“I was lost after ELP,” confessed Greg Lake in his posthumously-published 2017 memoir Lucky Man. Despite working with everyone from Ringo Starr to The Who and Asia in the latter half of his career, Lake’s uncertainty about his own ongoing musical direction was a factor in him making just two solo albums.
He also became a rather sporadic live performer: the 2005 show captured on this CD/DVD collection was his first as a solo artist in over a decade.
His bandmates here don’t have the pedigree of the Gary Moore-aided posse with whom he’d toured his debut solo album in 1981, but future Jethro Tull guitarist Florian Opahle and keyboardist David Arch – now Strictly Come Dancing’s musical director – prove highly capable foils.
The album’s demanding, career-spanning set sees Arch eat up Keith Emerson’s fine classical piano parts for Take A Pebble, after King Crimson’s In The Court Of The Crimson King makes for a majestic opener.
Great, too, to hear Lake and Pete Sinfield’s Prokofiev-indebted perennial I Believe In Father Christmas sounding suitably magical, with Lake’s rich, relaxed baritone as commanding and distinctive as ever – even if wishing the Stevenage crowd a merry Christmas on November 11 seems premature.
On disc two, ELP’s Fanfare For The Common Man becomes a heavier, and not unappealing, two-guitar canter, with shades of Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit In The Sky, while a 20-minute segment of Pictures At An Exhibition thrills and impresses.
Arch’s ‘symphonic brass’ keyboards and other early-00s synth timbres now sound a little dated, it’s true; but the hymnal quality of Promenade Pt.2 and the exquisite melancholy of The Sage are still to die for.
It still feels odd to see Jim Davidson’s “produced and directed by” credit in the accompanying booklet – but the controversial comedian was a huge ELP fan and good pals with Lake and Emerson.
Greg Lake Live is on sale now via Spirit of Unicorn Music.
