The Nice - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1969-1970

Here's the third and final album of the British band the Nice performing for the BBC.

The first two volumes mostly consisted of songs from an official album called "BBC Sessions." That's not the case at all here. The first two songs are unreleased, and not from the BBC. "She Belongs to Me" comes from a Norwegian TV show, and "Hang On to a Dream" is from the German TV show "Beat Club." In both cases, those are interesting cover versions the band did, but not on the BBC, so luckily I was able to find other TV versions with good sound quality.

The remaining songs are from BBC studio sessions, and are officially released. Tracks 3 through 5 come from the album "America - the BBC Sessions," and the last two are bonus tracks from the "Elegy" album.

The main figure in the band, Keith Emerson joined Emerson, Lake and Palmer when the Nice broke up in 1970. Emerson, Lake and Palmer went on to be a leading British prog rock band. One would think they would have been a prime candidate for BBC sessions or live shows, but I can't find any recordings of that. 

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 She Belongs to Me (Nice)
02 Hang On to a Dream (Nice)
03 St. Thomas [Edit] (Nice with Roy Harper) (Nice)
04 For Example [Edit] (Nice)
05 Five Bridges Suite (Nice)
06 Country Pie (Nice)
07 Pathetique [Symphony No. 6, 3rd Movement] (Nice)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700833/TNICE1969-1970_BBSessonsVolum3_atse.zip.html

The cover photo shows the band in concert somewhere in 1969, after they went down to having just three members.

The Nice - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1968-1969

Here's the second of three albums of the Nice performing for the BBC.

I'm not a big fan of the Nice, although I appreciate that they certainly were a musically talented and innovative group. So I don't have much to say, except to point out the details of these recordings.

As with Volume 1, the vast majority of the performances here are officially released, from the album "BBC Sessions." But just as I added one unreleased song to that volume, I did the same here. 

That extra song is "Get to You," which was originally done by the Byrds. It comes from a BBC studio session, so one would think it should have fit on the official album. But I suppose it wasn't included because they did the song twice. Normally, I wouldn't include two versions of the same song, except this version is drastically different from the version I included in Volume 1. The quickest way to explain how different they are is to point out that version is three and a half minutes long, and this one is eight and a half minutes long!

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 Little Arabella (Nice)
02 Happy Freunds (Nice)
03 Intermezzo from the Korelia Suite (Nice)
04 Brandenburger [Instrumental] [Edit] (Nice)
05 Get to You [Second Version] [Edit] (Nice)
06 One of Those People (Nice)
07 Azrael Revisted (Nice)
08 Blues for the Prairies [Instrumental] (Nice)
09 Diary of an Empty Day (Nice)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700835/TNICE1968-1969_BBSessonsVolum2_atse.zip.html

As with the photo for Volume 1, I don't know where or when this is from exactly. But just like that photo, this one shows four band members, so it has to be from the summer of 1968 or earlier, because the band went down to three members after that.

The Nice - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1967-1968

I have to say up front that I'm not much of a fan of the 1960s British band the Nice. They had their moments, but they also suffered from some of the later excesses of prog rock. In fact, their leader, Keith Emerson, would go on to be a part of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, a band that also had their moments but was notorious for prog rock excesses. That said, I'm committed to cleaning up and organizing all the 1960s BBC sessions from key bands that I can find, so here we are. I found enough for three volumes.

There is an official BBC album for the band, simply called "BBC Sessions." All of the songs here come from that, with one exception. That exception is "Azrael (Angel of Death)." I tried to augment their BBC performances with other songs done on other TV or radio shows. That performance is unreleased, and comes from the French TV show "Bouton Rouge."

More "arty" bands like this one tended to get on different BBC shows, which meant less contact with DJ Brian Matthew and his annoying habit of talking over the music. The first three songs do have the usual edits from such talking, but they're the only ones.

The strength of the Nice was in their instrumental work, not so much their vocals. So it's not that surprising that six of the eleven songs here are instrumentals.

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 Flower King of Flies [Instrumental] [Edit] (Nice)
02 Sombrero Sam [Instrumental] [Edit] (Nice)
03 Rondo [Instrumental] [Edit] (Nice)
04 Azrael [Angel of Death] (Nice)
05 Get to You (Nice)
06 Brandenburger [Instrumental] (Nice)
07 Diamond Hard Blue Apples of the Moon (Nice)
08 America [Instrumental] (Nice)
09 Aries (Nice)
10 Lumpy Gravy [Instrumental] (Nice)
11 Ars Long Vita Brevis (Nice)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700832/TNICE1967-1968_BBSessonsVolum1_atse.zip.html

I don't know when or where the cover photo comes from. But the band had four members until the summer of 1968, when they became a threesome. Since there are four members in the photo, it must be from before the summer of 1968.