A future Rock legend was born in the unlikely place of Todmorden in Yorkshire and when i was 8 my father taught me how to play the Piano and with the wages from my job at Lloyd's Bank, i bought a Hammond Organ and started out playing in pubs and clubs and bounced around with a few bands but my moment of inspiration came when i landed a gig with a blues group called The VIPs and one night we found themselves playing a gig in the middle of the French countryside to a crowd of surly, booze-guzzling farmers.
It was like something from a spaghetti Western only in very rural France and a full-blown brawl erupted in front of the stage, and as fists flew, the bar owner frantically waved at us to keep playing so i went the full madman and started climbing on my organ and throwing it around the stage.
The audience froze, jaws on the floor and the evil genie was out of the bottle now and there was no shoving it back in.
I started my own band called Nice and repeated my antics every night, riding it like a bucking bronco, wedged knives into it and even lashed at it with a whip but it was the late 60s and mind-bending substances were everywhere and it got me noticed and when we played a gig at London’s swanky Royal Albert Hall in front of high-society types, including the US Ambassador to Britain, if there was ever some time to ruffle some feathers, this was it so during a feedback inspired version of our first single 'America', I grabbed an American flag and set it on fire.
Obviously we got banned permanently banned from Royal Albert Hall but it sent our song burning up the charts but it also put me directly on America’s radar which wasn't good as we had an American tour lined up so the US embassy made me swear on a stack of Bibles that i would never pull that stunt again.
My star was rising fast, as was my drugs bill which i was partaking of and then i teamed up with Greg Lake and Carl Palmer to form Emerson, Lake & Palmer and one of our first gigs was at the Isle of Wight Festival alongside The Who, Jimi Hendrix and The Doors but we outdid them, rolling out two massive antique cannons mid-set, stuffing them full of explosives and Kaboom. The blast was so huge, it lifted the cannons off the ground.
After that everyone knew who Emerson, Lake & Palmer were and Atlantic Records saw gold and gave us a contract.
By now the drugs were really kicking in but burning the candle at both ends had its effect and years of pounding the synth left me with nerve damage to my right hand only worsened my growing depression. I was said to be inspirational and i did inspire Kurt Cobain because i inspired him to copy me and lock himself in a room and blow off your own head.
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