From time to time I get around to discussing music with colleagues at the different locations where I work. Many of the people I talk to are in their 20's and 30's and I am interested to find out what they know about the music of the classic 'supergroups' of the 1960's and 1970's. They invariably have heard of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and The Who, but I have yet to come across someone in that age group who has heard of ELP.

In 2003 I went to a concert by Keith Emerson and The Nice (the quality of the sound system was execrable and I left half way through, but that's another story). The entire audience appeared to be in their 40's and 50's (well I did spot a boy, who looked about 10 or 11, someone's son). That's not surprising in itself as the audience's age tied-up with ELP's heyday, and the group is long defunct.

But these two things got me to wondering what ELP's CD sales are like these days, and what are the age groups who are now buying ELP CDs. Does anyone who is reading this have any idea?

There are quite a few reviews of ELP's albums on ProgArchives.com. Are any of you guys newcomers to ELP, or are we ELP fans all oldies? Are buyers of ELP CDs mainly replacing worn out LPs or buying the CD of the LP that they never got the first time around? Just curious.

It would be somewhat ironic if 50 years hence more people are buying music by, say PFM for the sake of argument, than ELP. Any views on the longevity of ELP's music?

I'm 21 and I have almost everything by ELP. One of my fav bands.

But you're right, Zeppelin and Floyd are well-known by everyone, but bands like Yes, King Crimson or even Rush, nobody has even heard of. At least Dream Theater is getting pretty well-known here in Europe, since Metro-2 came out. That's a good thing.

A few years ago prog' bands started to come to my country (Perú) we had the chance to see Yes, ELP, Jethro, Wakeman, Kansas, etc. and the audience was between 5 to 10 thousand souls (always the same faces ).

But the interesting thing was that in all of the concerts I saw people between 18 and 50+ being the average in their late 30's.

Iván

Most of the gigs I go to have 40+ audiences including most recently Leslie West and Steve Hackett.I did see some encouraging signs last year when Yes played at Hammersmith Appollo and there seemed to be a number of younger fans 15-30 age group (although still vastly outnumbered by 'oldies').

As for ELP,well they havn't been around much and playing one tour in the UK in the last 30 years.It's not really surprising that they are not recognised by few under the age of 40.Also ELP have never got much play on radio and still don't get played much now even on digital radio stations.They are very much the  'forgotten supergroup' of the seventies it would seem.

Actually this thread has set me off on a related line of thinking:

If I knew how to do it, I would set up a new thread with a poll to find out the range of ages of readers of the ProgArchives forums. Might be interesting. Would it be a Normal (Gaussian) Distribution, Uniform Distribution, or...what?! And what is the average age? Who is the oldest reader? The youngest?

Anyone reading this who knows how to, care to do it?

I think it has become some kind of fashion in a lot of circles - including prog contexts - to slam or dismiss ELP. I realised this again in a recent discussion on alt.music.genesis where somebody went rather long in expressing his vehement dislike of ELP.

So one reason ELP may not be all that hot at the moment is that slamming them has (As I said on alt.music.genesis) for long been the only way for people into the political correct to defend their enjoying early Genesis. I find this especially telling when people find it necesarry not just to tell thay they don't like a group, and instead resort to about the worst injectives thay can think of.

I think it is a kind of survival mechanism when to keep some of your credibility.

I prefer the opposite tactic. I have at several occasion created category havoc and near nervous breakdown among people I meet who are regular buyers of Q and Rolling Stone by revealing I love 70's Genesis, ELP and Yes, as well as Clash, XTC and Radiohead - and find Never Mind the Bollocks an energizing album.

To mention a few.

Great fun. It even makes some prog lovers start sweating.

Ftizcarraldo et al:

I have set up a poll for age groups.  It is anonymous, and there is no "intent" beyond insatiable curiosity...  Please vote honestly, since there is no way to know who voted in which age group.

Peace.

well, about the charts...Like I said Dream Theater is pretty big here. All albums since and including 'Images and Words' got into the album-charts, and the last 3 albums all entered the Top 25.    (Metro-2, #24 / Six Degrees, #17 / ToT, #21 - - something like that). But they are the only progband in the album-charts these days.

Bjørn Are wrote: I prefer the opposite tactic. I have at several occasion created category havoc and near nervous breakdown among people I meet who are regular buyers of Q and Rolling Stone by revealing I love 70's Genesis, ELP and Yes, as well as Clash, XTC and Radiohead - and find Never Mind the Bollocks an energizing album. To mention a few. Great fun. It even makes some prog lovers start sweating.

Ah! A man (with diverse, open-minded musical tastes) after my own heart!

maani wrote: Ftizcarraldo et al: I have set up a poll for age groups.  It is anonymous, and there is no "intent" beyond insatiable curiosity...  Please vote honestly, since there is no way to know who voted in which age group. Peace.

Maani, my oh-so-ancient eyes can't read the tiny writing on your new poll. Is a large-print or audio version available?