Nice
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Album Summary
Back in 1969, when the world was still figuring out what rock music could truly become, The Nice dropped their self-titled album on Immediate Records, and baby, nothing was ever quite the same. Recorded and released during a period of wild creative ferment in British rock, this record was produced by the band themselves — the visionary Keith Emerson on keyboards, Davy O'List on guitar, Lee Jackson holding it down on bass, and Brian Davison driving the whole thing from behind the kit. These cats weren't just making an album; they were mapping out new territory, blending the fire of rock, the elegance of classical composition, and the deep warmth of soul into something that had never quite been heard before. Immediate Records had the good sense to let them run with it, and what came out was a statement of intent from one of the most forward-thinking outfits the late 1960s British scene ever produced.
Reception
- The album achieved modest but meaningful chart success in the UK, announcing The Nice as a serious and emerging force in what would soon be called progressive rock.
- Critics at the time took particular note of Keith Emerson's extraordinary keyboard work — his Hammond organ and piano playing were unlike anything rock audiences had encountered, and the music press recognized it as something genuinely new.
- The ambitious arrangements, reaching across classical and rock idioms with real conviction, earned the album a reputation as one of the more intellectually daring records of its moment.
Significance
- This album was a landmark in establishing the keyboard as a true lead instrument in rock music — Emerson's virtuosic command of the Hammond organ set a template that an entire generation of progressive rock artists would follow throughout the 1970s.
- By fusing classical music structures with raw rock energy across tracks like 'Rondo (69)' and 'Diary Of An Empty Day,' The Nice helped prove that rock composition could be ambitious, complex, and deeply rooted in the European classical tradition.
- The record stands as one of the genuine foundation stones of progressive rock, arriving before the genre even had a name, and influencing the entire keyboard-centric wing of the movement that flourished in the decade that followed.
Tracklist
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A1 Azrael Revisited 158
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A2 Hang On To A Dream 113
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A3 Diary Of An Empty Day 102
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A4 For Example 118
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B1 Rondo (69) —
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B2 She Belongs To Me —
Artist Details
The Nice were a groundbreaking British progressive rock outfit that came together in London back in 1967, led by the brilliant and classically trained keyboardist Keith Emerson, whose wild, knife-stabbing, Hammond organ-abusing stage presence made audiences absolutely lose their minds. These cats fused classical music, jazz, and psychedelic rock into something nobody had ever quite heard before, essentially laying the foundation for what the whole prog rock movement would become in the years that followed. Though they only burned bright for a few years before Emerson went on to form the legendary Emerson, Lake and Palmer, The Nice left behind a legacy that proved a rock band could reach for the symphonic heavens and actually grab hold of something real.
