The Nice were an English progressive rock band active in the late 1960s. They blended rock, jazz and classical music and were keyboardist Keith Emerson's first commercially successful band.
The Nice at the Ernst-Merck-Halle in Hamburg, West Germany on 28 March 1970
The title suite of the Five Bridges album was inspired by five bridges that span the River Tyne between Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead.
Lee Jackson performing at the 2002 reunion of the Nice.
A Hammond L-100 organ similar to the one used by Keith Emerson with the Nice.
Progressive rock is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Initially termed "progressive pop", the style was an emergence of psychedelic bands who abandoned standard pop traditions in favour of instrumentation and compositional techniques more frequently associated with jazz, folk, or classical music. Additional elements contributed to its "progressive" label: lyrics were more poetic, technology was harnessed for new sounds, music approached the condition of "art", and the studio, rather than the stage, became the focus of musical activity, which often involved creating music for listening rather than dancing.
Pink Floyd performing The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), the best-selling album of the entire progressive rock period.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer were one of the most commercially successful progressive rock bands of the 1970s. They are seen here performing in 1992.
King Crimson's Robert Fripp believed that the prog movement had gone "tragically off course".
Talking Heads' Jerry Harrison (left) and David Byrne, late 1970s