platinum selling albums. They let the success go to their heads and tried to tour with a full orchestra. It was a financial disaster, and it finally destroyed the band and some of the soul of the prog movement with it. They had to add some shows without the orchestra and I saw them in Syracuse, it was one great show. There was never anything like them and there never will be again.

This is a 1992 recording from the Black Moon tour. I saw them at the Finger Lakes that summer, they still had it. This is top notch CD with a great shortened version of Tarkus, a great Pirates, and the Fanfare melody is as good as ever. I give it 4 stars and for Pirates alone it is worth what you will pay for it. Want to hear what real Progressive rock is, check out the Kings.

This is a live album recorded at the end of the "Black Moon" tour with the band's triumphant return to London. The recording is very good, and by this time in the tour the band was tight and on top of it's game. I remember seeing the band on this tour and really enjoying. The definitive ELP live album is probably still "Welcome Back My Friends....", but this one is good too and significantly better than "Works Live" was. The contents of the album are a pretty good career retrospective along with several tracks from the then new "Black Moon" album. Since I liked "Black Moon" I think the new stuff fits in with the older material quite well. Greg Lake's voice is not quite what it used to be, and he compensates at times by singing in a lower register, but I think his voice is decent for the most part. "Tarkus" is represented here as a medley of only three sections of the piece at just under 10 minutes long. Most of the live versions here do not vary that much from their studio counterparts, but I particularly liked "Pirates" on this tour. The finale medley of "Fanfare For The Common Man", "America" and "Rondo" is the same shtick Keith Emerson has done for years, but it is always cool to hear him blazing away on the keys. Overall if you are only going to get one ELP live album I would probably go with "Welcome Back My Friends........". But this one would be a nice addition to your collection as well.

After many years of separation the band sounds here so good, so happy together, so glad to bring some of the classics and some of their latest album (then) "Black moon". The band was wise enough to play its music by the rules of the 90's and to leave some old habbits from the 70's - like the long piano and drums solos, and the too long "Tarkus" version in "Welcome back my friends...". Also, no sign to the failure of "Works live", although we have some good signs of "Works 1". Speaking of "Works 1" is a good start to cover up this CD: "Pirates" here, with no orchestra sounds wonderfull. "Fanfare" is o.k, but the 2 to follow - "America" and "Rondo" (that originaly were played by Emerson's "The Nice") - are just incredible. Sometimes i feel, that Keith Emerson was so happy to play those 2, that he could'nt stop his hands, that played the keyboards faster and wilder than ever. "Tarkus" here is shorter than in "Welcome back my friends...", but leaves you with a good taste (by the way, in "Live in Poland" they played it even better).The "Black moon" items stand the high standard of the band, and as a whole, the album prooves that Greg Lake's changing voice is not a reason for not buying ELP CDs of the 90's. The bottom line is - one of the two best live albums of the band (the second is "Live in Poland").