Greg Lake - Greg Lake ( d1 )

click here

Greg Lake - I Believe In Father Christmas ( l1 )

They said there'll be snow at Christmas
They said there'll be peace on earth
But instead it just kept on raining
A veil of tears for the virgin birth
I remember one Christmas morning
A winter's light and a distant choir
And the peal of a bell and that Christmas tree smell
And their eyes full of tinsel and fire

They sold me a dream of Christmas
They sold me a silent night
And they told me a fairy story
'Till I believed in the Israelite
And I believed in father Christmas
And I looked to the sky with excited eyes
'Till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
And I saw him and through his disguise

I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave new year
All anguish, pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear
They said there'll be snow at Christmas
They said there'll be peace on earth
Hallelujah, Noel be it heaven or hell
The Christmas we get we deserve

Greg Lake ( b13 )

Singles

• "I Believe in Father Christmas" / "Humbug" (1975) [UK #2]
• "C'est La Vie" / "Jeremy Bender" (1977) (#75 Can.)
• "Watching Over You" / "Hallowed be thy name" (1977)
• "Love You Too Much" / "Someone" (UK/Europe 1981)
• "For Those who dare" / "Love you too much" (Germany 1981)
• "Let Me Love You Once" / "Retribution Drive" (USA 1981)
• "It Hurts" / "Retribution Drive" (UK/Europe 1982)
• "Famous Last Words" / "I Don't Know Why I Still Love You" (Portugal 1983)

DVDs

• Greg Lake: Live In Concert (2006)
• Welcome Backstage (2006)
• Greg Lake Live in Piacenza (2017) exclusively with the limited edition box set of the album with the same title.

As Producer

• Spontaneous Combustion - self-titled (1972)
• Pete Sinfield - Still (1973)
• The King's Singers – Strawberry Fields Forever (1978) 7" single
• Annie Barbazza & Max Repetti - Moonchild (2018)

Greg Lake ( b12 )

2015	1997	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Live at Montreux 1997	Live album
1997	1973-74 / 1977	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	King Biscuit Flower Hour: Greatest Hits Live	Live album
1998	1974 / 1997-98	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Then and Now	Live album
2007	2005	Greg Lake	Greg Lake	Live album
2010	1971-98	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	A Time and a Place	Live Boxset
2010	2010	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	High Voltage	Live album
2014	2010	Keith Emerson & Greg Lake	Live from Manticore Hall	Live album, Recorded live at Ridgefield Playhouse, Ridgefield CT on 8 May 2010
2013	2012	Greg Lake	Songs of a Lifetime	Live album
2017	2012	Greg Lake	Live in Piacenza	Live album

Solo

Compilations

• The Greg Lake Retrospective: From the Beginning (1997)
• From the Underground: The Official Bootleg (1998)
• From the Underground 2: Deeper Into the Mine – An Official Greg Lake Bootleg (2003)

continuare

Greg Lake ( b11 )

1986	1986	Emerson, Lake and Powell	Emerson, Lake & Powell	Studio album
2003	1986	Emerson, Lake and Powell	The Sprocket Sessions	Recorded live at Sprocket Studio, London during the rehearsals for the 1986 world tour
2003	1986	Emerson, Lake and Powell	Live in Concert	Live album, Recorded Live at Lakeland, Florida November 1986
2015	1989-90	Greg Lake & Geoff Downes	Ride the Tiger	Studio album
1992	1992	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Black Moon	Studio album
1993	1992	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Live at the Royal Albert Hall	Live album
2001-06	1971-78 / 1992	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	The Original Bootleg Series from the Manticore Vaults	Official bootleg series
1993	1971-93	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	The Return of the Manticore	Box set
1994	1994	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	In the Hot Seat	Studio album
1997	1997	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Live in Poland	Live album
2013	1977	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Live in Montreal 1977	Live album
2015	1997	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Once Upon a Time: Live in South America 1997	Live album

continuare

Greg Lake ( b10 )

