Emerson, Lake & Powell The Sprocket Sessions Tracks: 1. The Score 2. Learning To Fly 3. The Miracle 4. Knife Edge 5. Tarkus 6. Pictures At An Exhibition 7. Lucky Man 8. Still You Turn Me On 9. Love Blind 10. Mars, The Bringer Of War 11. Touch And Go 12. Pirates Line up: Keith Emerson - keyboards Greg Lake - vocals, bass, guitars Cozy Powell - drums Record Label / Year of Release: Lemon Records 2003 Notes: Emerson, Lake & Powell, sometimes abbreviated as ELPowell, were an English rock band, an offshoot or variant lineup of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, that released one official studio album in 1986. Keith Emerson and Greg Lake had planned to re-form the original ELP in 1985 but drummer Carl Palmer was unavailable because of contractual obligations to Asia. After auditioning a series of drummers unwilling to commit to the band, they approached Cozy Powell, a longtime friend of Emerson's, to replace him. The band have always insisted that it was a coincidence that his surname also happened to start with a P, thus allowing the band to retain its original initials, although they also joked about looking for a "Gene Prupa" and having approached "Phil Pollins" and "Ringo Parr" before Powell agreed to join. Shortly into recording, Emerson's barn studio was destroyed by a runaway tractor, requiring some parts of the album be rerecorded, leading him to joke, "Perhaps we should have called it 'Emerson, Lake & Plow!'" The band's self-titled studio album was a return to the familiar ELP style, with long progressive rock suites, mellow ballads and a classical theme (Mars, the Bringer of War by Gustav Holst). One song, "The Score", even references the lyric "Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends" from ELP's "Karn Evil 9: First Impression" (on the album Brain Salad Surgery). Initially, when the record company suggested that the group perform "Mars," Emerson refused, saying it would be like ELP Plays the Classics or Richard Clayderman Plays 'Clair de Lune'. After Powell showed him a video of one of his former bands playing the number, however, Emerson agreed to try it. In live performance the band of course also performed classic ELP and Nice material. The band's live tour was marred by a dispute which led to the band firing its management, and "ELPowell" disbanded without recording a second album. Emerson rejoined Palmer and with Robert Berry formed the band 3 in 1988, before the original ELP lineup reformed for 1992's album Black Moon, which bears some stylistic similarities to the Emerson, Lake & Powell album. Some ELPowell studio rehearsals and live recordings found their way onto bootlegs in the 1990s. The material was subsequently remastered and given an official release on two 2003 CDs, available via the ELP website. Cozy Powell died on April 5, 1998, following a car crash while driving his Saab 9000 at 104 mph in bad weather on the M4 motorway near Bristol. "The Sprocket Sessions" is an Official Bootleg by Emerson, Lake & Powell, and the mid-1980s ELP-splinter group. Live In Concert, features a rare live recording from the group's only tour in 1986, from recently discovered recordings in Greg Lake's personal archives. With Palmer's blessing Emerson and Lake recruited fellow Brit Cozy Powell to handle the drums on new material the two had written and were planning to record. Powell, whose drumming style was very powerful and considerably different than Palmer's, helped create a new sound for the progressive music written by Emerson & Lake. Live In Concert, taken from a 1986 show recorded in Lakeland, Florida and has been digitally re-mastered. This newly re-mastered set come with a new sleeve-note with comments from Greg himself and an enhanced booklet with rare photos and memorabilia.