The Nice – The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack

OK yes, Keith Emerson was one of my early keyboard heroes, probably the only one. I had to buy a few copies of this album as I played it non-stop, really loud on my Dad’s hifi whenever my parents were at work, I dread to think what the neighbours made of all the racket. I became note perfect on every song I played on my invisible air keyboard, actually the back of the sofa, jumping up and down and pretend stabbing the keys (sorry the sofa) so much the needle was jumping all over the place.

The album was just at the cusp of that transition from psychedelic rock to prog rock but by the time they had transformed into Super Proggers ELP I'd jumped ship to Yes, Genesis and of course Van der Graaf Generator. But great while it lasted and still one of my favourite Nice albums. Weirdly when it was released the album was also used as the soundtrack for a kid's TV drama 'The Tyrant King’. I remember watching the show and thinking “what’s this, what the fuck is going on, this isn’t right’. It was like two worlds colliding. I rewatched some of it again recently and it kind of works, but it’s very much a time capsule of the period.