Greg Lake live from 2005. Upgraded with an enhanced package. Merry Christmas everybody!

Release Date: 27th June 2025

Label: Spirit Of Unicorn / Cherry Red

Format: 2CD / DVD

THE LAKE LEGACY

A 2CD / DVD set that revisits the live recording and film from Greg Lake’s 2005 Tour recorded at the Stevenage Concert Hall, Stevenage, England on 11 November 2005. The new set contains a new booklet with sleeve notes by Prog magazine’s Jerry Ewing who writes about Greg’s legacy and the tour.

As Ewing says, Lake may have been in the Autumn of his career that was about to get a final shot of live ELP at High Voltage in 2010, but his rich tones are still strong and emotive as he takes on a set that’s packed with highlights from ELP, a couple of King Crimson classics with just the one track from his eponymous 1981 solo album.

The latter is a belting rock and roller – the Lake/Dylan I Love You Too Much – although as quoted in Jerry Ewing’s sleevenotes, Lake himself talks of his two solo albums lacking cohesion and his own doubts about which direction his solo path should take. Furthermore, it seems inevitable that from Lake’s observation of how nothing could ever match is work with ELP and Crimson would provide him with his musical legacy.

prog’s greatest hits

As such, the tour presented a set that’s as close as you could get to a Prog Rock Greatest Hits. A band armed with two keyboard places and backing singers plus the Ian Anderson/Tull approved Florian Ophale has the chops to deliver both the raw power of Schizoid Man, the subtlety required in Footprints In The Snow and Take A Pebble and the orchestrations of Pictures At An Exhibition. Ophale himself takes on the extended section in Pebble… that would normally see Keith Emerson improvising away, while taking his moment to add tasteful electric solos when required.

The crack band come up trumps from more straightforward rock to of Paper Bllod to the jazzy inflections in From The Beginning. A Farewell To Arms is suitably anthemic with the “we’re all sharing this Earth at the end of the day” line along with the opening of Lucky Man as one of those classic Lake moments where he earns his place in the echelon of singers who can deliver with an unprecedented passion – alongside Neal Morse and Bono.

The ELP selections ambitiously draws on a couple of their iconic pieces. Fanfare For The Common Man sees the band getting their rocks off on the extended passage and Pictures revisits the truncated version including a spontaneous appreciation for the mid track The Sage. It also allows for a full blown, kitchen sink finale that begins seven minutes from the flag. It feels a little odd to have the carnival barker’s “Welcome back my friends…” words belted out in the encore slot but Karn Evil Nine…(1st Impression Pt 1)… is but where we came in, full circle and all that.

on the sub’s bench

The fact that there’s no room for Affairs Of The Heart or anything form his contribution to Works is a testament to the quality of the cream of his catalogue. Footprints In The Snow covers the poignancy of Affairs… and allows for the brief pleasures of Greg Lake and the acoustic guitar which resurfaces in Lucky Man. Sadly missed, a reminder of Greg Lake’s prowess as singer, songwriter and musician is never out of place.

A timely reminder that it’s only six months away with Greg’s seasonal landmark: