The Pink Mice is a German band of the early 70’s clearly Symphonic and often accused of being clones of ELP, something that is not accurate, they were close to being clones of TRIUMVIRAT (Triumvirat is also known as The Rat, so the connection between Mice and Rat is easy to understand) in other words they were almost clones of a so called clone of ELP.
Some people may ask how they could follow TRIUMVIRAT if THE PINK MICE released their debut album in 1971 and The Rat in 1972, the reason is simple, TRIUMVIRAT was formed in 1969 and already had a following in Germany by the time of the release of THE PINK MICE 1971 debut album “In Action”.
But THE PINK MICE history gets more peculiar, their original lineup consisted of The keyboardist Peter Hetch, Peter Hesslein (Guitar & Vocals), Dieter Horns (Bass & Vocals) and the drummer Joachim Rietenbach is the exact same lineup of an already popular Hard Prog band called LUCIFER’S FRIEND but without the British vocalist John Lawton, seems that the members of LUCIFER’S FRIEND wanted to go for the Symphonic sounds with exclusively German members instead of the aggressive rock music created with Lawton as a member.
Their albums are clearly influenced by Classical Music and they don’t hide this fact, the titles of the songs include among others “Capriccio Italien op.45”, “Brandenburgisches Konzert Nr.3,1.Satz”, “For Elise”, Sonata for Klavier, etc.
During their short career they released two excellent albums “In Action” (1971) and “In Synthesizer Sound” (1973) both are highly recommended and a must have for any Symphonic proghead that loves Synth based albums, if you need more historical info about the band, check the page of LUCIFER’S FRIEND in Prog Archives.(Iván Melgar Morey)
Lucifer’s Friend live at the Beat-Club, Germany
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And here´s their second album:
And indeed: the guys really put their backs into it and worked their asses off … and the result was a terrific classic rock album in the sound of the time … and it still sounds damn good today.
And by the way, they demonstrated that hard rockers can also interpret classical music, whereby Peter Hecht deserves special praise. And of course he was inspired by Emerson, Lake & Palmer or Ekseption (a criminally underrated band from the Netherlands).
But these were not bad addresses either!
Personnel:
Peter Hecht (keyboards)
Peter Hesslein (guitar)
Dieter Horns (bass)
„Addi“ Rietenbach (drums)
Tracklist:
01. Brandenburgisches Konzert Nr. 3, 1. Satz (Bach) 4.16
02. Capriccio Italien Op. 45 (Tschaikowsky) 2.24
03. Träumerei aus „Kinderszenen“ op. 15 (Schumann) 3.04
04. Marsch aus „Der Nußknacker“ (Tschaikowsky) 3.05
05. Badinerie aus Suite Nr. 2, H-moll (Bach) 4.33
06. Sonate Facile, KV 545, 1. Satz (Mozart) 2.06
07. Overtüre „Dichter Und Bauer“ (v.Suppé) 4.00
08. Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen, Arie des Papageno aus „Die Zauberflöte“ (Mozart) 2.40
09. Die Wut über den verlorenen Groschen, Rondo a capriccio, op. 129 (Beethoven) 4.47
10. Türkischer Marsch aus der Sonate A-Dur, KV 331 (Mozart) 4.03
Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends ~ Ladies and Gentlemen is the second live album by the English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released as a triple album in August 1974 on Manticore Records. It was recorded in February 1974 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California during the group’s 1973–74 world tour in support of their fourth studio album, Brain Salad Surgery (1973).
echo, the seeming distance – the listener often gets the impression of being seated in the upper mezzanine of an arena.” (by wikipedia)
Nice was the third album by the Nice; it was titled Everything As Nice As Mother Makes It in the US after Immediate’s distribution changed from Columbia to Capitol. Nice had been initially released in the US with a slightly longer version of Rondo 69 not available on the UK or on the Capitol distributed US versions. The first US version of Nice was briefly reissued in 1973 by Columbia Special Products.
which helped in creating an air of something ageing. I’d like to apologise to Amen Corner for not retuning the piano afterwards. They had to use the same piano after our session, unfortunately they didn’t need a “Winifred Atwell’s Other Piano” sound.
