An Interview with Greg Lake

Sue and Liv met Greg in London in November 1997, for a very interesting interview for Issue 5. This is an excerpt from that:

Impressions -
Looking back at your entire career, which do you feel was the biggest moment, the biggest experience?

Greg -
"It's very hard to answer a question like that. However, I would have to say the Isle of Wight festival, that was one breathtaking moment in my career and the other was the Rolling Stones with King Crimson gig in Hyde Park, that was staggering. That was the first time King Crimson had ever played in front of a large audience and we really didn't know what was going to happen, how we would be received. We'd been playing clubs and marquees and the band was going down well but in little places. Now, we were playing up against the biggest band in the world. It was an overwhelming and instantaneous response and so that was a huge moment. Then, for the best part of the next ten years, it was pretty unbelievable on a daily basis, it was one Madison Square Garden gig after another, Olympic stadiums, it was something extraordinary every day."

Impressions -
How does it feel to play somewhere like Montreal? The place is so huge do you feel detached from the audience?

Greg -

"It feels different from what you might imagine. There is that feeling of detachment, there are so many people there that there's almost nobody, if you know what I mean. I have to say this, if I was to get nervous at all, it would be if I was playing for just the two of you, (could that be arranged?! - Sue), performing for 20,000 people is less personal in a way, it becomes like a sea of corn. From a performing stance, there are different factors involved. In the big arenas it sounds better, you're further away from the other boys in the band, which is a good thing! From the sound point of view you don't have stuff bleed down the microphone so it's better to be in a bigger place. From the audiences point of view, it's better to be in a theatre, it's more intimate. I enjoy playing to any audience that wants to listen, I can play a club and be happy, so long as it sounded alright."

Impressions -
Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions, either personal or professional?

Greg -
"Not in a specific sense. In a way I never did have, I just always wanted to play music and everything that followed from that just tumbled on, one thing to the next. I never thought one day I must play Madison Square Garden or the Royal Albert Hall, they're lovely things when they happen but I don't have absolute goals in mind. I don't think art is a goal orientated business. I don't do things for the challenges, I only do them because I love them, I'm not really a goal orientated, achiever type of person."

You can read the whole of this interesting interview in Issue 5 of Impressions.


: current issue / news / interviews / gallery / quotes / back issues / links / home :