On This Day (March 3)…Works in Lexington

Emerson, Lake & Palmer performed on this day in 1978 at the Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky.

Ticket from the show. Retrieved from here.

All good things must come to an end, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s days leading the touring scene of the seventies were one of those things. Less than ten dates remained on the docket at this point, including two which had been rescheduled from previous dates.

Although they now performed without an orchestra, the group still got several of the pieces from Works, Volume 1 onto their setlist, including the album closer “Pirates”. Numbers from all of their previous albums, including an abridged “Pictures at an Exhibition” showed up as well.

There are no known recordings of this concert.

ELP performed at the Rupp Arena, an arena which broke ground only a few months before they took their last hiatus in 1974. It was opened in October of 1976, making it a brand new place when the group made their way there. It housed 23,000 people.

File:RuppArena.JPG
The arena in 2007. Retrieved from here.

It was notable in the early days for its large sound system, allowing many concerts to be hosted there. Here are some of them. The arena is still open today, with a website which can be found here.

Venue Sources

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