Greg Lake

Greg Lake
Lake in concert, Llandudno, Wales, 2005
Background information
Birth name	Gregory Stuart Lake
Born	10 November 1947 (1947-11-10) (age 63) Poole, Dorset, England
Genres	Progressive rock, hard rock
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter, producer
Instruments	Vocals, bass, guitar, percussion
Years active	1966–present
Labels	Manticore, Chrysalis
Associated acts	The Gods, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Gary Moore, Asia, Emerson, Lake & Powell, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band
Website	Official website
Notable instruments
Fender Jazz Bass Alembic Inc Fender Stratocaster Gibson Les Paul Wal bass Gibson J-200

Gregory Stuart "Greg" Lake (born 10 November 1947) is an English musician, songwriter and producer, best known as a vocalist and bassist of King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

Biography

1960s: Early life, The Gods and King Crimson

Born in Poole, England, Lake was interested in music at a young age, and wrote what would become one of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's biggest hits, "Lucky Man", while he was still at school. Greg joined a band called Teak And The Smokey who were all from Poole and had some success as a popular group in and around Dorset, also spending 6 months in Europe and Spain touring. In 1968, Lake was a member of a band called The Gods along with future members of Uriah Heep. Lake left the band in the summer of 1968 before they released their debut album.

Lake had an old school friend, Robert Fripp, who had recently moved to London. His group Giles, Giles, and Fripp were looking for a new direction after their debut album failed to garner sufficient critical attention. Fripp invited Lake to join the new group, to be named King Crimson, in November, 1968. Although both Fripp and Lake were primarily guitarists, Fripp said to Lake (concerning King Crimson) something to the effect of "If you don't play bass, it'll never get off the ground," so Lake switched to playing bass guitar.

For King Crimson's debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, Lake also contributed as songwriter and singer. The album was originally to be produced by Tony Clarke who was then the producer for the Moody Blues. However, after the first day, Clarke walked out, as he had difficulty understanding what the band were trying to create. Lake assumed the role of producer. Although the album credits the whole band as producers, it was primarily Lake who produced it.^[1]

King Crimson went on a North American tour with The Nice, who were on their farewell tour. It was after this tour in April 1970 that Lake left the band to form Emerson, Lake & Palmer along with Keith Emerson from The Nice on keyboards and Carl Palmer from Atomic Rooster and Crazy World of Arthur Brown on drums and percussion. Despite his official departure from King Crimson, Lake agreed to help with the completion of King Crimson's second album In the Wake of Poseidon.

According to one witness, when Lake informed Robert Fripp of his decision to leave King Crimson and form Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Fripp responded: "You want to leave King Crimson to play with a magniloquent dwarf who makes love to his Hammond organ on stage every night?"

1970s: Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Greg Lake, with Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Toronto, Canada February 3, 1978 Courtesy: Jean-Luc Ourlin

ELP were hugely successful in the 1970s (with album sales totalling over thirty million), and significantly contributed to the evolution of progressive rock. Lake contributed to many of ELP's songs but was particularly noticeable for his guitar-oriented and soulful tunes such as "Lucky Man" (Emerson, Lake & Palmer), "The Sage" (Pictures at an Exhibition), "From the Beginning" (Trilogy), "Still... You Turn Me On" (Brain Salad Surgery) and "C'est la vie" (Works Volume I). Lake became popularly known for his UK Christmas number two single, "I Believe in Father Christmas" in 1975 which was later included on the ELP album Works Volume II.

In 1973, Lake founded Manticore Records and signed several very talented musicians such as Italy's PFM and Banco, and King Crimson / Emerson, Lake & Palmer lyricist Peter Sinfield. Having produced albums, on which he also played, for both King Crimson and ELP, Lake briefly produced albums for other artists, including Spontaneous Combustion (1972), Stray Dog (1973) and Keith Christmas (1974). His only other foray into production appears to be The King's Singers (1987) & (2005). ^[2]

1980s: Asia and solo career

After the break-up of ELP, Lake toured briefly with the group Asia in 1983 as a temporary replacement for John Wetton, as well as releasing two solo albums and conducting a tour in the early 1980s. The albums were Greg Lake (1981) and Manoeuvres (1983), both of which featured ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore In 1986 he, Emerson and Cozy Powell released the album "Emerson, Lake & Powell" -- basically an ELP reunion with Powell replacing Palmer who was contractually obligated to Asia.