1970	1970	King Crimson	In the Wake of Poseidon	Studio album
1970	1970	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Studio album
1997	1970	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970	Live album
1971	1971	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Tarkus	Studio album
1971	1971	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Pictures at an Exhibition	Live album
2017	1971	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Masters from the Vaults	Live album
1972	1972	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Trilogy	Studio album
2011	1972	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Live at the Mar Y Sol Festival '72	Live album
1973	1973	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Brain Salad Surgery	Studio album
1974	1974	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Welcome Back My Friends...	Live album
2012	1974	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Live in California 1974	Live album
1977	1976	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Works Volume 1	Studio album
1977	1973-76	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Works Volume 2	Studio album
1978	1978	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Love Beach	Studio album
2011	1978	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Live at Nassau Coliseum '78	Live album
1979	1977	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	In Concert / Works Live	Live album
2001	1983	Asia	Enso Kai: Live in Tokyo / Live at Budokan	Live album, Recorded Live at the Budokan in Tokyo, Japan 1983
1981	1981	Greg Lake	Greg Lake	Studio album
1995	1981	Greg Lake	King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents Greg Lake in Concert	Live album, aka Nuclear Attack, Live, and In Concert, with Gary Moore
1983	1983	Greg Lake	Manoeuvres	Studio album

continuare

Greg Lake ( b9 )

 Numerous fellow musicians paid tribute, including Rick Wakeman and Steve Hackett, Ringo Starr, John Wetton, and ELP drummer Carl Palmer. With Lake's death and that of Keith Emerson earlier in 2016, Palmer is the last surviving member of the group.

Discography

Lake, performing at Llandudno, Wales in 2005

Source:

Year	Recorded	Artist	Title	Notes
1967	1967	The Shame	Don't Go Away Little Girl / Dreams Don't Bother Me	Vinyl, 7", Single
1968	1968	Shy Limbs	Love	Vinyl, 7", Single, B-side of "Reputation"
1969	1969	King Crimson	In the Court of the Crimson King	Studio album
1997	1969	King Crimson	Epitaph	Live album
1998	1969	King Crimson	Live at the Marquee	Live album, King Crimson Collector's Club
2000	1969	King Crimson	Live in Hyde Park	Live album, King Crimson Collector's Club
2004	1969	King Crimson	Live at Fillmore East	Live album, King Crimson Collector's Club

continuare

Greg Lake ( b8 )

Lake continued to tour solo in the 2010s. His Songs of a Lifetime Tour began in 2012 which featured songs of his career and those by his favourite artists, including Elvis Presley and Johnny Kidd & the Pirates. The tour ended in November of that year and produced the live album, Songs of a Lifetime (2013).

On 9 January 2016, he was awarded an honorary degree in music and lyrics composition by Conservatorio Nicolini in Piacenza, Italy, the first degree awarded by the conservatory.

Lake spent several years writing his autobiography Lucky Man, originally planned to be published in 2012 but eventually released posthumously in June 2017.

On 19 June 2017, the Municipality of Zoagli (Genoa) Italy awarded the Honorary Citizenship post mortem to Greg Lake and engraved a marble plaque that is next to Castello Canevaro where the musician performed on 30 November 2012.

Marble Plaque engraved for Greg Lake next to Castello Canevaro in Zoagli.

Personal life

In late 1974, Lake moved from a flat in Cornwall Gardens in Kensington, London to a home near Windsor. Lake later lived in the Kingston and Richmond areas of Greater London with his wife Regina. The couple had one daughter, Natasha.

Death

Lake died in London on 7 December 2016, at the age of 69, after suffering from cancer. His manager announced the news on Twitter, describing Lake's battle with the illness as "long and stubborn".

continuare

Greg Lake ( b7 )

The group's usual bassist, Pino Palladino, was set to do it but he was touring during the time of recording, so Lake was asked instead. At one point in a video of the recording session, an uncomfortable-looking Lake is shown making a comment which seems to be somewhat ignored by Pete Townshend.

In 2005, Lake toured Germany and the UK with his assembled group, the Greg Lake Band, which included David Arch on keyboards, Florian Opahle on guitar, Trevor Barry on bass, and Brett Morgan on drums. The tour was sponsored by UK entertainer and long-term ELP fan, Jim Davison. But the shows were not a sell-out, the US leg was cancelled, and the two men then fell out.

In 2006, Lake played as a member of the supergroup the RD Crusaders in aid for charity. Lake performed "Karn Evil 9" with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at several shows. He was a special guest on their album Night Castle (2009).

In 2010, Lake and Emerson completed an acoustic world tour, performing ELP songs. The tour got off at a bad start following a backstage altercation between the two, but "we completed the tour and it was very happy. We actually ended up enjoying ourselves". That July, Lake joined Emerson and Palmer for a one-off gig from Emerson, Lake & Palmer at the High Voltage Festival in Victoria Park, London, to commemorate the band's fortieth anniversary. The concert was released on CD, DVD, and Blu-ray as High Voltage. It was the final performance by the group. Lake wished to continue touring, but claimed his bandmates "didn't want to", thus ending such plans.

continuare

Greg Lake ( b6 )

Solo career and other projects

In 1975, while still a member of ELP, Lake achieved solo chart success when his single, "I Believe in Father Christmas", reached number two on the UK Singles Chart. It has become a Yuletide perennial. In the UK, the single sold over 13,000 copies in two days.

