Interview (AUDIO ONLY)

ANDY SUMMERS & ROBERT FRIPP - PARADE

ROBERT FRIPP #1, #2, #3, #4

PART 2 - MURRAY LERNER INTERVIEWS JOHN GAYDON Murray Lerner 10:43 Anyway, John. Your relationship to ELP was what John Gaydon 10:51 I first got involved with ELP when I formed a company with my partner, David Enthoven in 1969. And we managed a band called King Crimson. The lead singer was Greg lake. And after their first American tour in 1969, the band decided to break up the drummer and the keyboard player wanted to stay at home rather than go on the road. And so the band broke up. Greg wanted to find some more musicians and form his own band. And he I believe he interviewed or taught to Jimi Hendrix about joining the band. And the end he ended up with, obviously, Keith Ellison Carl Palmer. Carl Palmer was signed at the time to a band called atomic rooster. That was managed by Robert Stigwood. So we had to do a deal with Robert to get Carl out of atomic rooster to get to play with ELP Murray Lerner 11:58 Oh, well, what about the other one? John Gaydon 12:02 Which one? Emmerson. Well, he was signed to them. He was he was in the band the nice. Keith was in the nice, but the nice, I think had finished at that stage and he was on the loose. So I think Greg I had obviously met Keith on the road at one of the King Crimson gigs and had decided probably early on that. He was the right man for Emerson Lake and Palmer. Murray Lerner 12:32 I think they met at the Fillmore Unknown Speaker 12:35 Fillmore east or west. King Crimson. We played both the Fillmore East and the Fillmore West. And that was probably where he met Keith Emerson. Murray Lerner 12:47 They were on the same bill. John Gaydon 12:50 They could have easily been on the same bill. Yes. At the Fillmore east or the west. Murray Lerner 12:57 But what did you think of the you know the exit of by the way, make the move continuous. You make a jerky, stopping and starting? Very good. Okay. But anyway, what did you think of that change as a manager? John Gaydon 13:14 The change from what The King Crimson? Well, King Crimson, with a very different kind of band. And King Crimson was very much led by Bob Fripp the guitarist ELP had a different approach which to begin with, I thought it was awful. But soon we realized it was something very special. And obviously, you know, the lineup of the band was different King Crimson was made up of Mellotron bass, and vocalist, which was obviously Greg, a keyboard player Ian McDonald who played flute and sax and keyboards. Murray Lerner 14:05 when starting from there, yeah. The beginning John Gaydon 14:12 Okay, I can tell you, I can tell you where I was Murray Lerner 14:16 you gotta watch that somehow. I don't know how you because it's a few times. If I'm so clear, you have to have something to line your eye up on. Alright, so I was asking you about how you to change from King Crimson to ELP when you said awful by those I was curious of what you meant at first and then why you change your opinion. John Gaydon 14:38 So King Crimson, we're a five piece band playing very much sort of Mellotron bass saxophone, flute drums, bass guitar with Greg obviously, playing bass and singing ELP because it was a three piece band was very different. Under its makeup without a league guitar. A great player, they need the base. Other than I think he played acoustic guitar and a couple of the numbers. And in the early rehearsal time of ELP, I remember going up to the rehearsal hall in Shepherds Bush near shepherds, Bush. And I must say, the start with the the mixture of classical, you know, keys, classical music and the music they were playing was quite difficult to stomach to begin with, I for me anyway. But very soon with Greg's influence, there was more of a sort of melodic input from Greg Keith was a brilliant classical pianist. And I think obviously, a lot of that influence came into the LP, whereas with King Crimson, it was melodic, as well as being schizophrenic as well as being mad melodic, etc, etc. losing the plot here, Murray Lerner 16:09 don't you think he LP became mad enough? John Gaydon 16:12 I ELP definitely became mader as the album's went on. And as the excesses went on, and, you know, the person carpets on the stage came on, and all sorts of other things came on, but in the early days of ELP, and I was only there for the first couple of albums, I guess. And by that time, and after that, I left the company, and had nothing more to do with them for the next 36 years until today. Murray Lerner 16:44 Oh, wow. But let's take the positive side, how did you feel as a manager manager feels? You know that the money is there and worth it? How did you feel as a manager that they would do? John Gaydon 16:58 Well as a manager when we started eg management in 1969, and we borrowed the money from Barclays Bank in the Gloucester road to make in the quarter Crimson King, which immediately sold bucket loads, band broke up, ELP were formed, and they sold bucket loads of records. And then we signed Tyrannosaurus Rex. And over a period of a year or two, we can get them to change their names T Rex, and they had number one records and so bucket loads of records. All I really remember was the bucket loads of drugs and champagne and nights in tramps that we did get through, and really, as a manager, because we were, you know, we were young 20 24 year olds coming from public school. Suddenly, were managing, you know, three of the biggest bands in Britain at the time. It was unreal, and quite hard to relate it to anything else we've ever experienced, because we haven't experienced anything like that. Murray Lerner 18:07 Well when you approached the to the Isle of Wight, but when you approached, going to the Isle of Wight, how did you first you know, you know, it was big, I think and I don't know if you had any premonition of the tensions there. But how did you feel about the forthcoming gig? John Gaydon 18:22 Well, we'd, we'd planned it with the band that they'd play. One warm up gig before the Isle of Wight. We knew the Isle of Wight was going to be a major festival, not that there'll be many festivals at that time, but we knew it'd been a major event. And they played a warm up gig. I think it was in Plymouth, probably a couple of weeks before, something like that. So when we went to the Isle of Wight, we knew it was going to be a mega event. There was so much press the MP on the Isle of Wight, whose daughter actually married one of my best friends was trying to ban the concert I believe. I don't know much about the history of it. But I certainly when we got down there and we saw the hundreds of 1000s of people there. It was mind boggling. The little I remember of the day, I know ELP were rehearsing in the back of pantechnicon truck in the grounds. I've got an old photograph with them standing in there, warming up. My partner David Enthoven and his wife, his girlfriend, sorry, sorry, Dave and his wife, my partner David Enthoven and his girlfriend, Carolyn, who later married Roger Waters. They both decided to shave all their hair off, and she did as well. And the irony was that they actually got more press on the next day than any of the bands did. And certainly any more than certainly more than I was like parameter at the time because their picture was all over. The news of the world with their bald heads.