The Suffolk presents “An Evening With Emerson, Lake & Palmer” on Sunday, March 9, at 7 p.m.
Created by Carl Palmer and his management, the show will be presented with the full cooperation of the Estates of Keith Emerson and Greg Lake. This is not a tribute act, it’s the real thing.
Through modern technology they will reunite the band: Carl with his two bandmates, playing together along with Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, who both died in 2016. The show combines video performance of Emerson and Lake from a legendary sold out Royal Albert Hall ELP show from 1992 with live on stage performances of Carl Palmer with his own ELP Legacy band, Paul Bielatowicz on guitar and Simon Fitzpatrick on bass and chapman stick. All the musicians play together in sync to present a complete and authentic Emerson, Lake & Palmer show.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer (informally known as ELP) was an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards) of the Nice, Greg Lake of King Crimson (vocals, bass, guitar, producer), and Carl Palmer of Atomic Rooster (drums, percussion). With nine RIAA-certified gold record albums in the US and an estimated 48 million records sold worldwide, it was one of the most popular and commercially successful progressive rock groups of the 1970s, with a musical sound including adaptations of classical music with jazz and symphonic rock elements, dominated by Emerson’s flamboyant use of the Hammond organ, Moog synthesizer, and piano (although Lake wrote several acoustic songs for the group).
The band became prominent after performing at the Isle of Wight Festival in August 1970. In its first year, the group signed with E.G. Records (who distributed the band’s records through Island Records in the United Kingdom and Atlantic Records in North America) and released “Emerson, Lake & Palmer” (1970) and “Tarkus” (1971), both of which reached the UK top five. The band’s success continued with “Pictures at an Exhibition” (1971), “Trilogy” (1972), and “Brain Salad Surgery” (1973, released on ELP’s own Manticore Records label). After a three-year break, Emerson, Lake & Palmer released “Works Volume 1” (1977) and “Works Volume 2” (1977). After “Love Beach” (1978), the group disbanded in 1979.
The members played in various solo and partial reunion combinations during the 1980s. In 1991, the original trio reformed and released two more albums, “Black Moon” (1992) and “In the Hot Seat” (1994), and toured between 1992 and 1998. Their final performance occurred in 2010 at the High Voltage Festival in London to commemorate the band’s 40th anniversary. Emerson and Lake died in 2016, leaving Palmer as the only surviving band member.
In 2022, Palmer and his manager developed and launched the show initially as “The Return of Emerson, Lake & Palmer,” again with the full cooperation and involvement of both the Keith Emerson and Greg Lake estates. The show has been rebranded for 2025 as “An Evening With Emerson, Lake & Palmer.”
Tickets range from $79 to $115 with VIP packages available. Tickets are available at thesuffolk.org. The Suffolk is at 118 East Main Street in Riverhead.
Staff Writer on Feb 24, 2025