Reviews for The Nice-A Musical Biography: Hanging on to a Dream, Vol. 1

The average rating for The Nice-A Musical Biography: Hanging on to a Dream, Vol. 1 based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-07-30 00:00:00 Gary Hill Most people know Keith Emerson as the keyboard playing wizard in Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, but before that band came into being he was part of a very innovative group called The Nice. This book tells the story of the earlier group, which in many ways I prefer. The biggest weakness of The Nice was that they never had a good singer, which may be one reason Emerson was keen to hook up with Greg Lake when he created his super-group. But The Nice really started the genre of classical-crossover with things like The Karelia Suite, Five Bridges, and most famously their magnificent rave-up version of America by Leonard Bernstein. I think this is the origin of Progressive Rock, and if you have never heard the group, you should check it out. This book covers the history of The Nice, and a little bit about the formation of ELP.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-01-08 00:00:00 Denis Mercier Full review at This book is intended for fans. It gives a brief history of the band, some insight into life on the road, a history of how Nigel started being their road pastor, some background on the guys as individuals, background on a few of the songs and some of the bible studies that Nigel has led while on tour. It is not a real deep book and only is 4 hours long. But it is put together well. Nigel reads (which I always like) and the guys from Third Day read their own quotes and memories. It is a group effort. The production values are a little shaky. (There is one point when you can hear a door slamming a couple times, there is some other background noise and even though it is an mp3 file it still asks you to put in the next CD once an hour.) But if you are a fan of Third Day (or Christian music in general) it is probably a decent four hour listen. Especially if you find it for $5.