The Greg Lake Band at University College Cardiff's Student Union

I thought you might like to hear from someone who actually saw the second or third (can't remember) gig that Greg did with his Band on the UK tour.

The debut was at the Reading Festival earlier in the summer I seem to recall & the gig I went to was at the Student's Union, University College Cardiff on Saturday 10th November 1981 - the first or second date of his UK tour.

Most of my mates (& the audience it seemed) had gone to the concert to see Gary Moore, as Heavy Metal seemed to be happening at the time & Gary's work with Thin Lizzy & subsequently solo had brought him many fans.

The support group I think was called Voyager, who had had one single hit about 12 months earlier, that had gone to about 25 in the charts then nothing was from heard from them again. I remember seeing Greg on the balcony watching the support & tapping his fingers....

When the set started I had managed to get to very near the front & was about 6ft away from Greg. I remember thinking that he seemed to be built like a Night-Club bouncer - very big, & yes he was standing on his Persian rug.

The set opened with the opening bars of Fanfare to the Common Man then went into Karn Evil 9 "Welcome Back my Friends...." then into Nuclear Attack which sounded even better live than on the album. (Gary Moore had a solo album out at the same time which also contained Nuclear Attack on it too. Having listened to both versions Greg's was light years better).

The next song was Parisienne Walkway, which Gary Moore had a solo hit with earlier. This seemed to get the loudest cheer of the night ! Then Love You Too Much, then Lucky Man. Having only got into ELP after the New Musical Express gave away a promo single of Brain Salad I had never seen ELP live, & singing along to Luck Man was a life
long ambition well fulfilled.

Next was The Lie, then You Really Got a Hold on Me (not sure of this title); Long Goodbye; Retribution Drive & last of all 21st Century Schizoid Man.

Instead of the standard 'lets keep the best song for last & the encore' all we got was Love You Too Much again. That was it.

I remember thinking to myself that was the shortest concert I'd ever been to. I doubt whether Greg was on stage for longer that hour & half.