At Norwich School one year for Music we were studying Mussorgsky's Pictures from an Exhibition. The music teacher Mr Burrell bless him allowed Emerson Lake and Palmer's version to be played in the lesson. That record introduced me to the world of Progressive Rock. Before that time my musical horizons were limited to what my parents were into.

ELP's music blew me away. The energy, the spirit, the talent, the sound often rooted in classical music. It was transcendent. Pictures obviously has classical roots, but some pieces I only realised the classical roots by chance - so it was a shock when I first heard Janáĉek's "Sinfonietta" to recognise it as Knife Edge off ELP's first album.

I never experienced ELP live in concert, one of my many omissions in life that I bitterly regret. I did see Keith Emerson at the Barbican in London in a series of concerts celebrating the Moog synthesizer which was such a part of the sound of ELP.

Debut album

Tarkus

Pictures from an Exhibition

Trilogy

Brain Salad Surgery

Works