Fact #179996
When:
Short story:
Mitch Mitchell, drummer of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, meets up with Keith Emerson and Greg Lake in London, England, UK, Europe, to discuss forming a new group. He will not join, and the group will eventually appear as Emerson, Lake And Palmer (E.L.P.)Full article:
Keith Emerson : In the early part of January 1970, I was starting to get together the group that eventually became Emerson Lake and Palmer. But before I got Carl Palmer on board, Mitch Mitchell came around to Greg’s place in London. Mitch was a great drummer, and obviously worth considering. He said he’d like to be involved in what we were planning, and even went so far as to say he thought he could get Hendrix interested in joining us too. Of course, it never happened. I think Greg was quite relieved, because Mitch had been talking about security and bodyguards, which sounded a bit paranoid to us. Greg found all that a bit disturbing.
Greg Lake : That was something that the media in England got a hold of and got a little too excited about. Before we met Carl, I had a chat with Mitch Mitchell, Jimi's drummer, and he suggested that maybe he would talk to Jimi about this band. Mitch did talk to Jimi about it and we were in the process of setting up a meeting. Jimi also was at the point where he wanted to move on and do something else. So, it was good timing. By the time the press found out about it, the band was already formed and called ELP, so they figured with Hendrix in the band, it would be called HELP. And before we could really check out that possibility, Jimi suddenly died. So, it never really got very far. It was just a press story, really.
Carl Palmer : It started with a call from Tony Stratton-Smith. He’d been managing The Nice but they’d just split up and Keith Emerson was putting a new group together with Greg Lake. I was with Atomic Rooster and we were doing well – the music was nice and dark, the way I like it, but Tony was offering a lot of money, plus a much better set-up, with Island in the UK and Atlantic in America.
I’d never heard of Greg Lake, although I knew of King Crimson, but I thought Keith was an exceptional musician. I’m from a family of classical musicians and Keith had a strong classical influence, so I knew we’d hit it off.
I wasn’t their first choice. They’d talked to Mitch Mitchell, which is why all those rumours started about Hendrix joining the group. But I never saw or spoke to Hendrix, and I know Keith and Greg didn’t.
(Source : Mojo, January 2008)
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Greg Lake : That was something that the media in England got a hold of and got a little too excited about. Before we met Carl, I had a chat with Mitch Mitchell, Jimi's drummer, and he suggested that maybe he would talk to Jimi about this band. Mitch did talk to Jimi about it and we were in the process of setting up a meeting. Jimi also was at the point where he wanted to move on and do something else. So, it was good timing. By the time the press found out about it, the band was already formed and called ELP, so they figured with Hendrix in the band, it would be called HELP. And before we could really check out that possibility, Jimi suddenly died. So, it never really got very far. It was just a press story, really.
Carl Palmer : It started with a call from Tony Stratton-Smith. He’d been managing The Nice but they’d just split up and Keith Emerson was putting a new group together with Greg Lake. I was with Atomic Rooster and we were doing well – the music was nice and dark, the way I like it, but Tony was offering a lot of money, plus a much better set-up, with Island in the UK and Atlantic in America.
I’d never heard of Greg Lake, although I knew of King Crimson, but I thought Keith was an exceptional musician. I’m from a family of classical musicians and Keith had a strong classical influence, so I knew we’d hit it off.
I wasn’t their first choice. They’d talked to Mitch Mitchell, which is why all those rumours started about Hendrix joining the group. But I never saw or spoke to Hendrix, and I know Keith and Greg didn’t.
(Source : Mojo, January 2008)