Guy Babylons debut alum ‘The Best of Guy Babylon’ was released on 15th Feb 2010 as a download only on iTunes.
Featuring 10 tracks of total brilliance, keyboard mastery and composition the album includes a remixed version of the classic track ‘Babylon Bleu’ (the track which won Guy the Keyboard Magazine readers competition in 1987).
Check back here soon for a full review of the album.
A trust has been set up for the family of Guy Babylon at the following. Please do your best to buy the album, popularize the trust and give something back to Guy and his family for his gift of music.
Thanks must go to Jan who runs the main website and source of information on Guy at www.guybablyonfan.net
The opening act for The Watch consisted of a mellow flute and piano set by respected names John and Hackett and Nick Magnus which was excellent but a little quiet for a Glasgow crowd on a Friday night. It perhaps would have suited more of a chamber orchestra venue.
The Watch opening set continued in the same vein with John Hackett guesting on some old Genesis tracks as well as a few of their own. The crowd were as polite as Glasgow audiences can be (only shouting some ‘words of encouragement’ to the band in between songs in Scots which I’m sure was totally lost on the Italian band) but they soon got what they came for when the band launched into some Genesis classics.
This video shows them plying The Musical Box (not at Glasgow) but it shows how adept they are capturing the early Peter Gabriel-era Genesis
I just stumbled across the website of photographer Al Ligammari 11 (Alimar) with some great backstage an concert photos of ELP from several shows by Al himself.
1. Backstage at Toronto in 1973 (Maple Leaf Gardens?) with a few stage shots (black and white)
2. On stage in Buffalo NY (Rich Stadium?) in 1974 (black and white)
3. On stage in Buffalo NY in 1978 (colour)
Can anyone confirm the venues?
Great shots Al – thanks for sharing
Al also has others personal photos of Yes, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Steve Hackett and Gentle Giant
The Watch are an Italian band who, it seems, sometimes perform as a Genesis covers/tribute band. They seem to have a good reputation for doing what they do quite well so I am interested in seeing them at The Ferry in Glasgow on Friday 12 Feb 2010. Genesis are not an easy band to cover so they gotta be on the ball.
The last Genesis tribute I saw was the French Canadian band called The Musical Box at the Clyde Auditorium a few years ago. They were very good and are very proud of the extremes to which they go to capture a Genesis show. The front man has studied every little body movement and voice of Peter Gabriel to re-present the early Genesis gigs in minute detail.
They use the original stage set used by Genesis in the 70’s (made out of crepe paper and orange boxes I reckon) to deliver as close to the original gig as humanly possible and regard their gig as ‘theatre’ rather than being a covers band. Memorable moments were (I guess obviously the ones with a clear costume) such as Watcher of the Skies, the Musical Box, I know what I like and Suppers ready
More tour dates have been added for the Emerson Lake USA Tour 2010.
Thu Apr 1 Lakewood OH Lakewood Civic Auditorium
Fri Apr 2 Glenside PA Keswick Theater
Sat Apr 3 Ridgefield CT Ridgefield Play House
Tue Apr 6 Alexandria VA The Birchmere
Thu Apr 8 New York NY Nokia Theatre Times Square
Fri Apr 9 Westbury NY Westbury Music Fair
Sat Apr 10 New Bedford, MA Zeiteron Performing Arts Center
Tue Apr 13 Montreal QC Place des Arts
Fri Apr 16 Milwaukee WI Potawatomi Casino / Northern Lights Theatre
Sat Apr 17 Merrillville IN Star Plaza Theatre
Sun Apr 18 Indianapolis IN Murat Theatre at the Murat Centre
Sun Apr 25 Los Angeles, CA Orpheum Theatre
Not all tickets are on sales yet. It seems its is down to each venue to make that decision so you can carry on the detective exercise and see if you can find out when tickets for your town go on sale.
Living on the West Coast of Scotland my local gig is obviously New York City so I got my tickets when they went on sale for the Nokia Theatre.
Ticket price for the gig $99,
plane fares $900,
accommodation, meals……..ah the things you do for an Emerson Lake gig!
The agents for the Tour appear to be Paradise Music. They have published some minimal information on their website for the Emerson Lake 2010 tour so this may a good source to get new announcements for the tour.
Whilst the information at this point is pretty poor on the Paradise Artists website they do have a wee gem tucked away: a sample TV advert for a Greg Lake gig. I am not sure the gig ever took place but the ad is interesting. Can anyone confirm if this gig (The Springfield Performing Arts Centre) took place? I thought the US Tour was postponed along with the second leg of the UK Tour in 2005.
Please note. I have no official information or mandate for this information. I am merely a fan trying to find some information so that I can attend a gig or two. I managed managed to stumble across some information by scratching around the web a little and I thought other ELP fans would probably like to know.
One word of warning. Paradise Artists’ website has pretty poor usability so you might find yourself clicking on links which you didn’t know were links and arrving at pages you did not expect. As the owner of a web Development and Internet Marketing business in Scotland I am always amazed at how bad sites can still be in 2010. Ho hum
The Ridgefield Playhouse in Connecticut has listed tickets for sale for the Emerson Lake gig. They appear to be offering VIP tickets too which includes a meet and greet.
The gig hasn’t been announced on the venues’s website as yet but hopefully all the information will start to trickle through soon so that we can all make arrangements to attend the shows – especially us travelling from snowy Scotland and other places further afield. We have flights, trains cars, buses, boats, taxis and bicycles to arrange!
The things you do to see ELp live every 10-15 years! I guess it’s part of the price you pay… and you do get to see more of the world.
In 1992 I saw most of the UK (maybe 8? cant remember) shows and also a few in the East Coast (Boston Albany, Syracuse)
In 1996 I saw three amphitheatre shows (Darien Lakes, Toronto, Scranton)
In 1997 I saw two shows (Hamburg, Dresden) so I am not bothered that they don’t even play in Scotland – it’s much more exciting traveling round albeit a bit more expensive.
As I was stumbling around the web I found this Keith Emerson fan page /Tribute site which was new to me. EMO GIRL (Eowyn from Parma, Ohios) has a my space site which is dedicted to Keith Emerson. It contains some good photos and videos of Keith Emerson.
I don’t want to be negative when someone has taken the time to put some info on the web for ELP but my complaint is with Myspace, not the site owners. The usability and layouts of Myspace websites are so bad with all the background images, animations, ads and general confusion that the pages become virtually illegible. Add to that every ‘friend’ posting gigantic ‘ads/thnks for something’ that the page soon becomes ‘website soup’
I personally hate using MySpace sites as I have to work really hard to find what the page is about and get any useful information on what the page is actually about.
It is really neat to to see someone providing some good material on the web as ELP are so poorly served – especially when you see the Yes community……oh no I can feel a rant coming on : this really needs to go in a separate post