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Today is the 45th anniversary of a music concert called California Jam, which was broadcast on ABC TV on April 6, 1974.

Does anyone remember seeing Emerson Lake and Palmer at the above? Probably one of their best performances; Keith Emerson on the spinning piano, a great rendition of Karn Evil 9, Carl Palmer's drum solo, Greg Lake on the Zematis bass.

I believe the guitar player from Deep Purple smashed a very expensive TV camera with his guitar, costing the band their payment for the performance.

This is a concert that should be cleaned up and released on DVD. They don't have music events like this on TV anymore!

Tom

Makin' me feel old

I was there. I was 17 and just happened to be visiting some school friends in LA. Man, that was a looooooong day. By the time ELP came on, we were so tired. It was still a great show.

You may want to check this out



https://www.amazon.com/Live-California- ... B009T3AEBE

The Deep Purple performance has long been available on video - in fact my first copy was on a VHS tape. It includes Blackmore attacking the camera, and also blowing up his amps - and nearly taking out Ian Paice, the drummer - by having a roadie soak them with gasoline, and then applying ignition. The reasons for him being p____d off are too long to go into here, but should be easy to find if you are interested.

For trivia fans, on exactly the same day, Abba came to fame by winning the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton, England, with their song "Waterloo". Because of the time difference, Abba would have been well into their victory party by the time Blackmore went loco.

And finally, by coincidence this was exactly 10 years to the day before Mrs Perfect M and I tied the knot. We have just returned from a week in Gran Canaria, celebrating our 35th.