Keith Emerson

“I first saw Keith when he played at the Isle of Wight festival with The Nice in 1969. And he was outrageous. He made me want to do what he did. For me, he was the first frontman who played keyboards. And seeing what Keith was doing made me realise that there was a role for a keyboard player in rock music.

“Keith was such an exhibitionist, who was also a brilliant soloist. and in The Nice. This sort of thing had been done before by like people like Wendy Carlos, but nobody had ever done it in the way that he was able to achieve. He was a pioneer.