moves into its relative major of D for the main theme then back again. The movement in E which follows is rather Hendrix-inspired after which the original D major theme is given a “Gregorian” feel and a 6/8 jazz waltz treatment in F. It is as the title says an Example.
all, it covered a lot of territory, in a rich mixture of psychedelic rock, jazz, and classical that did a lot to map the format for progressive rock. The extended pretension of some of the numbers, viewed less forgivingly, might also seem like an antecedent to pop/rock. But the studio side of the LP (in its pre-CD incarnation) included one of their best tracks, a cover of Tim Hardin’s “Hang on to a Dream,” with grand Keith Emerson classical lines and an angelic choir. It also included a reworking of the B-side of their first single in “Azrael Revisited,” a slight throwback to the more playful psychedelia of their roots with “Diary of an Empty Day,” and the nine-minute “For Example,” in which Emerson stretched out his jazz-classical mutations to a fuller length, throwing in a quote from “Norwegian Wood” along the way. More attention was given to the second side of the LP, recorded live at the Fillmore East, with a berserk workout of a number from their debut album, “Rondo” and a 12-minute overhaul of Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs to Me.” (by Richie Unterberger)
For this, their second album, the band had some changes in the line-up: both Rob Kruisman (saxophones, flute, guitar, vocals) and Huib van Kampen (guitar, Tenor saxophone) left the band, being replaced by Dick Remelink ( saxes, flute). Drummer Peter de Leeuwe also left the band (but returned for their next album), being replaced by Dennis Whitbread. Also the band had a lead singer called Michel van Dijk, plus some guest appearances from Tony Vos (saxes, tonytone, electronic effects, and also the main producer of some of their albums), Linda van Dyck ( voice on “Prologue” & “Epilogue”), and Eric van Lier (trombone, tuba), who also was going to participate in their ‘00.04’ album from 1971.
One of the mainstays of the early Prog-rock/Art-Rock genre were Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Their popularity was enormous worldwide and their fans ran the gamut from mainstream pop enthusiasts to hardcore stoners.
Ekseption was a Dutch rock band active from 1967 to 1989, playing mostly-instrumental progressive rock and classical rock. The central character in the changing roster, and the only band member present on every album, was conservatory-trained trumpeter Rein van den Broek (10 September 1945 – 11 May 2015). The band knew some commercial success in the 1970s, having Dutch top ten hit singles with their adaptations of Beethoven’s “Fifth” and Bach’s (Celebrated) “Air.” The second album, “Beggar Julia’s time trip” (1969), won the Dutch Edison Award for album of the year, and the first five albums all went gold.
The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack is the 1967 debut album by the English psychedelic rock and progressive rock group the Nice. It is considered one of the first albums in the latter genre.
ELP is one of my favorite bands right up there with Zep, Floyd and Alice. Theirs is a unique sound and a singular vision. That vision is brought to light exquisitely by this DVD. It is a treat to see the young trio playing their instruments and such, but after a while them just standing and playing would start to get old (especially after repeated viewings). I mean, you can watch Keith Emerson’s hands all day long, but that isn’t going to mean you can play like him.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer took an extended break in 1974. They regrouped in 1976 to record Works Volume 1 at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland and EMI Studios in Paris, France. It is a double album with one side of an LP containing songs by each member and a fourth of group material. Much of the album was recorded with an orchestral accompaniment; Emerson’s side consists of his 18-minute, three-movement “Piano Concerto No. 1”. Lake contributes five songs he co-wrote with Sinfield, and Palmer’s includes two covers of classical pieces by Sergei Prokofiev and Bach. One of the two group tracks, “Fanfare for the Common Man”, is a cover of the same-titled orchestral piece by Aaron Copland, who gave permission to have the band release it. Works Volume 1 was released in March 1977 and peaked at No. 9 in the UK and No. 12 in the US. A single of “Fanfare for the Common Man” was released and reached No. 2 in the UK, the band’s highest charting UK single.
Sky were an English/Australian instrumental rock group that specialised in combining a variety of musical styles, most prominently rock, classical and jazz. The group’s original and best-known lineup featured classical guitarist John Williams, bass player Herbie Flowers, electric guitarist Kevin Peek, drummer Tristan Fry and keyboard player Francis Monkman.
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