Heavy Load
Carl Palmer
The former ELP and Asia drummer on liking his chocolate dark and his coffee strong and never having touched a beer.
rummers don’t come with much more pedigree than Carl Palmer. As one third of ELP, alongside Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, Palmer helped develop the fluid rhythms and ambitious time signatures of prog, stationed behind a two-ton drum kit designed by British Steel. Either side of ELP’s 70s pomp, he was a member of the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster and another all-star supergroup, Asia. The 68-year-old maintains a prodigious work rate. His latest release is Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy Live, a two-CD package with an in-concert DVD dedicated to one of his two fallen ex-bandmates: Pictures At An Exhibition –
A Tribute To Keith Emerson.
Do you feel a responsibility to keep the memory of Keith and Greg alive?
I’ve done dedications to Keith and Greg at shows for a whole year, with a huge fourteenfoot screen at the back of the stage, and this album is part of that turnaround. I’ve done what I can do and I’m going to carry on playing the music, just as I did when both of them were alive. I’m just waving the ELP flag and taking it to another generation. ELP’s music was pretty deep – it wasn’t just rock, there was folk, jazz, classical. Because it’s so versatile I’ve managed to bring it to a third generation of fans.
How’s your autobiography going?
I’m just about finished. We were initially looking at putting it out at the end of this year, but 2020 will be the fiftieth anniversary of ELP, so it might come out then instead. It’s a bit of a kiss ’n’ tell book – it’s not all nice – but it’s real in terms of what went down. It’s not just about ELP, either. It goes back to when I left home at fifteen and had my first audition in London, then started backing Chris Farlowe.
Any anecdotal teasers you can give us? ELP rented the same model of plane that Lynyrd Skynyrd crashed in. We had the engine stop once for about forty minutes while we were up in the air. We all had to sit on one side of the plane so it could correct itself. Keith had his cycle helmet on and a blanket over him. I’m saying: “If we go down, mate, the blanket’s not gonna help you!”
What were you like at school?
Rubbish. It was one of those schools where they’d say: “He could do better if he concentrated.” There was a lot of that going down – and E for effort. School didn’t interest me, not when there was a drum kit at home and gigs to do.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Get a good teacher. Coming from a family that had music teachers in it, I know that it’s the first way to start kicking yourself up the hill. I was still taking lessons at the Guildhall when I was twenty-two, when ELP was just taking off.
Was that around the same time that you had your first drink?
I didn’t drink until I was twenty-two, and it was only through Keith that I started. I’d played in many pubs growing up, and I hated the smell of spilt hops on the carpet. As a kid, that really put me off. My first drink was brandy, because Keith kept carrying this bottle around. It made me ill. I’ve drunk a lot of wine since, but
to this day I’ve never had a beer or a lager.
What’s your biggest indulgence? Chocolate! It has to be dark, though. I try to go a week without eating any, but it never works. I started eating chocolate and making espressos when I was about seven. I’m lively enough to make coffee nervous!
Do you believe in God?
To think there’s just one being out there is a bit weird. I don’t go to churches often, but I’ll pop into one when I’m on tour or at home just because I like the silence. Whenever I’m alone in a church, I do definitely feel empowered. Something is going on.
What was your biggest waste of money? ELP were in the Bahamas, to make Love Beach [1978]. I got bored, so I bought myself a twenty-foot speedboat for about eighteen thousand dollars. That was a complete waste of time. I had it less than eight months and only got about half my money back.
Are you a political animal?
I’ve never voted in all my life. I’m not politically minded. I’ve been more on the Conservative side than Labour, mainly because under Labour in the early seventies ELP were paying something like ninety-eight pence in the pound [income tax]. So that put me off for years.
What are the best and worst drugs you’ve ever taken?
I’ve never taken a lot of drugs. I don’t smoke, although I’ve smoked a bit of ‘Bob Hope’. I took a bit of cocaine, which was absolutely fatal. As I say, I make coffee nervous, so why in the hell would I take cocaine? The best thing I ever took was Mandrax, which I used to do with Greg now and then. We used to stay awake and bend our way through the night.
What will be written on your tombstone? ‘Have another go’!
“Whenever I’m alone in a church I feel empowered.
Something is going on.”