Having worked with Geoff Downes in Asia, Lake and Downes recorded 6 tracks in summer 1988 as Greg Lake's Ride the Tiger. A new Asia line-up for Downes curtailed the project, but ELP used one song ("Affairs of the Heart") on their next album, Black Moon and Asia used another ("Love Under Fire") on their next album, Aqua.^[3]

1990s: Emerson, Lake & Palmer again

Emerson, Lake & Palmer subsequently reunited in the early 1990s and played the progressive rock circuit, especially in outdoor summer concerts, and released two new studio albums. In 1998, the members of ELP had a rather acrimonious falling-out and Lake left the band.

2000s: Recent work, Greg Lake Band, and ELP Reunion

Lake in concert, 2005

Keith Emerson's 2004 memoirs "Pictures of an Exhibitionist" give an unflattering portrait of Lake, and not surprisingly Lake has said that he will never reunite with ELP in the future. He has not been especially visible on the music scene since then, though he did tour as a member of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band in 2001. In late 2003 he played bass on The Who's "Real Good Looking Boy".

On 22 October 2005 Lake began touring the United Kingdom with a brand new "Greg Lake Band", to positive reviews. The band comprised David Arch on keyboards, Florian Opahle on guitar, Trevor Barry on bass, and Brett Morgan on drums. A double DVD was released by Warner Bros/Classic Pictures early 2006. The Greg Lake Band was ready for a new tour on September 2006 with rumours of a new album in the pipeline, although this tour was cancelled at the last minute due to "management troubles".

Lake performed "Karn Evil 9" with the Trans Siberian Orchestra at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island, New York on December 20, 2006, at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey on December 21, 2006 and at the Quicken Loans Arena, aka the Q in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 30, 2007 at the end of both the 3:00pm and 7:30pm shows.

Lake played "Lucky Man" with Jethro Tull at their show at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 28 May, 2008. In November 2008, U2 recorded Greg Lake's 'I Believe in Father Christmas' to mark the launch of (RED)Wire [1].

In 2009, Lake performed on the song "Nutrocker" on Trans-Siberian Orchestra's album Night Castle.

After over a decade Emerson, Lake and Palmer will be reuniting in the Summer of 2010 at the High Voltage Festival.^[4] As preparation for this show Keith Emerson and Greg Lake will tour North America in the Spring of 2010 presenting an intimate unplugged performance of King Crimson, ELP and The Nice selections featuring only Emerson and Lake performing^[5]

Discography

The Shame Singles

• Don't Go Away Little Girl/Dreams Don't Bother Me (1967)

Shy Limbs Singles

• Reputation / Love (1968)

King Crimson Studio Albums

• In the Court of the Crimson King (October 1969); US #28 UK #3 Gold
• In the Wake of Poseidon (May 1970); US #31 UK #4
• Epitaph (1997, recorded 1969)

Emerson, Lake & Palmer Studio Albums

Emerson, Lake & Palmer Live albums

Solo discography

Albums

• 1981 Greg Lake US #62; UK #62
• 1983 Manoeuvres
• 1995 King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents Greg Lake In Concert
• 1997 The Greg Lake Retrospective: From The Beginning
• 1998 From The Underground: The Official Bootleg
• 2000 Live
• 2002 Nuclear Attack
• 2007 Greg Lake (Compilation)

References

• Forrester, George, Martyn Hanson and Frank Askew. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Show That Never Ends, A Musical Biography. (2001) Helter Skelter Publishing ISBN 1-900924-17-X.

External links

• Official website
• Official MySpace
• Seychelles Rescue Appeal