Greg Lake–20th November 2012 Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

To say I was looking forward to this concert would have been a big understatement. It was one of the first of my 40th birthday gifts to be bought, and one of the last I got to experience. (Thank you, Stephen!)
The evening began with a quick blast of Kanye West’s track Power which features a sample of King Crimson’s 21st Century Schizoid Man. This obviously led to it being the opening song from Mr Lake himself.

This show was very much a solo performance with Greg playing along with a pre-recorded backing track. It’s impossible to recreate these songs alone on stage, so this was a reasonable solution which also allowed the concert to retain a very intimate feeling.

Stories were shared about each song, including a fabulous tale of seeing Elvis in the 70s, which led into an impassioned rendition of Heartbreak Hotel.

For me, the highlight of the first half was a rather lovely version of the King Crimson track I Talk To The Wind, which was then followed by a sing-along version of The Beatles’ Hide Your Love Away that took us to the break.

Part two brought us a couple of ELP classics, including Still You Turn Me On, which I’m more than a little partial to, before Greg took on the Q&A portion of the evening. I don’t think any of the questions stumped him very much, and all led to great tales about various aspects of his career. In the middle of this bit, we got an acoustic rendition of I Believe In Father Christmas. I’m a sucker for a good Christmas tune, and this is one of my favourites.

Other highlights of the second half included the sublime C’est La Vie and the inevitable, but still fab, Lucky Man before Greg took to the keyboard to close the main part of the show with a cover of People Get Ready.
The encore made full use of the haze and onstage lightning rig as we were treated to Karn Evil 9 1st Impression Part 2 to end the evening on a fairly triumphant high for the audience before we all disappeared out into the night for our various transport home.