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UNCOVERED: Carl palmer | History Defined

Peter Hammill and Carl Palmer return to the Royal Albert Hall for the prog prom - Prog Rock: A Fanfare for the Common Man

BBC's 2026 Proms season's Prog Rock: A Fanfare for the Common Man takes place at the Royal Albert Hall on July 18

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Emerson, Lake & Palmer announce newly remastered reissue of Works Live

Carl Palmer will bring his An Evening With Emerson, Lake & Palmer to England for three shows in February 2027

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Carl Palmer announces An Evening With Emerson, Lake & Palmer shows in England for February 2027

Carl Palmer will perform live with late band members Keith Emerson and Greg Lake appearing in sync on screens on either side of the stage

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“I opened the curtains a bit and said, ‘Look at all these people who’ve paid to see us!’ I didn’t realise that was the worst thing I could have done”: Carl Palmer on Keith Emerson, and how his death wasn’t the worst part of losing him

They met when Palmer stood in with Fleetwood Mac for a show with The Nice. Half a century of amazing music and friendship followed. The drummer reveals what they’d be doing today if Emerson was still alive

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“I figured people would frown about the group because we had three prog musicians from quite big bands playing bubblegum songs, really. But they were good songs”: Legendary drummer Carl Palmer on the multi-million-selling success of ’80s supergroup Asia

But he admits: “I didn’t enjoy making those silly videos”

MusicRadar

“We weren’t like a normal group that’s ready to take a knock. We couldn’t fight back”: Carl Palmer on how punk killed ELP

Plus he reveals Mitch Mitchell almost joined the prog icons

MusicRadar

"There was about 380 people in the hall, sold out. There wasn’t a woman in sight." Carl Palmer looks back on the earliest Emerson, Lake & Palmer shows

The birth of a prog rock legend

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“We made bad albums. Two of them should be melted down into flowerpots. But how many great pieces of artwork are you going to create in your career?” What Carl Palmer really thinks of ELP

Comparing his band to Yes and Pink Floyd, the sole surviving member looks back on OTT productions, getting carried away with overdubs and constant criticism – but insists: “We were setting a standard”

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“If you want to play that kind of music, play it on your solo album. I’m not interested”: In 1971 Greg Lake enraged Keith Emerson, who immediately quit ELP. The result was their acclaimed album Tarkus

Carl Palmer recalls a crisis meeting, arguments over time signatures, and playing the whole album top to bottom in the studio – only to discover their engineer had taken a break

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“I’m not a massive fan of all things prog. But I must have listened to the Tarkus album a million times down the years”: Twisted Sister’s Jay Jay French wants Emerson, Lake and Palmer to be remembered for ever

Glam metal guitar slinger had been a fan of The Nice but hadn’t even heard of Carl Palmer when the super-talented supergroup blew him away live

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“Some people were cynical – ‘The Yeggles have spoilt it all!’ We were doing a gig in Brighton and someone shouted, ‘Rick Wakeman!’ It was demoralising”: Geoff Downes’ life and times in and out of Yes

His big break came with the Wombles, then he impressed Trevor Horn with synths he’d only borrowed. He forged a partnership with John Wetton and made it big with Asia – and his easygoing nature means he’s avoided most of Yes’ infamous dramas

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”Three highly gifted men with the capacity to behave like spoilt brats in each others’ company”: Emerson, Lake & Palmer often didn’t work. But then, neither did projects that featured just two of the trio

Massive musical ability crossed with pomposity and excess made it difficult for the supergroup to meet expectations – but even with one of the giant personalities missing, the other pair could struggled to deliver

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"The haters won’t stop us from doing what we do": Geoff Downes on Asia's new lineup and the band's future plans

The Geoff Downes-led new lineup of Asia play the band’s first three albums, one per night, in April

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“We took it badly – ‘No one wants us any more!’ We’d never been through the school of hard knocks. We didn’t know what it meant to work hard”: When ELP collapsed, Carl Palmer’s career-long lucky streak ended. But he didn’t give up

Born into a musical family and a pro by his teenage years with a real-life education in backstage realities, the passionate drummer has seen dreams come true with Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster, Asia, Mike Oldfield and others

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“It seemed to me that America was ruled by the gun… if you don’t like the President, shoot him”: Flag-burning prog innovators The Nice found trouble on stage and off it

Keith Emerson, Davy O’List and Lee Jackson created enough controversy to last for decades in their original three-year run

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“I’ve always wanted to be in a metal band… Pantera and Dream Theater are great”: Carl Palmer on his desire for a life beyond classic prog, the final ELP show, and why he wishes they’d had a guitarist

After Emerson Lake & Palmer’s High Voltage concert, the drummer shared his thoughts on his former bandmates and pondered an unfulfilled ambition

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“Andrew Loog Oldham asked if we were songwriters. I said we were – then I had to go away and figure out how you wrote songs”: The Nice helped found prog and merged classical music with rock, then they were gone

Prompted by a disagreement that spilled into the public domain, co-founders Keith Emerson and Lee Jackson once visited the Prog office to set things straight

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"It's unlikely that I'll ever listen to any other Asia albums but only time will tell": Asia upset the prog purists and delight their bank managers on freakishly successful debut album

Featuring members of Yes, ELP and King Crimson, Asia were billed as a prog rock supergroup but kept it concise, to enormous success

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“The sort of thing which got prog a bad name, but which now seems increasingly bold and ambitious”: 10 essential Greg Lake songs

From King Crimson to ELP and beyond, he left a catalogue of impressive creations from an extraordinary musical journey which included that Christmas song

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“John Peel said we were a waste of talent and electricity… It had become de rigueur to knock us”: Emerson Lake & Palmer and the making of Brain Salad Surgery

The prog supergroup were at their creative peak when they created the 1973 epic that took the world by storm, despite the apparent hordes of critics

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Robert Fripp and Carl Palmer lead tributes to Pete Sinfield who has died, aged 80

King Crimson and ELP producer and lyricist Pete Sinfield sadly died on Thursday, aged 80

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Fan group petitions BBC for a Keith Emerson Prom

Emerson, Lake & Palmer fan group is spearheading a move to get Keith Emerson. and ELP recognised by the BBC's annual proms programme

Guitar World

“I would call our approach organized chaos, but it drove Allan Holdsworth up the wall”: John Wetton has been the bass force behind a peak-period King Crimson lineup and two prog rock supergroups

A veteran of one of King Crimson’s classic lineups, John Wetton’s amazing career took him through a host of British prog bands

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“There’s no questioning the quality of this collection… but is it truly essential?” Carl Palmer’s Fanfare For The Common Man box set

4-disc Celebration of the drummer’s career includes ‘scrap book’ documentary and 200-page memoir

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“The priorities of the first Asia were to make it a success. Yet when we had it, we were so stupid it was unbelievable:” How the supergroup admitted mistakes and worked them out via their patchy Phoenix album

It was the first studio project featuring all four original members since their gradual disintegration in the 80s. And even if it wasn’t their best work, it was an essential element in moving forward

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