From Loudersound.
Greg Lake‘s evergreen Christmas classic I Believe In Father Christmas is due to be re-released for Christmas 2020 thanks to the restoration of the original video to 4K. You can watch the brand new video in full below.
The song features on the recently released The Anthology – A Musical Journey which features music from Emerson Lake & Palmer, King Crimson, Lake’s solo career, 1967’s Don’t Go ‘Way Little Girl, recorded with The Shame and 1969 psych rarity Love recorded with The Shy Limbs.
Despite it’s strong anti-commercial message I Believe In Father Christmas remains a warm, catchy and enduringly popular Christmas song. The single was originally a hit worldwide in 1975, reaching Number 2 in the UK charts and selling over 13,000 copies in two days only to be kept from the UK number one slot by Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
Greg, who died on 7th December 2016, aged 69, co-wrote the single with Pete Sinfield. ELP’s keyboardist Keith Emerson had encouraged each member of the band to come up with solo material, so in 1975 Lake teamed up with lyricist Sinfield to create something out of a “Christmassy” chord sequence Lake had written.
The result was thoughtful, but melodic too: a humanist, Christmas song that also manages to warm the cockles. By adding a snippet of twinkling sleigh-ride music by classical composer Sergei Prokofiev at Keith Emerson’s suggestion, summoning the sparkle of Christmas, creating, as Sinfield has said, “a picture-postcard Christmas, with morbid edges.”
This new 4K version of the original promo video has been painstakingly and expertly restored from a recently discovered rare copy of the original film for I Believe In Father Christmas which was shot partly on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and in the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. The video includes previously unseen footage from the Vietnam War and was directed by Arnould Schwartzman who went on to win an Oscar in 1982 for his film Genocide.
The new video restoration included manually cleaning the film to remove the sticky residue from the sellotape joins to allow it to pass freely through the scanner, rebuilding the cuts to remove the jumps, recreating damaged frames based on those surrounding it, frame by frame dirt and scratch clean and eve repainting in camel legs!
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- Emerson Lake & Palmer - Tarkus - 1st - EX - UK - vinyl LP - £50.00, $69.50, €58.50 (New Item) (arrived 14-Jun-2021 08:53)on June 25, 2021 at 11:21 am
EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Tarkus (1971 UK first issue 13-track LP on the pink rim palm tree label, the prog supergroup's second longplayer engineered by studio icon of the day Eddie Offord. Features a seldom heard guitar solo by Greg Lake during Battlefield, housed in a heavy duty gatefold picture sleeve with fantastic William Neal artwork. The sleeve is Excellent with just some minor age wear, mostly to the edges & the vinyl grades Excellent with the lightest evidence of play only ILPS9155)
- Emerson Lake & Palmer - Pictures At An Exhibition - US - vinyl LP - £15.00, $20.85, €17.55 (New Item) (arrived 07-Jun-2021 16:21)on June 25, 2021 at 11:21 am
EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Pictures At An Exhibition (1972 US 11-track vinyl LP, pasted gatefold picture sleeve. The sleeve has just a little shelfwear with the company inner showing a small split at edge and the vinyl is in excellent condition ELP66666)
- Emerson Lake & Palmer - Trilogy - 1st - UK - vinyl LP - £35.00, $48.65, €40.95 (New Item) (arrived 20-May-2021 00:34)on June 25, 2021 at 11:21 am
EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Trilogy (Classic 1972 UK first issue 9-track LP on the pink rim 'palm tree' label, gatefold picture sleeve and original powder blue Island company inner. The sleeve shows only a little light shelfwear and the vinyl looks barely played nearly fifty years on - recommended ILPS9186)
- Emerson Lake & Palmer - Pictures At An Exhibition - 1st - EX - UK - vinyl LP - £15.00, $20.85, €17.55 (New Item) (arrived 02-Jun-2021 14:34)on June 25, 2021 at 11:21 am
EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Pictures At An Exhibition (1971 UK first issue 11-track LP on the black with pink 'i' label, the prog superstar trio's first live album, gatefold picture sleeve with cover art by William Neal. The sleeve shows just light shelfwear & the vinyl remains in excellent condition with few sigs of play HELP1)
- Emerson Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery - 1st - EX - UK - vinyl LP - £50.00, $69.50, €58.50 (Back In Stock) (arrived 02-Jun-2021 14:41)on June 25, 2021 at 11:21 am
EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Brain Salad Surgery (1973 UK 8-track vinyl LP, housed in a superb fold-out/die-cut H.R. Giger designed sleeve with fold-out/die-cut lyric insert. This copy has picture labels & US pressed vinylwith 'MC46669' number printed on the labels. The sleeve shows light edgewear with a crease to one door & a little print fade whilst the vinyl shows few signs of play - overall Excellent! A very nice, complete copy of this classic prog highlight from the supergroup trio!K53501)
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