Several months following the break-up of ELP in 1979, Lake began to write new songs and had "put down a tremendous amount of material" for his first solo album. He travelled to Los Angeles and worked with a group of session musicians to develop his songs further, but he found a lack of personality in the music, though not at the fault of the performers. Lake realised he wished to play as part of a group, and began to assemble members of the Greg Lake Band. The result, Greg Lake, was released in September 1981 on Chrysalis Records, and reached number 62 in both the UK and the US. Lake supported the album with a tour, of which their debut gig took place in August 1981 at the Reading Festival with Gary Moore on guitars, Ted McKenna on drums, Tommy Eyre on keyboards, and Tris Margetts on bass. The album was a critical but not a commercial success.

Lake's second solo album, Manoeuvres, was released in July 1983, and flopped. It received minimal promotion and Lake never toured the material. He split with his record company the same year. Lake later admitted that the public did not want to buy guitar-based material from him.

Later that year, he briefly joined Palmer in the 1980s supergroup Asia, replacing fellow King Crimson alumnus John Wetton, in order to do a concert in Japan.

His next move was to co-form Emerson, Lake & Powell with drummer Cozy Powell.

Lake in 1992, performing with ELP

In 2001, Lake toured as a member of the seventh incarnation of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.

In 2003, Lake played the bass on the Who song "Real Good Looking Boy". 

continuare

Greg Lake ( b5 )

Emerson, Lake & Palmer conflicted between Emerson's interest in complex, classically-influenced music and Lake's more straightforward rock tastes. Lake complained that Emerson chose to play in keys that were not a good fit for his voice. During the making of the band's second album Tarkus, Lake initially rejected the title track, but was persuaded to record it following a band meeting with management, which ended in the addition of an original Lake tune, "Battlefield", into the suite. Lake's track "From the Beginning", released on Trilogy in 1972, had no particular source of inspiration; "I just felt an inspiration to do it, and it flowed through me in a natural way. My hands fell upon these very unusual chords ... It was kind of a gift". It was released as a single, and reached number 39 in the US.

In 1974, Emerson, Lake & Palmer took a break in activity. Lake used this time to focus on his family life, travel, and write and release music. By then the band were tax exiles and relocated to Switzerland, France, Canada and the Bahamas as they were restricted to two months' stay in England a year. In March 1977, the band released Works Volume 1, a double album featuring one side dedicated to each member. Lake wrote five acoustic songs with lyrical assistance from Sinfield, with a conscious effort not to record "just ballads" and attempt a wider variety of musical styles. He then incorporated orchestral overdubs to the songs. One of them, "C'est la Vie", was released as a single. Lake called the album the "beginning of the end" of the band, as he no longer produced their future albums, neither of which were a "really innovative record".

The band split in 1979 following the unsuccessful album Love Beach, an album the group were contractually obliged to record. The group reformed for a number of years in the mid-1990s before permanently disbanding except for a one-off gig in 2010 at London's High Voltage Festival.

continuare

Greg Lake ( b4 )

The audiences were really into us because we were an underground thing – the critics loved us because we offered something fresh".

King Crimson supported In the Court of the Crimson King with a tour of the UK and the US, with some of the shows featuring rock band the Nice as the opening act. During the US leg, Lake struck up a friendship with Nice keyboardist Keith Emerson; the two shared similar musical interests and talked about the benefits of forming a new group. When King Crimson returned to the UK in early 1970, Lake agreed to sing on the band's second album, In the Wake of Poseidon, and appear on the music television show Top of the Pops with them, performing the song "Cat Food".

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Lake performing at an Emerson, Lake & Palmer concert at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, in 1978

In April 1970, Lake left King Crimson and reunited with Emerson, along with drummer Carl Palmer of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Atomic Rooster to form the progressive rock supergroup, Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Lake began with a Fender bass before he switched to a Gibson Ripper. As well as bass, Lake contributed acoustic and electric guitar work to Emerson Lake & Palmer, and his voice had a wider and more diverse range than anything the Nice had previously recorded. Emerson, Lake & Palmer became one of the most successful groups in the 1970s. Lake became known for performing on a Persian carpet on stage, which originally sold for £1,500 and, by 1976, had increased its value to £7,000. In addition, Lake would change his guitar strings after each show on tour.

continuare

Greg Lake ( b3 )

Following a brief stint in the Shy Limbs, by 1968 Lake was involved with the Gods, based in Hatfield, which he described as "a very poor training college", but the group secured a residency at the Marquee Club in London. Lake left the group in 1968 over creative differences as the band were to enter the recording studio. Their keyboardist Ken Hensley later said that Lake "was far too talented to be kept in the background".

