The Nice..rarely discussed?

"......O’List co-wrote, arranged and produced Roxy Music’s first album" !!!! Anyway, enough....there is an excellent book about The Nice by Martyn Hanson which is well worth tracking down, it'll put the record straight

 

Take Diamond Hard Blue Apples of the Moon. Not a stellar vocal effort but not atrocious. Compare it to the live version he did with the Nice-clone Refugee (where Moraz replaces Emerson). It's somewhere on youtube, I can't see that from work, so no link. Yikes. The contrast in vocal quality is startling (on the bad side).

 

Yes I know what you mean...it's the Newcastle gig by Refugee. I liked them too, did some good work !

 

I'm still very taken with Elegy after all these years. They picked some great live performances, and the Pathetique without the orchestra is much better.

They did a lot of good BBC performances that don't exist in great quality, most notably a Zappa cover. Their deconstruction of For No One has been lost.

 

The BBC versions in middling quality do have a kind of atmosphere about them though I love the BBC version of Sombrero Sam, short though it is. Their version of `Better Than Better' by the Byrds is also great !

 

Funny you should mention "Elegy"...I started this thread because I just got hold of a UK original pressing and very much looking forward to hearing it again after many many years...I had owned it in the past, and like many committed the cardinal sin of letting my vinyl collection go for a song...mind you, my playback system then was primitive to say the least,so eagerly anticipating dropping the needle on this one again.

 

make sure you check around 'out there' for the version they did later. Longer, starts with piano, then moves to organ

 

I heard about this from another source back in the 70s or 80s pre-Internet. Jeff Beck also subbed for Syd Barrett at a
European Floyd gig during this same period (and was overdubbed on a John's Children single between the time their
original guitarist left and a then-unknown Marc Bolan was added to their line-up).

 

Big fan here. Discovered the Keith Emerson With The Nice compilation (=parts of Five Bridges and Elegy) soon after getting into ELP, and then eventually got most of what was available at the time for the Nice. Live versions of Hang On To A Dream and America from that compilation are favorites.

 

I was just going to say, they definitely were one of the first prog rock groups, if not the first. In 1974 I had their first LP on Immediate, I liked it quite a lot. Back then their albums seemed hard to find in the States. I first read about them in Lillian Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia (I was a big ELP fan at the time).

 

This thread's closed, but interesting nonetheless:
The Nice w/Keith Emerson - appreciation/recommendation thread

 

I don't know what "Bonnie K" would sound like with O' List mixed out, but I think there would definitely be a noticeable difference.

 

O'List's solo in Rondo kicks serious ****. He really had it.

 

Not too many guitarists can upstage Keith Emerson like that.
The writing was on the wall for a new "guitar-free" Nice 2.0 at
that point.

 

His playing on the Jet album was pretty impressive as well.
O'List deserved 'crossover' status in the progressive and glam
camps.

 

Even in the early-mid Seventies, "The Nice" wasn't 'discussed' much!
"America" was played on FM "Rock" stations still; just it sounded like "ELP"!!!
The fact it was Emerson's previous band was fairly common knowledge among Dopers in the Bay Area, tho you'd most likely only see the LP's in used record stores.
To many great late Sixties bands & "ELP" itself made many forget or at least not get into as much "The Nice".

 

I have all the Immediate material on CD except for the mono mix of the first album which I hope will get a CD reissue. The only other thing I am missing is the "America" US promo single edit which I heard on youtube and was not impressed. If the tapes are available for any remixing, I would love to hear a stereo remix of Happy Freuds. I have some of the Charisma/Mercury material but always fall back on the Immediate stuff.

 

That O'List bio on his site is such a farce - sad that a guy that started out with decent talent and a good ear ended up like he has - better than Syd maybe but not by a lot (much of this detailed in the previously recommended book, but never a big secret before that).

 

Could somebody mix out the vocals, please?

 

I have definitely heard of “The Nice” but don’t think I’ve ever listened to any of their Lps. On Monday I bought a first stereo pressing of Ars Longa Vita Brevis and must admit it is a great Lp. Now I’m in what is the next must listen to Lp!

 

In the late 70s, for a span, my favourite vinyl 45 was "America " b/w "Diamond Hard Blue Apples of the Moon ", of which I owned a mint copy on Oldham's Immediate record label. That one went for a pretty sum when I sold my vinyl collection. I have, over the years, sampled various CD versions of those two songs, none of which have ever matched the SQ of that 45 !

 

One of the reasons I enjoy them, actually.

 

Need to pull that out again. Thanks for the inspiration. Must have been a trip to witness that live.

 

I think that was my gateway too.