Editing Keith Emerson (section)

===1965–1970: Early groups and The Nice===
While performing in the Worthing and Brighton area, Emerson played in John Brown's Bodies where members of The T-Bones, the backing band of blues singer [[Gary Farr]], offered him a place in their group.<ref name=EMM83/><ref name=P72/> After a subsequent UK and European tour with the T-Bones, the band split. Emerson then joined [[The V.I.P.'s (band)|The V.I.P.'s]],
which he described as a "purist blues band";<ref name=EMM83/> his noted flamboyance began when a fight broke out during a performance in France. Instructed by the band to keep playing, he produced some explosion and machine gun sounds with the Hammond organ, which stopped the fight. His band members told him to repeat the stunt at the next concert,<ref name=P72>{{cite web|url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/emerson-lake-and-palmer-super-group-of-the-seventies|title=Emerson Lake and Palmer: Super-Group of the Seventies!|first=Keith|last=Altham|magazine=Petticoat|date=4 November 1972|via=[[Rock's Backpages]]|access-date=18 July 2019}}</ref><ref name="Analog Days">{{cite book|title=Analog Days, The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer|url=https://archive.org/details/analogdaysinvent00pinc|url-access=registration|first1=Trevor |last1=Pinch |first2=Frank |last2=Trocco|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|year=2002|isbn=9780674008892}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2016}} where Emerson played the organ back to front.<ref name=EMM83/>

In 1967, Emerson formed [[The Nice]] with [[Lee Jackson (bassist)|Lee Jackson]], also of the T-Bones, [[David O'List]], and Ian Hague, after soul singer [[P. P. Arnold]] asked him to form a backing band.<ref name=TG16/> After replacing Hague with [[Brian Davison (drummer)|Brian Davison]], the group set out on its own, quickly developing a strong live following. The group's sound was centred on Emerson's [[Hammond organ]] showmanship and theatrical abuse of the instrument, and their radical rearrangements of classical music themes as "symphonic rock".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fowles |first1=Paul |date=2009 |title=A Concise History of Rock Music |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nW2-7BrEUOEC&pg=PA126 |location=[[Pacific, Missouri]] |publisher=[[Mel Bay|Mel Bay Publications]] |pages=126–127 |isbn=978-1-61911-016-8}}</ref><ref name=macanrtc65>{{cite book |last=Macan |first=Edward |date=1997 |title=Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture |url=https://archive.org/details/rockingclassicse0000maca |url-access=registration |location=[[Oxford]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/rockingclassicse0000maca/page/65 65] |isbn=0-19-509887-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Greene |first=Doyle |date=2016 |title=Rock, Counterculture and the Avant-Garde, 1966–1970: How the Beatles, Frank Zappa, and the Velvet Underground Defined an Era |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VLWaCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA183 |location=[[Jefferson, North Carolina]] |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |page=183 |isbn=978-1-4766-6214-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Weigel |first=David |date=14 August 2012 |title=Prog Spring: Before It Was a Joke, Prog Was the Future of Rock 'n' Roll. |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/prog_spring/features/2012/prog_rock/history_of_prog_the_nice_emerson_lake_palmer_and_other_bands_of_the_1970s_.html |magazine=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |location=[[New York City]]  |access-date=13 March 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120831011009/http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/prog_spring/features/2012/prog_rock/history_of_prog_the_nice_emerson_lake_palmer_and_other_bands_of_the_1970s_.html |archive-date=31 August 2012 }}</ref> To increase the visual interest of his show, Emerson abused his Hammond L-100 organ by, among other things, hitting it, beating it with a whip, pushing it over, riding it across the stage like a horse, playing with it lying on top of him, and wedging knives into the keyboard.<ref name=milano /><ref name=cateforis>{{cite book |last=Cateforis |first=Theo |date=2011 |title=Are We Not New Wave? Modern Pop at the Turn of the 1980s |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-MVrM3zKrHQC&pg=PA158 |location=[[Ann Arbor, Michigan]] |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |page=158 |isbn=978-0-472-03470-3}}</ref> Some of these actions also produced musical sound effects: hitting the organ caused it to make explosion-like sounds,<ref name=romano>{{cite book |last=Romano |first=Will |date=2014 |title=Prog Rock FAQ: All That's Left to Know About Rock's Most Progressive Music |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UIqkCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT30 |location=[[Milwaukee, Wisconsin]] |publisher=[[Hal Leonard Corporation|Backbeat Books]] |page=PT30 |isbn=978-1-61713-620-7}}</ref> turning it over made it [[Audio feedback|feed back]], and the knives held down keys, thus sustaining notes. Emerson's show with The Nice has been cited as having a strong influence on [[heavy metal music|heavy metal]] musicians.<ref name=macanrtc65 />

Away from The Nice, Emerson was involved in the 1969 ''[[Music from Free Creek]]'' "supersession" project that included [[Eric Clapton]] and [[Jeff Beck]]. For the session, Emerson performed with drummer [[Mitch Mitchell]] and bassist [[Chuck Rainey]] covering, among other tunes, the [[Eddie Harris]] instrumental "Freedom Jazz Dance".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Sutherland |first=Sam |date=27 January 1973 |title=Studio Track |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FkUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT27 |magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |location=[[New York City]] |page=28 |access-date=13 March 2016 }}</ref>

Emerson first heard a [[Moog synthesizer]] when a record shop owner played him ''[[Switched-On Bach]]'' (1968) by [[Wendy Carlos]], and thought the instrument looked like "an electronic [[skiffle]]".<ref name="Analog Days" /> He got into contact with keyboardist [[Mike Vickers]], who had paid £4,000 to have one shipped from the US, and organised to play it at an upcoming The Nice concert at the [[Royal Festival Hall]] with the [[Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]], in February and March 1970.<ref name=OTT84/> Vickers helped [[Synthesizer patch|patch]] the Moog, and the concert saw Emerson perform "[[Also sprach Zarathustra (Strauss)|Also sprach Zarathustra]]" by [[Richard Strauss]] with Vickers behind the machine to swap patches.<ref name=OTT84/><ref name="Analog Days" />