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That was more like an Emerson Lake & Palmer reception. From the start, ELP has known how to get attention: their opening set at the 1970 Isle of Wight festival, the group's first major gig, was announced by the roar of two cannons. But the fireworks that have made ELP rich consist of an innovative, complex kind of rock that seems to carry on the adventure of the Beatles' 1967 precedent-shattering Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Right now ELP's aim is not noise but the successful blending of both rock group and orchestra. Those bands (Nice, Deep Purple, Moody Blues) that have tried similar collaborations have ended up with an overpowered orchestra, primarily because only the rockers were plugged directly into the amplification system. ELP solved the problem by equipping most instruments of the orchestra with a specially designed contact mike, ultimately feeding everything —including their own sounds— into the same mixing console. Total cost of the audio equipment: $750,000.
Keith Emerson had the idea for a plugged-in orchestra while playing some of ELP's older records. "I listened to what I had been doing with all those synthesizers, and realized that I was hearing an orchestra inside my head all along. And so I said, 'Don't kid yourself. If you want to hear it that way, then hear it that way. Be happy.' " The expenses of the tour (the cast and crew number 115 people, the tab for the orchestra alone is $40,000 a week) could eventually cost the three stars nearly $4 million. It is too early to tell whether they will get it back, let alone make a profit— or take a bath. But for openers in Detroit, Emerson looked as happy as a kid with a gold-plated toy— and so did L. and P.