King Crimson

In the 1960s, Lake formed a friendship with future King Crimson co-founder and guitarist Robert Fripp, who was also from Dorset and had also received lessons from Don Strike, and saw Lake perform in Unit Four in Poole. Fripp was asked to be a roadie for a gig at Ventnor, Isle of Wight, but no audience turned up. Consequently, Lake and Fripp decided to just play tunes from their guitar lessons that Strike had taught them.

Fripp formed King Crimson since his previous group, Giles, Giles and Fripp was not commercially successful, and their record company suggested getting a proper lead singer. He chose Lake for this role, but asked him to play bass instead of guitar to avoid having to get a bass player in the group. This marked Lake's first time playing the instrument as he had primarily been a guitarist for the previous eleven years. Though Peter Sinfield was the band's lyricist, Lake had some involvement in the lyrics for their debut album In the Court of the Crimson King. After their contracted producer Tony Clarke walked away from the project, Lake produced the album. Released in October 1969, the album was an immediate commercial and critical success, as Lake recalled: "There was this huge wave of response.

continuare

Greg Lake ( b2 )

Lake discovered rock and roll in 1957 when he bought Little Richard's "Lucille". At the age of 12, he first learned to play the guitar and wrote his first song, "Lucky Man", which he did not write down and committed it to memory. He named his mother, a pianist, as his initial musical influence and she bought Lake a second hand guitar to learn on. Lake then took guitar lessons from Don Strike, who had a shop in Westbourne. Strike taught him "these awful Bert Weedon things", reading musical notation exercises with violin pieces by Niccolò Paganini, and playing 1930s pop tunes, the latter of which became an influence on Lake at the time. After roughly one year with Strike, Lake ended his tuition as he wished to learn songs by the Shadows, a favourite band of his, but Strike "wouldn't have any of it". Lake's second guitar was a pink Fender Stratocaster.

Lake attended Oakdale Junior School followed by Henry Harbin Secondary Modern School, and left the latter in 1963 or 1964. He then took up work loading and unloading cargo at the Poole docks, and as a draughtsman for a short period. Lake then decided to become a full-time musician at the age of 17.

Career

Early bands

Lake joined his first band, Unit Four, playing cover songs as their singer and guitarist.  Following their split in 1965, Lake and Unit Four bassist Dave Genes formed another covers group, the Time Checks, until 1966. He then became a member of the Shame, where he is featured on their single, "Don't Go Away Little Girl", written by Janis Ian. During his stay in Carlisle for a gig, Lake contracted pneumonia and continued to perform on stage. His bandmates refused to drive back home that night, leaving Lake to sleep in the van where he "woke up blue ... When we got home I was nearly dead ... That was probably the worst I went through".

continuare

Greg Lake ( b1 )

Gregory Stuart Lake (10 November 1947 – 7 December 2016) was an English singer, songwriter, bassist, guitarist and record producer. He gained prominence as a founding member of the progressive rock bands King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP).

Born and raised in Dorset, Lake began to play the guitar at the age of 12 and wrote his first song, "Lucky Man", at the same age. He became a full-time musician at 17, playing in several rock bands until fellow Dorset guitarist Robert Fripp invited him to join King Crimson as their singer and bassist. They found commercial success with their influential debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King (1969). Lake left the band in 1970 and achieved significant success in the 1970s and beyond as the singer, guitarist, bassist, and producer of ELP. As a member of ELP, Lake wrote and recorded several popular songs including "Lucky Man" and "From the Beginning". Both songs entered the UK and US singles charts.

Lake launched a solo career, beginning with his 1975 single "I Believe in Father Christmas" which reached number two in the UK. He went on to release two solo albums thereafter, as well as collaborating with other artists. Lake performed with various groups in the 1980s, and occasional ELP reunions in the 1990s, and toured regularly as a solo artist into the 21st century. He died on 7 December 2016 in London, of cancer, at the age of 69.

Early life

Greg Lake was born on 10 November 1947 in the Parkstone area of Poole in Dorset, to Harry, an engineer, and Pearl, a housewife. He grew up in the residential suburb of Oakdale. Speaking about his childhood, Lake said he was "born in an asbestos prefab housing unit" into a "very poor" family, and remembered several cold winters at home, but credits his parents for sending him money and food during his time as a struggling musician. He later described his upbringing as a happy one.

continuare

Greg Lake ( i1 )