Recommended Reading Age: 16+
Date Published: 11 February 2014 – Classic Rock Radio (UK) Facebook Page
Uncle G’s FUN Concert Reviews
Spotlight: Bonham/Emerson, Lake, & Palmer
Concert Date: 21 Aug 1992
Venue: The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Location: The Woodlands, Texas, USA
By Gary “Uncle G” Brown
American Correspondent for Classic Rock Radio (UK)
Back in August of ’92, I was renting a room from a practicing alcoholic name Tim. Great guy! Met him in Houston at an AA meeting. Was dry when I first started to get to know him. At the time I was separated from wife #01 … going through a nasty ass divorce. What better way to have some fun, and take a break from all the stress and whatever else I was going through than to attend a rock concert. My good buddy Kevin Landreneau went as well, along with his then-present wife (who will go nameless).
Left to Right: Kevin Landreneau_his now ex-wife (we now have 4 between us both)_Gary “Uncle G” Brown
Note: the photo was taken by Tim after the concert where we lived in a 10-mile square town west of Houston called Katy (Texas).
For the concert, Tim and I had gotten the cheap seats (lawn) for the occasion. At an outdoor Amphitheater, just outside of Houston. Brother from another Mother, Kevin, and the misses had seats under the roof. He’d get up from his more expensive seat and come by and visit us every so often throughout the evening. Tim and I got there early so to locate a place to sit on the lawn, with a GREAT view. On the edge of a small but rather steep hill. There were steps leading up to the vast area, that was nearby. Directly in front of us was a drop…right down you went, if not careful. An accident just waiting to happen.
Jason Bonham had his own band, and they took the warm-up position. I hate to report it, but I didn’t find them special. Mediocre, at best. I remember them doing a Led Zeppelin song as an encore. As you can imagine, that was surely a treat.
It was Emerson, Lake, & Palmer that we came to see. They literally BLEW ME AWAY. Not touring their best studio (Black Moon), the new music nevertheless blended in well with their older classics.
It was my second time seeing ELP in concert. My first was a VERY memorable experience having witnessed them play at Madison Square Garden in NYC on one of the ten dates they ended up doing with a FULL ORCHESTRA (09 July 1977).
Note: I would again see ELP in 1997; St. Louis MO USA – I would see the band perform live 3 different times throughout their career.
Uncle G’s ELP Short List of Set List Highlights (21 Aug 1992 – The Woodlands, Texas)
01.) Tarkus – Not the long version as found on Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends (Live album released in 1974), but still VERY COOL !!
02.) Romeo & Juliet – their version of another timeless classic. Cool to watch ELP perform this in concert. Nice light show to compliment.
03). Pirates – From ELP – Works One (1977). Music and lyrics (Emerson, Lake, and Pete Sinfield) make a perfect match. This is a perfect definition of what PROG-ROCK is.
04.) Fanfare For The Common Man – Wow! An encore I’ll never forget!
Remember the small hill I told you about earlier with the steep drop-off? Where Tim and I were for the entire night; lawn seats. During THIS song, one minute my by now totally drunk friend Tim was in front of me jumping up and down with excitement, and the next minute the dude was GONE. Disappeared! Ends up … wait for it … he fell down the hill. Thankfully, just his pride was injured. I remember having found out and then LAUGHING my ASS OFF. Hopefully so not to make me a bad person but decades later and it still makes me LOL thinking about that.
All these years later and I don’t know what happened to Tim. I moved out of his house, and into my own apartment, and by doing so, I never saw Tim again. Lost all contact information. I knew the man sold his 3 bedroom home and moved to Austin (Texas). He had family there. I hope he sought and found some real help regarding the booze. Deep down, Tim was a good man. An odd chap. I caught him wanking off, one morning. I was walking from my room to the garage, where we did laundry. I looked left when I should have kept looking right. My eyes burned for days. The whole rest of the time that I was living with Tim, I never brought up the subject. Neither did he (thank God). I have a confession. Already mentioning the laundry room, I did bring home one day a waitress from Denny’s and had my way with her on top of the clothes washing machine. I was in between wives, back then. At first, all I was interested in, was a coffee to go.
End of Story
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