Page "Emerson, Lake & Palmer" Paragraph 5

Although their debut was in The Guildhall, Plymouth, on 23 August 1970, it was their performance six days later, at the Isle of Wight festival, that drew the most attention to the new band.

The DVD of the performance, released in 2006, is appropriately titled " The Birth of a Band ".

The band's drawing power as a live band helped them get a record contract with US label Atlantic Records.

Emerson explained: " The president of Atlantic, Ahmet Ertegun, tells me the reason he signed us is because we could sell out 20, 000-seaters before we even had a record out.

That was enough for him to think that a lot of people would go out and buy the record when it did come out.