The Nice

The Nice only existed for three years, and in that time they went through many a false start as well as some membership and directional changes -- but in the process, they helped bridge the gap between the pop-psychedelia of 1967 and the more ambitious (and, ultimately, pretentious) brand of music known variously as art rock or progressive rock. They never sold many records in their own time, until near the end of their history as a band, but they were among the 1960s groups that had some of the greatest influence on the music of the early '70s. In the beginning, they were just supposed to provide backup, à la Booker T. & The Mg's, for American-born soul singer P.p. Arnold, an ex-member of The Ikettes who producer/manager/music mogul Andrew Oldham believed he could make into the next Tina Turner. Keyboard player Keith Emerson had previously played in Gary Farr & The T-bones, and the new group's rhythm section was filled by T-bones alumni Lee Jackson on bass and Ian Hague on drums, while former Attack guitarist Davy O'list filled the fourth spot. They got together in May of 1967 and proved so powerful an ensemble on-stage, backing Arnold, that they soon earned billing on their own at the National Jazz and Blues Festival that summer, and by that fall had a recording contract of their own with Oldham's Immediate Records. Hague, however, proved a weak link in their lineup, in part owing to his devotion to the use of various controlled substances, and by the time they were ready to formally begin recording, he was replaced by O'list's onetime Attack bandmate Brian Davison.

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